Been reading reviews about the Rock Island 45 ACP.
I’m surprised to find this review -
“It wasn’t an ammo issue either. I had consistent first-round failure to feed malfunctions with every type of ammunition I fed the Rock Island GI, and several failures to return to battery as well. At about 200 rounds, I regrouped. A heavy round of RemOil helped a lot. But I still had to push the slide with my thumb to feed the first round with just about every type of ammo, JHP or ball, with the notable exception of the Blazer Brass.”
I almost don’t believe that the Rock Island 1911’s have a magazine feeding problem.
Is it possible the feeding problem that is described at the review, could be addressed by checking all the ammo with a headspace gauge ?
I find that using a Headspace Gauge is REAL helpful with semi-auto’s feeding correctly.
Try a different mag. If different GTG mags don’t work, and it won’t RTB with any ammo, time for a send-back and inspection cuz then it could be ext, BF etc… Guys- NEVER dump oil on a problem cuz if too much gets in the wrong place = kb. Check ramp, chamber, breech face etc. for hang ups. Sharpie everything and let it dry and try and cycle manually outdoors with muzzle down and check for hang-ups. BUT- If it is a new gun and a known good to go mag don’t work? Just send it back for a tune-up, Stuff happens.
I would use Flitz Paste to polish the feed ramp, I also agree with hoosky125, maybe try Wilson Combat, Springfield,Chip McCormick mags. I have had good luck doing this with my Kimbers.
You may need to bend the mag “lips” down a bit, or as @adambpd recommended, polish the feed ramp. Also, look to see how the chamber blends to the ramp. If ball ammo is not completely chambering, try removing the barrel and dropping a round into the chamber. It could be that the chamber is “tight” and unforgiving. Been there done that with a match grade barrel.
If your chamber, ramp, bolt face and extractor and magazine catch and installed height Etc are good to go it’s usually always a mag issue. I use Wilson and McCormick magazines in USPSA single stack competition using dirty handloads and going through a couple hundred rounds at least every match I never have a malfunction using some pretty old Colt 1911. And I literally try to take care of my mags but they get dumped and stepped on and kicked and things like that but they just keep on running if I do my part. Oil the Barrel bushing, rails, locking lugs, take down lever spring bush, but don’t let any oil get near the chamber, ramp or Magwell. That just makes things worse. Some guns like kimber’s especially need to shoot in and usually will within a couple hundred rounds or they get sent back and that’s why trying different magazines with 230 grain Hardball lets you know if you have a gun problem or a magazine problem. Again it’s really really simple, if it’s anything more than a magazine problem and it just won’t feed or go into battery without the operator helping no matter what especially after a couple hundred rounds just send it back don’t even try to screw with it yourself unless you literally have every tool known to competition certified or factory certified Smiths and have tons of years of experience. Because if you do? You will just make it worse in the short and long run and void your warranty if you screw it up. And don’t limp wrist!
Ok I misunderstood the OP’s post and thought he had already purchased this pistol.
I have personally known two people who owned RIA 1911s. One swears by his and carries it religiously when bow hunting. The other had ftf issues when using hollow points, ball ammo was not a problem. A little feed ramp polishing cured the problem.
After reading the article linked it sounds like the pistol being reviewed was not going completely into battery. That could be caused by several things, locking lugs not engaging, barrel bushing binding, barrel link binding etc. I say that because the reviewer said he could “push” the slide into battery.
If you really want one of these pistols educate yourself on how 1911s work as they can be really fun to tinker with.
An unfortunate note is that I have seen several people who specialize in customizing 1911s post a warning on their sites that they refuse to work on any pistol made in the Philippines.
Well again thanks for all the Info about 1911’s etc.
One thing I tend to take for granted, is what Henry Ford is sort of given credit for, though I doubt he was the first.
Interchangeable parts.
(I doubt Eli Whitney made the Cotton Gin work - in 1798 - if he didn’t understand machining tolerances.)
In order for mass production to work, all the machined parts have to “hold their tolerances”. Part #1, Part #100, Part #1000, all have to measure the same, within tolerances that make sense in the context of the assembly.
It sounds like Rock Island is not holding tight enough tolerances on their machined parts.
This is basically a big business opportunity for somebody. Rock Island is doing 95% of the work of manufacturing a 1911, with a mediocre result.
Anyway, maybe I’ll roll the dice.
If I buy the 1911 with the threaded barrel, headspace every single piece of ammo, and it is still intermittent - is it actually possible to return a lightly used handgun to PSA and get all your money back ?
Does PSA keep track of Rock Island serial Numbers so they know which batches are exhibiting “bad stats” ?
I will say this. If it were me and I really wanted that pistol I wouldn’t let one mediocre review stop me. RIA has been around for awhile and have sold alot of pistols. They can’t be that bad or the market would have eliminated them by now.
I have never used a headspace guage for anything, but I fail to see how bad headspace would affect cartridge feeding. .45 acp and most other auto pistols headspace or “seat” on the mouth of the case. If the headspace is too short the slide will not engage the locking lugs. The case bottoming in the chamber would stop the slide from moving forward enough. If it is too long you would probably never know it. .45 are a low pressure round so I wouldn’t expect to see case elongation or wall thinning.
Neither of these conditions would prevent the cartridge from properly exiting the mag and entering the chamber.
Some times feed issues are not magazine related you need to look at the extractor also.
take a new round and see how easy it slips in the extractor lip, look for any damage to it also like a bent or crud built up in it. .
Check the extractor with the slide removed form the gun.
if the extractor is damaged its a easy fix if you can remove the firing pin you can do a extractor.
Yall do understand that the review in question is from 2015? RIA has made some significant improvements in the 7 years since that review. I own several RIA 1911’s of different styles and years, some even make rotation for CCW. The newer ones are much tighter out of box than the older ones were. All that said, it was most likely a magazine issue, but I didn’t read the entire review.
I’ve been “raised” to believe in the Henry Ford theory of Interchangeable Parts.
Or maybe that started with the Cotton Gin or the Steam Engine.
In any case, having experienced similar nightmares in Silicon Valley, that were eliminated by bringing machining in house and using rigorous mechanical inspection in QC - 40 years ago - I expect there is a “best practice” to follow that is trouble free. And will get you to the handgun firing range.
e.g. buy this vintage Rock Island product, these magazines, and the only trouble you will have will be related to variances in bullet size (failure to use a headspace gauge)
But since PSA doesn’t warranty the Rock Island handguns, if I get a bad one, with the FFL requirement for shipping & everything, it would be a difficult situation.
Was talking to a guy at the range about it and asked, “is this why people buy Glocks ?”
Man said he had 3 Glock 9 mm’s.
There are probably several reasons custom shops won’t work on 1911 made in the Philipines. They use cast versus forged frames. I also think they use mim parts.
I have a hodge podge of 1911’s with Colt 10mm Delta Elites being the top of the scale and a Girsan being the low end.
I own a slew of Rock Island Armory’s 1911 in both .45ACP and 10mm. The issue of Cast Frames has Never once presented me any difficulties but then again I stick with what these pistols were designed to shoot from day one…the 230 Grain FMJ.
After round counts I can’t even begin to count…I’ve never had a MIM part break or fail in any way… but I also tend to replace them as I modify everything but Colt’s or GI issue 1911’s or 1911A1’s
This is my RIA collection of 45’s and 10mm’s. I have no issues with any of them after performing standard 1911 tweaks and proper routine maintenance.
A few 1911’s Ive had to really stay on top of to perfect performance wise are a Caspian Custom build and an MS Safari Arms 1911 from its original production run. That needed cleaning up from tooling marks galore.
A favorite of mine is a Pure FrankenGun…an original AMT Frame from Arcadia Ca mated to a WWI era 1911 Colt Slide. …this may sound like an abomination? But it rocks.
Not pictured are any GI 1911’s , Delta Elites or the Modelo 1927 Sistema Colt. I’m also into the Argentinian Ballester Molina and Llama’s from Spain in both Single and Double Stack variants
