I've had the RIA M1911 A1 for 2 and a half years now and thought I'd post a review based on my experience with it.
Cosmetics
(Blotch on frame is digital hiding of the serial number)
Generally pretty decent. Finish is a uniform parkerized matte coating and is holding up to regular range use and treating it as the non safe queen that it is. There's some wear showing under the slide stop but that's not that unusual for a pivot point. It came with both the black plastic checkered grips and the smooth orange-ish colored and somewhat fugly wood grips. The wood grips showed some staining at the screw holes when new. Replaced them with some cheap but well made G10's.
Appearance of internals is OK. Not jewelry grade, but decent for the price. The feed ramp looks like it could use a polish, but it's not a problem which brings me to...
Function
Everything works as it should and I've had zero problems. While it doesn't work smooth as glass like my better Colts including one from the custom shop, there's nothing notable to complain about. Slide is well fitted, several different brands of mags fit snug and drop free. The trigger breaks right at 5 lbs as measured on my trigger scale. There's maybe the slightest amount of creep and drag in the trigger break, but it's minimal and very consistent. Perhaps that's what one gets with MIM (metal injection mold) innards? There's some debate about the slides now being forged rather than extruded. From what I've read the frames are cast (investment cast like Ruger) and small parts are typically MIM.
I've fired at least a half dozen brands of JHP defense ammo and probably 10 or so different brands of basic ball FMJ including some cheap, old, and dirty stuff. Recently I loaded up a big pile of cast 200 grain SWC's and used those in a pin shoot last weekend. Zero problems of any type- every single round has fed and ejected just fine and they all went 'bang'. I think it was @mac1911 that mentioned one of his friends had one of these that was ran pretty hard and had no problems.
I looked at a lot of the internet buzz and there appeared to be some mag related and limp-wristing related problems. IDGAF about that sort of noise, but I would listen to someone I know who knows their stuff yet had some issues. Posts on this forum were generally positive and that the RIA punches above its weight class a little.
Accuracy is good. Switched phones and didn't transfer pics but somewhere I have some nice targets shot by this pistol. Seems to shoot as good as I do, though I'm not really a pistol guy and almost exclusively compete in rifle matches. That said, before I had to leave for a sniper match I was undefeated after ~5 rounds in the pin shoot.
Value
Depending on the model these run approx $450 at the basic end and up to around $600 with nice options. I paid ~$350 for mine. It was NIB but purchased from a friend who had won it at auction. I think RIA discontinued selling this version with the extra wood grips included, but as I mentioned I thought they were ugly anyway.
While this is by no means a "Wow!" 1911, for the money it's a great gun and I would have been happy to have paid full retail. I've seen quite a few comments that it makes a great first 1911 or would be a great one to have if you really weren't into 1911's but wanted at least one. Based on the service it's given me, I would not hesitate to carry it and would prefer it rather than put wear and tear on my nice 1911's. For the money I think it would be impossible to do better. My Rem R1 had a nicer trigger break but looser tolerance for the trigger which leads me to prefer the RIA. I tried a couple other R1's and the triggers were awful and totally different from each other. All in all I highly recommend the RIA for its given position in the market.
Cosmetics
(Blotch on frame is digital hiding of the serial number)
Generally pretty decent. Finish is a uniform parkerized matte coating and is holding up to regular range use and treating it as the non safe queen that it is. There's some wear showing under the slide stop but that's not that unusual for a pivot point. It came with both the black plastic checkered grips and the smooth orange-ish colored and somewhat fugly wood grips. The wood grips showed some staining at the screw holes when new. Replaced them with some cheap but well made G10's.
Appearance of internals is OK. Not jewelry grade, but decent for the price. The feed ramp looks like it could use a polish, but it's not a problem which brings me to...
Function
Everything works as it should and I've had zero problems. While it doesn't work smooth as glass like my better Colts including one from the custom shop, there's nothing notable to complain about. Slide is well fitted, several different brands of mags fit snug and drop free. The trigger breaks right at 5 lbs as measured on my trigger scale. There's maybe the slightest amount of creep and drag in the trigger break, but it's minimal and very consistent. Perhaps that's what one gets with MIM (metal injection mold) innards? There's some debate about the slides now being forged rather than extruded. From what I've read the frames are cast (investment cast like Ruger) and small parts are typically MIM.
I've fired at least a half dozen brands of JHP defense ammo and probably 10 or so different brands of basic ball FMJ including some cheap, old, and dirty stuff. Recently I loaded up a big pile of cast 200 grain SWC's and used those in a pin shoot last weekend. Zero problems of any type- every single round has fed and ejected just fine and they all went 'bang'. I think it was @mac1911 that mentioned one of his friends had one of these that was ran pretty hard and had no problems.
I looked at a lot of the internet buzz and there appeared to be some mag related and limp-wristing related problems. IDGAF about that sort of noise, but I would listen to someone I know who knows their stuff yet had some issues. Posts on this forum were generally positive and that the RIA punches above its weight class a little.
Accuracy is good. Switched phones and didn't transfer pics but somewhere I have some nice targets shot by this pistol. Seems to shoot as good as I do, though I'm not really a pistol guy and almost exclusively compete in rifle matches. That said, before I had to leave for a sniper match I was undefeated after ~5 rounds in the pin shoot.
Value
Depending on the model these run approx $450 at the basic end and up to around $600 with nice options. I paid ~$350 for mine. It was NIB but purchased from a friend who had won it at auction. I think RIA discontinued selling this version with the extra wood grips included, but as I mentioned I thought they were ugly anyway.
While this is by no means a "Wow!" 1911, for the money it's a great gun and I would have been happy to have paid full retail. I've seen quite a few comments that it makes a great first 1911 or would be a great one to have if you really weren't into 1911's but wanted at least one. Based on the service it's given me, I would not hesitate to carry it and would prefer it rather than put wear and tear on my nice 1911's. For the money I think it would be impossible to do better. My Rem R1 had a nicer trigger break but looser tolerance for the trigger which leads me to prefer the RIA. I tried a couple other R1's and the triggers were awful and totally different from each other. All in all I highly recommend the RIA for its given position in the market.
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