I recently went out and bought a Rock Island Armory 1911 Tactical. I've always loved the look and feel of 1911s and I appreciate the pistol's venerated history. My little brother recently picked up a Kimber Custom 2 so I figured it was time I picked one up to. He is new to guns so I argued it would be helpful for me to show him the ropes if I had a similar pistol. (shameless self enabler here 
)
Anyways, here she is:
Pretty she aint, but for a $400 1911, she'll do. Took her to the range a few days ago with a buddy. She shot well, more accurate than I am. I had no issues with it, but my buddy had 2 failures to feed. It was his first time shooting a pistol, and I suspect he was limp wristing it. If it happens to me I will probably swap the recoil spring out.
I will eventually get different grips and paint the sights. However, one thing you will notice is that I chopped the safetys up. The safetys that came on it were HORRENDOUS. Here is a picture:
The back edge of that sucker is actually sharp and it was painful to shoot the gun. I probably would have developed a blister after 200 rounds, no joke. They dug into my thumb and finger with every shot (ambi safety) and were just obnoxiously large.
I dremmeled them to my liking and repainted them using left over engine enamel from another project. It came out fantastic. The finish looks identical to what came on the gun, and it will probably hold up even better.
Pics of finished product:
Overall happy with my purchase! She's so cheap that I can do stuff like this and not worry about messing it up too much. She's no garage queen, and she will be shot frequently. I will probably switch out the full length guide rod too, and then she will be perfect!
)Anyways, here she is:
Pretty she aint, but for a $400 1911, she'll do. Took her to the range a few days ago with a buddy. She shot well, more accurate than I am. I had no issues with it, but my buddy had 2 failures to feed. It was his first time shooting a pistol, and I suspect he was limp wristing it. If it happens to me I will probably swap the recoil spring out.
I will eventually get different grips and paint the sights. However, one thing you will notice is that I chopped the safetys up. The safetys that came on it were HORRENDOUS. Here is a picture:
The back edge of that sucker is actually sharp and it was painful to shoot the gun. I probably would have developed a blister after 200 rounds, no joke. They dug into my thumb and finger with every shot (ambi safety) and were just obnoxiously large.
I dremmeled them to my liking and repainted them using left over engine enamel from another project. It came out fantastic. The finish looks identical to what came on the gun, and it will probably hold up even better.
Pics of finished product:
Overall happy with my purchase! She's so cheap that I can do stuff like this and not worry about messing it up too much. She's no garage queen, and she will be shot frequently. I will probably switch out the full length guide rod too, and then she will be perfect!