Rock Island Armory, part of the Philippine-based Armscor group, is the king of inexpensive but decent 1911s and they have been branching out lately into other models cooked up in-house. Their latest attempt at something fresher than a 112-year-old John Browning design is the RIA 5.0.
While at first you would just note that it uses CZ75 rails for a low bore axis and think it is another Archon Type B or Dan Wesson DWX, further inspection shows that it has a squared barrel and an innovative new Ram Valve System to control recoil.
Further, rather than being made in the PI, it comes from Cedar City, Utah, a quiet little college town of 37,000 residents that is closer to Las Vegas than Salt Lake City and best known for its Shakespeare Festival.The Cedar City connection is curious. We checked the ATF’s 2020 AFMER report, the most recent available, and found just two manufacturers in Cedar City that year, both of which seemed to be custom operations that only cranked out guns in the single digits.
Speaking of which, RIA says they are making just 300 of these pistols, for now at least. With a price of just $999, the plot thickens.
Regardless, we will find out more at SHOT Show and let you know.
