I wanted a 3" Officer model after seeing a Colt Defender Ultralight in a local gun shop. Before plunking that kind of cash on anything I always like to know what I'm getting into first, so I joined up on a few 1911 forums and started my research. After reading a lot of posts over the past few days, I realized I didn't need to spend $1,000 for the Colt when the RIA Combat Tactical sounded like it would do the same job, just as well, for waaaay less money. I told my friend about the RIA's (he hadn't heard about them either) and the reviews I read about the quality for the price, he was sold on it and had to have one too.
So after looking for a place to buy a RIA CS Tactical locally and online with no luck I decided to check the gun show in Robstown, TX today. Only one vendor had any there, and me and my friend both got one each while we could find them. This vendor was selling them for $432, which was higher than I had seen online, but at least these were actually available.
Here's a pic of the RIA Compact Tactical in my hand for size reference. I usually wear XL gloves and have fairly long fingers to give you an idea of the scale.
PS: The little black clump under the barrel in the pics fell out of the gun when I pulled the slide back for the first time. It's squishy soft and looks like a piece of an oily cleaning swab. This gun is getting a full teardown and cleaning before any rounds are put through it so it's no big deal to me. However, if someone else had that kind of crud in the gun and didn't remove it before firing it, there could be some problems. Just a heads up.
August 8th 2008 7:11 AM
