Posted: 1/2/2007 8:40:13 PM EDT
 I know many of you on this board don't care for the Rock Island line of 1911's. Some of your complaints have been genuine while others have just been biased based on price and country of origin. I, too, used to have a dislike for cheapo 1911's. I've spend many an hour cussing such fine guns as the AMT Hardballer and the Auto Ordnance GI. I used to be one of Armscor's harshest critics and found the early guns to be pretty much junk. That was then. I have changed my attitude over the last few years. Armscor/Rock Island has made some great leaps forward in the quality control area. Today's guns are much tighter and better fit than guns from just a few years ago. One of my major complaints with the Rock Island line was the placement of the extractor in the breech face. But this looks like it's been corrected and the last half dozen pistols I've looked at have the extractor where it's supposed to be. I bought a Rock Island Tactical about three weeks ago. This is pretty much the same model as was previously imported as the Armscor Enhanced. Anyway, the gun comes stock with an ambi safety, a high-cut beavertail, and a set of "Novak" sights. Mine was priced at $399 before taxes, making it about $40 more than a standard Rock Island GI gun. For the money, I am very pleased with the gun. I've got almost 200 rounds of various ammo through the gun using a variety of mags. I know that's not a large quantity of ammo but I haven't had the time to shoot more. One of these days... Anyway, with my usual load of a 200 LSWC over 5.3 grains of Bullseye, the gun will put five rounds into a 3" group (fired offhand standing) at 25 yards. I have yet to have a failure to feed, extract or eject. I even ran a couple mags of Speer Gold Dot 200 grain +P ammo through the gun with no problems. This seems to be a fantastic value for the money. I know mine's just one sample but if they are all like mine this gun is sure to be a winner! Edit for better picture. |
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Not to say that the Rock Islands are perfect by any means. I'd like to see a different front sight from the factory and wish they'd use the Champion Novak set-up that Sig and others are using. And a set of checkered grips like STI uses on the Spartan would be a nice addition to the Tactical. Regardless, this does seem to be a great gun for the money. I do think the Taurus, the Tactical and the Spartan are the guns to beat for the money. |