Hello everyone and welcome back to another Video! I hope you are having a great day today because
we have just received a pretty sweet gun from the team over at EVIKE. In this video we are
going to be unboxing and reviewing the EMG STI International DVC 2011. Before we begin,
I want to let you all know we have a link going directly to this product down in our description,
so if you want to check it out after this video, feel free to make your life a little bit easier!
So say you order the EMG STI 201, what do ya get? Well, this is exactly what showed up to us.
You can see that we have a matte green box the gun comes in with the STI logo nice and
big on the front. Taking the top off of the box, we can now see the gun itself
which comes wrapped in a plastic bag. Now They are both secured in this bag to not only keep unwanted
moisture away from the gun, but to also ensure the lubrication from the factory stays with the gun.
Additionally, they are held in place by this plastic white tray, and this box can also double
as a temporary gun case which is always a plus. Underneath this white tray, we have minimal
paperwork and the manual to the gun which can be accessed via QR code if you are one of the few
people that actually still use manuals... Taking the gun and magazine out of their
respective packaging, you now can truly see the glory of what Evike sent over.
Here we have the STI DVC 2011 made by EMG and it’s 28 round green gas magazine.
So my first thoughts when I picked this thing up out of the box was “dang... this thing is hefty.”
Do you ever just pick up a gun and just know that it can take a beating while
still being able to function flawlessly? That is exactly what I felt when this hit my hand.
Now obviously, this is a pretty large handgun, so the weight is going to match. Both the slide
and outer barrel are aluminum, it has a long metal frame, and a nice flared aluminum magwell as well.
However, with length comes power… yeah I just said that. But a longer inner barrel
does mean that you'll likely get a higher FPS and more consistency with your shots,
possibly even making this viable for a great primary at indoor fields.
Now, one huge huge huge benefit to this pistol that I want all of you beginner airsoft players
to know is that this gun belongs to the hi capa family. Meaning you will likely
be able to swap any single part on here with a tokyo marui compatible upgraded replacement
with little to no issue. If you ever plan on upgrading a pistol like some
of the crazy ones you can find online, Hi capa is the platform you want to go with. Trust me!
Alrighty… now let’s get into what this gun is, what some of its most prominent features are,
and why this pistol might be perfect for you! Before we continue, I've said the acronyms STI
and DVC a lot so far, but what the heck am I talking about? Well, STI is a brand
known for their prestigious lineup of competition firearms which have won thousands of tournaments.
Just like most companies, STI makes various models of their products with their baseline handgun
being the Staccato and their premier model named DVC. Shown on your screen right now is the exact
real steel firearm that we have an airsoft replica of and the real steel model has some luxury
features like its titanium nitride coating on the barrel which is what gives it that gold hue.
The last thing before we continue with the review is that most of these crazy coatings
and materials used on the real steel firearm are not actually found on the airsoft replica.
Rather, they are substituted for more appropriate choices - for pretty obvious reasons.
Ok. Getting into the aesthetics of this gun, let's start big. The slide included on this gun is a
nicely machined and very lightweight aluminum meaning you get all those great benefits like
realism, durability, and that oh-so-satisfying clink. It is of course fully trademarked as you
can see STI on the ejection side and DVC on the opposite. the text that reads “3gun” next to DVC
simply means this is the handgun that may be used in the very popular 3 gun competitions. The slide
has these realistic cuts on the top and sides identical to that of the real steel counterpart
and these help expose that beautiful golden outer barrel beneath it which is awesome.
Now moving to the rear of the slide, we have very nice serrations machined into the aluminum
making it nice and grippy for your hand when racking a bb into the chamber. Again,
the design behind this gun has been engineered for competition shooting and it definitely shows.
Next, we have the outer barrel which is coated in a golden finish to mirror that of
the titanium nitride coating on the real firearm. I personally think they did an excellent job here
and it's subtle enough that you don't look like that “one guy” on the airsoft field. However,
the little bit of gold that does shine through makes this gun look great and it does add a nice
modern touch. We found out that the model we were sent’s outer barrel is unfortunately not threaded
for suppressors nor thread adapters, so I guess tracers are a no go on this particular pistol.
Now without a doubt, the grip on the STI 2011 is definitely something that immediately catches
your eye. It was one of the very first things I personally noticed when I saw the gun listed on
Evike and it's because it isn't just a plain molded grip like most other guns have now.
Instead, this one has the same stippled-like texture on it as the real steel model. Now,
I won't lie, it isn't the grippiest grip in the world seeing as it still isl molded plastic rather
than a true stipple, but it is indeed much better than plain grips most other pistols come with.
Kind of as a continuation onto the grip is this very nice aluminum flared magwell seen here. It is
all black and has a nice satin coating on it that looks and feels great. The coating just mentioned
is leaps and bounds more durable than what's found on the slide and controls, so I doubt
that your reloads will be affecting the finish at all. These magwells retail for between 40
and 50 bucks alone and can actually be difficult to find at times, so the fact
that you get one on this pistol is kinda crazy. And the final “big” part of this gun is the frame,
and there's not a whole heck of a lot to say here. It has the same durable finish as the magwell
meaning you won't see too many scratches here which is a huge plus. It also has some nice 2011
trades across it on the ejection side in addition to the EMG serial number. The final thing about
the hefty metal frame is that it has a large picatinny rail segment here which is great for
those of you who run lasers, flash lights, bipods, cameras, or whatever the heck you want down there!
Now for some of the smaller features on this gun. Beginning with the iron sights this gun
comes with, you won't be too surprised to find a standard rear adjustable sight but this is
accompanied by a very nice bright orange fiber optic front sight post perfect for quick target
acquisition. I did notice that the rear sight’s ledges are a tad too short because as you can see,
when aiming down the irons, only about half of the orange fiber optic is visible when it's on target.
This is a tiny, tiny flaw, but I like pointing out little things like this for you guys so you
understand everything about the gun before making a purchase. Then we have our basic
hi capa controls including an ambidextrous safety, functional grip safety, a nice STI hammer, blacked
out grip screws, and to round things off, the exact same trigger as the real steel STI firearm.
So now that you have seen the gun and know its background, how much can you expect to pay for
this and where can it be found? Well, you can get this gun with a green gas or CO2 magazine for $180
on tons of websites, though Evike.com is the primary spot to pick this up from,
which is what we have linked down below for you in the description!
Now we are going to transition into the topic of upgradability. As I had mentioned earlier in this
video, this pistol belongs to the hi capa family which is great because it means a whole world of
upgrades await you. As great as this is, it is only applicable if the pistol you're upgrading
is perfectly based on Tokyo Marui specifications. Typically, Armorer Work’s or AW Custom hi capas
are like 75% tokyo marui compatible, but some of the most important and commonly upgraded
components like the slide or blowback unit are not perfect matches. This gun is literally designed to
already be upgraded and cosmetically appealing, so if you don't like the look of it… just get a tokyo
marui hi capa instead. However, for those of you who do like the overall aesthetic of this build,
you will be happy to hear that parts like the trigger, inner barrel, recoil spring,
hop up, and bucking etc. are all replaceable with aftermarket upgrades making this gun even better.
Well, as good as a gun looks, it still sucks if it can’t outshoot anyone on the field which
brings us to the performance rating of this beautiful 2011. We did several tests with this
gun that apply to sidearms such as effective range, accuracy, consistency, precision,
and various other factors that must be exceptional for a sidearm to be useful on the airsoft field.
Shooting the STI 2011 with .25 gram bbs at about 75 feet, you can finally begin to see just what
I'm talking about when I say this gun kicks butt. Here we have the target for a closer inspection
and it is quite impressive. 5 out of the 10 shots taken hit the target within 2 inches of
the center and the other remaining shots were all still within the 7 inch circle.
For only using .25 gram bbs and taking these shots outdoors at 75 feet, the longer inner
barrel is beginning to show its advantage. Now, what we found to be the main drawbacks
for the STI 2011’s performance is the hopup and safety. When looking for a top performing pistol
on the current airsoft market, the gun’s ability to properly hop heavier bbs like .3’s actually
becomes quite rare. This gun unfortunately does not make the cut into this exclusive group,
as when we tested it, we saw it pretty much maxing out at .25’s. Don't get me wrong now,
this could be a simple bucking swap for like 10 bucks or so and you'd be good to go,
but obviously I have to review this gun as it came, not modified. And for the issues we saw
with the ambidextrous safety, we noticed that it would sometimes get stuck in the downward position
and would not allow us to move into safe which is not a good thing. This is a tiny
issue that has since kind of worked itself out, but it is worth noting because it's
something that we experienced with this gun. And to wrap up the performance section of
this review, here's a couple clips of the gun shooting so you can see what it's all about.
So, at this point in the video, we already know that this gun looks great and shoots like a
champion, but what about its overall durability? This is one of those guns you pick up out of the
box and just know it will last. There isn't any one specific thing about it that tells me
it's durable, but it just works without a hitch. With this being said, there were some things we
would like to note about the durability. To start, we did notice that the slide’s surface finish is
pretty fragile or soft. This is a bummer because just after using this gun for maybe 500 rounds,
we already see some significant wear on the slide. But, if you aren't one who is afraid of
your gun showing some wear, this should be zero issue to you. The surface finish on the frame,
magazine, and mag well are all a different coating and these are very durable so that you won't see
much wear at all compared to the slide. Now this is a very small and picky thing to point out,
but we are here to show you things that most other reviewers of this product
would have missed or just simply skipped. Now for our infamous bang for buck rating.
This is a very strict scale meaning a score of 9.5 or 10 will likely never be achieved. After
considering all of the pros and cons with the STI DVC 2011 gas blowback pistol, we ended up with a
final score of 6. Now hold on, before you click off of this video because you think a 6 is bad,
keep in mind that a score of 6 will be competing with mid tier AEG’s. This gun is a beast and
would rock your socks off on the airsoft field or when you are just plinking in your backyard.
We highly highly recommend checking this gun out, and remember, there's a link down below for you.
And to wrap up this review on the STI 2011, Our final pros and cons list looks like this.
Pros. It has a hefty build construction that so far seems to be incredibly durable. It is
extremely reliable and dependable which is great for a sidearm. You have a plethora of aftermarket
upgrades and this is primarily because it belongs to the hi capa family meaning it's compatible with
all of those parts. You get a crazy nice and crisp realistic blowback with this gun. Even
though its big, its very fast! The STI and DVC trademarks that you can find all around this gun
give it a very nice aesthetic. It has a unique and surprisingly comfortable grip build into it.
Cons. It has a weak slide surface finish that is pretty prone to scratches. The stock hopup
in this gun cant hop anything over something like a .25 gram bb. And finally, this has
nothing to do with performance, but the slide tolerances cause it to wiggle just a little bit.
In conclusion, this review as with every single review we have done
and will ever do is entirely made up from our honest opinions and we were not paid
nor influenced to say anything about this product. We want to avoid only pointing out
the good things about airsoft products and we will always be 100% transparent with you.
And, that about wraps it up for this video. I really hope you learned something from this
and please feel free to leave any questions you have down below in the comment section.
We're here to help you out and I'm sure various others will also see your comment
and chime in with suggestions or solutions. Thank you all so much for watching all the
way through the video - y'all are the real MVP’s. If you did indeed like this video,
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custom builds and crazy deals on airsoft guns. Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next video!