05-11-2006, 09:01 AM
So, here's a short review of my new Rock Island Armory 1911. These guns are standard .45 1911, and as such, there is are *ton* of aftermarket parts and accessories available, not to mention the parts are interchangeable with almost all the other 1911s out there. From the side view, its a large gun, but is very narrow, thanks to the 8 round, single stack magazine.
It looks like this (this isn't my gun, but my gun is identical):
![[Image: RIA-1_350.jpg]](http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/review/pix/RIA-1_350.jpg)
My 1911 was purchased from the Quantico PX for the princely sum of $360. It came with a case, a lock, and a single Novak mag (which is a vast improvement over the crap that RIA used to supply). It was absolutely bone dry when I opened it up, so a friend and I field stripped it (which takes less that 1 minute) greased the friction surfaces and went over every part with a light coat of oil. This improved the action greatly, and things looked good for the trip to the range.
At the range yesterday, I first loaded up some standard .45 Auto FMJ. The first few rounds went fine, but over the course of the next 25-30 rounds, the gun experienced 4 failures to feed. The rounds were getting hung up either on the feed ramp or the extractor - my bet was the extractor. The next ~140 rounds, including two mags of hollowpoints, fed and fired with absolutely no problems. When I stripped the gun afterwards, I found the extractor had a little more wear on it - so I'm guessing that it just needed a little bit of break in to function reliably. The next 500 rounds will be very telling, I'm sure.
As for my firing impressions, they were *very* good. Trigger pull is smooth and predictable, and the stock sights with no adjustment seemed to be fine. My trigger technique is horrible and my grip is pretty bad, but I was consistently hitting (or coming very close to hitting) soda cans at a range of ~15 yards. Yes, yards. The way the range was set up, we couldn't get any closer than that. I'll be interested to see what kind of groups I can get at a more realistic range.
Overall, this is a great gun, and highly recommended to anyone who wants a basic, inexpensive 1911.
It looks like this (this isn't my gun, but my gun is identical):
My 1911 was purchased from the Quantico PX for the princely sum of $360. It came with a case, a lock, and a single Novak mag (which is a vast improvement over the crap that RIA used to supply). It was absolutely bone dry when I opened it up, so a friend and I field stripped it (which takes less that 1 minute) greased the friction surfaces and went over every part with a light coat of oil. This improved the action greatly, and things looked good for the trip to the range.
At the range yesterday, I first loaded up some standard .45 Auto FMJ. The first few rounds went fine, but over the course of the next 25-30 rounds, the gun experienced 4 failures to feed. The rounds were getting hung up either on the feed ramp or the extractor - my bet was the extractor. The next ~140 rounds, including two mags of hollowpoints, fed and fired with absolutely no problems. When I stripped the gun afterwards, I found the extractor had a little more wear on it - so I'm guessing that it just needed a little bit of break in to function reliably. The next 500 rounds will be very telling, I'm sure.
As for my firing impressions, they were *very* good. Trigger pull is smooth and predictable, and the stock sights with no adjustment seemed to be fine. My trigger technique is horrible and my grip is pretty bad, but I was consistently hitting (or coming very close to hitting) soda cans at a range of ~15 yards. Yes, yards. The way the range was set up, we couldn't get any closer than that. I'll be interested to see what kind of groups I can get at a more realistic range.
Overall, this is a great gun, and highly recommended to anyone who wants a basic, inexpensive 1911.
My two feet.