rock island mini 1911 380.

Sounds like a semi auto type question?
Not reloading

I have a RIA Baby rock. I had to work on getting the trigger pull down to 4.5 lbs. It had a 8 lb pull out of the box. I asked RIA about the heavy pull. They said liability reasons. Im guessing AD'S when pulling from pocket carry. Anyways easy fix via leaf spring adjustment. It's accurate for a little gun. I also have a Browning Black label pro. Much better gun. But at twice the price.

The Baby Rock 380 might look like a 1911 but it isn't. It is straight blowback.

I had one and didn't like it. The trigger was stiff and I couldn't hit anything with it. YMMV.

I owned one for a time. It's trigger was decent and I could shoot it fairly well but my old hand really didn't appreciate it's recoil. I made thicker grip in an attempt to spread out the kick over a larger area. Nope, it was still unpleasant and down the road it went. My Sig P356XL is much more comfortable to shoot even with the caliber increase. The Baby Rock's trigger was the only thing better than the Sig. Every blowback 380 I have shot has had nasty recoil and if I had researched a little I wouldn't have bought the Baby Rock. There is a lesson in that and I learned mine.

I've had one for about a year. Once I got the trigger down to something that did not require Superman strength to pull it has been a nice .380. Not sure yet if it is my best but it is a shooter.

Straight blowback .380? No thank you. Had a Colt Government .380, and it was a genuine honey. But it was really like a mini 1911.
But if it isn't locked breech, stay away. Save your money for something better.
Moon

Ouch. Lots of negative comments. I'll add my positive observations.

The idea is good. Little 1911-looking 380 and 9mm pistols like that look very cool and work just fine. I like shooting them.

It's steel, so for me the blowback thing didn't matter a lot. The recoil did not bother me.

I shot a couple of hundred rounds through mine and it went bang every time, NP. And this was a used gun that hadn't been well cared for before I got it.

If the trigger on mine had been lighter, I would have liked it just fine.

Now that I have more experience (and more time on my hands), I would put a little bit of time and work into lightening the trigger, and would probably like the little pistol quite a bit after that.

Have a Llama 380 mini-1911 that works and shoots just fine but a bit too small for me. Have a RI 1911 FS Tactical and it's close to perfect.

I have a Llama IIIA and love that little pistol.

How doe the Rock Island version compare to the old Llama as far as size goes?

I have never found a straight blow back all that bad but when shooting one after my Browning 1911-380 the difference is very obvious.

A couple of weekends ago I took my girl friend out and had her shoot a pristine stainless PPK after my 1911-380. She loved the Browning but didn't finish the magazine on the Walter.

If you compare the prices of the Baby Rock vs the 1911-380 or Colt Government they are obviously different guns. I would love to see RIA come out with a locked breach 380.

MikeInOr said:

I would love to see RIA come out with a locked breach 380.

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From what I can tell, the RIA Baby 1911 is the closest copy of the original Llama 380. The first Llama 380s had a locked breach design with a barrel link just like the 1911. Sometime in the 60's (IIRC) is when Llama switched the IIIA over to a blow back design.

I can understand why your girlfriend didn't care for the PPK. The PP(K) isn't bad in teh original 32 caliber but definitely has more of a bite in 380. The FEG PA63 in 9x18 is even worse. The PA63 is a very close copy of the PPK. After a couple of mags through the PA63, most people are done shooting it.

12Bravo20 said:

From what I can tell, the RIA Baby 1911 is the closest copy of the original Llama 380. The first Llama 380s had a locked breach design with a barrel link just like the 1911. Sometime in the 60's (IIRC) is when Llama switched the IIIA over to a blow back design.

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Are you saying the RIA baby 1911 has a breach lock? Or did I misunderstand your post? I have never held one so I am just going by what I have read on the internet. I would be very interested in a breach lock RIA 1911 380.

In my opinion the PPK is over rated. My first "high power" handgun was a Bersa 380 which is kind is kind of a PPK copy and never impressed me that much. Shooting a friends PPK which is also what my Girlfriend shot was very similar to my Bersa. My Walter P38 is one of my favorite shooters on the other hand.

MikeInOr said:

Are you saying the RIA baby 1911 has a breach lock?

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No I did not say that the RIA has a breach lock. What I said was that the original Llama 380's had a breech lock. Llama later switched to blow back on their IIIA 380s

12Bravo20 said:

No I did not say that the RIA has a breach lock. What I said was that the original Llama 380's had a breech block. Llama later switched to blow back on their IIIA 380s

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Gotcha, I read your post wrong.