Strayer Voigt Infinity 6" Single Stacker - Western Arms

This arrived, unexpectedly, in a consignment of guns for review from Elite Airsoft.

Being a big fan of the SVI Ltd 6", I was intrigued by this short framed, long slide, single stack version of that gun.

At first I could find no reference to it at all, but a little research revealed that this model was produced in 2001 as a limited production run by the infamous Shibuya Custom Works facility and is no longer available, although some thorough hunting around online retailers showed a few still have them available.

In the Box

Despite being an SCW special, there is no indication on the box that this gun is anything out of the ordinary.

The box is a standard beige cardboard box with just a sticker on one end to indicate which of the 6", 5" or 4.3" versions is inside. Inside is the gun, an allen key for the hop up, a bag of BBs, and the usual collection of paperwork.

First Impressions

To me, there's nothing quite a good looking in airsoft pistol as plain black highlighted with a little silver. Just like the 6" Ltd Infinity, this single stack Infinity uses this colour scheme and looks smart and high quality.

The frame of this gun, unlike the double stackers and the IED single stackers, is a standard 1911 length, which means that the slide's lower edge is exposed for a considerable length. This makes the gun look more like a traditional 1911, but also emphasises the length of the barrel and slide more.

As you would expect, most of the controls (trigger, slide lock, hammer, safeties) are metal, but, unlike the Double Stacker Infinities, the lower frame is heavyweight ABS/metal mix, rather than all metal. Also, the grip forms part of the frame, rather than being a separate plastic unit, as it is in the Double Stackers.

Closer Look

The lower half of this gun is pretty much like any other pre-SCW system single stack WA 1911.

The frame is all heavyweight ABS, with plain black grips bearing the familiar SV logos. The grip has a checkered mainspring cover and front face, making it feel similar to the sometimes criticised double Stackers. Personally, I like the secure grip it provides, but some find it digs into their skins, if not wearing gloves.

There's an ambidextrous thumb safety, the usual grip safety, with a fairly pronounced tail and the hammer is the skeletonised Strayer Voigt style unit, seen on other Infinities. All of these are polished to give a shiny, but not chrome, silver finish. The slide lock, strangely, is painted black.

A common feature of many of the WA SV Infinities is the interchangeable trigger option. I was slightly surprised to find this gun also had the 3 different style triggers, but only because it's a single stacker and I had not seen an SVI one before. Presumably the IED models (which have the extended dust cover) also come with interchangeable triggers. As with the Ltd hi-cap models, the trigger is silver, too.

The sights are identical to those on the SVI 6" Ltd, with a Bo-Mar marked adjustable rear unit and a fixed blade, which is not dovetailed in, as the shorter barreled guns are. The sights do not have white dots. The top of the slide has a number of ridges running along its length, again, shared with the 6" Ltd model.

Other than the logos on the grips and a ASGK mark on the frame, the only other marking is "STRAYER VOIGT INC. GRAND PRAIRIE TX USA" just above the grip on the right side of the frame.

The outer barrel is the standard 6" Ltd Infinity cone barrel in silver and there's a full length recoil rod, again silver.

As with other Infinities, but not most single stack 1911s, there is no barrel bushing (and hence, no spanner is provided).

Shooting Impressions

Lacking the latest SCW gas system, I was interested to compare this gun in back to back testing with the Para Ordnance Doberman.

Both have impressive 'kick' and need a firm grip to maintain on target, but I could not detect any great difference between the two guns. Both were good and the SCW system has a number of other advantages (easy access to the Hop-Up being the most useful), but the Infinity felt just as good to shoot as the Doberman.

Click on image for bigger version in separate window.

Carrying out my standard 5m/6 round, off hand test, the SVI 6" single stacker, proved impressively accurate, with all six shots within a 2 inch (5 CM) diameter. Discounting a low shot, the remaining 5 were within 1.25 inch (3.5 CM). These shots are shown as triangles on the target above.

In terms of power, over 10 shots, the SVI 6" single stacker averaged an impressive 283fps (using 134a gas) indoors (around 10C).

I gave this gun a trigger pull weight test and it produced a light-medium pull of 640g (22.6 Oz).

Take Down

Field stripping is pretty simple, to a point.

With the magazine removed, the slide is pushed back until the slide lock can be pushed through the frame. With that done, the slide, barrel and recoil rod & spring can be slid forward off the frame as unit.

At this point it becomes more complex as the recommended approach is to separate the recoil rod sections to allow the front of the rod to be pulled forward from the slide and the outer barrel, spring and chamber to be pushed forward, down and back to remove it from the slide. I find that removing the barrel works just as well, but the plastic chamber thread can be fragile and so it is probably not advisable to use this approach.

Conclusions

This SVI 6" single stacker is a wonderful gun.

It combines the slimness of the single stacker with the classic good looks of the 6" Ltd along with good performance and accuracy.

If I was really pressed, I would still take the Double Stack 6" Ltd, but that does not reflect upon the appeal of this gun as a single stacker 1911 variant, simply it reflects the Ltd's greater magazine capacity (30 rounds instead of 15) and the associated gas capacity advantage of the bigger magazines.

I am very pleased that this gun appeared in my goodies from Elite Airsoft and I have to say that it is probably my favourite of all the 1911 single stackers I have been fortunate enough to test.

Weight : 930g

Realism : *****
Quality : *****
Power : ****
Accuracy : ****

Real Steel link at World Guns
Strayer Voigt's website

Buy this gun from Elite Airsoft