[gnappi]

Buy Springfield, Colt, anything but Armscor RIA

Well, I bought a beautiful nickle 1911 in .38 super at a gun show, and other than some serious stiffness in the safety which I attributed to their copious use of sticky preservative I brought it home. Well, to make the story weird, after cleaning the gunk off (actually the preservative is a good thing) I noticed why the safety was STILL stiff... RIA used a VERY out of spec plunger tube (in height) and I sent it off to Armscor for repair. They paid shipping as they considered it a safety (operational) issue. Kudos to their reply there.

After a bit more than a month (not bad turn around actually) I got it back today with the notation (CAPS ARE THEIRS):

"CUSTOMER CONCERNS HAVE BEEN VERIFIED AND REPAIRED, NEW PARTS INSTALLED AND FITTED, TUNED, AND TEST FIRED"

I sent it with a pic (below) showing the difference / relationship between a standard Colt safety (on the right) and its relationship to the plunger and a pic of the RIA (on the left in the pic) super.

Today I called Armscor and was asked more than once, if the safety now worked and did I shoot it.

EGADS, what they DID do to "repair" it was to grind down the thumb safety, bore a detent in it and send it back. It STILL is way off center though technically it does work, at least for now. I explained that the nickle was ground off the safety, and no standard 1911 safety would now work, and insisted that the parts replacing fellow (I wouldn't call him a gunsmith though did use a few choice descriptions of him... something like like ex burger flipper... I know better with honey than vinegar ) should have replaced the plunger tube and been done with it.

Well they said they'd look at it again and would send me a return label. No label came as promised and what I consider is a dangerous "repair" for a self defense weapon (or any other purpose) is not suitable for use without my having the plunger tube replaced.

I carry every gun to the range that I train with so I can run errands and not leave a firearm in the truck and this one is IMO no longer suitable to shoot without my investing in after market parts... obviously at my expense AND voiding their obviously useless "warranty".

So, generally I pooh pooh buyers to whine about trivial scratches and machine marks inside the frame and slide or minor fit and finish issues (which this super is a beautiful example of well done) but I think I'm not being unfair saying this is an extremely stupid tack for them to take.

 

[gnappi]

Probably not much they can do if all the other plunger tubes in their bins are the same way.

A few years ago I had one of those 1911-A1 clones made by CZ-USA. A very nice and well-built pistol... aside from a bad thumb safety that allowed sear movement if you pulled the trigger. I sent it back to them, expecting them to replace the thumb safety. Nope, all they did was peen the contact surface and send it back to me. I contacted them again and raised hell, but they simply blew me off after telling me they didn't have any spare thumb safeties on hand (it was a limited-run pistol). After a few weeks the peening job they did worked itself down and the issue returned. I eventually replaced the thumb safety myself and decided not to ever trust CZ's customer service again.

Of course, now they own Colt.

Back in the day, I worked at IBM in the Development labs on the PC, later on after retiring I worked at an electronics company which made RAID controllers.

At both if EVER there were a verified concern for safety the assembly line would be shut down, parts in stock or work in process would be updated, AND corrected parts AND corrected assemblies would be scavenged from the first available parts earmarked for the assembly line and shipped to replace / repair any faulty parts in the field, failing that an "element replacement" of the entire device would be sent.

Why any company would risk the damages from a faulty product is beyond me. I guess like the auto industry, many other companies have actuarial analysts to kick the can down the road until the SHTF. Seen any attorney ads for paraquat, talcum powder, ranitidine, hernia patches etc. lately? I'll bet many of these mass lawsuits are the result of actuarial analyst's work