Picked up my new RIA Tac the other night...

[ihatenj]

After nearly 5 months of waiting, the state of NJ has finally determined that I'm not a criminal, and thus has bestowed up me the "privilege" of being allowed to purchase guns. Apparently NJ doesn't have any use for the constitution, in particular "...shall not be infringed.", or the presumption of innocence. It's also quite apparent that law enforcement doesn't have to obey the laws, only enforce them in regards to law abiding citizens. (NJ law says that firearm purchase applications MUST be approved or disapproved within 30 days). I applied on Oct 17th. Oh yeah, the state "lost" my fingerprints causing further delay. I'll bet that Tony Soprano is having them laser etched onto his fingers right now.

That said, I actually purchased this gun from Centerfire back in Dec. and had it shipped to my local FFL where it's been sitting ever since. Picked it up Thurs. night. Cleaned all the sloppy oil out of it and lubed properly. Spent a good part of the night dry firing with those junky plastic snap caps.

Friday I went to the range and fired 275 rounds of wwb. Not a single FTF, FTE, or FTRB. Once, the slide didn't lock open after the last round in the mag fired. As far as windage is concerned, it appeared to be dead on. However, elevation left much to be desired. It shot low. About 3" at 25 feet.

I spoke to the GS at the range about it, he suggested either filing the front sight or installing an adjustable rear sight. The cheapskate in me likes the idea of filing the front, but the adjustable rear seems much more appealing to me in the long run. I just read a recent post about the fusion sights on a compact, but didn't care for the way it appears to stick way up in the air. It looks like the compact slide is different than the tactical, in that the tactical's dovetail groove is lower and the very rear of the slide is machined for clearance. I'm assuming that the fusion sight will fit pretty much like the stock novak sight. Is this correct? Can the oem sights simply be pushed out with a brass drift and the new set installed the same way, or is there other voodoo requiring a gs? BTW, I am mechanically inclined and not afraid to do stuff.

I really like shooting this gun. Trigger action is truly remarkable for an out of the box lower end brand (dollar wise). I'd definitely have no quams about purchasing another RIA, wish they'd import the 9mm though. Oh yeah, Sarco just happens to be located on my way home from work!

[t-bird]

Great to hear that your got your RIA and it's a keeper ihatenj, very nice gun. Best of luck and enjoy. Would love to see some PICS,,,,,,,,,,,,

[nukker7]

Hey man congrats on getting your permit......makes me feel bad I only had to wait 7 days for mine in Georgia. I am interested in the answer to this question too.

[nightal]

After nearly 5 months of waiting, the state of NJ has finally determined that I'm not a criminal, and thus has bestowed up me the "privilege" of being allowed to purchase guns. Apparently NJ doesn't have any use for the constitution, in particular "...shall not be infringed.", or the presumption of innocence. It's also quite apparent that law enforcement doesn't have to obey the laws, only enforce them in regards to law abiding citizens. (NJ law says that firearm purchase applications MUST be approved or disapproved within 30 days). I applied on Oct 17th. Oh yeah, the state "lost" my fingerprints causing further delay. I'll bet that Tony Soprano is having them laser etched onto his fingers right now.

That said, I actually purchased this gun from Centerfire back in Dec. and had it shipped to my local FFL where it's been sitting ever since. Picked it up Thurs. night. Cleaned all the sloppy oil out of it and lubed properly. Spent a good part of the night dry firing with those junky plastic snap caps.

Friday I went to the range and fired 275 rounds of wwb. Not a single FTF, FTE, or FTRB. Once, the slide didn't lock open after the last round in the mag fired. As far as windage is concerned, it appeared to be dead on. However, elevation left much to be desired. It shot low. About 3" at 25 feet.

I spoke to the GS at the range about it, he suggested either filing the front sight or installing an adjustable rear sight. The cheapskate in me likes the idea of filing the front, but the adjustable rear seems much more appealing to me in the long run. I just read a recent post about the fusion sights on a compact, but didn't care for the way it appears to stick way up in the air. It looks like the compact slide is different than the tactical, in that the tactical's dovetail groove is lower and the very rear of the slide is machined for clearance. I'm assuming that the fusion sight will fit pretty much like the stock novak sight. Is this correct? Can the oem sights simply be pushed out with a brass drift and the new set installed the same way, or is there other voodoo requiring a gs? BTW, I am mechanically inclined and not afraid to do stuff.

I really like shooting this gun. Trigger action is truly remarkable for an out of the box lower end brand (dollar wise). I'd definitely have no quams about purchasing another RIA, wish they'd import the 9mm though. Oh yeah, Sarco just happens to be located on my way home from work!
Look at Fusion SS -3 Dot- 70 ajustable rear sight, it is low profile I would try to file the front sight first to bring it to where you want it. what pistol did you get? were you shooting from a bench?

[nightal]

Yes you can drift the old sights an the new ones in if you buy the right cut to start with there may be some filing but it is not hard to do just go slow.

[doctruptwn]

The sightes are a fairly easy change, However, A little food for thought and your pocket book. Once you have an adjustable sight set where you want it it ussually stays there forever. It kinda defeats the purpose of an adjustable sight doesn't it. Just food for thought, your mileage may vary.

[hps]

The sightes are a fairly easy change, However, A little food for thought and your pocket book. Once you have an adjustable sight set where you want it it ussually stays there forever. It kinda defeats the purpose of an adjustable sight doesn't it. Just food for thought, your mileage may vary.
HMMmm guess i never really thought about it that way. :p

[ihatenj]

Great to hear that your got your RIA and it's a keeper ihatenj, very nice gun. Best of luck and enjoy. Would love to see some PICS,,,,,,,,,,,,

I figure that as long as it's stone stock, it looks exactly like everyone else's, so pics aren't necessary. Perhaps after a bit of personalizing, like sights and grips. They are the only things I anticipate changing, if even those. My purpose is home defense, but I expect that this gun will never actually be fired outside of the range. I have no interest in competitions, so match barrels and trigger jobs are unnecessary. Once the elevation is corrected, this gun suits my needs perfectly. So, there will really be nothing new for anyone to see.

I ride a Victory motorcycle, and at the appropriate forums folks always want to see pics of someones brand new bike. Why? Just look at the brochure. Anything just out-of-the-box is all the same until customized.

[ihatenj]

Hey man congrats on getting your permit......makes me feel bad I only had to wait 7 days for mine in Georgia. I am interested in the answer to this question too.

Thanks. My brother in Maine only had to wait about 5 minutes for the nics check. No "permit" necessary. Took him a total of about 20-30 minutes, and the first 15 minutes where spent deciding which Kimber he wanted.

[ihatenj]

Look at Fusion SS -3 Dot- 70 ajustable rear sight, it is low profile I would try to file the front sight first to bring it to where you want it. what pistol did you get? were you shooting from a bench?

5" tactical. No bench shooting. Standard 2 hands. BTW, I raised the barrel up so that the front sight covered the point of aim, and it brought the point of impact up about halfway. Still far too low. Is this what's called the 6 o'clock position? I much prefer to line up the top edges of the sights.

I had been discussing the low aim with one of the instructors there, so he said let's try something. He said he was loading just one cartridge and he wanted to watch me shoot so he could see if I was dropping the barrel in anticipation of recoil. I aimed and fired, but it turns out he didn't put a cartridge in after all and the gun just clicked. He said I held it perfectly as the barrel of the gun never moved.

This is what I had been looking at:
http://www.fusionfirearms.com/servlet/the-49/Adjustable-Novak-Style-Combat/Detail
Of the guns I have shot, I find the 3 dot sights far quicker for me to acquire target. I don't think I really need night sights though, but I have no objections except the expense. At the very least, I'll have to put some white paint on the stock front sight.
I'll take a look for your suggestion as well. Thanks.

[ihatenj]

The sightes are a fairly easy change, However, A little food for thought and your pocket book. Once you have an adjustable sight set where you want it it ussually stays there forever. It kinda defeats the purpose of an adjustable sight doesn't it. Just food for thought, your mileage may vary.

I have considered this and I'm sure you're correct. I'm under the assumption that adjustable sights are more practical for rifles due to longer and perhaps greatly varying target distances vs typical handgun distances. Just some thoughts on the "for" side of the argument; I like the ability to fine tune it right at the range vs how many trial and error trips back and forth. Being as low as the point of impact is, this is going to take a fair amount of filing, and of course one must be careful not to go too far. Another motive is to get 3 dot sights that won't need to be repainted periodically.

[coltaholic]

Hi N J hater,
you got a good gun. Evidently, some RIA's do shoot low, because your instructor did exactly what I do when one of my students shoots low. What you can do is hold the front sight high ( about 1/2 of the front sight should be above the level of the rear sight) . see where your point of impact is. If you are on center, you can file off half of the front sight. if you still shoot low, I'd send it to Arnel and let him do his magic. If it shoots high, take off about 1/4 or less and see where it shoots, and so on.

[coltaholic]

N J hater,
while you're at it, if the Rock is to be used mostly for home defense, I'd sure think about installing some night sights. Most hime defense situations will occur in low light or total darkness, so your white paint or white dots will be useless. Either get a good light or the noght sights, or better yet, both. As they say,---"priceless"

[coltaholic]

N J hater,
while you're at it, if the Rock is to be used mostly for home defense, I'd sure think about installing some night sights. Most home defense situations will occur in low light or total darkness, so your white paint or white dots will be useless. Either get a good light or the night sights, or better yet, both. As they say,---"priceless"

[bdurham`]

I never have to wait. They look at my CCW permit and fill out the forms and hand me my pistol. I never had to wait over five minutes before the permit. I quess I never realized how lucky we are in my state, SC.

[hps]

Love having my LIFETIME CC permit, takes me all of 15 min. for a handgun out the door. :sleep: