Rock Island Armory 'tactical' 1911A1 comments

[wecsoger]

How this all started...(please bear with me...)

Kenny Lane's (a.k.a. wirecutter) blog had someone asking about low end .45/1911 advice.

Majority of replies said with budget constraints of the poster to take a look at the Rock Island Armory handguns.

One guy said Rural King site (rkguns.com) carried them and they had a sale starting today, 10/30

It was a nice day so I rolled out the two wheeler for autumn leaf contemplation and head clearing

Yep, on sale, $369!

Do I need another .45? Nope. Do I want another .45? Not really but at that price, I can stick it in the safe for trade bait later on.

Which gets me to here. Before you bang me for not posting pictures, srsly, folks. It's another .45. Seen one, seen a hundred others.

Parkerized finish.
Larger sights, in dovetails.
Extended ambi safety.
Slide release a tad larger too.
Comes with wood grips, but also a little bag with the tacti-cool black rubberized grips. (hex screw to swap out)
Beavertail safety.
Flat mainspring carrier.
Adjustable trigger.
Skeleton hammer.
Recoil spring guide rod.

Stripped slide to get packing slime off and it's a dead-on copy of Colt series '70. Slide tight, no rattle, ditto for rest of components. Had to tap end of the extractor to get it out.

Fed my dummy round with the slide release 10 for 10.

Comfortable trigger pull, 3 - 5 lbs.

Comes with one mag with bumper pad, but I'll run my Chip McCormicks till I find if I can trust it.

Grabbed my Kimber, slides will swap back and forth. Gotta get to the bunker safe and check my Colt, but I suspect that will work also.

So I'm more than pleased right now with it. True, no rounds downrange just yet. But everything I see, if it has any issues I can make it run.

I'm not even a big .45 guy, got a Glock and little Smith for EDC. But this looks like a pretty impressive handgun for the money.

Oh yeah, once paperwork was done, a twitch south of $400 out the door.

[wecsoger]

Oh, yeah, if you want to go to Kenny's blog for all the comments, that thread is here:

http://knuckledraggin.com/2016/10/help- ... -comments/

[flightsimmer]

I bought a new RIA 1911 at my LGS some years back for under $400 otd.
All I wanted was the lower to mount on my Mech Tech 10mm carbine.
I took it to the range as is to try it out and to my amazement I put the first seven rounds in the 9-10 rings at 25 yards with a two handed hold.
I've never had a single problem with it and it now resides in my bug out bag along with my M4 carbine.

[Poohgyrr]

That's a good price, congratulations. They are straightforward shooters, and have a lifetime warranty. I have a GI model that sees holster time pretty regularly.

More mags and ammo.

[AJMD429]

All I wanted was the lower to mount on my Mech Tech 10mm carbine.

THAT would be a nice Range Report....

[M. M. Wright]

Nice snag. Mine's a 4" but other than that it sounds just like what you got. $400 out the door with 2 magazines.

[Ysabel Kid]

That's a heck of a deal!

[Rusty]

Check out the combo from Rock Island, they have a 1911 that is a 9mm, .22TCM combo.

[flightsimmer]

All I wanted was the lower to mount on my Mech Tech 10mm carbine.

THAT would be a nice Range Report....

Well it would be a quick one.
For one thing it boosted the velocity almost 300 fps over a 5" barrel and it has always worked perfectly.
I put a red dot on it and it shoots one hole groups at 25 yards with jacketed ammo, not so great with wheel weight lead though. Kind of like a shotgun pattern.
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/oo10 ... 010001.jpg

[walks with gun]

I've tried several of the Rock Island guns and found them to be very reliable and great shooters. I don't see how anyone could not need another 1911. After carrying one make or model off and on for a good 35 years, I'm kinda biased on them although I admit their are a few others that aren't bad, My bro-in-law has a mid size Glock in .357 SIG that shoots very sweet for me, that I suppose I could live with.