A 2011 Life: 10,000 Rounds Through Staccato P -

With work travel and other obligations cancelled for most of 2020, it’s been much easier to get rounds downrange in the COVID era. As of this release, my Staccato (formerly STI) P has surpassed the 10,000 round mark. I normally don’t shoot this much in a compressed timeline, however this pistol has just been so much fun to shoot. Here are my thoughts on the Staccato P after starting into the 5-digit round count.

Accuracy

One of the primary reasons to go with a 2011 pistol is the greater inherent accuracy to the system. From the single-action trigger to the barrel fit, a decent to high-end 2011 pistol should perform very well in this department. Coming from Glocks with factory barrels, I’ve noticed that the pistol delivers greater accuracy without having to coax it out like a Glock. Shooting tight groups at 25 yards is always hard, but otherwise the Staccato sends rounds seemingly where you are thinking they should go. This also seems to hold true with a plethora of ammo types, not relying on a particular load or brand to deliver the best accuracy. However, premium carry ammo and match bullets such as Hornady XTP and HAP’s deliver the best accuracy.

Reliability

One of the most debated qualities of a 2011 is the reliability. Any 1911/2011 for serious professional, carry or competition use does require more maintenance than most of the plastic, striker-fired guns. However, if that maintenance is performed, a properly setup 1911/2011 such as the Staccato P can run really well. To date I have not had a malfunction with round nose ammo (shooting about 8k of the total). For the half-dozen recorded stoppages, all have been with a batch of 125gr HAP reloads that I loaded shorter to work in my Gen5 Glocks. The malfunction is a nosedive into the feedramp, showing up when the gun is really dirty. Simply loading the projectile longer seems to have fixed the issue. Aside from that, I’ve run the pistol in a few matches now with the 125gr HAPs (they shoot REALLY well) and had no issues on the clock. I haven’t had any issues with the 135gr Hornady Critical Duty, 127gr Winchester Ranger +P+ or 147gr Speer Gold Dot carry ammo. All of this was tested with the regular/mid-weight recoil spring.

Maintenance

Looking back on my notes, my maintenance cycle seems to have settled into additional lube at each range session or match (process detailed here), then a good scrubbing at 1,500-2,000 rounds. At about 5,000 rounds I did detail strip the gun to check for wear and make some notes. Now that the 10k threshold has been passed, I’ll do a full breakdown again and drop in a new recoil spring (look for a standalone piece on recoil springs soon).

“Shootability”

So what does Shootability mean? To me, this is the honest, on-demand performance of a pistol. I can run a Glock 9mm pretty well, but I was looking to push the boundary for a little more speed and accuracy with the Staccato P. My primary incentive was to have the 2011 dialed in for a few field matches out West, that are known for really small targets 20+ yards away. After 10k rounds, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that if you take the time to learn and practice with a 2011, there is an edge that can be gained.

In the first couple thousand rounds, my recorded times on drills were similar or worse than with a Glock 17/34…but I have years and tens of thousands of rounds of experience with them. Once my practice with the 2011 reached the point where the quirks and nuances were ironed out, times began to improve. Now I can comfortable shoot the 2011 on-demand and perform better than I ever have with a Glock. For me, I don’t have to work as hard to see a greater level of accuracy, at similar to better speeds.

The one area that I still find lacking to my Glocks is slide-lock reloads. Because my thumbs aren’t long enough, I have to use my support thumb to drop the slide without shifting my firing hand on the Staccato P…whereas on a Glock my firing hand thumb is waiting to drop the slide. This accounts for about a half second slower reload, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to completely close the gap. For competitive shooting, most shooters are trying to execute slide-forward reloads anyways, but I want to be well-versed on the pistol.

Next Steps

10,000 rounds through the Staccato P wasn’t a specific goal but it got here in a hurry. I feel very comfortable with the pistol, understanding much more about the 2011 platform in terms of shooting and maintaining. I’m at the point where I feel comfortable with my skills at a subconscious level and running the gun. I look forward to shooting some more competitive events with this as my pistol choice.

Since this experiment has gone well, additional next steps for me are to pursue a red-dot 2011. I’m not looking to do a USPSA Open gun, but instead get another Staccato P and either go with the Duo system or have the Chambers RDSM mount milled into the slide. I’ve seen greater performance with a red dot on a Glock, but would like to see what can be done with a 2011.

Now that things have gotten really hot in the South, and 9mm is almost worth it’s weight in gold, my round count will slow down a bit…but that doesn’t mean the pistol is going away and the practice stops.