[Benton]

I see Century Arms International is selling 1911s with the brand name "Shooters Arms" manufactured in the Phillipines. Are these the same pistols that were sold under the Rock Island Armory name? Has anybody here had any experience with these pistols? They're very low in price.

[marklbucla]

Let's resurrect this thread for an answer. I'm curious, myself.

[The Lone Haranguer]

Unless Century is selling them now, this discussion may be moot. ;)

[wulfbyte]

An associate of mine recently purchased one of these Century marketed SAM 1911s in a commander sized version.

I'll post a range report as soon as we get back from shooting it.

I do know that the RIA and Charles Daley 1911s are manufactured by Armscor in the Phillipines and so they are not from the same factory.

Let me put in some preliminaries for you:

product/picture link (http://www.centuryarms.biz/proddetail.asp?prod=HG1009%2DN)

The over all appearance, fit and finish is ok, not highly polished and done in what looks to be a black, baked on paint of some type. Some tool marks are evident but nothing particularly glaring. The hammer looks to be cast and was poorly finished on the interior of the relief cuts. The accompanying magazine was crap; slightly damaged in the body and the follower was not correctly formed. It would go about halfway down the body of the magazine before becoming lodged. Totally useless. I gave my friend some spare mag's that I had laying around (a mecgar 8 and a no name 7) and he has run a few rounds through it. We are going to go shooting tomorrow and I can give you a better report then.

[marklbucla]

Page 12 in the ad that arrived today...

[doktor_x]

Greetings and salutations. I'm the associate referenced above by wulfbyte.

The S.A.M. Commodore performed admirably on its maiden voyage. Every time the bang switch was hit, it did indeed go *bang*. The were no hiccups to speak of. On two occasions, the slide banged shut on an empty chamber. Both times were with a Mec-Gar 8-round magazine. The slide release looks okay, so I may see if I can tweak the follower by about .030 to make better contact. Even the abomination of a magazine that came with it worked well after pulling it apart and making some adjustments to the follower geometry. It'll always be a range magazine nonetheless. Anyway, upon inspection of the empties, the extractor seems a tad on the aggressive side. I don't foresee this causing any functional issues. The rims will just need a little attention if/when reloaded. Some of the case's mouths were dinged a bit. There were traces of brass at the lower edge of the ejection port, so perhaps a bit of lowering wouldn't hurt. It still cycled every time. Accuracy was very reasonable. I tried to go in without any expectations beyond feeding reliably. I've been away from the range long enough that it'll take a few more trips to match my own capabilities with those of the firearm. In any case, after feeding it another 100+ rounds and giving it a good looking-over after each session, I think I'll be comfortable with declaring it my new primary.

The sights aren't great, but they work. I drilled the front ramp and placed some obnoxiously-colored nail polish into the hole with a sewing needle. It's much more visible now. I think I'm going to drift out the rear sight and turn it around until something aftermarket catches my eye. It seems backward. Perhaps I'll take some pictures of the results of this <sarcasm> delicate and precise modification </sarcasm> and post them someday soon.

On an unrelated note; I'm glad to have burned through the remaining ~200 rounds of filthy 9mm range ammo. It made my trusty P89 look resemble a flintlock. It's been a while since I had to use that much Hoppe's No. 9 solvent to make the bore pretty again. I'm sure that the gunk was loaded with substances known to the state of California to cause cancer. Fortunately, I'm not in California and should remain tumor-free. Still, were I to purchase another quantity of the stuff, I'd do well to also procure some NBC gear to limit exposure. Besides... chicks dig NBC gear. It's hot. Seriously. It doesn't breathe at all. That's part of what makes it work.