Just picked it up today. Rock Island Armory 1911 Compact. Got it for a great price from Sarco Inc. But I wouldn't recommend them. It took me two days and a dozen calls to place my order. It took them four days to ship it. And when they did ship it, it took them two days and several phone calls to email their FFL to the store I had it shipped to. So, while the price was good, customer service was poor.
I haven't got to shoot it yet, but I'm excited. I'm using a Bianchii IWB holster right now, but I have a Crossbreed Supertuck on order. I'm pretty excited.
Very nice it is hard to go wrong with a 1911. I love mine and want to get a compact model at some point. Though I think a new Sig will find me first.
I've had a Rock for about two years. Love the gun. Great feel and feels really natural for me to shoot. Has some recoil tho. My wife likes the .357 even with magnum loads but she doesn't like shooting the Rock.
Steel frame, right? What's it weigh?
One round of 45 hardball in a Star PD put my wife off of handguns for a year, but she has no problem with my 1911. She did her concealed carry qualification with it instead of her .380.
That looks like a good one, Drew.
The official specs:
Overall width: 1 5/16in
Overall length: 7 5/16in
Overall height: 5 1/8in
Loaded weight: 2.43 lbs
It is a little hefty, but I like it. I really like the thinner profile, as well as the balance. I think I'm going to like. I've heard a lot of good things about RIA.
Dr. Hess, my wife is not a gun girl at all. I've tried to entice her with a pink pistol. Unfortunately she has never been around guns before, so she does tend to think of them as bad things.
She has been brainwashed by the people trying to destroy our country. It is your job to undo the brainwashing. Pink pistol ain't gonna correct decades of brainwashing. Just start explaining some real history, the actual United States Constitution, her right not to be raped by anyone that comes along, etc., but a little at a time and she will figger it out.
A little target practice with something like a little Ruger 22 pistol won't hurt the process, either. Low recoil, lots of phun factor, easy targets.
Id carry a pink pistol. Whats scarier than someone getting the drop on you? When the gun they pull is pink. C-R-E-E-P-Y. My wife thinks pink colored anything (helmets, motorcycle leathers, guns) other than stuff that is supposed to be girly is retarded.
But, then again, I think a Lady Smith would be a nice gun to have.
Joey
All the women I know like a man who's packing a large-caliber weapon.
Dr. Hess wrote:
She has been brainwashed by the people trying to destroy our country. It is your job to undo the brainwashing. Pink pistol ain't gonna correct decades of brainwashing. Just start explaining some real history,
I could flounder this so hard..
such as..
Define people trying to destroy our country?
Define "real history"?
but.. I won't.
nice 1911.. If you don't mine me asking, what did it set you back?
Dr. Hess wrote:
She has been brainwashed by the people trying to destroy our country. It is your job to undo the brainwashing. Pink pistol ain't gonna correct decades of brainwashing. Just start explaining some real history, the actual United States Constitution, her right not to be raped by anyone that comes along, etc., but a little at a time and she will figger it out.
A little target practice with something like a little Ruger 22 pistol won't hurt the process, either. Low recoil, lots of phun factor, easy targets.
My wife was in the same category. While she's not one to want to go out to shoot, she will be the first one to tell me to go shoot the varmit in the back yard! I even caught her arguing with her mother (whole family is from NJ, just across the river from NYC) that "guns are NOT bad. If more law abiding people had them, therewould be less crimes". I was very proud of her that day.
As for the pistol, nice choice. 1911-esque pistols are my all time fave and my persoal carry is a 1991A1 Compact with Hogue grips. Very natural feel, points like a finger and is not bad on recoil. Accuracy past 20 yards starts to slide though... but with a 3" bbl, what do you expect?
Ignorant, all told around $380. That's the price of the pistol, shipping, and the FFL fee's from the store. That's about $100-$150 cheaper than anywhere else I found it. Here's a link to Sarco Inc's website http://e-sarcoinc.com/pist-rockislcompact1911a45pistol.aspx
Let's not turn this into a huge "Us vs Them" thread please.
My wife loves the color pink, so offering her a pink pistol is just one step towards getting her to accept guns. I've told her several times that the stories she hears about people "accidently" firing a pistol are BS. Guns only go off when told too. Little by little I'm gonna keep working on her.
My girlfriends brother got his little girl a pink Cricket rifle. Their entire family goes out shooting and so do we so it was a good fit. The girlfriend is down right scary with a rifle, very accurate and very patient to wait for the perfect shot.
rebelgtp wrote:
My girlfriends brother got his little girl a pink Cricket rifle. Their entire family goes out shooting and so do we so it was a good fit. The girlfriend is down right scary with a rifle, very accurate and very patient to wait for the perfect shot.
That's not scary, that's awesome! 
Nice lookin' 1911, score!
Bobzilla wrote:
As for the pistol, nice choice. 1911-esque pistols are my all time fave and my persoal carry is a 1991A1 Compact with Hogue grips. Very natural feel, points like a finger and is not bad on recoil. Accuracy past 20 yards starts to slide though... but with a 3" bbl, what do you expect?
Agreed on the Colt 1991A1 Compact. It's a fine weapon.
rebelgtp wrote:
My girlfriends brother got his little girl a pink Cricket rifle. Their entire family goes out shooting and so do we so it was a good fit. The girlfriend is down right scary with a rifle, very accurate and very patient to wait for the perfect shot.
It's been my experience that women are better, natural shooters. That's anecdotal but I stand by it.
In reply to EastCoastMojo:
Oh yeah it is awesome, in fact we are trying to get things together so that we can shoot the .22 competitions over winter at the local club. I'm also looking to get her a Savage 111 that I can build into a long range comp gun for her.
Any of ya'll ever shoot NRA Metallic Silhouette Hunter Pistol? My wife and I used to shoot that in competition. There's a smallbore (22) class. You shoot at the targets standing with a handgun. You can use 2 hands, but your elbows need to not be on your body. Scope and open site classes. Cheap entertainment and it really builds up shooting skills.
Drewsifer wrote:
Ignorant, all told around $380. That's the price of the pistol, shipping, and the FFL fee's from the store. That's about $100-$150 cheaper than anywhere else I found it. Here's a link to Sarco Inc's website http://e-sarcoinc.com/pist-rockislcompact1911a45pistol.aspx
Let's not turn this into a huge "Us vs Them" thread please.
$380? No E36 M3.. wow thats awesome. I need to get back into this stuff, after I get a house.
About the Us vs them thing.. Naa I won't go there.. I just own guns but I'm not a super extra special life member of the goose stepping whack doodle LaPierre followers.
Dr. Hess wrote:
Any of ya'll ever shoot NRA Metallic Silhouette Hunter Pistol? My wife and I used to shoot that in competition. There's a smallbore (22) class. You shoot at the targets standing with a handgun. You can use 2 hands, but your elbows need to not be on your body. Scope and open site classes. Cheap entertainment and it really builds up shooting skills.
That sounds f'in cool. I might have to look that up. Stationary targets or moving? Always liked the idea of cowboy action shooting but I can't stomach the dress-up and play acting part of it. "There I was! I said 'Take your hands off'n mah cows!' I went to draw..and my revolver got caught in the fringe of my buck skins!"
..seems kind of silly.
ignorant wrote:
$380? No E36 M3.. wow thats awesome. I need to get back into this stuff, after I get a house.
About the Us vs them thing.. Naa I won't go there.. I just own guns but I'm not a super extra special life member of the goose stepping whack noodles.
RI's are some cheap .45's. Faithful copies of the GI WW2 guns. They're customer service is awesome. Mine had some failure to return to battery, when ejecting it wouldn't quite feed the next round. I tried some stuff on my own and then shipped it off to Armscor. They fixed it up and polished the ramp, etc for me.
Sometimes you can let a few comments slide. Guns bring together many people of different beliefs. If you draw down on every guy who makes an offhand comment you're going to wear out a lot of holsters. 
A lot of days I'm too quick to draw myself. Drinking Oktoberfest beers in season helps.
Xceler8x wrote:
That sounds f'in cool. I might have to look that up. Stationary targets or moving? Always liked the idea of cowboy action shooting but I can't stomach the dress-up and play acting part of it. "There I was! I said 'Take your hands off'n mah cows!' I went to draw..and my revolver got caught in the fringe of my buck skins!"
Guns bring together many people of different beliefs.
i'm right there with you about the CAS.. Love the guns though.. I do have a 1858 remington cap and ball reproduction that i used for civil war reenacting. I want a conversion cylinder to .45 Long colt(cow boy or black powder loads only).. I think that would be hella fun.
about the from different beliefs, you are correct. My dad is a nutty ex hippy and I'm pretty liberal, but we love to shoot(well did, when I lived at home).. Though I wasn't so liberal in the beginning of high school, I hung around these dudes who were super republicans. They had the coolest collections of WWI and WWII stuff. Hell one of them had a deactivated .30 Browning on a tripod in his room. They were twins and their dad was super rich. AS they got older, they started to like the paraphernalia with the swastika's on it more than I did.. If you know what I mean.. Plus they reenacted rev war and I did civil war..
The targets don't move. They're hard enough to hit as it is. You need an accurate 22 pistol. I use a Contender with 2 barrels, one with a scope and one with iron sights. Dr.Linda uses a High Standard Trophy. Some people use the Rugers, Smith and Wessons, etc. Targets are from 40 meters (chickens) to 100 yards (rams.) The ram is about the size of a 8.5x11 sheet of paper. Try hitting that standing with a handgun. It is challenging. Turkeys at 75 yards are even harder. And they have to fall down to score. There's different shooter's classes, so you are not competing against a Master when you start out (unless you're that good), but against others who shoot about as well as you do. And pins for 5 in a row, 10 in a row, trophies, etc.
Anyway, it's a lot of fun. There was a range near me when I lived in Texas. Here, the closest match is an hour away and we kinda fell out of it. But it vastly improved all my shooting skills, rifle and handgun.
ignorant wrote:
$380? No E36 M3.. wow thats awesome. I need to get back into this stuff, after I get a house.
About the Us vs them thing.. Naa I won't go there.. I just own guns but I'm not a super extra special life member of the goose stepping whack doodle LaPierre followers.
No E36 M3 indeed. And I did a lot of websearches on RIA. They have a great rep for quality and customer service (just like Xceler8x said). The only bad thing I've heard is that for serious target shooting, the trigger is not so good. But without shooting it I can't comment.
But a lot of the price comes from Sarco Inc. The gun stores in town I called said they could get me one for $500, which is still a decent price for a good gun.
Off topic, but my wife just bumped the pistol and said, "Oh God did I load it?" (I'm carrying unloaded right now until I get a little more used to it). I showed her how much force is needed to rack the slide. She couldn't do it. Gonna have to work on that.
In reply to Dr. Hess:
That is similar to the setup our local club uses though they use both pistol and rifles and everyone uses semi autos because speed is a factor in your score along with accuracy. If it was just accuracy I would use the old Marlin for the rifle considering how accurate that thing is.
Hunter Pistol is timed, but there's plenty of time to shoot 5 targets, including reloading each shot with a single shot Contender.
Drew, that's a good price, but the $120 you saved would have gone to Customer Service, so that's why Sarco can sell them cheap. If you can put up with the lack of Customer Service for the $120, it's worth it. It would be worth it to me. As for racking the slide, my wife has problems with some of the semi's also. I watched what she was doing, and I would have a hard time racking the slide that way. Instead, I showed her to hold the gun in the right hand away and with the elbow locked, grab the back of the slide with the left hand and pivot her shoulders to pull the slide back. Much easier that way. On a 1911 you can also cheat quite a bit by pulling the hammer back first.
