coldwarcavvet
17th February 2007, 23:14
This is my new Rock Island widebody 1911A2. I received it about a week ago. The gun has a beavertail, a novak looking lo-pro, no-adjust rear sight, commander type hammer, black plastic grips, flat MSH, is blued overall and has a unblued barrel.
The gun is extremely well put together. Everything on it functions and works like a .45 should, and having been a tanker on an M1 Tank, I have been through my fair share of sad .1911's (in my days, personal weapons for tankers were .45's, the newest .45 I had seen was one made in 1944). This is a tight, rattle free, well built 1911.
The slide has the marking ROCK ISLAND ARMORY with the sword-in-rock picture on the left of the wrods. The Serial number is on the right side of the frame. the ejection port is nicely flared and lowered and nicely scalloped. The front sight is a basic black. The barrel has the ramp nicely opened upto about 3/4 of the circumference.
The grip is wide by any standards. It's a gun made for big hands. There are plastic grips, my grips somehow lost a screw in shipping but that's not a big deal. There is a round depression, I guess where a medallion might go, butit's a basic black plastiic grip.
the magazine is a shiny blued magazine. It's marked .45 and "MADE IN ITALY". The base plate is plastic and so is the follower. It is a 14 round capacity and looks to be very well made.
Shooting impressions: I took the gun to the NRA range in Fairfax the weeked it arrived. :D The gun is very nice to shoot. You need to grip it tight cause it is a wide big grip. Recoil is strong but not sharp like my other high velocity pistols (like my EAA CZ in 9x21 that pushes a 135 grin bullet about 1450 FPS). It's more of a powerful push back. Once you get the feel, it is surprisingly manageable and quick to recover to target. Double taps are easy to do once you get the hang of the gun.
The cases come out with no damage, thanks to the nicely scalloped ejection port. I used 150 rounds of Aquilla 230 grain full metal jacket. It is still in it's "break in" stages. Based on observations after the first shooting, on the right side, the contact is on the front and rear top rail, and the rear inside; on the left side, the most visible wear is on the top rail about 13 mm from the rear in and 5 mm in from the front. This is still at break in so things probably will change.
Out of 150 rounds I had one time when the case stuck backwards between the breech and the chamber, and two failure to chamber. The FTC is with the round being about 85% stripped from the magazine stuck at an angle entering the chamber. I have three mags and this happened on two of them. Probably attributed to break-in blues.
So here are the pics. the very last has the target at 36 feet
http://i2.tinypic.com/4ieukd2.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/46yurll.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/4hxad5x.jpg
http://i9.tinypic.com/4h0mmps.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/343lpiu.jpg
http://i19.tinypic.com/2mnooit.jpg
http://i5.tinypic.com/40dkh9u.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/44ikabp.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/4d6m2yb.jpg
The gun is extremely well put together. Everything on it functions and works like a .45 should, and having been a tanker on an M1 Tank, I have been through my fair share of sad .1911's (in my days, personal weapons for tankers were .45's, the newest .45 I had seen was one made in 1944). This is a tight, rattle free, well built 1911.
The slide has the marking ROCK ISLAND ARMORY with the sword-in-rock picture on the left of the wrods. The Serial number is on the right side of the frame. the ejection port is nicely flared and lowered and nicely scalloped. The front sight is a basic black. The barrel has the ramp nicely opened upto about 3/4 of the circumference.
The grip is wide by any standards. It's a gun made for big hands. There are plastic grips, my grips somehow lost a screw in shipping but that's not a big deal. There is a round depression, I guess where a medallion might go, butit's a basic black plastiic grip.
the magazine is a shiny blued magazine. It's marked .45 and "MADE IN ITALY". The base plate is plastic and so is the follower. It is a 14 round capacity and looks to be very well made.
Shooting impressions: I took the gun to the NRA range in Fairfax the weeked it arrived. :D The gun is very nice to shoot. You need to grip it tight cause it is a wide big grip. Recoil is strong but not sharp like my other high velocity pistols (like my EAA CZ in 9x21 that pushes a 135 grin bullet about 1450 FPS). It's more of a powerful push back. Once you get the feel, it is surprisingly manageable and quick to recover to target. Double taps are easy to do once you get the hang of the gun.
The cases come out with no damage, thanks to the nicely scalloped ejection port. I used 150 rounds of Aquilla 230 grain full metal jacket. It is still in it's "break in" stages. Based on observations after the first shooting, on the right side, the contact is on the front and rear top rail, and the rear inside; on the left side, the most visible wear is on the top rail about 13 mm from the rear in and 5 mm in from the front. This is still at break in so things probably will change.
Out of 150 rounds I had one time when the case stuck backwards between the breech and the chamber, and two failure to chamber. The FTC is with the round being about 85% stripped from the magazine stuck at an angle entering the chamber. I have three mags and this happened on two of them. Probably attributed to break-in blues.
So here are the pics. the very last has the target at 36 feet
http://i2.tinypic.com/4ieukd2.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/46yurll.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/4hxad5x.jpg
http://i9.tinypic.com/4h0mmps.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/343lpiu.jpg
http://i19.tinypic.com/2mnooit.jpg
http://i5.tinypic.com/40dkh9u.jpg
http://i15.tinypic.com/44ikabp.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/4d6m2yb.jpg