Tell me your Armscorp experience

[D.B. Cooper]

I'm a die hard "buy American" consumer. Or at least I tell myself I am. Especially so when it comes to firearms. But I've been looking for what would be, essentially, a disposable firearm lately. I never thought I would be considering an Asian made gun, but I've seen some good videos on the u-tubes about Armscorps/RIA guns. And they are dirt dirt cheap. I recognize that cheap ain't quality and quality ain't cheap. But their guns look like knock-offs of Winchester shotguns and Colt revolvers. Those of you who have owned them, or have experience with them, what do you say? Reliability? Durability/longevity?

 

[GarySTL]

I've got one of their 1911 types in 9mm. Initially had some ejection issues, but my LGS took care of it. Sent it in and got it back in about 3 weeks. No issues since.

 

[BullSlinger]

I own several of their guns. Never had a problem, Quality is good. Yes you can find better but not for the money.
Also keep in mind that the Philippines was part of the United States until 1947 and there are many fine firearms manufactures there. I think that Rock Island/Armscorp is the best of them.

 

[Nuclear]

I have an Armscor (no p) 1911 and haven't had any problems with the gun. The mags that came with it quickly went bad, the lips spread. Not as tight as a Sig I own, but still pretty good.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I owned an RIA 1911 for probably 10 years and I don't recall ever having an issue with it. The only problem that I had with it was the parkerizing. You had to watch it or it would rust on you

 

[Sarge7402]

Owned one of their neat little Police Positive clones some years back. would have kept it as it shot well. Only issue I had was with the hard stocks. Didn't fit my paws very well

 

[AZAndy]

I have an RIA 1911 compact and a Citadel full-size. The extractor channel on the RIA has burrs in it, so much so that extractor tension can never be gotten right. I have to push forward on the slide to get the extractor over the rim nearly every time. Recoil spring has been replaced, extractor has been tensioned five times, and I just can't get the tension loose enough.

The Citadel was really tight and shot quite well, and then I started having trouble disassembling it. Turns out the slot on the frame that the barrel lug goes into was peening and causing the fit of the lug to be too tight. I filed down the inside of the slot to create a bit more space, and it worked for a while, then it got tight again. I guess the metal there is just too soft, so gave up on it and stripped it for parts.

I won't be doing the Armscor thing again. From the glowing reviews I've seen about them here, I presume that it's a bit like Taurus-- if you have a good one, you have a good one, but woe betide thee if you don't.

 

[drband]

I’ve had two experiences with Armscor, both positive.
I owned a mid-size (Commander size) 1911 for a few years. It was accurate, easy to shoot, and served as my learning/customization 1911 platform. I emailed RIA CS to find out the background on the pistol and they responded in 30 minutes with import date and other details I requested. I learned a lot about 1911s with that gun. I’m sorry I sold it (for more than I paid). Another time, I requested a recoil spring plug from CS to replace one that broke. It was in my mailbox in a week, no charge.

The other is a mid-size, double-stack .22TCM/9mm combo. It is a fine pistol. Parkerizing is good, slide to frame fit is nice, internal machining is good. Both barrels seem a good fit to the bushing and it shoots very well. As with the first one, I can’t seem to resist “customizing” it to my liking. So far, I’ve added a Dawson Precision FO front sight, and G10 grips from StonerCNC.
If I had it to do over, I would buy it again. I will probably buy another Armscor product in the future.

 

[bikerdoc]

Even though the manufacturing is in the P I, the HQ is in Parumph Nevada run by 3rd generation US citizens of the founder.

 

[maxxhavoc]

My experience with RIA semi-autos has been excellent. Their customer service will fix any and every problem you may have in a timely manner.

Initial quality on mine was hit and miss (1911s). One of mine had constant failures to feed. I sent it back and a new gun was in my hands less than a month later. The original one had a frame that was out of tolerance. Their gunsmith did a polish job on the new pistol before sending it out and did an amazing job.

I have one of the Armscor 200 Revolvers as well. It functions flawlessly and is accurate, but I just can't warm up to it. It just looks and feels cheap to me, frame is Zamak or some other lightweight alloy. Grip is cheap-feeling plastic. Cylinder and barrel are Steel. It has run 250 rounds or so with no problem, feels good in the hand.

 

[GBExpat]

I have a Rock Island 1911 that I bought in Oct'04 (price: $290), one of eight .45acp pistols that I currently own. It is well-made, reliable and accurate. I use it for .45acp loads testing.

 

[Hasaf]

A lot of this is good to hear, I have the .22tcm rifle on my shortlist, it may be the next gun I purchase. I wrote them a few months ago when I was looking for one and no one had them in stock, in fact as I looked almost no one had any of their pistols, other than the 1911s' in stock.

My question was, were they backing out of the US market? I was told that they were no, thy had experiences some problems with a distributor was all that had happened. I have noticed that their products seem to be back in the shops.

The .22tcm MAPP and rifle still look interesting to me.

 

[rust collector]

I have had good experience with my 9mm MAP P1, my 22tcm9r MAP, and a model 206 revolver. No issues whatsoever. I don't put thousands of rounds through the same gun, so can't attest to longevity. I sold the revolver, but the 9mm is my nightstand gun and the 22tcm will soon have a companion rifle. My ATI 1911 commander was made in the Phillipines by Shooters Arms Manufacturing, and it has done well for me also. These price points take much of the risk out of trying something new.

 

[wally]

My experience is simply great guns, and great customer service. Ive a 9mm and .45 that are over 20K rounds that I still shoot regularly, and a "widebody" 1911 in 45ACP that they repaired for free when the barrel link broke after well over 10K rounds. Use the search, "kudos to RIA" I've posted the details.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I presume that it's a bit like Taurus-- if you have a good one, you have a good one, but woe betide thee if you don't.

I wondered if it was something like that. Like I'd almost be better off buying a Taurus solely because the enemy you know is better than the enemy you don't know.

I wonder how their M200 compares to Taurus' 66, but more than that I'm interested in their shotgun.

 

[Bfh_auto]

I'm a die hard "buy American" consumer. Or at least I tell myself I am. Especially so when it comes to firearms. But I've been looking for what would be, essentially, a disposable firearm lately. I never thought I would be considering an Asian made gun, but I've seen some good videos on the u-tubes about Armscorps/RIA guns. And they are dirt dirt cheap. I recognize that cheap ain't quality and quality ain't cheap. But their guns look like knock-offs of Winchester shotguns and Colt revolvers. Those of you who have owned them, or have experience with them, what do you say? Reliability? Durability/longevity?

I had to smooth up everything on an RIA revolver. It also had a high Failure to fire rate until I shot about 1000 rounds through it. It is accurate and I purchased it knowing it would need tinkering.

 

[warnerwh]

I have a Citadel 1911 in 9mm that is completely reliable. The trigger is decent even to a picky person like me. It isn't as good of a trigger as the Kimber I had nor as accurate however it is more reliable than the Kimber. I depend on it as my home defense gun where the Kimber I would not have. The fit and finish is surprisingly good and being as I only paid 329.00 shipped I am happy. That was a few years ago though. Only issue is that the slide usually doesn't stay open on the last round with either magazine I received with the pistol. I don't believe I have ever had any other kind of malfunction.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

...high Failure to fire rate until I shot about 1000 rounds through it.

YIKES!

I don't think that's something I would want to deal with. Did you ever discover a root cause for that, or why firing 1k rounds corrected it?

 

[D.B. Cooper]

So I'm getting the impression that the autoloaders are relatively good, but the revolvers are somewhat questionable.

I find that interesting as that has always been my experience with Taurus. (good autoloaders, bad revolvers) Speaking of which, I checked prices on Taurus today. Man, those things have gone up. No longer what I would consider "budget" guns anymore.

 

[Bfh_auto]

YIKES!

I don't think that's something I would want to deal with. Did you ever discover a root cause for that, or why firing 1k rounds corrected it?

I shimmed the hammer spring and polished the internals. I have no idea how long it would have taken otherwise. They lack the finishing touches that are done to better quality guns.
I have heard good things about the 1911 though.

 

[GBExpat]

Until reading this Thread I was unaware of the existence of any RIA revolvers.

 

[tcj]

Have an RIA Ultra FS - 9mm 1911 - works well and is accurate. Have about 8,000 rounds through it and have only replaced the springs @ 5,000 rounds as PM, cleaned it and swapped out the orange FO rod for green as that is my preference.

Great value for a quality 1911.

Really, the only downside for me is that the finish isn't my favorite but it's OK.

 

[entropy]

I had an RIA GI 1911 that I bought used for $250,. I polished the ramp before I even shot it (well, not quite-I was the one who test fired it for the shop when they bought it....) and changed a few parts out to get what I wanted, (longer 1911 trigger, widespur hammer), but it was reliable. I bought it back from my best friend after I'd bought a Glock 21 that didn't function reliably with handloads-the RIA did, unfailingly. I then stupidly gave to my son after buying a Taurus PT1911. He traded it for Taurus .357. I should have kept it as a backup to my Taurus.

 

[Deanimator]

I've got a Citadel 3 1/2" M1911. I love it.

It's perfectly reliable as long as I use McCormick magazines. Actually the OEM magazines are reliable, if I load them with six instead of seven rounds.

It was an incredible value for the money.

 

[m0par]

I have the .22tcm rifle on my shortlist

I have a 22TCM pistol. Never had any issues with it.

I then bought the rifle. It has been sitting for several years still in its box.

It seems they made quite a few of the rifles with horrendous rifling. Mine is one of them. I'm willing to bet theidahoanshow's homemade rifling is of higher quality.

There were stories (on 22tcm.net, et al) of repaired/replaced ones not coming back any better as well. That's been a while, so I do hope they've solved the issue by now. And if not, I hear they have good customer service if you don't mind the inconvenience.