seeing how a few of the guys on the forum have bought one already and seemed pretty pleased with it i put it on my Christmas wish list dad bought me a RIA 1911 tactical new for $481 i would post some pictures but i can't find my camera... first handgun for me and so far i'm loving it its just a great piece of history and technology swapped out the wood on it with a hogue grip and it feels good in my hands looking forward to shoot it with my dad at the end of the week any holster recommendations? also thinking about getting night sights. recommendations?
Sah-weeet. NEED PICS! Congrats, I really dig the RIAs. Like having a piece of history, they aren't a great CCW gun, but pretty true to 1911 lineage. Of course they have made a HUGE jump in price, still a decent value though. You will enjoy it. Household 6 got me one a few years back for Christmas, I got a set of bakelite grips from 1944 and put on her. Yeah the sights are "original" so they are hard to see so you are right...need an upgrade if you want it as a more practical gun. Im sure somebody will have a good recommendation for you. What are you looking to do with the holster? Will help narrow the search. Enjoy!
A BlackHawk Serpa holster would be a simple and decent choice. Note: If you want to get extra mags for your 1911, you could go with the Kimber TAC MAGS or the regular Kimber 8 round magazines. They aren't that expensive, and it seems they are very common.
Trijicon 2 colors are the way to go. You might want to look at the Heine Straight 8s, but I hate the sight picture they give. Asking what holster you should buy is like asking what car you should buy. We'll need a lot more info. For a tactical rig, I like Specter's stuff. For a CCW rig, High Noon Holsters are the ****.
You name it, 1911s have just as many goodies as ARs do. Your best bet would probably be a Wilson trigger, hammer and sear and/or Wolff springs.
does something like this really work? http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-Handgun-Night-Sights-Brighter-than-Tritium_W0QQitemZ330297842756QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item330297842756&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50
Junho806, As much as I hate to admit it, I bought a set. Would have been better to put the 15 bucks in a box of ammo. Or a 12/pk. DON'T WASTE YOUR $!!! cane
Depending on what condition it was in when you got it, I am not REAL familiar with the RIA out of the box, polishing the feed ramp is usually first in line. Then a trigger job for street carry 3# to 4# depending on comfort of the user. Grips are usually something you will experiment with, I probably have 20 sets of various types I have tried before I found some I liked. Check with the manufacturer on the recoil spring if you want to shoot +P loads. Even my Nighthawks, which came rated for +P, but Nighthawk even recommended upgrading to a stronger spring if I was going to feed a healthy diet of them. Depending on the type and condition of the safety and hammer, those would be on the list as well. Basically a good 1911 platform is like your AR - the only real limit to what you can do, is your own pocketbook and your imagination... JD
will these sights fit? http://cgi.ebay.com/TRIJICON-KB01-TRITIUM-NIGHT-SIGHTS-KIMBER-1911_W0QQitemZ230316244253QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGun_Parts?hash=item230316244253&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 and are their special tools or gunsmith skills needed to install them?
what do i polish the feeding ramp with? can i do it myself? by trigger job do you mean just changing a spring? as for the recoil spring what constitutes a good replacement spring and is it necessary? took it too the range and put 50 rds through it and my groupings weren't as good as i liked...too embarrassed to post them up here haha I kept shooting low to the right i'm guessing its a breathing problem like with my AR-15? any tips?
Generally, polishing a feed ramp isn't something that I would "talk someone through" but it's possible you could do it yourself. It's also possible you could over do it yourself and make it worse. This is one of those times that I am going to recommend a trained gunsmith for you, it's something that is kind of important it's done right. It's not hard, or even technical, but we are talking about reliable performance here that needs to be 100% correct for real world use. As for the trigger, generally speaking a factory trigger can be tuned and work just fine. If you can not achieve the type of pull, break and reset that you are looking for in a carry gun, then changing out the parts might be needed. If you aren't familiar with tuning a trigger, there are plenty of on line sources, but again, I am going to shy away from talking you through it over the internet just because this is for a carry gun and NEEDS to be reliable 100% of the time. Again, it's not hard, it's just important to get it right. As for the shooting, there are a couple of threads around with a standard target that is broken down into sections, and where you are hitting, shows exactly what you are doing "wrong". Search through posts by Robocop10mm, Mark F and possibly Bob Wright. I can remember who posted it, but it's been posted in a couple of threads and it works perfectly. JD
