Long Term Review of Staccato P Pistol

I have been a fan of the 2011 platform for a long time. I have been using them since 2017 and have owned and worked on over a dozen different 2011s. I was a huge fan of Staccato back when they were known as STI where I got my start with a Hex Tac special edition that was released at SHOT Show. Since then I have been running 2011 pistols for everything from concealed carry to competitions. With the rebranding to Staccato, many people were worried about a potential dip in quality but it seems the concerns were unfounded as Staccato has despite a somewhat rocky start managed to garnish a reputation on par or even surpassing its previous iteration. I bought my first Staccato P almost 2 years ago and have since purchased a multitude of others including a second P, an XC and a C2. Since then I have been running them as carry pieces while upgrading them along the way. I will be going over my thoughts on the pistols both stock and as a platform for upgrading.

Initial Impressions

When I initially bought my Staccato P it was an early Gen 1 pistol with the original grip and shortly after the rebrand. I was impressed with the fit and finish as someone who was used to tuned STI Edges and competition pistols. Right off the bat, I could tell that it wasn’t quite as tight as some other 2011s I had owned but given the rebrand to a more reliable duty-oriented pistol, I could understand that decision and it seemed to be intentional. 

I immediately started putting rounds through it feeling out the reliability and how fast I could run it. Something I noted was that it was sprung slightly heavy for reliability and it showed the gun ran pretty much everything I threw at it from brass and steel range ammo to 124 grain duty ammunition. Accuracy out of the box was excellent with 1-inch groups at 25 yards easily achievable with some Wilson Combat match ammo I had lying around. I put about a thousand rounds through the pistol during the first range session with only a light oiling and it handled it just fine. 

The Generation 2 magazines the pistol shipped with probably helped in that regard too. Anyone who has been in the 2011 game long enough knows that the Generation 1 STI mags were notoriously finicky and required constant maintenance to keep reliability acceptable. I quickly got used to the new grips and the more carry oriented features like the shortened beavertail and the heavier trigger. I weighed the trigger in at a clean 4-4.2lb trigger pull which while heavier than something like an Edge designed for competition is more than acceptable for a carry gun, especially with the short clean break.

Concealed Carry

I ended up almost immediately putting the Staccato P into the carry rotation. I had some previous experience with a STI VIP 9 so I was comfortable carrying a 2011 especially one with the updated features. While not exactly light, I found with a good belt the weight was more than manageable both in appendix and OWB. I quickly started favoring the P once I got a decent holster and took it pretty much everywhere. I have had it out in the snowy forests of the PNW and the waters of the Pacific Ocean on fishing charters. Through it all the finish has held up surprisingly well and I have had no issues with corrosion or reliability from weather or environment. 

I ended up with a few different holsters I ordered directly from Staccato’s website and all of them were well-made and functioned well. When carrying appendix, the shortened and rounded beavertail made a world of difference when doing daily tasks and made the short time I had with an old STI carry gun seem like a bad dream. I also found myself loving the new at the time Dawson optic mounting system and the bright fiber optic sights. I did find the gun tends to attract lint and gunk a fair bit due to me running my 2011 pistols wet and the aggressive star texture on the grip. Later on, I ended up installing a Gen 3 grip with the new texture and found it made a big difference both in how it carried comfort-wise and how it attracted debris.

Reliability

I put roughly 10 thousand rounds through the two Staccato P pistols and aside from some ammunition or dirty magazine related issues they have remained reliable throughout my time with them. I have gone as long as 1100 rounds between cleaning and they have never had an issue as long as I kept them lubricated. I find that around the 700-round mark, they start to slow down a bit but will keep running without an issue. A light application of oil can usually remedy this, however. 

I have taken the pistols out in everything from 20-degree weather to pouring rain and the guns have kept on chugging. I took one on a kayaking trip and it managed to survive a 6-hour trip down the river in a shoulder holster and functioned as normal when used later that day back at camp shooting some Bill Drills. The finish also has not shown any problems despite constant holster work and austere conditions. Part of that may be due to maintenance and ensuring the gun is oiled after use but regardless the DLC finish on the Staccato P is impressive.

Durability and Maintenance

I have put about seven thousand rounds through my second Staccato P and have been noting wear and following regular maintenance schedules I have found that at five thousand rounds, I needed to replace my recoil spring. The gun was still functioning reliably, however, the old spring was noticeably shorter than the replacement I had bought alongside some other parts. 

While I had the gun apart I also cleaned the extractor and firing pin channels as I found them to be caked with grease and carbon. I also found that even the Gen 2 magazines required regular cleaning if they had been dropped repeatedly in the dust or mud. I would usually clean them after 2 or 3 range trips of drills in the woods. The mags, when too dirty, would become sluggish feeding rounds into the gun and would occasionally nosedive the rounds into the feed ramp. 

As far as regular use I found that my 17-round carry mags even coated in carbon would function reliably as long as they didnt get debris or dirt inside the mag itself. One of my Triarc mags got to the point where it was so coated in carbon that it gained a different texture but kept feeding reliably. Cleaning the mags is a simple process. I typically pop the baseplates off which can be done without tools and flush it with a cleaner then wipe it down with a rag and lightly oil it. Typically this would completely restore the magazine. 

After about a year and a half of shooting some of my mags started failing to lock the slide to the rear on empty. This is typical with 2011 mags and a simple spring change is enough to fix this. I ended up replacing them with Atlas plus power springs. I have used a variety of magazines from Atlas, Triarc, and Staccato in the P and had no issues in particular with any of them. I found the Atlas mags with their more powerful springs to more reliably lock the slide back through use and abuse at the cost of making them fairly stiff to load.

The Staccato P shoots remarkably flat out of the box, the hefty weight of the pistol combined with the clean break of the trigger makes it easy to nail follow-up shots. I found the new grip texture much easier to run hard without sanding your hands' skin off like the old dragon scale patterns of the DVC guns. While not quite as aggressive it's more than enough to keep the gun locked in your hand when sweaty or cold.

You can’t buy skill as the old saying goes and while true the 2011 platform sure makes it a lot easier to put holes in paper, I found that handing this gun to beginner or novice shooters most showed a notable improvement in both grouping and speed right off the bat. Tuning the recoil spring allows for an even softer shooting experience at the cost of some increased sluggishness when the gun gets dirty. 

For a non-custom 2011, the Staccato P hits above its weight class and can be up there with some of the best with some minor tweaking. I think overall it’s an excellent choice for shooters of all skill levels whether you're someone balling out from the beginning or an experienced shooter looking for something to step up from a more traditional duty pistol.

The 2011 has always been a great platform for suppression. I have had several opportunities to run the Staccato P with different cans and it's always been a blast. I found that running the pistol suppressed immediately made the whole experience much more pleasant and it definitely makes the pistol much cooler which is always something to take into consideration. 

As soon as you start shooting the Staccato P suppressed, it makes you feel like an international spy or a hitman and it always manages to put a big smile on anyone I would hand it to. I have had experience running the Staccato P with suppressors from Dead Air, Rugged and a few other boutique manufacturers. If I were forced to choose a suppressor to permanently attach to the pistol, I would most likely choose the Rugged Obsidian 9mm. 

The Rugged Obsidian 9 is an excellent choice because of its durability, modularity and weight. The Obsidian can be set up in 2 different configurations, long and short, which is excellent for running the pistol in a suppressor-compatible holster like a Surefire MasterFire Pro or a Hush Holster. Being able to shorten the overall length makes the long package swinging off your leg a little more manageable. Additionally, with its aluminum tube and 17-4 baffles, it's fairly lightweight which is a blessing on a steel-framed full-length pistol like the Staccato P. 

The Rugged, true to its name, is built to last with certain design elements meant to ensure a lifetime of use. The serial number is purposely engraved on the thickest part of the base of the suppressor to ensure that even in the event of a baffle strike where the suppressor may become unusable, the company can easily repair the damage. Overall, I think the Obsidian 9 would be a perfect match for the Staccato P and at a street price of $643, it's an easier pill to swallow than some others.

Silencer Shop makes getting suppressors easy and you can buy the Rugged Obsidian 9 from the link below. 

Final Thoughts

After all the time I have spent with the Staccato P, it has fully abated the worries I had about the transition from STI. Thousands of rounds down the pipe and both pistols still feel like new. I have started to tinker with them as a platform to upgrade and they have quickly become my go-to whenever I head out to the range as well as one of my first choices for a carry pistol. I have put everything from bulk steel case to high-end solid copper defensive ammo through it and it has eaten it all. 

At its high price, I can understand it's a hard ask for a lot of people but something to consider is that Staccato is one of the longest-running names in the 2011 game. They have built a reputation for quality and performance. As hard as it is to believe, I and many others also believe that Staccato is the best entry-level into the 2011 game. As you get into boutique manufacturers like Atlas Gunworks, SVI, and Nighthawk you start going from the 2-3 thousand dollar range into the 5-8 thousand range with some of the fully tricked-out options by the legendary SVI going even higher. 

Additionally Staccato has some of the best customer support in the industry, a holdover from the STI days. They have always been willing to answer any questions I had about maintenance and parts as well as take care of any issues I may have in short order. I think if you are a serious shooter who wants to step into the 2011 game or are looking for one of the nicest range experiences on the market, you would be hard-pressed to find a better pistol in the price range and well worth the money.

I plan on writing a follow-up article documenting all of the upgrades I have put onto the pistol and the process of installation as most required some form of hand fitting. I also have an interview with a friend and coworker who was formerly an employee of Staccato for 8 years as one of their head gun builders. I plan to talk with him about the complexities of working on the 2011 platform and what things he would choose to upgrade as well as his thoughts on the rebranding to Staccato. I personally think that out of the box, the Staccato P is a dream to run, extremely well built but with some upgrades, it can be made to compete with other pistols in a much higher price bracket.