Wilson or STI?

Garrett Opolko

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Sep 26, 2018
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14
Don't care for either . Probably go with a D.W. Guardian for half the money , and quality is on par with either . Another good choice is CZ 75 compact , Kimber Aegis , Super Carry Pro , S.A. EMP , all good choices . The CZ is probably one of the best $600.00 guns out there . JMHO
[/QUOT I did last year for my birthday I bought a DW Guardian in 9mm. I broke it in as per there recommendation and it very accurate and reliable. Absolutely satisfied and will buy another DW. Very well made.
 

Zipper046

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If between those two....whichever you are comfortable spending $$ on. I like the EDCX9 for concealed carry....don't own one....shot one that a buddy has. Appears, by its dimensions, to be a bit easier to conceal...my buddy confirmed that and he also has STI's.

HOWEVER...there are ALOT of other choices out there. Personally, I just can't justify spending $2500+ on a carry gun......a custom competition gun for USPSA or other shooting competition, yes. A carry gun, no. But...that's just me.....
 

marinedoc

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Oct 19, 2018
Messages
168
So many excellent options that it generally just depends on personal preference. In September I took the Pistol 350 course at Gunsite and used my Wilson EDC x 9. As expected no malfunctions or FTF. Used factory ammo (Sig) and after over 1500 rounds I'm still sold on Wilson's reliability and accuracy. I have several guns that would have done as well relative to reliability, but opted for the EDC due to the larger mag capacity and light single action trigger pull. You are firing so many rounds that keeping this one well fed was a project in itself with the larger cap mags. An 8 round gun would have been an exercise in reloading in itself. It could be done but just easier and less trouble with the larger cap mags. I did another Gunsite course a year ago with my Glock Gen 5 19 and it performed as well, but I really do like the trigger pull on my Wilson especially on some of the more precision shots. However, most of the shooting is tactical and center of the thorax is easily obtained with either gun. Head shots with the small triangular hit zone is another matter. There are a few exercises where the 3lb trigger pull is an advantage for me and the Wilson always came through. Fun house exercises where head shots are sometimes necessary are a good example as well as the walk down the gulley where metal targets are placed from maybe 10 yards out to 35 yards and well concealed. The Wilson really shined on that exercise and while I feel everyone in the class was a better shot than I am and all excellent (four countries represented with some who were professionals) I was the only one to clear all targets perfectly with one shot only on each target. Believe me when I say it was the gun and the smooth trigger pull, not me, that won the day. Most of the shooting is from 3 to 10 yards, 2 shots in 1 1/2 seconds to center mass from holster and most guns would probably do well on these exercises for it's the shooter and not the gun on these.
 

marinedoc

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Oct 19, 2018
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168
If between those two....whichever you are comfortable spending $$ on. I like the EDCX9 for concealed carry....don't own one....shot one that a buddy has. Appears, by its dimensions, to be a bit easier to conceal...my buddy confirmed that and he also has STI's.

HOWEVER...there are ALOT of other choices out there. Personally, I just can't justify spending $2500+ on a carry gun......a custom competition gun for USPSA or other shooting competition, yes. A carry gun, no. But...that's just me.....
I agree with a slight variation. It isn't necessary to spend $2,500 on a carry gun, but when I taught at the Police Academy, I told them to carry off duty the best gun that they could afford that they shot well. The same applies here. Budgets vary as well as hand size, body size and other variables. So carry the gun that you own that you shoot the best that you can, and will, carry as your EDCC gun. If it happens to be your IDPA, USPSA or whatever, carry that gun. While you will in all probability never have to shoot in personal defense, when you do it's you life or someone else's that you are defending. You want what will work the best under those circumstances.
 

Magicmanmbsc

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Jun 29, 2010
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Myrtle Beach SC
I've had 5, 9mm as duty carry either issued or personal owned: CZ75B & S&W 659 dead accurate out of the box. 5906 after sighted in along with a bring back WWII hi-power. The worst I've ever held shot or been forced to carry has been the last gen 4 Glock 19, my department kept them for 6 months before trading them for personal owned weapons most bought up trade in 5906's & had our Armorer redo majority of parts that needed anything before duracoating them. Still maybe a dozen Glocks on behind the desk guys but we're actually considering going back to 45's since lots of meth even teaching failure drills is back. The 2 you chose though Wilson before the STI internals are a bit better in a Wilson just my armorers opinion.
 

STI

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Jan 29, 2019
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594
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NE Texas
Have both yesterday was Wilson day, we worked on 20 yd head shots with no problems, flawless performance as always again, I probably will shoot it in next week's match unless muddy and loose 45 brass as I hate retrieving it in mud. Probably will be a Glock day
 

John Galt

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Dec 11, 2018
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Idaho, kalifornistan
I live in Idaho and work in crapifornia.

In crapistan, most cops will take your gun and cite you so I carry a Glock 19 or 43 because they can have it and I will go home and get another but I aint giving them no $3000 or $5000 pistol........I'd have to kill 'em.

In ID, NV, AZ, (where the cops are allies not JBT adversaries) I carry a nice 1911..........but it is hard to argue with a CZ 75 for daily carry.....Cajunized Shadow Line Compact or P-01 compact are pretty sweet and fine fighting pistols.

If I had to choose between the OP's finite selection It would be a tough choice but I may choose the STI. But.......tough choice.
 

Legion489

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Dec 29, 2019
Messages
20
Got to agree with Zipper046, don't spend a large amount of money on a carry gun. Why? If you are forced to use it, A) it will disappear never to be seen again, B) you will be given a lump of pistol shaped rust. Know of both cases, repeatedly. Over at one 1911 site they were babbling about this and I said don't spend a lot of money on a carry gun, they went nutz! "Well..., well...., well..., just what do you WANT me to carry?!" Don't care, but it better be a pistol you can stand to lose and never see again. That turned in to "Well MY pistolsmith said he would put me at the top of the list if I needed to use it!/MY smith said he would do a new one at 20%-30%-50% off/free/pay ME to let him make me a new one....". When it was getting to the point where they were going to carry the 1911 made out of a meteorite I stopped reading.

I have meet Bill Wilson several times, seemed nice enough. Bill has been to the local pistol club a few times, good friend of the local (nationally known) pistolsmith at the club. One guy ordered a $2500 (mentioned about 50 times when he brought it to the range to shoot it for the first time) 1911 from Bill. Would not chamber the first round off the mag! Or the second or third or fourth or... maybe the mag was bad! After trying nine makes of magazines, eight types of factory ammunition, etc., etc., the smith pulled the barrel and dropped a round in the chamber. The cartridge went about half way in and stopped! The barrel had not been chambered!! WHAT THE HECK?! To be fair Bill has a shop and employs people to build pistols and he doesn't make each one personally, so one (or many) might slip by.

OK, you expect that sort of thing from Henry (AR-7 that shot once and jammed. Returned to Henry, someone took a worn out rat tailed file and "rechambered" it. 100% improvement! It now shoots twice and jams), S&W (new 25-2 that had the barrel unscrew while firing. Barrel not pinned), Kimber (don't get me started! Extractor not cut, off the charts trigger pull, etc.), Jennings (self explanatory), Lee Precision Reloading, and others, but when I spend $2500 on a custom pistol I expect to be able to fire it out of the box! I have a really hard time believing they test fired it before putting it out, or that any of the above listed companies do, for that matter. Some companies will quietly state they do NOT test fire their firearms for function, only proof, and I have some serious doubts about that as well, as they say it is cheaper to fix junk than put out quality to begin with. Detonics was one of those. The head gunsmith stated, in an magazine article in the last century, that 50% of all Detonics pistols were returned as nonfuntionable/ing and most of them were scrapped as not being repairable and a new gun with the same serial number was issued. God only knows how many were never shot, or just put in the safe when it didn't work!

OK, I don't care what you carry, if you are happy, I am happy, I am a great believer in carrying what makes YOU happy as you know what your life is worth to you and what you are willing to spend to keep it. Just think about what may happen if/when and plan accordingly.
 

John Galt

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Dec 11, 2018
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Got to agree with Zipper046, don't spend a large amount of money on a carry gun. Why? If you are forced to use it, A) it will disappear never to be seen again, B) you will be given a lump of pistol shaped rust. Know of both cases, repeatedly. Over at one 1911 site they were babbling about this and I said don't spend a lot of money on a carry gun, they went nutz! "Well..., well...., well..., just what do you WANT me to carry?!" Don't care, but it better be a pistol you can stand to lose and never see again. That turned in to "Well MY pistolsmith said he would put me at the top of the list if I needed to use it!/MY smith said he would do a new one at 20%-30%-50% off/free/pay ME to let him make me a new one....". When it was getting to the point where they were going to carry the 1911 made out of a meteorite I stopped reading.

I have meet Bill Wilson several times, seemed nice enough. Bill has been to the local pistol club a few times, good friend of the local (nationally known) pistolsmith at the club. One guy ordered a $2500 (mentioned about 50 times when he brought it to the range to shoot it for the first time) 1911 from Bill. Would not chamber the first round off the mag! Or the second or third or fourth or... maybe the mag was bad! After trying nine makes of magazines, eight types of factory ammunition, etc., etc., the smith pulled the barrel and dropped a round in the chamber. The cartridge went about half way in and stopped! The barrel had not been chambered!! WHAT THE HECK?! To be fair Bill has a shop and employs people to build pistols and he doesn't make each one personally, so one (or many) might slip by.

OK, you expect that sort of thing from Henry (AR-7 that shot once and jammed. Returned to Henry, someone took a worn out rat tailed file and "rechambered" it. 100% improvement! It now shoots twice and jams), S&W (new 25-2 that had the barrel unscrew while firing. Barrel not pinned), Kimber (don't get me started! Extractor not cut, off the charts trigger pull, etc.), Jennings (self explanatory), Lee Precision Reloading, and others, but when I spend $2500 on a custom pistol I expect to be able to fire it out of the box! I have a really hard time believing they test fired it before putting it out, or that any of the above listed companies do, for that matter. Some companies will quietly state they do NOT test fire their firearms for function, only proof, and I have some serious doubts about that as well, as they say it is cheaper to fix junk than put out quality to begin with. Detonics was one of those. The head gunsmith stated, in an magazine article in the last century, that 50% of all Detonics pistols were returned as nonfuntionable/ing and most of them were scrapped as not being repairable and a new gun with the same serial number was issued. God only knows how many were never shot, or just put in the safe when it didn't work!

OK, I don't care what you carry, if you are happy, I am happy, I am a great believer in carrying what makes YOU happy as you know what your life is worth to you and what you are willing to spend to keep it. Just think about what may happen if/when and plan accordingly.

If your friend ordered a "$2500 Wilson pistol" it must have been 25 years ago because outside of the Barettas I don't think they have made a $2500 pistol for a couple decades.

.........And I bet they fixed it without question, without cost and at light speed because errors / problems happen and it is how you deal with problems that builds your reputation. Also, once it was fixed, I'll bet it was fixed better than new and permanently and returned shipping paid.

What Bill Wilson did EXCEPTIONALLY WELL is completely change the expectation of what a quality, absolutely reliable, semi custom gun was while building a hundred million dollar company on cash flow.

As a side note........it's interesting that some people seem to buy every problem gun (car, ring, dishwasher, pick an item).......or have problems with every gun they buy while some people never have an issue.

I have had a dozen Detonics Combat Masters and I always thought they were the finest backup 45 made. I don't think I ever had one jam and I carried them for twenty plus years until I upgraded capacity to Glock

Most gun companies (let alone Wilson) have such good customer service they repair issues for free even when they are not responsible. Some customers are bad customers.........just say'n
 
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John Galt

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I kept thinking overnight about the Wilson pistol that allegedly had no chamber cut in the barrel and I have to say, I'm sorry, it just doesn't ring true. There has to be more to the story.

With all the quality controll at Wilson AND THE FINAL BENCHREST TEST GROUP that each gun fires before it is shipped I would think it almost impossible (meaning NOT POSSIBLE) for a non performing, non chambering, non cycling gun to leave the shop.

I have done business with Wilson Combat since Bill used to build the guns and sign them and I Know their shop and cusomer service.

I also know that in my 45+ years of haunting gun stores, in every store there are guys that are there at the counter every day just to kill time and they know everything..........and never buy anything. Know all the stats on every gun but never owned one. Would buy (x,y or z) but they cut corners. Always worked for their mom but know better how the inventors or builders should have done it. And they would buy a gun but their mom (or maybe wife) won't allow them in the house.........

Just say'n

What do you other Wilson Combat customers think? Plenty of you here.
 

EXPD

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Dec 4, 2019
Messages
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30yrs a cop 20 of that an Firearms Instructor, done some contracting and now a regular retired citizen who carries every day. My EDC is a STI DVC limited. I made my choice
 

EXPD

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Dec 4, 2019
Messages
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My exact same reasoning...I carry a pistol I can shoot well but won't miss if I never get it back.
I carry a gun that I can shoot excellently since I am responsible for every round I fire and where it stops. If I have to use it and it accomplishes it's job the I will bug the Police, District Attorney or anyone else for it's quick return. If I fail it will still be money well spent. JMO
 

marinedoc

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Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
168
Got to agree with Zipper046, don't spend a large amount of money on a carry gun. Why? If you are forced to use it, A) it will disappear never to be seen again, B) you will be given a lump of pistol shaped rust. Know of both cases, repeatedly. Over at one 1911 site they were babbling about this and I said don't spend a lot of money on a carry gun, they went nutz! "Well..., well...., well..., just what do you WANT me to carry?!" Don't care, but it better be a pistol you can stand to lose and never see again. That turned in to "Well MY pistolsmith said he would put me at the top of the list if I needed to use it!/MY smith said he would do a new one at 20%-30%-50% off/free/pay ME to let him make me a new one....". When it was getting to the point where they were going to carry the 1911 made out of a meteorite I stopped reading.

I have meet Bill Wilson several times, seemed nice enough. Bill has been to the local pistol club a few times, good friend of the local (nationally known) pistolsmith at the club. One guy ordered a $2500 (mentioned about 50 times when he brought it to the range to shoot it for the first time) 1911 from Bill. Would not chamber the first round off the mag! Or the second or third or fourth or... maybe the mag was bad! After trying nine makes of magazines, eight types of factory ammunition, etc., etc., the smith pulled the barrel and dropped a round in the chamber. The cartridge went about half way in and stopped! The barrel had not been chambered!! WHAT THE HECK?! To be fair Bill has a shop and employs people to build pistols and he doesn't make each one personally, so one (or many) might slip by.

OK, you expect that sort of thing from Henry (AR-7 that shot once and jammed. Returned to Henry, someone took a worn out rat tailed file and "rechambered" it. 100% improvement! It now shoots twice and jams), S&W (new 25-2 that had the barrel unscrew while firing. Barrel not pinned), Kimber (don't get me started! Extractor not cut, off the charts trigger pull, etc.), Jennings (self explanatory), Lee Precision Reloading, and others, but when I spend $2500 on a custom pistol I expect to be able to fire it out of the box! I have a really hard time believing they test fired it before putting it out, or that any of the above listed companies do, for that matter. Some companies will quietly state they do NOT test fire their firearms for function, only proof, and I have some serious doubts about that as well, as they say it is cheaper to fix junk than put out quality to begin with. Detonics was one of those. The head gunsmith stated, in an magazine article in the last century, that 50% of all Detonics pistols were returned as nonfuntionable/ing and most of them were scrapped as not being repairable and a new gun with the same serial number was issued. God only knows how many were never shot, or just put in the safe when it didn't work!

OK, I don't care what you carry, if you are happy, I am happy, I am a great believer in carrying what makes YOU happy as you know what your life is worth to you and what you are willing to spend to keep it. Just think about what may happen if/when and plan accordingly.
I have several Wilson pistols and they all came with a target that several rounds had been fired into, showing 25 yard grouping. Interestingly, when I called Wilson about a non related matter, I asked about the test firing and he told me all were fired offhand.
 

marinedoc

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Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
168
I kept thinking overnight about the Wilson pistol that allegedly had no chamber cut in the barrel and I have to say, I'm sorry, it just doesn't ring true. There has to be more to the story.

With all the quality controll at Wilson AND THE FINAL BENCHREST TEST GROUP that each gun fires before it is shipped I would think it almost impossible (meaning NOT POSSIBLE) for a non performing, non chambering, non cycling gun to leave the shop.

I have done business with Wilson Combat since Bill used to build the guns and sign them and I Know their shop and cusomer service.

I also know that in my 45+ years of haunting gun stores, in every store there are guys that are there at the counter every day just to kill time and they know everything..........and never buy anything. Know all the stats on every gun but never owned one. Would buy (x,y or z) but they cut corners. Always worked for their mom but know better how the inventors or builders should have done it. And they would buy a gun but their mom (or maybe wife) won't allow them in the house.........

Just say'n

What do you other Wilson Combat customers think? Plenty of you here.
Had replied to a blog concerning Wilson reliability before reading yours. I totally agree. Doesn't mean every gun Wilson sends out is perfect, but in my experience, all shoot and certainly chamber. All of mine have been test fired with the target enclosed with the gun. Easy to knock a $2,500 gun if you don't own one.
 

Ceapea

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Dec 20, 2018
Messages
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Location
SE Mitt.
I've got two STIs. Target masters (6") in 9mm and 45. They really are spectacular pistols. I recently purchased a Tripp Research (the "T" in STI) 1911 in 9mm also. I like the STI pistols better. Just can't decide why yet. The STIs are older and I am "used" to them. Maybe my opinion of the Tripp will increase/improve the more I shoot it.
No experience with the Wilson pistols. I do have a Les Baer Premier II...LOVE it!
 
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Mike Galway

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Nov 5, 2018
Messages
1,671
Location
East Central Missouri
Both great brands . both excellent customer service . Can't go wrong with either . I'm fortunate enough to own two Wilsons , A CQB and a 1911 A2 . 100 % reliable tack drivers . I had a STI Lawman 3.0 , great little gun , but I got away from the 3 inch guns . One thing , STI doesn't have the brand recognition of Wilson . At least not in the midwest . But it's growing . There's finally a high end LGS with good variety in the area .
 

STI

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Jan 29, 2019
Messages
594
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NE Texas
I broke a slide stop 10 years after purchase of my STI. 1 call and had a new one in 2 days in mail, rep said mine was oldest one he could remember calling in, 10 years shooting and not 1 word to me just my address and I did get a return call checking if all was ok. Just like Wilson 3-4 bought one here after mine all but 1 still have them.
 

45 Ralph

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Jan 29, 2019
Messages
109
Wilson and STI are both excellent guns. Don't forget Dan Wesson! But just remember if you ever have to use your weapon in a self defense situation you will probably never get it back.
I carry a Glock 26. An excellent choice and I don't have to worry about it.
Same here. I don't EDC my STIs or Custom Colt 1911. Don't want to be in that situation ever, never mind losing one of them in a shooting investigation. Carry an old G26 I've had since my LEO days or a G23 or G17 I've had for years in the winter months. Not fancy but needless to say reliable and accurate enough to bet my life on them. Just my 0.2
 

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