Probably the best 1911 I've ever owned

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rdmercer

rdmercer

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northern Idaho
4 days ago I purchased a Rock Island 1911-FS bare bone military sights for $460. I took it home and immediately shot 3 brands of hollow points. After 6 mags I had absolutely no FTF or FTE and followed up a box of round ball. No problems at all. I have a Colt Gold Cup National Match series 70 I can't get a full mag of 7 thru of hollow points without 3 failures. This RIA is one hell of a 1911 for the money. Great trigger, same old wonderful balance, absolute reliability and the old military sites are more than adequate for home or personal defense. Thin frame allows very good concealment but here lately I have been open carrying just about everywhere here in Idaho with hammer back and safety on. No one seems to care or get excited about the sight of a 110 year old pistol with wood grips cocked and locked.
 
Armored farmer said:
I've been wanting a full size 1911 with a rail....you guys have me thinking....I already like the looks of a couple RIA models....
Click to expand...

Try one out before you make the jump.
I have a Stainless Taurus PT 1911 with the rail. The gun is very smooth and has a great trigger, but even with nothing mounted on the rail, it's very noticeably nose heavy. IMO the balance is off, which is part of the perfection of the 1911.
 
A buddy had two and both of the ones he bought had issues. YMMV and most of what I've seen of shooters at the range theirs run well.
 
About thirty or forty years ago I had a Series 80 Colt. Never got comfortable with it so it went to a Forever Home.

About twenty years ago I had a semi-custom Dan Wesson Pointman/Patriot. Really really tried to like it but that too just never happened so after trying to like it for several years and failing it went to a Forever Home.

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Recently bought one of the Turkey made Tisas Government 1911A1s and loved it immediately.

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Shortly a Commander sized one followed me home and it too has been adopted.

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I'm far happier with these two than I every imagined and they taught me that the 1911 platform really isn't just junk.
 
Rather fond of my 1911a2/2011 (what everr you wanna call a double stack 1911). I actually had two and moved slides around between them. On one the slide went on perfectly zero fitment issues and timed correctly

The other one, which was the one I kept, took about 3 passes with a file, and some polishing, on the slightly taller right side lip of the full length dust guard before the thing moved like greased glass...
Didn't have to mess with linkage on this one either.

.
 
I love my RIA 1911. Mine was the base model also and I got it for $375. I purposely bought the base model so that I could use it to learn some of the mods and work on it a little to learn the 1911. It is tight and it is accurate and it has yet to not feed or fail to fire or jam. The supplied magazine was not so good (slide would not stay back) but the Kimpro mags work fine and the WC also, perfect.

IMG-3775.jpg

I did a WC trigger, WC sear, WC mag release, WC hammer and (drop in) WC beaver tail. It shoots good. I like the dull Parked finish, it looks right.

I really had not planned the beaver tail, the rest, yes. But the GI style grip safety just does not work with my hands. Not the fault of the pistol, I have noted the same thing with GI issue Colts and similar. I need that bump, my hands cup deeply, lol, too much to depress the safety reliably without conscious effort. I did the drop in though in case I wish to revisit that later.

Is the RIA on par with my two Kimbers, no. Functionally it is but I can tell the frame is cast. If you start nit picking the RIA I can see the edges are not as clean or perfect like the Kimbers. But they are forged and milled frames. But back off a couple of inches and those minor things disappear and just shoot the thing and I realized it is a very nice pistol and I am proud to own it.

3C
 
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I currently have 3 Rock Island 1911's is 9 milli-metric, 38 Super and 40 S&W.

Also have a GSG 22lr, a couple Sig Sauer, Dan Wesson Guardian and a Wilson Combat CQB Compact
 
rdmercer said:
4 days ago I purchased a Rock Island 1911-FS bare bone military sights for $460. I took it home and immediately shot 3 brands of hollow points. After 6 mags I had absolutely no FTF or FTE and followed up a box of round ball. No problems at all. I have a Colt Gold Cup National Match series 70 I can't get a full mag of 7 thru of hollow points without 3 failures. This RIA is one hell of a 1911 for the money. Great trigger, same old wonderful balance, absolute reliability and the old military sites are more than adequate for home or personal defense. Thin frame allows very good concealment but here lately I have been open carrying just about everywhere here in Idaho with hammer back and safety on. No one seems to care or get excited about the sight of a 110 year old pistol with wood grips cocked and locked.
Click to expand...
I bought a RIA .38 Super GI model several months ago, and feel almost the same way. Can't beat it for the money. I may have been lucky, never had any issues with my other two 1911 full-size, one a SA and one a Ruger, and the RIA is providing good company for them. I can run it as fast as I can pull the trigger and it is smooth as silk. Doesn't need to be fancy to work well.
 
I own a couple, one is a basic GI and the other has adjustable sights, nicer panels and polished slide, I like them as much as my stainless SA and better than my old GI models (they are loose and rattle but shoot well).
 
A friend of mine had me do some mods on his new RIA 1911 (new hammer, beavertail grip safety, and extended slide release). Since the gun was nickel plated we used stainless steel parts that my friend polished to a bright finish with Mother's Mag Polish. The gun itself was well made with tight tolerances in regards to the slide to frame and barrel to slide fit. The nickel plating was very evenly applied throughout the gun and was a first class finish; very comparable to what some U.S. 1911 manufacturers were turning out at the time. Overall I would have to say that I came away thinking the RIA 1911s were a very decent buy for the money.
 
I have three RIA 1911's. I like them overall. One of them has an unimpressive finish and had to go back to the factory multiple times, though they did fix it eventually. The other two have been solid. All three have good triggers, and are accurate and pleasant to shoot. They're all modest upgrades on the standard GI model, in that they have larger sights and beavertails. They're all more accurate than I am.

The 9mm I bought used for $330. It had been shot plenty. I shoot it a lot. It's one of my favorite handguns. After a bazillion rounds the slide isn't always staying open after the last round anymore. Probably just needs a new mag or something. Decent finish. Nice sights and trigger.

I bought the double-stack 40 caliber NiB. It sat at the LGS forever and the owner finally let it go to me for cheap. It had to go back to the factory three times. It's now reliable with factory ammo. It's apparently made for someone with enormous hands like mine. The trigger is great and it's very accurate. The finish is unimpressive and scratches easily.

I also bought the 45acp NiB. It was also dirt cheap, like $420-something OTD. The fit and finish are very good. It has never malfunctioned. The trigger and sights are nice. Good shooter and pretty to look at.

RIA 1911 40 caliber double stack

RIA 1911 40 caliber double stack

 
rdmercer said:
I have a Colt Gold Cup National Match series 70 I can't get a full mag of 7 thru of hollow points without 3 failures.
Click to expand...

Little is more frustrating that a single shot semiauto. What spring weight are you running? If it was like mine, it came with a 12lb spring, that’s fine for light target loads, might try a 16lb for factory ammunition.

Finding a mag a 1911 likes is generally a lot easier than “fixing” one for a mag it doesn’t like.

This is my rudimentary method to select the correct type/brand.

 
rdmercer said:
4 days ago I purchased a Rock Island 1911-FS bare bone military sights for $460. I took it home and immediately shot 3 brands of hollow points. After 6 mags I had absolutely no FTF or FTE and followed up a box of round ball. No problems at all. I have a Colt Gold Cup National Match series 70 I can't get a full mag of 7 thru of hollow points without 3 failures. This RIA is one hell of a 1911 for the money. Great trigger, same old wonderful balance, absolute reliability and the old military sites are more than adequate for home or personal defense. Thin frame allows very good concealment but here lately I have been open carrying just about everywhere here in Idaho with hammer back and safety on. No one seems to care or get excited about the sight of a 110 year old pistol with wood grips cocked and locked.
Click to expand...

I've recently handled one or two in the LGS and was quite surprised. Then a neighbor bought one and brought it over asking me to 'go through it' and tell him my impressions and what I would replace/fix. So I got the calipers, mics, and stones and completely stripped the pistol. The result:

I touched up the sear hammer surfaces that didn't really need it from a functional perspective, and put it back together. He promptly took it out to the range where it functioned perfectly and digested about 300 rounds of various loads he had in the safe, including some unknown reloads he'd forgotten about. The older 1911s were designed and built for ball ammo. For modern ammo, most older 1911s have to be tweaked a bit. RIA (and others offering modern 1911 models) has updated their designs to function with more modern cartridge offerings.

I think the pistol is well worth the money. If I had need of another .45 I'd be looking at a RIA. I'd have no problems doing a few personal mods (ambi safety, etc.) and using it for a defensive pistol.
 
jar said:
About thirty or forty years ago I had a Series 80 Colt. Never got comfortable with it so it went to a Forever Home.
I also wanted a Tisas but you can never find them in this area. I saw one a year ago but it was on the shelf for only a day. I think the only reason I wanted it was it had a lanyard and that was it like I really need a lanyard. I am very happy with the fit, quality, and dependability of this Rock Island.
About twenty years ago I had a semi-custom Dan Wesson Pointman/Patriot. Really really tried to like it but that too just never happened so after trying to like it for several years and failing it went to a Forever Home.

index.php


Recently bought one of the Turkey made Tisas Government 1911A1s and loved it immediately.

index.php


Shortly a Commander sized one followed me home and it too has been adopted.

index.php


I'm far happier with these two than I every imagined and they taught me that the 1911 platform really isn't just junk.
Click to expand...
 
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