Two Great Upgrades for Rock Island 1911 Pistols

Rock Island 1911 pistols are among the best 1911 clones in the market. Reliable, affordable, and faithfully capturing many of the details of original 1911 pistols, they are crowd favorites and have been for some time.

But stock Rocks don’t offer all the bells and whistles they could, and each pistol is a blank slate for accessorization. This short post will cover two of the best upgrades you could make to just about any given model.

Night Sights

Some Rock Island 1911 pistols, like the 8rd Rock Ultra FS .45 ACP, come with fiber optic sights. Others, like the more classic GI Standard, come with plain iron sights.

Either of these stands to be upgraded favorably to night sights.

While fiber optic sights are suitable in low-light conditions, they are not useful in the dark. Night sights, which are treated with radioluminescent compounds like tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, are.

They glow in the dark and have a half-life of 12 years or so, which means your night sights will keep going strong for more than a decade after you get and install them.

They also don’t betray your position - like a laser or a weapon-mounted light (although these are also good upgrades) and they can vastly improve your accuracy in the dark while keeping you concealed.

Also unlike lights, lasers, and many optics, night sights don’t require batteries so they can never suddenly die on you. They’re also simple by nature, and not fragile - not to mention they won’t cost an arm and a leg, like many optics.

Now here’s the strongest argument for upgrading your Rock Island 1911 pistol (regardless of model) with night sights: there’s simply not a good reason not to.

There is no advantage to leaving your current sights on your Rock Island 1911. Night sights outperform them in all conditions (given both bright and low ambient light) and function just the same.

And, this is one of the most affordable Rock Island 1911 pistol upgrades you can make, all things considered.

Not to mention, if you do upgrade your Rock with a red dot, you may be able to use the night sights as co-witness anyway.

Just one note: this might require a trip to a gunsmith.

Compensators

There is another upgrade you can make to your Rock Island 1911 pistol that will significantly improve performance - the thing is it’s going to take a little more work. It’s installing a compensator.

Now, a preliminary word, here. Rocks are mostly made with unthreaded barrels. So to make this upgrade, you either need to swap the barrel for a threaded version, or take the thing to a gunsmith.

But if you can do one of those two things, it’ll be a lot easier for you to make this upgrade.

So why would you want to do it?

Well, if you’re not familiar, compensators are muzzle devices that redirect gasses at the muzzle of the gun. For the most part, compensators, or “comps” redirect gasses upwards.

This completely flips the script on muzzle jump and felt recoil.

By redirecting the gasses upwards, the compensator not only cuts felt recoil significantly, but completely shifts the vector of the forces, pushing the muzzle down instead of up.

A compensator can substantially slash felt recoil by as much as 50%, perhaps even more, while also nearly eliminating muzzle flip.

For you, that means less shooter fatigue. It also means you’ll be able to handle harder kicking cartridges like .45 ACP with less worry.

Moreover, the reduction in muzzle flip means you’ll be able to make faster, more accurate follow up shots, since your sights will not jump off target as dramatically in response to recoil.

So you can shoot for longer with less fatigue and become more proficient with a shorter learning curve.

Among all potential Rock upgrades, this is one of the most impactful.

Other Rock Island 1911 Pistol Upgrades?

In case you were wondering, there are lots of other RIA pistol upgrades you could also make, including:

• More comfortable, overmolded grips.
• Lighter slides with cutouts that reduce reciprocating mass.
• Heavier guide rods that stabilize the muzzle.
• Weapon-mounted lights (WMLs) that give you better visibility in the dark.
• Laser sights that allow for more instinctive shooting.
• And much more - though these are some of the better ones.

Here for a Rock Island 1911 Pistol?

If you’re in the market for a 1911 from Rock Island Armory, you’re in the right place. We carry a ton of Rocks (not just 1911 clones) at competitive prices, along with a wide range of parts and shooting accessories. We also carry pistol frames and 1911 build kits, too.

Take a look through our collection and if you have questions for us before you buy get in touch with us at 610-250-3960.