Rock Island Armory 1911 function test

[7br]

Got to function test the RIA 1911 yesterday. A buddy loaned me three lee moulds. The first lee mould is the 452-230-1r six cavity. The second is the 452-200-rf which looks like someone took the first boolit and cut the nose off about a quarter inch down. The third is the 452-200-swc. I have a lyman 452460 single cavity mould. I could not get a dummy cartridge for the 452-200-swc to feed so I did not load any for it.

I fired about 15 of each style of the other three bullets. The 452-230-1r had no problems feeding, the Lyman 452460 had one failure to go into battery when I racked the slide on the first round on a fresh magazine. A gentle push on the rear of the slide put it into battery. I had several failures to go into battery with the 452-200-rf. Barrel had no leading at the end of the session.

I was in shooting in the creek on my dad's place. The target was a dead walnut about 8 inches in diameter at 25 yards. It is printing about 4 inches to the left, but I was able to keep a majority of the boolits on the stump. I think I will need to change the sights though. They are good enough for daylight, but they disappear very quickly as it starts to get dark.

So far, I am very happy with this pistol. I have ran about 150 rounds through the firearm. I had one failure to go into battery with one round from a box of remanufactured hard ball ammo. I tried feeding the same cartridge several times with the same results. I feel like it was an ammo problem and not a firearm problem.

[MtGun44]

Careful shooting at a dead walnut! Low vel boolits like .45 ACP and .38 Spl can come
straight back at you from really hard, dried wood. Guess how I know. I had a 255 gr
.45 ACP (which is low velocity by necessity) come whizzing over my head once when it
hit a really hard railroad tie that was part of a friend's berm edge.

Be sure you taper crimp .45 ACP as a separate operation for reliability. I have seen many,
many examples of this being the problem on FTC in 1911s. Remove the bbl and check your
seating depth and tc amount by dropping a round into the chamber. It should ideally drop
in flush with the hood. One lb finger pressure or so is OK. More needs deeper seating or
tigher TC. Look at the shoulder for rifling marks if the boolit is seated too long.

Good luck.

Bill

[Phat Man Mike]

glad to hear that RIA worked out !!! I've found out the 228 grain LRN lee won't work in the compact! so I have been using the 230 TL Lee and it works fine!. :)

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Take a close look at the feed ramp and lower bevel on the barrel. How rough are they ? For cast use I carefully polish those feed areas with 600 g wet paper. Greatly reduces the friction and scraping on a cast boolit nose.
Just remove the tool marks...

[Otony]

I am glad to see someone else having good luck with a Filipino 1911. I recently picked up an ATI FX-45, which translates to a S.A.M. built Commader imported by American Tactical. Different builder than the Rock Island guns, but it is well made and completely interchangeable with any 1911.

Mine is essentially a standard Commander save for a beavertail safety (more on that in a bit). It sports sights that resemble those on a G.I. 1911, but a bit higher, more visible, somewhat like the improved sights that began to show up on Colts back in the late '80s. No white dots though, thank goodness.

The frame is cast, then machined, while the slides are cut from bar stock. Finish work seems to be done to a high standard. The interior of the frame and slide are both very smooth to the touch, as is the exterior. The feed ramp is cut and honed perfectly, and it feeds roundball with out a stutter.

The blueing is really blacking, or it was. Funny story there. It had a fine matte black finish originally, but I tried something on it out of curiosity. The entire gun was rubbed down briskly using cotton rags and Flitz! The result was a baby bottom smooth blue with the high edges showing a bit of silver. Some of the small parts (safety, slide stop) began to just fade to a soft blue-gray. The purpose was two fold. First, I have long wanted to try my hand at "aging" a handgun, which is more typically seen with revolvers used for SASS or Civil War reenactment. Second was in answer to a debate over at The High Road as to whether or not Flitz would damage or remove blue. The end result was a handgun that closely resembles one used for about ten years, but maintained immaculately. It is like shaking the hand of an old friend.

My only complaint actually turned out for the better. That beaver tail grip safety wasn't safe. It did nothing, having been "adjusted" a bit too agressively by the 'smith who assembled the gun. As I have an aversion to great honking hunks of metal on the rear of John M.'s gift to mankind anyway, the solution was immediately obvious. I found a G.I. grip safety, and a crisply made wide spur hammer. The two parts shall soon join the Filipino rendition of a Commander so that a "baby" 1911-A1 is born. My oddball tribute to the 100th Anniversary........