RIA Tactical Changes

General Firearms Handguns - 1911
1

Good Afternoon,

Have a few questions about a recently required RIA Tac. Just sold off my high end 1911’s (dan wessons) beacuse I cannot justify beating to shit something so pretty. I run my guns pretty hard and really did not want to mess up a high end 1911 by scratching not cleaning it. So I decided to go go the cheapo route for my 1911’s… so I can run them hard and not worry about messing up the cosmetics. So here are a couple issues I have (not super 1911 savy, but have yet to produce an idiot mark):

  1. Has the Novak sights. I am a Heinie Strait 8 fan through and through. Any issues with putting on the Novak cut strait 8’s on the RIA Tacs? Have a sight pusher already.
  2. Plastic Main spring housing. I want to replace this with a metal one. Are the Wilson MSH (and all to an extent), drop in… or do they require fitting?
  3. Trigger. The trigger was garbage out of the box and would not fire when pulled (kind of a delay). Stripped it down, cleaned it, lubed it and dry fired the piss out of it so it is decent. I would like a different trigger profile, a shorter trigger to be exact. How much fitting is reguired to install a new trigger? Is it something a experinced armor can do, or does it really need to be done by a 1911 smith? Any additional tools such as jigs or stones?
  4. Rod plunger is hollow. I want to replace with a capped plunger that doesn’t cut my finger when I disasemble without a tool. Are these drop in or do they require fitting.

Bassicaly I am asking if these are things that can be done my a competent and experinced shooter or something that will have a high chance of error, rending the pistol unsafe/reliable?

Thanks in advance.

2

You should be able to do most of the things you mentioned if you are mechanically inclined. Replacing the trigger with a shorter one will require the most disassembly out of your list and an armorer’s book is good to have for reference when tearing a 1911 down far enough to replace the trigger. I highly recommend the purchase of Kuhnhausen’s book "The Colt .45 Automatic, A Shop Manual.

I have a RIA 1911 Tactical model in 9mm. The accuracy is starting to drop off, so I ordered a pre-fit barrel bushing instead of fitting one. Kuknhausen covers barrel bushings in great detail. You can order a barrel bushing from EGW, provide the measurements they ask for and they will machine one to fit your 1911.

3

I’ve had a couple of RIA’s and still have a 9mm Tactical. RIA use to have Novak “style” sights that weren’t the exact same cuts. RIA was suppose to change over to true Novak cut recently, but my 9mm was made in 2013 and the Novak rear sight I just installed needed lots of filing, but nothing you won’t be able to do easily. The trigger should be easy since it will be new and no need to adjust the trigger bow. The mainspring housing should be a straight swap. The plunger tube you have is for the full length guide rod. That is the first thing I changed for a GI rod set up. I got the EGW GI rod and Brownell plug straight from Brownells. David

4

There are a lot of good videos on YouTube regarding 1911’s. Once you have a good working understanding of the platform, doing some of the work yourself should not be a problem.