"I happened by your post for gunlight vigil day, and was wondering what your experience has been with the compact 1911 from Rock Island Armory."
It was a long road to get the RIA 1911 to the point where is was reliable enough to be my daily carry.
When I first got the gun it would jam once every 5 rounds or so. Massive amounts of part polishing, a couple trips to the gunsmith, high quality magazines and about 1000 rounds to break it in and finally it's worked all the kinks out. I also had the hammer bobbed so the damn thing would not bite me and draw blood every time I shot it.
Once it began to shoot reliably I got some nice slim VZ Gator Back Grips for it and an excellent Crossbreed Supertuck Deluxe holster.
I will probably have some trigger work done on it. The trigger is not the worst I own but it's not close to the best either. I have been shooting some sweet 1911's, lately at blog shoots, with triggers like butter.
Now I have a compact frame, reliable, durable, single stack .45acp, that is slim AND powerful. Plus I only have about $700 into it including the smithing, holster and mags.
The negatives are that the fixed sights are very basic, trigger is not great and it weighs a lot.
Email me if you have any more questions! Or better yet, let's go to the range!!
--All and all, it took some time but it's good (but not great).
5 comments:
As long as it works when the trigger is pulled.
It goes bang EVERY TIME.
Thats sweet looking but sounds like a whip..stumbled across your Blog and really enjoy it from Teaxs!!
As the inspiration for this blog entry, that's what I was afraid of. As I told you in my email my father had a Llama 1911 that jammed about every other shot, on a good day. We did all the polishing, trips to the gunsmith, and still never got it to function reliably. This was back when I was just a small child, and is the basis for my very deep seeded hatred of all things 1911. I have started to come around as of late, I have always liked the look. But unless you have a bundle of money to spend on a proven name you usually get junk, and even sometimes after spending the cash on a proven name you get junk, it's a lousy design to begin with. I don't know what John M. Browning was thinking, splitting the feed ramp between the frame and barrel instead of putting the entire thing on the barrel. Anytime two pieces of metal meet you get a transition that while it may not look or feel like much to the naked eye, or touch of a finger, you must consider the speed at which the fresh round encounters this lip in the feed ramp. I think I will continue my search for an effective carry gun in an area other than 1911's, maybe the sub-compact Springfield XD in .40cal. Thanks for taking the time to respond, and thanks for the info on what it took to get a reliable piece. As for a range trip, I'm always up to shoot something, anything. I'm not sure of your locale, but I'm in North Cuba(Miami,FL).
Yep, it does work, and it's 'becoming' a nice gun! :-)
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