Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Rock Island Arsenal 1911's.

Show me one thing I posted that is bullshit. And what the hell has that silly crap about custom smiths got to do with anything? Name one custom gun smith that offers a well functioning 1911 for under 5 bills. Those guys don't have any NEED to try to keep their costs down. When you're spending 3, 4, whatever thousand on a 1911, what difference would a couple hundred bucks on the initial GI model make? The Rock Island wan't ever intended to compete in that market.

And while we're at it, show me the Springfield with extended beavertail, ambi-safety, skeletonized hammer and trigger, novak-type sights, full length guide rod, and a rather nice matte nickel finish for under 5 bills. Oh, that's right, there AREN'T ANY. I bought a Tac model in matte nickel, and it came factory with all that stuff, brand new, and it works perfectly well, and was right at 500 shipped to my FFL. My local gun market has several shops, but none had anything even remotely competitive with that, used or otherwise.

In spite of your personal disdain for the company, RIA serves a market for guys like me. Guys that have never owned a 1911, but want to get the feel for one without breaking the bank, or want a second, or even a third 1911 for beater use. I personally will probably pony up for a pistol with more re-sale value, just to see what the Cadillac type pistols have to offer, but I'm keeping my RIA, simply because it's a good looking tool, that works.

And as far RIA's working, I'm coming up on 2k rounds through mine, and other than a fluff and buff when I first got it to make it feed HP's, it's been flawless. No work done to it at all other than put some different grips on it.

Like loading it and shooting it? That is all I have done to mine. What other work is required? I must be missing something.

Your entire post. What did you post that was NOT "anecdotal?"

That's what is called a LITMUS TEST. It is defined as "a crucial and revealing test in which there is one decisive factor." Next question, numbnuts.

So does Golden Corral. You remind me of Randy Quaid in Vacation: "I don't know why they call this stuff 'Hamburger Helper.' It does just fine all by itself."

I am trying to find out why you would buy a new anything then send it out to have it rebuilt.

I bought a double bit axe a while back. Maybe I should have sent it out for a thousand dollar rebuild but I just used it. Same with my wedges and sledge. I just used them to cut my firewood. Perhaps they will not really cut wood without a beaver tail handle or skeleton heads but somehow my wood pile lasted me through the winter. Bought myself a coffee cup too. Does it need to go to the cupsmith for custom work before it will hold coffee? Gosh, a thousand dollar bill from the cupsmith will be pretty hard to handle.

Now that I am thinking about it I have a brick of primers. Do I have to send them out one at a time to the primersmith before I can sue them?

Apparently so.

As opposed to your "concrete" evidence...oh wait, your opinion is your evidence, although anyone else's experience or opinion is meaningless. Nevermind. According to you, if a firearm isn't the basis for a 4k custom build, it's a POS. Got it.

As to my post, I related information from the 1911 forums, from guys that have no reason to lie, as well as my own personal experience which mirrors that of many other RIA owners. If you are trying to say I'm BS'ing about my own experience with my own gun, prove it. Otherwise you're doing exactly what you accuse others of.

The personal attacks I won't get into with you. You don't know anything about me. Your lowest common denominator approach to deflective humor is more than a little bit tired. If you can't at least try to be civil in supporting your position I have no use for you. I can guarantee you wouldn't pop chit like that off to my face. Everyone is a superhero on the internet.

The please Sir, enlighten me. I may be old but I can still learn.

Mostly yours.

Color me convinced!!!!

I know you're a lowbrow sort of guy who considers paintings of dogs playing poker and donkey basketball high art. That pretty well sums it up for me and colors any possible interaction I'll have with you and your ilk.

Scott, I'm still trying to figure out what a guarantee by a top 1911 'smith has go to do with a factory made tool, that is backed by the factory that made it if it breaks, EVER. It's like saying a stock Chevy truck is crap because a Ferrari race team won't guarantee it.

He's comparing the longevity of a 3k custom race gun to a $500 tool that guys like us might put 10k rounds though in 15 years.

It's not even apples to oranges, it's like apples to submarines.

Ha, as opposed to your personal attack, disconnected ravings about people you don't know? Wow, that's true class. I'm impressed. I'll just hang out with my lowbrow friends.

It's more like I'm talking chess games and you two rubes are playing "Candyland."

If your exalted RIA zip guns are of the quality that no self-respecting gunsmith will guarantee any sort of build work on one, exactly what does that say about your little zip gun's quality?

And I doubt you could afford 10K rounds of anything let alone count that high.

Don't need to make a personal attack. I just post what I've observed.

Answer this: if I send a RIA to Clark or Ted Yost and they say we'll work on it, but we're not guaranteeing any of that work, yet they're more than willing to offer a warranty on that same work as performed on a Kimber, Norinco, Springfield INC., Colt, etc. what does that say?

Here is what I know. I bought it because it was available for what I had. If I could have afforded a good Colt I would have purchased the Colt. Lots of guys like Kimbers but there are lots of guys who about gave up on them because there would not shoot and were not reliable. Not sure what the percentages would be on Kimbers but it sure scared me off.

The RIA looked like a working man's tool and it followed me home. I am somewhere around 1200 or so rounds into this one. The only mishap with it was a problem with a reload. My fault not the guns. Other that that one no fail to feed, no fail to eject. It has done everything I asked it to do every time I asked. Not sure how much better than "every time" you can get.

Here you go Mr. Bricktop.

http://rockislandarmory.com/

I don't think most of us want to send a 1911 to a top gunsmith but sometimes you have to to make it work. Quality control has improved immensely now that their are so many custom and semi-custom clones out there. Something that was not available 20 to 30 years ago.

I send my 1911 to a top gunsmith because I don't have the ability to fix anything certainly not on a gun.

I buy the best fancy top of the line 1911 that I can afford because for my needs of target shooting, hunting, with self-defense a distance third, only the top line 1911's will do. A run of the mill RIA won't do it. However, for your needs a RIA that shoots good right-out-of-the-box is all you need.

I agree on the Kimbers. I'd say it's 50/50 on the Kimbers from my observations. People who have had problems say customer service is terrible. Kimbers scare me.

I'm thinking seriously about a RIA now that Mr. Bricktop has recommended them.

I have had a Kimber Stainless Pro Carry since 94 or 95, hard to remember what year they first came out but mine is a 3 digit serial#, original 1911 trigger(pre series 70)and have had flawless results from it. I sent it back to the Kimber Custom Shop about 10 years ago for a 10,000 round inspection and tune up ( but then I could afford to do that). Customer Service was great, any time I need something, they send it.

Now as far as Scott, I have been in his shoes, when ya need a gun and cant afford a kimber or whatever an RIA would have to do. What ever is or is not wrong with it can be fixed. And as far as quality, or that John Browning would be rolling in his grave due to POOR QUALITY MATERIALS is a bunch of Horse [bleep].

I own one that was made by Colt in 1924 (military model), and believe me the quality is definately not what it is today. Does loose as a goose, and couldnt hit the broadside of a barn at 25 ft sound familiar. I really think he (JMB) would be amazed at what people have done to improve and modify his design.

Now as far as whoever numb-nuts, Bricktop calls custom 45 Smiths, I say call Bill Laughridge at Cylinder and Slide in Fremont Neb. if you want THE BEST 45 smith in the country (but ya have to be able to afford him) 5000.00 bucks a pop for a true to god repro 1911.

Buy what ya can afford, enjoy it, shoot the begeezers out of it and [bleep] them who dont like it. Especially Super Snobs like BRICKBITCH.

Swifty

scott:
last weekend i was shooting some reloads done by a friend of mine about 30years ago. 4.6grains of bullseye behind a 200gr swc. Used a norinco slightly modified that i switched back from using as a .460rowland, a 1944 remington that had been tweaked with competition sights bushing etc, and a really tweaked colt gold cup. I was more interested in the loads functioning but i was shooting at 12guage casings at up to 25yards or so. Commented to the guy next to me that i was hitting them just as easy with the norinco as the tweaked gun. Use to shoot that norinco with a guy that had a gold cup at the time, and usually outshot him.
Now granted a lower end gun might not do 75k rounds, but guess what, a lot of top end guns probably won't either.
Personally i would rather have a slightly sloppy 1911 that i knew was 100% reliable than a tweaked one that wasn't in a life or death situation.
I might add in my own opinion colt's quality changed through the years, some good, some bad.
just because it has the dancing pony on it don't make it real

might add another thing. You hear about WWII 1911's being loose as a goose. The one i was shooting was i am sure one of those 27dollar guns sold/disposed of through the nra many years ago.
The guy who owned it at the time was a nationally ranked hi power shooter at camp perry. He switched out the sights to those being used in the military national match pistols, custom fit a bushing, and had about four barrels four it. He was also sizing to .454 on the lead slugs. I had to squeeze them down to make them work in other pistols. That old army pistol locks up tighter than a drum and i am sure it will stay right with some of those high dollar toys people like to buy.