Getting into the modern double stack 1911 and 2011 space is expensive. Staccatos are costly, and the supposed budget-friendly Springfield Prodigy is more than $1,000. If you’re looking for a duty pistol or competitive design for high-level competition, a Staccato, Atlas Gunworks, etc., are guns that are good to go. However, if you’re simply looking for a practical, reliable, and enjoyable double-stack M1911, then Rock Island Armory has you covered with the Rock Ultra FS HC 10mm.
Let’s break that name down a bit. The FS stands for full size, and the HC stands for high capacity. The 10mm is obvious; it’s a handgun that chambers 10mm Automatic.
The Rock Ultra series are double-stack M1911 designs with solid frames. Budget-wise, you can get a double-stack 10 mm 1911 for less than $650.
Rock Island Armory produces these guns out of the Philippines, which allows them to be sold at a lower price point. The Rock Island Armory Rock Ultra FS HC 10mm is a bit much to say, so we’ll call it the Rock Ultra to save my keyboard’s keys.
Rock Ultra: Specs and Features
- Barrel Length: 5 inches
- Overall Length: 8.74 inches
- Overall Height: 5.51 Inches
- Weight: 2.5 Pounds
- Caliber: 10mm
- Capacity: 16 rounds
The Rock Ultra uses the Series 70 as its base. That’s important to know because it seems like recently, people discovered that Series 70 guns are not drop-safe. This gun does not have the same drop-safe features as the Modern Series 80.
The Rock Ultra comes with two 16-round magazines. The gun has a high-visibility front sight made from a red fiber optic. Rock Island went with a very nice adjustable LPA rear sight that can be adjusted for wind and elevation.
The trigger and hammer are skeletonized, and the trigger features an adjustable over-travel stop. An ambidextrous safety is a nice touch, and it’s a massive shelf for easy engagement. The grips are aggressively textured G10. At the bottom of the grip sits a small magwell for speedy reloads.
The Rock Ultra lacks an optics cut and rail. That said, it’s a 10mm that costs less than $700, and these are not features I’d expect at this price point. The RIA Rock Ultra seems to be a solid bargain. Let’s check out the performance.
The Rock Ultra: First Impressions
The Rock Island Armory Rock Ultra FS HC is a big gun. No fear — they simply embraced it. The grip is 1.3 inches wide! That’s huge, but surprisingly, it feels great in my hand. It is super wide at the bottom but narrows out near the top of the gun. I have big hands, and I wear 2XL-sized gloves, which influences my impression. It’s not going to be friendly with folks who have smaller hands.
It’s thick and weighs 2.5 pounds empty! If you run dry, you still have a hammer. On a double stack 10mm, I don’t mind the extra weight. The weight helps cut recoil, and the 10mm is known for having a fairly stout recoil impulse with heavy-duty loads. I’m not trying to pack this in an IWB rig and rock and roll for concealed carry.
The controls are all easy to reach, and everything clicks and pops nicely. The gun has a huge beavertail across the back that encourages a nice high grip. The trigger guard doesn’t have a supported undercut, but I didn’t get a roughly rubbed knuckle. The G10 grips are aggressive, and you feel it.
The sights are easy to adjust, and you only need a small flathead tool. Moving the sights up and down, left and right, takes no time. The front sight is dovetailed into the slide and can be easily replaced. The magazines fly out when the button’s pressed. You can see why the grip is so wide when you look at the magazines.
To The Range
I mainly grabbed 180 grain 10mm, moving at 1,200 feet per second. That’s a fairly tame load for plinking and shooting. It’s also prevalent and about as cheap as 10mm will ever get. I also had a box of 180-grain JHPs that move at 1,300 feet per second for a little more of that legendary 10mm power.
Neither proved too hot to handle. The FMJs were soft shooting, and the Rock Ultra’s wide grip helped dissipate recoil. It might be a little snappy like most 10mms, but there is no pain in the hand. The same goes for the slightly faster defensive ammo. You learn quickly that 10mms are not forgiving of weak grips. I barreled down with my support hand, and it helped tame the snap.
Sighting In
The high visibility front sight is a nice touch for quick shooting. It’s very small, and when combined with an adjustable rear sight, you can get quite precise — precise enough that a 10-inch gong at 50 yards can be hit regularly. It’s not as good as a red dot, but it’s impressive. You can use the fiber optic for up-close speed shooting, almost like a red dot.
I can focus on the target and just keep the slightly blurry fiber optic of the Rock Ultra in my sights and get solid hits. The small size of the fiber optic helps with accuracy dispersion when you don’t keep a solid focus on it.
As you’d expect from a 1911, the single-action trigger is very light and very short, which makes it easy to rock long strings of fire rapidly. With decent control, I had no problems landing double taps on a 10-inch gong at 15 yards in less than a second from the low ready.
I used a Safariland 576 GLS as my holster of choice. It fit the gun perfectly and worked great at the range. I was able to draw and get a single shot on a two-inch target in about 1.5 seconds. The only problem I ran into was the grip safety. As I started drawing, I realized my grip was a bit too high, and the grip safety wasn’t fully disengaged.
I had to retrain my hand and draw to clamp down on the grip safety. I don’t have much experience with 1911s and tend to dislike grip safeties as a whole.
Slinging 10mm
The Rock Ultra handled both rounds with total reliability. With 420 rounds of 10mm, the gun never choked. I do have a concern with the magazines. They seemed thin and the plastic mag plate didn’t inspire confidence. I shot over soft ground and didn’t run into problems when reloading, but I’d be curious how they handle repeated drops on concrete with reloads.
The only problem I had was with the front sight. It began drifting out of the dovetail slot. I removed the sight entirely, and it slid off with ease. I applied a little Loc-Tite and slid it back into position. It didn’t have any problems after that, but it’s something to look at.
The Mighty 10mm
Everything about this gun is big — it’s caliber, it’s grip, its magazine capacity. It embraces the largeness factor. For some, that might be an ergonomic turn-off, but I enjoy it. I like having 16 rounds of 10mm on tap. I also appreciate the grip size and the comfort it provides while shooting. The only thing not big about the gun is the price point.
It makes dipping your toes into the world of double-stack M1911s possible without going full hog. The Rock Ultra in 10mm is a great way to dive into that world. It’s a ton of fun, reliable, and surprisingly accurate. The RIA Rock Ultra gets two thumbs up from me.
