AlexanderA
Member
The Kahr/Thompson/Auto Ordnance is in the same price range as the RIA. The main difference is that the AO has a Series 80 firing pin safety, and the RIA doesn't. (Also, the AO is made in the U.S.)
Rock Island Armory 1911's
- Thread starter Slater
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You may elaborate your experience. I had good luck with their CS. I used their Transferable Life Time Warranty twice, both are positive and they paid shipping both ways.
If they were junk, I wouldn’t own them. My TacII 10mm has run perfectly and is more accurate than I am. I’m not a huge fan of GI models by any manufacturer. They shoot fine. Just not as aesthetically pleasing to me as others models.
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bikerdoc
Moderator In Memoriam
Both of mine see carry duty.
If you want the whole long story here it is. FWIW, I told Arnell that I would share my experience on the second phone call, and he said he didn't care.
i've posted here a few times, but here it is. I got a GI standard 1911, and ran a few hundred rounds through it. Almost never a full mag without a bolt-over-base, or a stem-bind malfunction. In addition, the chamber was so tight that some rounds would not go into batter at all, with the extractor removed. Within a few days, the finish was wearing off, down to bare metal, just from handling. The finish on the moving parts was gone within the first few shots.
So taking some gauges to it, against a blueprint, I found the feedramp in the frame to sit at 27° against the hard 31+-.5° spec, this difference is severe enough to easily see. In addition to the off angel, the barrel fit to frame did not have any gap between the frame ramp, and barrel ramp, meaning the angle could not be re-cut correctly.
Even if it could be recut, it wouldn't matter, the feedramp was cut off the angle of the magazine well, also 4° too steep, and there was no recovering from that. With the dimension known, I called customer service, and talked to them, told them the problem, they assured me they would fix it.
I insisted to them the frame was irreparably out of spec, and would need replaced. I made it extremely clear I was not interested in paying $70 to ship it, if they were not going to fix it correctly. They insisted that wouldn't be a problem. They refused to pay shipping.
So after a few week I got it back, still broken, with a note saying "we polished the feedramp, and fired 8 rounds, and it works -Arnell". It did not work with Actmags (theirs), CMC, Wilson, metalform, GI, CMI mags before or after the "polish".
So back on the phone with "customer service". They told me that it met their spec of "1 full magazine" (no rule on how many tries) and they would not be issuing another repair ticket, and weren't concerned about it. They let me know they knew there was no way I would ever buy from them again, so they had no motivation to fix my issue. So I was out the money for the junk gun, AND the shipping. This whole exchange was slimy.
Other issues, as noted, the finish was some kind of cold blue.
The barrel was too tight for even occasional factory rounds.
The extractor broke before 200 rounds, and needed replaced.
Recoil spring failed in the first magazine (as in 4lb force to retract slide)
Positives:
Extremely accurate
Very good trigger
"customer service" did replace the grips, which I removed for shipping.
The final remedy.... Getting this junkheap back from service, I had the option of replacing the frame, or cutting it up for parts. What I did was hand file the frame as much as I could, play with the link to get some more room, put in better springs.
Filing the frame did allow it to get through a few hundred rounds before malfunctions, so that was nice. Its extremely sensitive to dirt, but works far better than it did.
I also Parkerized it to fix the bad finish. It came out two distinctly different colors, slide deep black, frame grey. this was Zincphosphat, so I'm not sure what made the slide black, but it did. I shaved the stain off the bright orange grips, and stained them in conventional walnut. I later sold it to a guy as a wallhanger, and he's happy with it. He shoots if occasionally, and reports it doesn't give any problems until its dirty or hot.
I replaced it with a Springfield G.I., which had its own issues, but nothing dramatic. Still have that one, and its quality is 10X the RIA, at %20 higher cost. I also bought a A.O., which is the same price as RIA, and the quality is also 10X better. The A.O. did break the ejector, which I'm not tooled to fix, so that cost $100, but still a good gun. That one has about 3000 rounds without malfunction. It is a 9mm however.
yes, and I can say, the firing pin spring on the AO is unbelievably strong, to the point you really cant put the S80 junk back together without a fixture. The firing pin spring on the AO has to be over 40lbs.
Of course the RIA has no firing pin safety at all, so removing the AO stuff would put you in the same position as the RIA on that. Springfield of course uses the titanium firing pin.
For anyone who is considering an AO, I can say they use a cast ejector, which is the only highly stressed cast part mine had, and when they break, they're expensive to fix. AO does not pay shipping cost for warranty work. I would recommend anyone with basic tool skills replace that part immediately with a $20 forged part.
You need a 1/16 punch, vice, rag, hammer round file, and about 1 hour to do it, but it can save you the cost of milling out a broken ejector leg.
My AO (9mm GI profile) has become my go-to. Its also much prettier than any RIA I have seen. The finish is very good, aside from the cheap plastic grips.
Interesting that you had to pay shipping to ship it back to RIA for warranty. RIA paid mine both times by sending me shippers. My M200 revolver, bought new, had excessive cylinder gap, contacted CS and they emailed me a shipper to send it back and replaced it with a new one. The replacement received had occasional misses in double action, I discovered a few months later, they paid the shipping to take it back and polished a burr off the "finger" that moves the cylinder. No problem since. My two RIA 1911 9mms had issue with slides not locked back on the last round occasionally, I suspected the slide hold opens maybe the standard .45 instead of 9mm which is longer, contacted their CS and they shipped me the parts. Later, I realized it wasn't the guns but the magazine followers that need to be spread open a bit to engage the slide hold opens, a common issue for 1911 9mms! No complaint on the finish on my RIA 1911s. I have GI model, likely parkerized. I paid $300 after rebate for my RIA 1911 9mms about 5 - 6 yrs ago, happy with mine at the price.
Edit Note-I edited to correct from floor plate to follower! Getting old!
Edit Note-I edited to correct from floor plate to follower! Getting old!
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1KPerDay
Member
Nightmare. That would surely sour me as well.
I'm surprised at how things went for you. I had to send my 9mm 1911 back to Rock Island since the hammer kept following the slide home. They paid shipping both ways and took good care of me in a timely manner. And that has been the only time that I have had any issues with all of the Rock Island 1911's I own. I have found that with most companies, if you are polite then they will bend over backwards to take care of you. If you are the least bit rude, or they think you are, forget about getting good service.
yes, you are correct about manners. I am always polite on the phone for that very reason. My first round with RIA was very nice on both ends. The second call was generally nice overall as well, until I was told to go f---- myself. This was relatively early in RIA's presence, around 2008 or so, so maybe they had some issues to work out, and it does seem people think they have. But I can only relate my own experience, which is that there are at the very least better values in Metro, Tisas, and AO. I can accept a lemon, I can accept bad service, but I don't like people who lie, and gamble with other peoples money in the believe the guy on the phone was too stupid to read a gauge.
I would have put the parts on a Caspian frame, had they told me on the phone that a frame was not replaceable. But they didn't.
CoalCrackerAl
Member
I needed slide stops for my 2 45's. They had me send them in. I thought that was silly for slide stops. But while they were at RIA. They gave them a tuneup too. It was a fast turn around too. Couldn't argue with that. And i broke the locking lug on my 10mm. They replaced it and the barrel and slide. Excellent C.S IMO. Only complaint i had. Was when i called and asked why my baby rock. Had a 9lb trigger pull. When they used to be around 4-5 pounds. They told me liability reasons. Im thinking someone got injured taking out of their pocket or something along those lines. I got the trigger down to 4.5 by tweaking the leaf spring. I also broke the firing pin dry firing it. They had one to my house in 3 days. No more dry fires for me!
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