My First 1911

[GONZO!!!]

I have posted this before in other threads...I had an ACT mag that came with my American Classic II...the magazine will "failure to feed" if I load it with 8 rounds. The second round almost always FTF...if I only load 7 it functions just fine but I would not trust my life with it. I use it as a Barney mag to load the chamber when competing.

Invest in Chip McCormick or Wilson magazines. I have several McCormick basic Shooting Star mags and they work flawlessly. I got them for under $20 each with base pad.

Good luck

GONZO!!!

 

[JetGirl]

Although I'm an avid fan of Wilson Combat mags...my vote goes to "Don't touch anything before you shoot it first!"
How else are you going to "get to know it"?

 

[David]

My first 1911 was a Rock Island Tactical and its been a great gun. It shoots any kind of ammo out of any mag, it's just not fussy. The fit, finish and trigger are far better than a person ought to expect from a gun in this price range, in fact, the slide/bushing/barrel fit on my RI are better than on some other 1911s I have that cost considerably more.

The differences between the Tactical and GI are all external, sights, hammer, grip safety, and are not going to make it any more reliable than the GI.

I made a few cosmetic changes to mine, rubber grips, left side only safety, and cut a little off the tail. For magazines, I like flush fit and have had good luck with Checkmates. Like I said, this gun isn't mag sensative but the checkmate mags seem to run good in all my 1911s.

Also, I bought a suppressor that I tried to make work on a Kimber but no matter what I did with the recoil springs I couldn't get it to cycle, I put the threaded barrel and can on the RI, Bang Bang Bang!! No problems at all.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Although I'm an avid fan of Wilson Combat mags...my vote goes to "Don't touch anything before you shoot it first!"
How else are you going to "get to know it"?

Agreed, and that's the plan for today!

 

[DoggyDaddy]

My first 1911 was a Rock Island Tactical and its been a great gun. It shoots any kind of ammo out of any mag, it's just not fussy. The fit, finish and trigger are far better than a person ought to expect from a gun in this price range, in fact, the slide/bushing/barrel fit on my RI are better than on some other 1911s I have that cost considerably more.

The differences between the Tactical and GI are all external, sights, hammer, grip safety, and are not going to make it any more reliable than the GI.

That's what I figured. There was only a $25 difference in price, so I went with the Tactical just because I probably would have regretted not getting the nicer sights.

Speaking of sights, I haven't looked yet, but are night sights readily available for the RIA's? I think that's something I'd like eventually.

 

[JetGirl]

Agreed, and that's the plan for today!

Awesome!!

 

[churchmouse]

Let us know how it runs. Hope you enjoy it.

I have a new one that needs to get out to the range (JetGirl, it is a 1/4 cock Springer. Sorry) but projects are keeping it in the safe today. I am jealous.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Let us know how it runs. Hope you enjoy it.

I have a new one that needs to get out to the range (JetGirl, it is a 1/4 cock Springer. Sorry) but projects are keeping it in the safe today. I am jealous.

Will do! I've already racked the slide about 600 times or so to do a little "pre-break-in" break-in and I'm taking both ball and a couple of different kinds of JHP to try.

 

[Gary Clay]

Looks nice what gun shop do you like

 

[JetGirl]

(JetGirl, it is a 1/4 cock Springer. Sorry)

It's OK. I have one, too.

 

[David]

Any advice on lightening up the trigger pull a little bit? I looked at Wolff's website and didn't see anything listed for RIA.

The left and center leaves on the sear spring control the trigger return and sear tension, you can get whatever trigger pull weight you want by adjusting them. It's a trial and error thing. Be carefull not to lighten the sear tension too much, only want one shot per pull.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Looks nice what gun shop do you like

Actually I got this one online (Classic Firearms), but Indy Trading Post did the transfer for me.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Let us know how it runs. Hope you enjoy it.

I have a new one that needs to get out to the range (JetGirl, it is a 1/4 cock Springer. Sorry) but projects are keeping it in the safe today. I am jealous.

Well, all in all I'm happy with it! I had a few FTF's, but they went away towards the end of the ball ammo. Had a few FTF's with the Remington JHP's but no worse than the ball was at first. It didn't seem to like the Winchester PDX. I think I just need to 1) Do a little fluff and buff, and 2) Shoot it more! I probably only put about 75-80 rounds thru it altogether. Had to spread the love around to my other guns you know...

 

[churchmouse]

Well, all in all I'm happy with it! I had a few FTF's, but they went away towards the end of the ball ammo. Had a few FTF's with the Remington JHP's but no worse than the ball was at first. It didn't seem to like the Winchester PDX. I think I just need to 1) Do a little fluff and buff, and 2) Shoot it more! I probably only put about 75-80 rounds thru it altogether. Had to spread the love around to my other guns you know...

You do need to take it out to the dance solo with at least 200 more rds. before you address anything internally.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

You do need to take it out to the dance solo with at least 200 more rds. before you address anything internally.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. I'm just going to make sure everything's nice and smooth without being aggressive about it. I truly wasn't unhappy with the gun at all, for being fresh out of the box, once cleaned.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Range Report 2

Well, I put another 100 rounds of ball, plus 2 mags of HP ammo through it today. With the ball, I still was experiencing FTF issues - probably 7 or 8 out of the 100. With the HP, it was almost every other round. The ball FTFs were pretty evenly spread out throughout the session, so that leads me to believe that it may indeed be a magazine issue. If it were strictly a break-in issue, I would have expected them to come early in the session and be starting to improve toward the end. I just ordered 2 Chip McCormick mags from Brownell's, so we'll see how those do. I still want to pick up a couple of Wilson Combat mags too. Might look around at the 1500 for those. I won't be doing any more polishing or anything until I've tried the new mags. Based on comments here and elsewhere, I'm pretty confident that the mags will clear up the FTFs.

I did notice one thing, which may or may not be an issue. All my spent casings had a dent in the side. I talked to the guys at Indy Trading Post afterward and they seemed to be of the opinion that it was just due to them striking the ejection port on the way out of the gun. This pic isn't very good quality, but you can kind of see what I mean. Any thoughts on this? Something to be concerned about or no?

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Congrates on entering an arena that is very addictive.
Nice piece. It may be mag sensitive.

I think you were right...

 

[vtxrecruiter]

Congrats, and enjoy your new pistol

 

[kawtech87]

Bummer dude. It sucks your having FTFs, But it can happen to any 1911 in any price range if you use crappy mags. The mags that come with most 1911s usually aint the greatest. Colt and Springfield seem to have decent factory mags, atleast I havent had any trouble with them yet. But my Kimber came with one of the crappiest mags Ive ever seen. Tons of nose dive FTFs with it. Ive switched almost exclusively to Wilson Combat mags and Ive had no problems since.

I Hope the new CM mags help.

 

[churchmouse]

I think you were right...

I use Wilson and Chip McCormick pieces. This has eliminated all of my FTF issues.

Welcome to the club.