Customer Reviews for Rock Island Armory GI Standard FS .38 Super 5" Parkerized 10+1 CA Compliant

Great 1911 in one of my favorite calibers, .38 Super. High quality, fantastic price & fast shipping. Highly recommend. --alfredian

I lost another 38 Super +P on a move 2 years ago and I have ammo and magazines that desperately needed to be matched up with a good pistol. This RIA GI standard is built just as great as their .45ACP's. The only down side is the GI sights. When I was young they were fun. Well, I am no longer young and they give me fits to see. Off to the range we must go to see how well I can do and if they do what I think I will be getting another slide with better sights for it. If I take that route, I hope I will be able to make a swap without having to find a gunsmith to get it to work. The ones around here are almost impossible to get into. One problem at a time. I am hoping to keep everything as is except one more little trick with the sights. Rock Island Armory really does good work on them.

The gun arrived within a few days and was exactly what I was hoping for. I was shooting within 5 minutes and right away, after 1 clip I was hitting all bulls eyes at 20 ft. Very smooth action. Extremely easy to disassemble and clean. The only thing I will change are the grips, the grips that come with the gun are smooth and I like a little texture. Overall I am very happy with my purchase.

This is a good example of an early 1911 style pistol. I am interested in the caliber (38 super auto) and though I do not own a 1911 in 45acp, this is the first of two 1911 style pistols that I bought from Buds Gun Shop. I live in rural area but I cannot just go outside and fire it so neither of my 2 1911's have been fired yet.

I love my 38 super it feel great shoots well better than expected highly recommended

This handgun does what it's supposed to do. Shoots beautifully. I changed to more aggressive handgrips, original grips were too smooth for me, I couldn't feel them. No it's perfect.

Another great version of a 38 super from rock island armory. Smooth shooter and great fun on the range and priced not to break the bank.

This is a very nice firearm. I have shot about 500 rounds through it with 0 malfunctions. Shot accurate out of the box, came with a test round casing and a tag with the initials of the guy that sighted it at the factory. A touch of class. I’m impressed with RIA.

Thank you for delivering this product on time. I look forward to shooting it. It does appear as the magazine is not original. It won’t accept more than 2 shells then binds up. I will need to obtain another magazine before I can shoot it.

Have yet to test fire. Container appeared to have been opened when I looked at it at FFL. Got some snap caps. Run thru with included mag. First round did not extract but once that round was cleared the remainder worked fine. Rim of rounds were damaged. Bought 2 Chip McCormick (sp) mags which work great. Hope to shoot in the next week or two.

The 1911 is 38 super is just awesome. Accurate and reliable at a reasonable price. Thanks Bud’s!

Amazing! Looks great, runs great, smooth transaction. Waited for months to find a 38 super!

This firearm is totally awesome. Shot fantastic straight out of the box. No reliability issues. For folks that like the 1911 platform it's very difficult to beat Rock Island Armory on price, quality, value for your dollars and the very important customer service. In closing I would like to remind you of the all important lifetime warranty.

Gotta admit that I fdidnt know what to expect from an RIA. This 1911 is well fit with everything smooth operating. Barrel is , much to my surprice, well fit and is ramped with full support. Nice!! If youve not experienced super38 from a full sized all steel pistol, youre missing one of lifes pleasures. I did change all springs to new wolff variety, just because. I also detail strip and deep clean, removing any little filings , which none were found, and properly lube with synthetic gun lube. Also added grips I had on hand. Tuned extractor and all was good. Pistol was perfect at the range.

This is an amazing handgun for the price ! Gun is super tight and very accurate . Mine is in 38 super ,and shoots great ! I have a Colt also and this one is equal to or better than the Colt that I have !

first 1911 in 38 super that I have, I would have liked to buy a Colt, maybe later, although I can say that this pistol worked perfectly, I want to make several changes to make it look better, the 38 super is a very easy caliber to shoot, I already bought two additional mec - gar magazines, Rock island can be recommended, and Buds would always recommend it too

I bought this gun because I really needed something other than 9mm and I found the buds sells 38 super for a good price. The price of the gun was also hard to beat. I know people have mixed feelings about upgrading guns like this but I did put wilson combat extended controls and ditched the wood grips it comes it. Also not a fan of the a1 sights. I was surprised by the really nice trigger pull this gun has.

My first .38 Super in 44 years of shooting and collecting. Solid feel and identical to all 1911 .45acp design and function. RIA made in the Philippines with a decent reputation. Reasonable price from Buds. Not yet test fired.

This is my 4th rock island hand gun. 2 i bought from you guys, great service, no complaints from neither the guns nor buds

Excellent firearm straight out of the box. My only complaint which I knew walking in was the GI sights. If I had younger eyes, there would be no reason to replace these low GI sights. The overall action is tight. I have replaced parts to make this 1911 feel like my others, including a straight-face trigger, commander hammer, S&A Magwell/Main Spring Housing and 10-8 U-notch rear sight with a target front sight. The pistol has performed flawlessly and has proven very accurate. I bought it as a project gun....and the project continues.

Paid for the pistol arrived in 3 days. Very clean condition in a case. Very easy process. The only thing so far that I've found wrong is that every 3 shots it jams. I've tried different brands of ammo, still jams. Beautiful gun nit wont buy this brand again. Service and experience with online was great.

So far this pistol has been everything expected. It performed well right out of the box with no malfunctions. Haven't put a great number of rounds through it yet but first impression is that it's a well built pistol. Only changes I have made were the grips and MS housing. This is something that I normally do with all my 1911's. I prefer arched MS housings and thin Hogue checkered rubber grips, so I keep spares of both. I don't plan to change anything else. As usual, Bud's was a pleasure to deal with.

Really pleased with this purchase. RAI 1911 38 Super is well made. Slide to frame fit is snug. Nice Sights. Very nice parkerizing. Overall handsome handgun. Highly recommend.

I have been shooting 1911s for over 30 years. Prior guns were Colt, Springfield and one of the first Kimber's made. Even owned an early Les Baer he built when he worked out of his house in PA. So I was nervous about going to the low end of the pool. BUT I kept reading positive things about Rocks. And I never owned a .38 Super. So....
First inspection....OMG, the gun is tight! I mean really tight. Perfect slide to frame fit. Perfect barrel fitting. Decent trigger that breaks at 4.8-5.0 lbs. It feels lighter.
I like this GI spec gun. (BTW- not really "GI" it has a ramped barrel and lowered/flared ejection port-good stuff.) Glad I bought it.... The gun functions flawlessly. Just feeds, fires, and ejects. And NO hammer bite. (Was worried about that.) A bonus...once used to the GI sights I was shooting as tight as my Colt Competition Government. (A tribute to the good barrel fit.)
The only change I have made has been a set of aftermarket walnut grips with aggressive checkering.
Now...the "bad." The important machining is good but, non-critical areas like the ejection port flare and the takedown notch are crudely machined. And It is not a pretty gun. In fact it is
kind of ugly. And the parkerizing is sort of looking worn already.
But hey-it does not cost like a Colt or Dan Wesson. And it WORKS. Time after time. Buy it...enjoy it.
P.S. The .38 Super is neat. A nice recoil impulse that is easier for old wrists than .45 and flatter somehow than 9mm. Glad I tried it!

This pistol was exactly what i expected it to be and more. It is the new model that takes the para/clark ramped barrel so finding a 9mm barrel to drop in was a breeze. I continue to have amazing success with my purchases from buds and will continue to do business with them.