Rock Island Armory Tactical 9mm 1911 Review

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 Finally, an opportunity presented itself where I could take my 1911 9mm RIA Tactical to the range! The weather was favorable, with only a light breeze and temperatures in the mid 70s, so I took about a couple hours out of the day and went shooting.

With me, I brought my targetsfromus.com space invader target, and an assortment of 9mm ammunition. I wanted to see how reliable the RIA would be, and my testing proved fruitful. The ammunition fired today was:

10 rounds - El Dorado 124gr JHP
50 rounds - Tula Ammo 115gr FMJ
50 rounds - Winchester 124gr FMJ reloads
25 rounds - Lead Round Nose 120gr reloads
10 rounds - Winchester 147gr Silvertip JHP
10 rounds - Winchester 115gr Whitebox JHP
25 rounds - Frangible 90 gr FMJ reloads

 One failure-to-feed was noted, and it was the second round of the first magazine which contained the El Dorado 124 gr JHP. As I only had 10 rounds of it with me, and it was the second round ever fired through the gun.  I cannot say one way or the other whether it was an ammunition or firearm related balk.  More testing will be necessary to confirm, but all other JHP and defensive ammunition fed, fired, and ejected cleanly throughout the testing.

As a matter of fact, all other ammunition in general fed, fired, and ejected cleanly. The only issue throughout the entire 180 round course of fire was in that first magazine. To say I was pleased would be a bit of an understatement. Often when testing a new firearm, I like to bring with me a bit of factory ammo to ensure reliable cycling. My own reloads are significantly more mild than a comparable factory loaded equivalent, so a firearm that may struggle with my ammunition can often plug along more easily with factory fodder. To see a brand new gun function very well with both my mild reloads and standard pressure factory ammo is a good sign that reliable functioning will follow for a long time to come.

Before I go any further with this review and get into more detail allow me to say this- My biggest regret with this purchase is that I didn't make it sooner. This gun is not without a few issues (which I will discuss in this write-up), but the enjoyment and operation of this gun is exceptional. If you are debating a 1911 in 9mm for range use, carry, or even the occasional woods trip, I support your decision to buy one. The RIA might not always be the best example for you as an individual to purchase- but the platform is sound. There are several reasons for this, first and foremost of which is the 'shootability' of the gun. The RIA felt great in the hand, had no obvious sharp places to rub you raw, and functioned exactly as a 1911 should.

When people describe a gun as soft shooting, I often wonder why we assign such a subjective expression to describe recoil. Without a comparison to another firearm, the expression is useless. Well compared to a 1911 in 45acp, this gun is extremely soft shooting. Going further, I would actually say this is the softest
 shooting centerfire handgun I have ever fired. Softer than heavy 38 special revolvers shooting mild target loads, softer than the lightest 45 acp ammo that will cycle my 16 lb recoil springs, and softer than any all steel or polymer gun I have ever actually fired. This ease of control, coupled with what I consider to be the very comfortable ergonomic design of the 1911, combine to make a very enjoyable shooting experience.

To test the performance of the gun, I set up my space invader target at 25 yards for all shooting today. No warm-ups, no other handguns, all free hand, firing this gun quickly and at a moderate distance at a target that is about 5x5 inches. My gun, shooting the 115 gr and lighter ammo shot about 1.5-2 inches low. the 124 gr stuff seemed to be right on at 25 yards, and I regrettably did not bring enough 147 gr stuff to get a feel for how much higher it impacted than the 124 gr ammo.
I was able to pull one 9 out of 9 magazine on the steel at 25 yards, but most of the mags had between 6 and 7 hits on target, with the rest dancing around it (generally a touch low). For me, this is better than average shooting- especially for a new gun I have never fired. At 25 yards, I'll often start out with a great group that looks like I might finally break into the 3 or 4 inch group territory, but I generally then have at least one mulligan that opens me up to 5 or 6 inches overall.
 With a rimfire handgun I can generally do a touch better- but realistically I'm a pretty average shooter. What I really enjoyed about the RIA was that I could shoot at least as well as I could with my other 1911s (if not a little better) and I could do so quickly. I was having so much fun I am sure I firing at a noticeably quicker cadence than the 1 round per second rule that most clubs by me have in place.

The gun is not perfect though- and it had several issues that an interested buyer should know about before committing to a purchase. First- the oft complained about grips. I like the smooth medium thick walnut (at least they look walnut) grips- but many people abhor this design. Know that many shooters will want to replace these right away.

Secondly, the extractor is not properly tensioned. I noticed what I call predictably erratic ejection.  the last round of the magazine almost always ejected forward, with the rest of the rounds ejecting between 3 and 5 o'clock with the muzzle of the firearm representing 12 o'clock. Honestly, I probably won't even bother to mess with the extractor, but it is definitely a bit south of normal and it is worthy of mention. As long as the rounds are not ejection at 6 o'clock right back at the shooter, I generally don't give a darn.


Finally, the MSH is plastic. A lot of big manufacturers are switching to plastic MSHs (cough* Colt cough), but many people are not fans of this trend. I will say I do prefer this plastic MSH though to my springfield armory MSH which came with an ILS (integrated locking system). As for the good of this firearm- well the grip safety was easy to engage, the sights are usable, the thumb safety was positive in its engagement but managable in the force required to manipulate it, I noticed no irregularities in the spent casings of any kind, and despite firing 180 rounds (at least 100 of which being dirty tula and my reloads, which are also dirty as all heck) the gun never slowed up a bit cycling smoothly and without hesitation.
Overall, I'm more than pleased with this gun. For $450 OTD it is an absolute bargain, and I would say it is a buy without hesitation all the way to 500 bucks. Much beyond that and you might want to consider buying the GI model and cutting it for new sights- but the tactical really is awesome. I am going to hold off on cleaning this gun and am going to try to run another few hundred rounds through it (and more JHP if I can afford it) to see how it holds up to shooting once it really starts getting dirty. I'd like to get up to 500 rounds without cleaning, but realistically it will probably go 350 or so before I break down and give it a scrub.