I had heard a lot of good things from the Internet on the Rock Island Armory 1911s.  Even though they are reasonably priced compared to most 1911s, they are supposedly reliable and well manufactured pistols.

Before I go into the review of this 1911, I will have to first admit that I am somewhat biased against the Rock Island Armory, and I will tell you why.  Last year, I was looking at purchasing a Springfield Loaded 1911 full size which run about $900 here.  I went into a few gun shops looking for it, and all the stores were out of that model, but I went into this one gun shop/range in Kearny Mesa.  As I was talking to the guy if they had the loaded, he told me “Well, no we don’t have that one, BUT we have this lovely rock island armory pistol…”  Now, I was a bit insulted by the fact that the gun he was showing me was about ½ the price of the one I wanted, and from what I’ve heard RIA are good guns, but seriously??  It was like going into the lexus dealer looking for a lexus and the sales guy pointing me to a kia.  Anyway, I was a bit annoyed at that guy, and so I am somewhat tainted by my experience at that store. 

SO now that is out of the way, I will try to have an unbiased review, but that might be difficult.  I went to the range and rented the Rock Island Armory Tactial 1911 that came with 3 dot sights, a skeletonized hammer and trigger, adjustable sights, and an ambidextrous safety.

It was a pretty gun with lots of extra features added to it, but the sights appeared to be off on the gun (stupid people messing with the sights).  Every time I lined up the sights and fired, it shot low, and I had to bring the front sight up above the back sights in order to start shooting center.  Someone messed up the stupid sights, but just like I had mentioned before, that is the risk you take renting the range guns.

Because the sights were off and it had a pretty heavy trigger, I would rate this as a B.  It was a typical 1911 with some frills, but I didn’t like the heavy trigger pull or that the sights were off… otherwise not bad, but I definitely like the other 1911’s I’ve shot.

Grade B