The guts and parts make a difference.
I like what STI does with parts---they are probably as close to an SVI as you can get.
Now that is not the Spartan but the guts are.
Again, we are going to disagree on the internals and how important they are.
Blessings
Not at all,I fully agree the internals are very important. The issue was whether the Spartan would be good to built up. My thought was,if your going to gut it and replace all the decent internals with top of the line parts,what difference does it make what the roll mark is if the frame and slide come off the same assemble line. Of course its also true that we dont know whether that is true or not.
As an example,there are milling machines made in china. They range from the junk they sell at Harbor Freight that wont even work without alot of work done by the purchaser,to the stuff that is OK,to stuff that is really good. It all comes out of the same factory. The companies in china can make you anything from junk to top quality products. It all depends on what you ask them for and how much your willing to pay. It may be that the armscor slides and frames are made out of better quality materials. The RIA frame and slide are ok. They do their job and I haven't heard of anyone having a failure. (I'm sure they do fail,but its not common enough that I have heard about it. Ive heard of a safety coming loose but not cracked slides. Ive heard of some guns that DO commonly have things like cracked slides. ) Still,I was considering what I could put a 460 Rowland conversion in,and the Springfield (one of my favorites,especially at about 500 for a GI) was on the list of recommended guns. The RIA was one that they said defiantly do NOT do it to. (The RIA factory people tell the same story. Not just "its not recommended and it voids the warranty" but instead, "Dont do it,or it WILL destroy the gun") If the STI uses the same slide and frame as the RIA (if its actually a better quality part,just made in the same factory,that's a different story. Investment casting is not a bad thing. If I recall,FN went to cast frames on the 40S&W Hi Power to make it STRONGER. Its just a matter of what steel you use for the cast and how you heat treat it after its made. (They made other changes as well,so thats not the whole story,but it demonstrates the point)
If I was looking for a low cost 1911 to start with for a build,I would look at the springfields before I looked at the RIA,or the STI IF (and that's a big if) its the same frame and slide as a RIA. On the other hand,even if it IS the same frame,if (as people are saying) the STI is good (I dont really know alot about it other than what I have heard about the frames. The guy at the gun store showed me a really expensive one though and it was really nice),and I wanted something that I wasn't going to mess with much,then it would be something to look at.
