1911s with problems

[DLCTEX]

My son worked on a RIA 1911 for a coworker that was pretty rough inside and out. Machine marks all over. It wouldn't drop the mag until some smoothing was done inside the magwell and the trigger fork was spread. Feed problems were helped by adjusting the tension of the extractor and chamfering the bottom of same. Polishing the feed ramp helped also.Still is very picky about ammo even with quality mags.
A young fellow brought me his Grandfather's Lama 1911 compact that had the firing pin firmly stuck forward. The gun had been dry fired and battered the firing pin hole. I thought dry firing a 1911 was ok, but never do that without a snap cap anyway. Another picky gun as to ammo, but likes Lee 220 gr. SWC
I was not impressed with the quality of either gun.

[x101airborne]

My first 1911 was a RIA. It was fair, but like that one, had a lot of issues. good thing about it, I got to learn how to fully disassemble a 1911 real well. I never did figure out why that thing would jam the last fired case against the rear of the chamber. Lots of rough machine marks on the slide to frame fit and the trigger was TERRIBLE till I stoned the heck out of it. Like my first girlfriend, it had to go.

Never had a Llama 1911, but got turned off of em when my smith told me that they were going out of production, so cant comment.

[ErikO]

Yep, new RIAs are not pretty inside. Typically, the last round jamming issue is the mag's follower and/or spring and nothing done to the insides of the gun will fix it.

[tomme boy]

The Llamma I had was OK at best. It was a full size one. Once I ground out the frame for a feed ramp, it ran perfect with everything. The parts were real soft also. it wore really fast. Barrel link and pin wore out after 1000 rounds.

Now I have a Citadel tactical. Made by Armscor. It has been great. I have about 10K rounds through it. It shoots great. I had to send it back when I first got it for a timing issue. They fitted a new barrel and it has been perfect since.

[MtGun44]

Llama is NOT a 1911, has a long firing pin, NOT safe to rest hammer down with a
round in the chamber, it is like an old SAA that way. Many different design in many
small, critical details and usually VERY soft steel, wear out very quickly if actually used.

I have the little llama mini1911 in .22 LR and it is almost a ***, just a hair better than that.

Bill

[DLCTEX]

Right about that firing pin, it was sticking out about 1/4 in. I can't figure how it got that far as when pressed to the retainer it is still not visible on the face of the bolt. Fires with inertia of the blow from the hammer only.

[3006guns]

I had a Llama in .380......looked like a miniature 1911 with a ventilated rib on top. I found out that most of their guns had rather soft steel so I sold it, even though I never had a problem with it and I've regretted it since.

I just picked up a brand new RIA this last weekend...my first NEW gun in a long time. Took it out and experienced the "failure to feed the last round" with the 8 shot factory mag. Then I put three standard 7 round mags through it as fast as I could pull the trigger...not one failure to feed and it shot where I pointed it.

So, what's not to like?:p

[MtGun44]

A real 1911 has the firing pin shorter than the distance from the back of the slide to the
breech face, so it must fly dynamically forward. I have read that the Llama .45 Auto (NOT
a 1911 design) has a longer firing pin which will protrude from the breech face with the hammer
down.

My little Llama .22 "mini-1911 style" is OK but will not hold a trigger job due to soft steel
and interior parts literally look like hand filed from chunks of steel, very ROUGH and not
uniform - hand made.

Bill

[AndyC]

I've used the factory mag as well as 8-shot CMC Powermags and Wilson 47Ds in my RIA - haven't experienced that issue ever. Almost 23k rounds through it so far.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3717/rockfeb12.jpg