I was an unrepentant gun snob for years. All my 1911s had to be Colt or Springfield Armory. A friend picked up a used Rock Island GI for $250 off an ad. It ran like a freight train with nothing done to it. He used it in USPSA Single Stack for a whole summer before I put on a beavertail, new sights, trigger, and did a trigger job on it. then he ran it for another year. As I recall, the only failures it ever had were 3 or 4 ammo-related ones over a long series of matches.
Since then, I have purchased a 9mm RIA 5" and a 45ACP RIA 5" and built them for carry/match use. They really are great pistols. I can't see you not being well served with the one you bought.
IMNSHO
As a (sometimes) gun snob I have to agree with you. The first time I got to shoot an RIA was a while back and everything I'd read at that time had comments about QC issues like frames not up to mil-specs and a lot of "hand fitted" parts etc. I think they did have some real issues at their early start with machining etc.
This gun was purchased by a recently retired Marine (friend of my BIL) on a budget for an EDC and I really thought it was a bad mistake but did not say much. I had some pretty hard-wired preconceived notions of what I was going to find quality-wise from a gun that back then he paid sub $300 used. To make it worse it was an Officers size which are usually the worst to keep running right. We had a couple of fail-to-feed with the first few mags he ran and I was ready to open my big mouth and tell him he'd made a mistake. Then it occurred to me to take out a few on my mags and try it again. The next 10 mags ran at a 100% they way God meant 1911s to run, and I was REALLY impressed with the accuracy while the gun was a little rough on the finish it felt solid and tight.
I gifted him a handful of my "good mags" so he could carry it confident that his gun would do it's job if ever needed, and since then I have never had a bad experience with an RIA. As a matter of fact I was going to buy a 10mm RIA this year but my wife decided to upgrade my budget for me while I was shopping and I ended up with a Dan Wesson instead, which needless to say I'm really happy with. BUT I know there is an RIA in my future for sure. I will bump into the right one that just whispers to me to take her home.
Welcome to the forums.
The reality is, I believe, that Colt and to a lesser extent Springfield, have let QC go down the drain and smaller upstart companies where you wouldn't expect it are coming on really strong with their 1911 offerings. I have been building them for years and years for competition (I carry a Glock...30 years as a duty gun, and I am not changing) because I have a life long appreciation for the 1911 so I have worked on just about all of them at one time or another so I get to "feel the steel" when the file hits the metal, and the RIA just feels "right".
I was really disappointed in the Remington when it came out. I was excited at the price point and thought "Remington" will put a really good American made 1911 on the shelf at a decent price...but the first two I worked on were nothing short of horrible.
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I was really disappointed in the Remington when it came out. I was excited at the price point and thought "Remington" will put a really good American made 1911 on the shelf at a decent price...but the first two I worked on were nothing short of horrible.