Rock Island Hi Cap pistols

[fp45liberator]

I'm using 4.0 titegroup under 124 plated at 1.10 with no problems.

[Ken_Bird]

Hey Guys

Forward with the RIA 9mm 22TCM Story.

First of all lets make sure we are all on the same page. The recoil springs that come with this gun are 9 # and is for use with the 9mm Barrel. The second spring is a 7 # spring and is for the 22 TCM. I talked with Dawson Precision on Friday here is what Dave said. (This information is straight from the factory)

The mags we get with the gun are actually 38 Super mags. That is so the 22 TCM shells will fit and feed. For the 9mm rounds to work best the need the 9mm spacer at the back of the magazine.

Same hold true with STI etc.

Now that Benny has worked over my gun, I also installed the spacers in my magazines. ´ven though all run fine, it did make things appear smoother and again no issues of any kind.

Have a great weekend.

[Garmil]

Hey Guys

Forward with the RIA 9mm 22TCM Story.

First of all lets make sure we are all on the same page. The recoil springs that come with this gun are 9 # and is for use with the 9mm Barrel. The second spring is a 7 # spring and is for the 22 TCM. I talked with Dawson Precision on Friday here is what Dave said. (This information is straight from the factory)

The mags we get with the gun are actually 38 Super mags. That is so the 22 TCM shells will fit and feed. For the 9mm rounds to work best the need the 9mm spacer at the back of the magazine.

Same hold true with STI etc.

Now that Benny has worked over my gun, I also installed the spacers in my magazines. ´ven though all run fine, it did make things appear smoother and again no issues of any kind.

Have a great weekend.

Just pulled out the paperwork that came with my 9mm/22tcm. Says 9mm is 12lb, tcm is 7lb.

The mags we get are different than 38 super mags, they have less material at the bullet end of the lips for feeding tcm.

They do seem to be 38 super length where the spacer pushing the follower to the front of the mag should help, are you using the sti spacers?

[Ken_Bird]

Interesting, my manual says 9# and 7 # who really knows.

Yes, I used the Stainless Steel one STI

[mwc5]

I agree with a 9lb spring for factory or minor PF reloads, currently have 9lb ISMI in my pistol.

Shot another 200 rds through the .22TCM RIA yesterday - 100% function save for slide lock with 1 rd in mag.

I am using 18 rd Para mags (thanks Ken), ordered as 9mm but don't know if they are intended for 9mm, 9/.38s, or .38s). Have Dawson base on one of them, holds 19.

Also fired more rds using an STI 140 (with spacer) and it continues to function 100%, BUT I still need to file even more on the mag body to get it drop free.

The above just an FYI in the continuing "which mags work with the RIA .22TMM/9mm" ................

Edited November 23, 2014 by mwc5

[robport]

I use the ones listed for the .22TCM on Gregcotellc.com website (about $22 a piece on there). They are Mec-Gar MGP183817B.

The package is marked PARA-ORDANCE P!8 on the front. At the bottom of the scan code, it's marked "PARAORD P18 .38 SUPER 17RD BLUE.

The only difference with the factory supplied magazine is that the TCM magazine feed lips look like they have been ground back towards the back of the magazine so that it holds only about 0.5 inches of a 9mm cartridge.

What I noticed the other day, on the factory magazine, is that if I cycled the gun slowly, by hand, with a dummy cartridge in it, the front of the cartridge rose up as it came out of the magazine, rather than nose-diving, and went right into the barrel.

On my Mec-Gar ones, they nosedived. If I pulled the slide all the way back and just let it go, they went in, but not if I didn't.

I suspect that may be what happened to me the other day at the match with a slightly out of spec (low) round (or with low powered springs). I modified the rest of my magazines this afternoon with a bench grinder (gotta be real careful with a bench grinder...just touch it, if you try it, because it goes through that metal like butter).

.

I can now load a round from each with no impact from the spring (slow cycling)....we'll see.

The spacer may mean that the gun doesn't have to cycle as much to pick up a round, but also reduces the length that the cartridge is being held by the feed lips.

From a simply geometrical standpoint, I would think having more space between the feed lips and the barrel face would be better to use less force to realign the cartridge.

That would also hit the breech face at more of an angle so the extractor tension would be more critical.

I still haven't put the .22 TCM barrel in, but I now have a bunch of magazines that should work with that cartridge!

Maybe some more magazine testing tomorrow.

I still need to do something with the magazine baseplates. Dropping them on a concrete floor bends them. I don't have a magwell, so don't need extensions.

Maybe dipping them in that rubber sold to insulate tools?

[Garmil]

From what I've read it's the feed lip width that is making the most difference. The part that is ground back and you are matching is to feed the tcm rounds more reliably. the 9mm specific model does not come with that style magazine from what I understand. If it works for you though that's great.

[M118LR]

OK I have enjoy reading the information you guys having be posting about the mags, what spring to use, and what you have be doing to fix some problems. I have the 9mm model and I bought two of the mags from RIA. At the time Greg Cote had the mags on backorder ( later I was able to get two mags from them ). I also ordered base pads from Nurich arms. The base pads did not work with the mags I got from Greg. Now I know that the mags are suppose to be Para mags. I have a Para P18 with three mags that have the Dawson base pads. I tried one of the mags in my gun and it worked. Now I have not fired it with this mag yet, but the mag will go in to the gun and the mag will lock in. I also put one of the base pads on the mags I got from Greg and it seems to work.

I live in the same area as Benny Hill of Triangle and if I have any problems I will take the pistol to him to have him look at it. Again thanks for all the info you guys have been posting.

[zimm33]

Yesterday made it 6 weeks since RIA receieved my pistol back. I emailed Ivan yesterday and heard back today that it was shipping back to me.

I responded asking if there would be an invoice of what was done to the gun and got this back

"There will be an Invoice in your package on what was done with the gun. I do know they had to replace it with a new one."

So is the invoice going to say "NEW GUN" lol....

Will update once I check it out and get it to the range!

[robport]

I posted this on the 1911 Rock Island forum, but thought it may help someone here. I've heard a lot about locking the slide back with one round left in the magazine with some of these:

I decided to install a Wilson Combat extended slide release to my TCM, since I was having to make awkward motions to hit the slide release on slide lock reloads.

When I installed it, I started having the problem, (until then, only rarely) of the slide locking back with one round in the magazine. Taking the slide off and playing with it (with "snapcaps", of course, not live rounds), I noticed that the bottom of the slide release contacted the magazine follower with a round still in the magazine. For other noobs like me, the magazine follower is what triggers the slide release to lock the slide open, when the magazine is empty.

By carefully filing off the bottom of the slide release follower contact point, with a jeweler's hand file, I got it to cycle with out locking open until all the rounds were out of the magazine.

I left it right at the edge of working, so I might have to adjust it after I shoot it. There is enough play between the magazine follower to magazine tube, that it may not be quite enough to work all of the time. Right now though, the problem is fixed, at least while cycling it by hand.

For those of you with this problem, look at that contact point. You may be able to fix it with a small hand file. Just do it carefully or you might go too far. Be careful to not create something that can break off and potentially jam in the loading path. Make sure you are filing the right surface. I almost made that mistake.

I also polished the bullet contact points in barrel entry and opened the magazine lips to the size of the magazine that came with it. I haven't had a nosedive in the 200 rounds since I did those things.

[JMike]

Just to expound on this matter a little bit more. There are two ways to address unwanted slide lock.

One method and the method you described is to modify the follower. With magazines that use a plastic follower (such as an STI magazine), you can use an Xacto or box cutter type knife to trim the follower down and then remove any burrs or rough edges with a file or something similar.

The other method is to modify the slide release by "dressing" or removing material. Gunsmiths like Brazos even sell a "dressed" slide release. But, this modification can easily be done with files and a little elbow grease or with power tools.

The amount and location of material to be removed for either modification can be easily seen by inserting a magazine into the frame with the slide release installed and the slide not on the pistol. Either modification will not affect the ability to lock the slide back manually.

I should also mention for those of you having magazine issues, Dawson sells a magazine tuning kit that is, IMHO, worth every penny it costs.

[CarlB86]

I'm also experiencing some of the angle/geometry issues in my 9mm "2011" hi cap. One thing that I noticed was that Fiochi FMJ runs 100% flawless in the gun, but my winchester white box was doing the nose dive. After inspecting the rounds, the Fiochi is actually a much more pointed round. It appears this is why it doesn't have any issues with the ramp or magazine feed angle.The winchester is more flat and steep and often nose dives causing a failure to feed.

I'll try to see if an STI magazine changes any of the feed behavior before tampering with the feed ramp or OEM magazine lips. Someone mentioned that Benny Hill did some great work on the pistols, so I may go that route.

[robport]

Playing with the feed lips helped a lot, but 45 seconds with a Dremel, cloth bullet tool, and a little polishing compound eliminated any tendency to hang up there. I hadn't believed it would make that much difference, but it did.

[mwc5]

Playing with the feed lips helped a lot, but 45 seconds with a Dremel, cloth bullet tool, and a little polishing compound eliminated any tendency to hang up there. I hadn't believed it would make that much difference, but it did.

Rob, are you referring to polishing the feed ramp ?

Also what is a "cloth bullet tool" ?

Thanks

[Phatty76]

So have you guys fingered out witch mag works for the 40? I'm in California so I need a delare that will send a 140mm

[robport]

I'm referring to the semicircular entry into the barrel chamber I guess that's a ramp, but it's not a "ramped" barrel. I also polished that little frame area they ground down to be a ramp, but I don't believe the bullets hit there unless they are angled down coming out of the magazine...at least mine don't.

By cloth bullet tool, I'm just referring to that bullet shaped felt polishing head that comes in almost every dremel tool kit. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 the diameter of the barrel. It's for polishing curved surfaces.

[mwc5]

I'm referring to the semicircular entry into the barrel chamber I guess that's a ramp, but it's not a "ramped" barrel. I also polished that little frame area they ground down to be a ramp, but I don't believe the bullets hit there unless they are angled down coming out of the magazine...at least mine don't.

By cloth bullet tool, I'm just referring to that bullet shaped felt polishing head that comes in almost every dremel tool kit. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 the diameter of the barrel. It's for polishing curved surfaces.

THANKS

[Garmil]

I fought the jamming issues in my 9mm for a while and didn't find a good fix. Today I only had loads for my cz which I load extra short

1.090 blue bullets 125 gr round nose.

The gun Shot perfectly for the first time ever.

[Skeeter190]

Im thinking these guns like to be loaded short to run good, my 40 loaded past 1.130 wont run. Plunk test and started loading 1.120 and she runs like a champ.

[jcc7x7]

Are the 40's ramped barrels?

[mertbl]

I'm loading at 1.1 with the same 125 grain blue bullet. Runs like a top with unmodified sti magazines.

[TFBG]

I have a RIA 51782 ordered and will be here in a couple of days. What type of holsters are you guys using for these full rail RIA pistols? I am currently using Blade tech in USPSA now and like it. Also any suggestions on mag holders?

[Garmil]

I got a blade tech sped rig for a full rail sti that works good. And blade tech p18 competition mag holders that also work great.

[RangerTrace]

I have the 22TCM/9mm combo in this platform, and I'm a bit frustrated. I have the rear sight buried and I'm still hitting two inches high at 15 yards.

I think this needs to go back to RIA.

My nephew bought one of these and is getting POI 18" high at 25 yards with the rear site bottomed out.

[Steve RA]

You can probably get a new - higher - front sight from Dawson easier and quicker than sending it back. Get a real tall one, set your rear sight up about 10 clicks from being bottomed out and file the front until you get POA/POI. Then you can use a permanent black magic marker to cover the sight where you filed it.