Rock Island Armory; Compact 1911
Will anyone give me their opinion about this piece? Quality, reliability, etc.? I can't find much information about the company or their products except their advertisements. Their prices seem reasonable. [:D]
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would ya be speaking of "Rock Island Armory" or "Rock Island Arsonal"?
Maybe they are the same[?]
Anyhow,,i'm already typing so i'll go on. Last week or so ago,,i decided to buy a new colt (i be a colt lover),,so i went to the gunshow with my "gonna buy a new colt grin" on my handsom face[^]. When i got there ,,since everybody saw the grin and knew i was gonna buy another colt that day,,,,they all raised their prices to double what any colt was worth. Well,that pi**ed me off! Sooooo, i went and bought me a Rock Island Armory 45acp,,cause it was cheap and i wanted to play with a 22 conversion kit on it.
I have a couple different conversion kits without any guns to sit on, so i tried 2 different ones. Neither one worked. A jonathan Ciener and a colt.
I had to work on it now. Honed the hammer cause it was rough as a cob and was tearing up the bottom of the slide of the ciener as it came back over it to recock. Had to tear apart and shorten the hammer spring cause it was way too strong and wouldn't let the slide cock it. While i was in there,,,found numerous burrs that i couldn't resist honing off. Finally it shoots the ciener 22 kit.
Now i try the colt,,,won't even install. Heading for a bridgeport this week to mill out the center of frame for fitting the colt to it. Don't see any problems making it work,,just time.
So i shot it for 200 or so rounds and my hand got tired of sqeezing the grip safty so hard to make it shoot,,even when it did shoot i could feel the trigger rubbing cause the grip safty did not go in easily. well,,,tore it back down and using extreme talent and my hillbilly estimation,,i bent the spring to take some of that tension off the grip safety. That worked fine,,,now if you put it in your hand the grip saftey goes right in without extra effort, feels just like my Gold Cup.
Got tired of the 22's and put the 45acp top end back on. Shot 100 rounds or so without problems.
It is not a beautiful gun,,not finished out anything special,,shot good,,did not hesitate to let my boys shoot it without the usual lecture on don't scratch my gun!! because it was 1/2 the price of a colt and i scratched it while working on it anyway,,sigh,,,
Seems to be a good inexpensive shooter. Had fun with it because of the lessor value. Could have said that at the start and not made you read all this huh?0 -
[:D]Yes indeedy razerface, I did mean to say "Armory" but what brainy-gears I have left just don't quite mesh somtimes. Thank you for your answer, and being as how my gunsmithing abilities are somewhat questionable you have me a little bit spooked about one of these. In your considered opinion would what you had to do to yours be representative of any of them?
The second childhood is a lot more fun than the first!!0 -
I have a compact model, in honesty, dont spend the money, save and buy some thing else. After purchase, i had to have the ramp polished, all springs replaced and still have problems with jams. If it were me, save and get a para or a kimber 0 -
I just believe I'll take some good advice and look in another part of the yard. Been wanting to try out a Sig P245 anyhow if I can get the money saved up, but they are so danged expensive! Thanks for your help. [:D]
The second childhood is a lot more fun than the first!!0 -
Scaled down 1911s work or they don't. Sometimes just a few adjustments will make 'em work. But the basic issue boils down to the fact that the near perfect 1911 design doesn't scale down reliably below the Commander size. I don't think this is a knock on a company's quality. Most non-custom 1911s can use a bit of judicious gunsmithing, another factor we 1911 fans understand and willingly pay as the price of admission to a splendid shooting experience.
Three Precious Metals: Gold, silver and lead0 -
well,,i have worked on almost every colt i buy too,,,
The rock island is rougher,,cheaper to learn on if you want. If you want one out of the box with no problems you better buy two and sell the one that messes up. I guess i like working on them cause i can do the mods cheaper then buying a "professionally" built gun.
I do have a 70 series Gold Cup,,that i have never had to fix yet, after quite a few rounds,,but,,i hand load all my ammo and had to tweak the loads for it when i first bought it. That is a thing to watch too,,,different guns will jam untill you find the ammo they like,,so don't hate the gun you buy till you try different ammo if you have problems.
1911 type guns are really easy to work on,,don't let them scare you.0 -
I base my opinion on the fact that, i have used factory , reloads, and different manufacturer ammo in mine and the problem is still there . If you like them and like playin with them i might be interested in sellin it, i just would not buy another. 0
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