Not as good as a “factory” Ed Brown, Wilson, or Nighthawk obviously, but considering the frames and slides are now forged, and each pistol is hand fitted by a trained armorer (Filipino workers do actually hand fit the pistols, and it takes about five hours per gun but this is acceptable and affordable because they work for so little) and the guns are inspected by American gunsmiths and tested again at an Armscor’s facility in Nevada (or their new one in Montana) can it truly be said that Rock Island is the inferior, of say, a Ruger or Springfield Mil-Spec M1911?
The only real mark of quality that is of any consequence is if the gun WORKS. I couldn’t give a rats ass where it was made, who made it, how long they spent, ect. If the gun works as intended, has good sights and a usable trigger, well that’s about all I care about.
Do RIA guns do that now? Time will tell but I never was one for being an early adopter of anything. If they do, awesome, and I hope they do.
They work provided they are kept well lubricated. The sights vary from model to model (they suck on the GI repros, but then again, GI sights just suck in general). My 9mm will feed anything now that it’s broken in. For the first 150 rounds it would only feed round nose but now it doesn’t care. Mine is one of the new ones.
Have handled a number of them, and shot a few. For a range gun, or someone wanting to play with the 1911 platform I don’t think they are bad guns personally. The one my friend had ran fine with few issues(Some mag related in my opinion, and others it didn’t like some JHP, but then some glocks I have seen don’t like certain JHPs so take that for what it is worth) for the rounds he put through it, ~1k, though he recently sold it and bought a Glock 19. I didn’t think it compared to my Springfield, which is a TRP and I paid 4 times what he paid for his RIA, which was a little more then $300 at the time. I guess it comes down to what you are wanting it for, and how much you are wanting to spend, still find a Springfield Loaded hard to beat for the money, or a the TRP (Yes I am biased a bit) for what it is. Like the Dan Wessons too. But, back on track the RIAs I have seen do run well enough if you simply want a 1911 on the cheap as a fun gun, would spend more for a duty or serious hand gun personally, but that may be mostly due to the RIAs just not having the time on the streets that the others do at the moment, time may prove them to be even harder use guns for all I know.
Slides and frames are forged now? Apparently I’m out of the loop, but is there somewhere I can look that up and pass it along to non-forum-using range buddies who pooh-pooh the name?
If your Rock Island has the new etched rollmark it has a forged frame. Rocks have always had forged slides (other imports do not and some assume all foreign 1911s have cast and therefore weak slides). Call them in Nevada, or have your naysayer friends do so and one of their resident gunsmiths will enlighten you.
The measure of whether or not a gun works is not the same as whether a gun is as good as another gun.
They seem to offer a lot of value for the price, but as good as? Not so sure about that yet.
Out of the box, yes.
In the long run of a self-taught gunsmith, no.
I believe C&S starts their course build with a SA Mil-Spec. Excellent education there.
Much appreciated, and I think I’ll take a certain glee in giving those acquaintances the company’s phone number and saying “here; call these guys, they have the straight story.”
In what way and how often are you planning to use the gun?
That should be fun.
If they question the skill of the guys who put Rock Islands together tell them that most of the gunsmiths at Armscor (the Filipino firm that makes Rock Islands) are ex-cons who went down for illegally producing certain common firearms before the Filipinos liberalized their gun laws. The up side is that these guys, who were usually just trying to arm themselves and their families and friends have gainful employment and their illicit past, which entailed building guns with very limited resources and few tools, makes them highly ingenious gunsmiths.
BTW: I am not an Armscor/RIA rep or advertiser, I just read a lot about my RIA pistol and the company that made it after I bought it and I find it all to be rather interesting.
Which roll mark are you talking about? Do you have a comparison photo of the forged vs cast frame? I’m not doubting you, but I would like to know the difference. Thanks.
Cast Frame (old):
Forged Frame (new):
The rollmark is on the slide, not the frame, but in early 2012 Armscor revitalized Rock Island by moving to higher quality parts and overhauling the brand in general, as evidenced by the very different rollmarks.
I actually like the old rollmark much more than the new one…the new one looks too "GSG"ish
Agreed, however the new rollmark is etched on after parkerizing, leaving only bare metal (which is, of course shiny) hence the GSG look. Just hit this bare metal with some Wonder Blue to subdue it to acceptable levels. The upside is it is small enough that after it is subdued, anyone who isn’t within hugging distance of you assumes its a Colt or some such gun (Springer, Wilson, EB etc. tend to put more pronounced markings on their slides, I’ve found that a subdued RIA mark looks, from a distance, most like a Colt mark.)
I did this to the gun seen in the shamelessly staged photo below:
Thanks. I knew Armscor switched to forged frames for the RIA guns sometime last year, but I wasn’t sure when the change was made (or how to differentiate). I’ll keep that in mind if I decide I want an inexpensive 1911 that isn’t a Colt or semi-custom.
A local shop has an RIA full size tactical for $539, I really wanted to buy it as a ‘beater’ 1911 but I decided against it simply because I can’t get an .45 ammo so it would be pointless. But I’m still considering it. They also have the full-size 9mm for $480 but it’s a GI model, and I dot feel like ainkin money into it for a beavertail grip safety and better sights. I’m still tempted to get that tactical, I dunno…
I have a RIA GI in 9mm. I have an issue where the slide will not lock back after the last round on every MecGar magazine I have. On the other hand, my Colt 9mm magazines will lock the slide back after the last round. Anyone else have magazine issues with their RIA 9mm 1911’s?
I continue to hear very positive things about These guns. They do seem to be a decent value. Will one stand up to being shot for 50-100 thousand rounds? Who knows since they are a relatively new product. My take is they are basically where Springfield was 15 years ago- a decently made foreign 45. If you are on a budget I imagine they are a good choice. My experience is I tend to buy colts and have never paid over 700 bucks for any colt I have ever owned and if I sold them I always got my money back and then some. I don’t think that would be the case if they were RIA. For me is it worth the 200 price difference opposed to a good old made in the USA colt? Not for me but those who might be on the edge as far as cash flow can be well served by the RIA