Took my new toy out for a spin this afternoon. It is a Rock Island Armory M1911-A1 .45 Auto. Which is a basic Government model pistol, no bells and whistles. It came with what turned out to be some fairly nice dark cherry colored grips, which I didn't think I would like when I ordered the gun. I had already bought a $12 set of Hogue rubber grips, so I went ahead and replaced the wood grips.
Sorry about the cell phone pictures, didn't feel like getting the real camera gear out.
Right out of the box, the fit and finish of the weapon is pretty good. It is a parkerized gun, which I am not a huge fan of, but overall I was pretty impressed by the quality of what is actually about a $400 gun. Rock Island Armory guns are made in the Phillipines.
It has the military style fixed sites.
But at 25feet it shot pretty nice groups with cheap PMC 240grain FMJ ammo, the cheapest I can buy around here. Here is a shot of the first magazine I put through the gun. There are 2 four round groups here. I was quite pleased. And yes, that is an Elmo sticker in the middle of the paper plate!
It only came with one, 8 round magazine. But I bought 3 cheap Chip McCormick magazines and 2 more expensive Wilson Combat magazines, all of them functioned perfectly. I shot 2 boxes of ammo with zero malfunctions.
In short, if you are looking for a Government 45 pistol, but don't want to spend $800-$1200, you might want to take a look at the RIA M1911-A1s.
