corruptone
Member
I bought this Rock Island Armory 5†mil-spec about 3 weeks ago for the sole purpose of learning more about DIY gunsmithing…..that and it was really inexpensive. When I first picked it up from my FFL, I was impressed with the fit and finish of such an inexpensive 1911 clone. I previously owned a Charles Daly that I bought for the sole purpose of using the lower with my Mech-Tech carbine and the RIA was by far superior in every aspect to my previous Chucky example. Now I know they are one and the same company so maybe Chucky has improved on their end as well. I had a bunch of spare parts and take-offs in my box so this project would allow me to finally use some of them. I bought some more parts from Brownells as well. I could have purchased more higher-end parts, but my objective was to see how cheap I could modify this inexpensive pistol. Here’s a list of what was done and details for each portion this pistol:
1) Standard mil-spec sights replaced with King’s Hardball 3-dot sights.
Front sight was easy enough to remove, but the rear was a totally different story. I banged on it very hard with my brass punch and couldn’t budge it even a little. I finally broke out my RTX and cut-off wheel and collapsed the rear sight. Once that was done it came right out. I staked the front sight with my Brownells staking tool and added some red locktite.
2) Chip McCormick Extreme Beavertail added.
This was my first attempt as installing a fitted beavertail and I bought the S&A .250 jig for the install. I used a belt sander for the heavy cutting on the tangs and finished it off with my files and sand paper. However, instead of the beavertail sitting inside the frame when fully depressed, it was outside. I was prepared to blend the frame to the beavertail, but not this. So, I decided I would just re-contour the beavertail itself to match the frame. It took a long time, but I am very pleased with the results.
3) Added Nowlin ultra-light trigger, CMC sear, CMC hammer, CMC hammer strut,
CMC mainspring housing, CMC tactical mag catch, CMC extended ambi-safety, CMC FLGR, CMC firing pin, Ed Brown Hardcore extractor, Ed Brown firing pin stop, EGW oversize slide stop, EGW drop-in angle bore bushing, new pins all around, new Wolff springs all around, Navidrex contoured Mahogany grips, & Ed Brown stainless allen head grip screws.
I would say that none of this was need for those of you thinking about purchasing a RIA. I just wanted to do it. The pistol functioned flawlessly out of the box. For those of you wishing to heavily modify your RIA let me offer a few things further that I have not previously mentioned. Some parts I installed required significant amount of fitting. The mag catch was not flush on the right side of the frame. The thumb safety gave me the most problems. Apparently the frame is slightly thicker at the thumb safety hole on my specimen. There was not enough space between the external pad of the safety and the locking tab to allow the safety to move freely upwards in the frame. I totally ruined one safety because I did not catch this. On the second one I had to widen this gap on the safety before I began fitting it to the sear. Also, the frame hole is slightly too small and it required me to reduce the external radius of the locking tab. The squared plunger tube caused me to have to re-shape my grips in order to accommodate. Now that I’ve completed the project I now understand why some gunsmiths would refuse to work on a RIA. Not necessarily that the steel is of poor quality, but the amount of extra time that ‘may’ be involved in fitting of parts. I’ve never had an instance where I had to do so much fitting on safeties, mag catches, and what-nots on Colt’s or SA’s.
On the plus side, I’m very happy with the way things have turned out so far. It functions flawlessly and is capable of shooting at least a 1.2†groups at 20 yards using my own loads using the stock barrel.
Speaking of the barrel, some have reported they had to throat their barrels. Mine came with a nice throat job on it already.
It feeds my 200gr SWC’s perfectly. The inside of the barrel is somewhat rough, but it seems to shoot OK, so I think I’m just going to leave it in there for now. The original trigger was not bad at all, but the new group is currently breaking crisp at 3.5lbs.
1) Standard mil-spec sights replaced with King’s Hardball 3-dot sights.
Front sight was easy enough to remove, but the rear was a totally different story. I banged on it very hard with my brass punch and couldn’t budge it even a little. I finally broke out my RTX and cut-off wheel and collapsed the rear sight. Once that was done it came right out. I staked the front sight with my Brownells staking tool and added some red locktite.
2) Chip McCormick Extreme Beavertail added.
This was my first attempt as installing a fitted beavertail and I bought the S&A .250 jig for the install. I used a belt sander for the heavy cutting on the tangs and finished it off with my files and sand paper. However, instead of the beavertail sitting inside the frame when fully depressed, it was outside. I was prepared to blend the frame to the beavertail, but not this. So, I decided I would just re-contour the beavertail itself to match the frame. It took a long time, but I am very pleased with the results.
3) Added Nowlin ultra-light trigger, CMC sear, CMC hammer, CMC hammer strut,
CMC mainspring housing, CMC tactical mag catch, CMC extended ambi-safety, CMC FLGR, CMC firing pin, Ed Brown Hardcore extractor, Ed Brown firing pin stop, EGW oversize slide stop, EGW drop-in angle bore bushing, new pins all around, new Wolff springs all around, Navidrex contoured Mahogany grips, & Ed Brown stainless allen head grip screws.
I would say that none of this was need for those of you thinking about purchasing a RIA. I just wanted to do it. The pistol functioned flawlessly out of the box. For those of you wishing to heavily modify your RIA let me offer a few things further that I have not previously mentioned. Some parts I installed required significant amount of fitting. The mag catch was not flush on the right side of the frame. The thumb safety gave me the most problems. Apparently the frame is slightly thicker at the thumb safety hole on my specimen. There was not enough space between the external pad of the safety and the locking tab to allow the safety to move freely upwards in the frame. I totally ruined one safety because I did not catch this. On the second one I had to widen this gap on the safety before I began fitting it to the sear. Also, the frame hole is slightly too small and it required me to reduce the external radius of the locking tab. The squared plunger tube caused me to have to re-shape my grips in order to accommodate. Now that I’ve completed the project I now understand why some gunsmiths would refuse to work on a RIA. Not necessarily that the steel is of poor quality, but the amount of extra time that ‘may’ be involved in fitting of parts. I’ve never had an instance where I had to do so much fitting on safeties, mag catches, and what-nots on Colt’s or SA’s.
On the plus side, I’m very happy with the way things have turned out so far. It functions flawlessly and is capable of shooting at least a 1.2†groups at 20 yards using my own loads using the stock barrel.
Speaking of the barrel, some have reported they had to throat their barrels. Mine came with a nice throat job on it already.
It feeds my 200gr SWC’s perfectly. The inside of the barrel is somewhat rough, but it seems to shoot OK, so I think I’m just going to leave it in there for now. The original trigger was not bad at all, but the new group is currently breaking crisp at 3.5lbs.
