Not waiting on my plastic...I ended up sending my STI Escort back to the factory, so now I'm waiting on it to return.
The Escort is an officer size (compact) 1911 in .45ACP with an aluminum frame. During my last cleaning of it, I noticed some (what I would call) excessive and unusual wear on the frame. It's on the frame where the base plate/spring stop (proper name?) on the end of the guide rod rests against the frame.
It looks like this base plate/guide rod has been jumping around a little from side to side, instead of sitting flat and still, and it's started to round off the square edges of the ledge in the aluminum frame where the guide rod base plate sits. (Sorry, I took a couple of pictures, but they didn't really turn out very well
, so I won't even bother to post those.) I know there's going to be some wear there in that area eventually, but this gun is only 1 year old, and has no more than 2,000 rounds through it - all standard pressure factory loads.
From what I've read on the 'net in the last few days, it sounds like that wear may be from weak recoil springs. From what I could tell of reading of the problem, the weak spring allows the guide rod (and its base plate) to jump forward momentarily after the slide gets back to "home" position, then when the guide rod and base plate are pushed back to their "home" position by the recoil spring, the base plate may catch the edge of the ledge on the frame as it seats back where it's supposed to be.
Well, the manual for this gun says replace the recoil spring after 5,000 rounds. This gun has way less than even half that amount so far. So I don't know if a weak recoil spring caused the problem, or if it is something else. I didn't see any other obvious source that may have caused this problem. But I'm certainly no 1911 gunsmith, either. So that's why I sent it back to STI.
I love my little .45. I love shooting it, and it's a breeze to carry. Yes, it is a compact, and yes, I have experienced some of the issues that the compact 1911's are known for. What's really maddening is that I finally got all those bugs worked out by finding the "right" hollow-point and the "right" magazine, then only to discover this show-stopper problem.
So STI has had it back for a couple of weeks now. The only proper solution I see is for them to replace the frame - after they figure out what caused the frame damage to start with. I'm hoping that STI sees the problem resolution the same way I do.
But I haven't heard anything back from them yet. In my original correspondence with them, they said give them 4-6 weeks. They're a small company, but with a great reputation, so I can afford to give them time and be patient. That is, just as long as they come up with the "right" answer!
So wish me luck. Anyone else have any experience with STI service, or have experience with this same kind of problem on a different gun?