Bound To Happen Sooner Or Later

I consider myself both lucky and fortunate to have owned some really great firearms during my lifetime. I'm now 57 and I can say without reservation that out of them all, only a few have been disappointments. I don't know if it was due to either luck, making good decisions based on research, working with great people at my LGS's or a combination of all three but, my latest addition can only be described as a profound disappointment. One of the worst yet.

I was about $400 shy of being able to afford the Dan Wesson Silverback I had been saving-up for when my FFL pulled this STI Lawman out from beneath the counter. Mind you, this guy had never steered me wrong previously so I trusted him. I had read a lot about STI's. A close friend of mine was a big fan. Like an idiot, I bought it.

The first time I shot it, it was pouring rain on/off all day but, I managed to get a box of 50 MagTech 230gr FMJ's downrange between the storms.

7 yards, standing offhand

The pistol shot OK - no malfunctions. Felt good. I couldn't quite understand why everything was grouping to the left but, I figured a simple rear sight adjustment would take care of it.

I waited a few days for the weather to clear and shot the following target from the same distance after adjusting the TAS rear sight by 9 clockwise clicks. This time I used GECO 230gr FMJ (My Sig TTT's favorite factory load).

7 yards, standing offhand

I couldn't, for the life of me, figure-out why the pistol was still shooting left of POA after the first mag. I loaded another mag and shot again. Same result - left of POA. I adjusted 4 more clockwise clicks on the rear sight. Same result: left POI. The pistol seemed to be grouping decently but, I just couldn't seem to get them in the center.

Honestly, the trigger had a lot of creep and was heavy for a 1911 - 6 lbs. I thought that might have something to do with it?

That's about the time I looked down and noticed the gouge/scratch on the righthand side of the slide, where it meets the frame.

That's when I stopped shooting it. I didn't want to damage the slide any further by continuing to shoot it.

Now, at this point, a lot of people would get pissed-off and post a rant about how STI is the worst gun ever made, blah, blah, blah...but, I'm not going to do that. No, all I'm going to say is fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me. It's being shipped back to the factory for repairs and if/when I get it back, it'll get traded-in on a new DW Silverback. Lesson learned.

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Bound To Happen Sooner Or Later