Rock Island Armory Lever Action .410 ~ First Impressions 

As always I'm keeping it real with this one. Unfortunately sometimes "keeping it real" doesn't make for the most exciting videos to watch I always present the items to you all exactly as they are. No editing or fluffing and buffing to make them look good. They either perform or they don't. You guys can take the information I provide and do what you will with that. I hope ALL of you are doing well!

Man, I got pleasantly surprised to see Buffalo this morning - and was even happier when it was a lever gun review.

Sure glad to see you back on the Tube. It seems like it's been forever since you put out a video.

It acts like it has weak or sprung fingers. Just the opinion of an old man. Really good looking shotgun right there. Probably an easy but highly unnecessary fix on a new firearm in that price range. Great work yet again buddy!! Keep doing what you do so we can keep doing what we do. Good to see ya on here.

Glad to see you are still going strong.🐃

A lever-action shotgun is at least something out of the ordinary! Kudos to them for that, otherwise the gun didn't impress!

Nice to see you back on the range! A no bs review is greatly appreciated 👍

Thanks for the honest review! My thoughts exactly 1 failure to extract ,no big deal, repeated failure to extract ,Buy a Henry!

Good to see you, Buffalo! Thanks for another great video.

Hi Buffalo,good to see you. That's why I enjoy all your videos,no cut's and everything is as it was and a honest review and talk. I agree with you spend some more and get the Henry.🤠🇺🇲

Nice shirt you got there a Big Buff. I worked for them from 1996 to 2002. Some of the most interesting work I’ve ever done.

Oh, you’re back! Awesome!

Many thanks. It makes me consider the Henry. You make everything you shoot desirable to have. Well done as always.

Always a great job, brother. Straight forward and honest. Very solid presentation, as is usual. Miss your videos. God bless all here. 😊😊😊😊

Glad to see you back making a video hope all is well

Great to see you in front of the camera again, Buff, with a firearm in your hands. 👍 The little RIA .410 lever gun has some excellent features, but its failure to reliably extract keeps it from being an attractive choice. As always, your common-sense explanation of The Greater Good is appreciated, and so is the banjo music!

👍👍 great job on the review Buffalo appreciate all your reviews and videos.

Great video as always !

Welcome back.

I was wondering about you were doing recently. Good to see all's well. 💥🇺🇸👍🙏✝️💪

Will you "re-visit" the RIA after it gets a good strong spring in the extractor? I think that type of extractor requires a good strong stiff one in any firearm. Also should be easy to repair/replace instead of sending it back to RIA. Usually just pop out a roll-pin. So yeah, stronger and longer spring, and shoot it again. Enjoyed the video, as always.

Good to see you doing videos my friend. Know you have been super busy with the campground. Kind of annoyed I just got notified about the video....RU-vid lol. As always love your videos and good, honest feedback. 🇺🇸

Gla d to see you back ! Allso glad you didn’t fall in again !,

Buffalo, good to see you back. For the price of $799, pay a bit more and get a made in USA Henry, much better quality .

Good honest review

So, some random thoughts on lever action shotguns... First of all, thanks for the video, I always enjoy yours. Shotguns have 2 major (mechanical) differences from rifles. 1. The cartridges get _longer_ when fired, not shorter. 2. The chamber pressures are nowhere near as great, this is why shotshells are made of plastic or paper, not metal. The metal rim serves only to prevent the extractor tearing through the plastic/paper. The lever action, by mean of it's mechanical advantage, offers great initial extraction force, wonderful for getting a higher pressure rifle round out of the chamber. But this mechanical advantage requires a longer lever throw, the arc of which is greater than the length of the shell...and of course, the .410 shell (or any shotgun shell) is longer when it comes OUT then when it was when it went in. In short, a shotgun _doesn't need_ the mechanical advantage that a lever action offers (this is also why the extractor is small on this gun) For a _shotgun_ a slide action is better. The slide action doesn't have a lot of mechanical advantage, but it requires no movement longer than shell itself. For shotguns it works great...and is MUCH faster, intuitive and efficient. In the real world, this means that slide action shotguns are very much more common than slide action rifles, and lever action rifles are very much more common than lever action shotguns. FWIW...when Browning built the Model 1887 lever action shotgun, he had asked Winchester to wait for the slide action he was developing. Winchester wanted a lever action because...Winchester! 6 years later, Winchester introduced Brownings Model 1893, which became the Model 1897 and the rest is history. I just wouldn't recommend any lever action shotgun, slide action is better for shotguns. All that said...whoever is making these could turn their talents to making clones of other Winchester _rifles_ and be even better. Clones of Winchester Models 55 and 64 using the basic Model 94 action would be great! How about a Model 65 clone on the 1892 action? Offer them in some of the older cartridges...such as the .218 Bee, .219 Zipper? Hope you and your family are well, Buffalo!

Nice to see you Buffalo! All the best to you my friend!!!

Too bad about that extractor. Those turkey shells sure do the job! Good video!

Awesome GOOD MORNING to you Buffalo!!!! Great to see you out and about the range again. Thanks for the review. Too bad the problem appeared. I love my Henry AXE. It is soooo much fun to shoot. Been thinking of getting the full-size Henry 410, but had looked at this one. May check out a few other reviews to see if your problem is universal to the model. Thanks for sharing.

I won a Winchester 410 back around 2000 that had three gold turkeys on it. It wasn’t threaded for jokes, and I thought what a morphodite and traded it off at the time wish I would’ve kept it.

FTE is a pretty big deal, RI needs to do some work on it. A stronger spring in the extractor would be a temporary fix, maybe it's as simple as some polishing on the surfaces. I agree with the "do not recommend" advice.

Glad to see that you're not shackled to the campground. This video was worth the wait. Looks like that particular gun was built Friday afternoon or Monday morning. (Since it was built in Turkey, make that Thursday & Sunday. :D )

Hey Buddy,always good to see a new video from you.I also have a soft spot for 410.But when I start to think about it,over the past 12 years that I've been on YT,if I remember correctly,I may only have 1 or 2 videos about a firearm chambered in 410.I certainly need to change that.Maybe RIA needs to redesign the extractor a little bit.Maybe they'll get it corrected over time.

Extractor spring is week

Great video thank you.

Thank you for the link on those turkey targets!

That extractor is a problem. Nice shotgun though. Thanks for another honest video B.

👍Good honest review

Good honest review as always. RIA should talk to Kentucky Ballistics about licensing his "Just put a thumb in it!" catch phrase..

both the Henry and the RI are great.

Hey! Hey! There he is. Hope all is well.

The big RIA in white on the side kinda foreshadowed the results. 410 lever sounds fun though.

I find that if you run a lever faster they feed better. When you were shooting the clays it seemed to run fine..

Its certainly a cute little gun; if the extractor issue can be resolved, its a keeper.

The extractor issue could be specific to that particular rifle. I have 2 Winchester Trapper 94 Carbines in .45 Colt. One has never missed a beat extracting rounds right out of the box. The other had issues right out of the box (about 1 in 5 rounds hung up). My cousin (who is a gunsmith/Winchester dealer) took it fixed it by simply working the depth and angle of the hook on the extractor. Compared to the extractor in the other rifle it appeared to be a tiny bit shallower and a bit off angle. A couple lite spies of a fine file corrected the issue and has never had a round hang since. My 94 Trapper Carbines in .44 mag and .357 mag also never had an issues. However, the same thing happened with my 94 .22 and 94 .22 mag. The .22 short/long/long rifle has always cycled great. The .22 mag would hang about every 3rd round. Same fix was applied to it as on the .45 Colt and the same result was achieved. Not a single hang up since. Just something to consider and take a look at.

Hopefully not a design problem and just a one off....Nice share and info vid....Good stuff....

As i mentioned to another viewer in the comments, this gun kinda goes against their philosophy of the everyday person being able to afford their guns because they try to keep them at about $500.00. Fix the spring issue and reduce the price, and they wouldn't be able to keep these in stock. I recently picked up their version of the Tac-14 for $250.00. I can't wait to get to the range!

You think that slot in the bolt and the extractor might need slickin up. I also like your spring theory. I'd still like to see these 3" chambered.

Here's your neighborly algorithm offering

It's a bit sad to see flaws like this that were solved over a hundred years ago.

Sounds like a very fixable defect, but a weak (or missing?) ejector spring is so basic and easy to check that it undermines confidence in the QC in general.

Thanks for the review. It a bummer when you get a new gun and it doesn’t function. Please update us on your friend’s customer service experience.

Yep. "We've done enough of that". My multi shot .410 is an old Stevens model 58B bolt action with a 3 round detachable magazine that was my grandfathers rabbit gun in the 1940s.

I have a gforce 410 that is very similar and has the same hiccup with the extractor, heavy oiling helped it but i think it needs a better spring

Good review Buff, I too like the .410 bore. But, this constant FTE at $799 is unacceptable. I wish someone would make a 3" repeater, I wouldn't mind a nice, light pump ( that works) at a reasonable price!...I'll keep dreaming (lol)...Until then, I'll continue using my Rossi MP single in 3" for grins.

Great SQUIRREL getting machine..... when it runs right. 👍🐿👍

If Chase sends it back for a new extractor, would you do a redo evaluation? Good to see you, again.

I have a new rossi brawler 45colt / 410single shot pistol I've reloaded some beastie loads in and using sizes 8x2mm and 8.8x1.9 mm o rings shooting 45acp which I reload 800 _ 825 fps getting chamber pressures at or above 15,000 psi 45colt pressures. the 410 shotgun shells are so high I haven't tried 410 yet . 410 is hard to find and expensive in my part of NC. Papa wishing you well 😊

Good lookin piece, shame about the ejection issues.

Apart from this gun in particular, I'm actually most interested in how effective that .410 bird load appears to be. "Lightweight lever-action shotguns" is a whole category of firearms I had not paid any attention to before.

14:48 - Noe that's what I would call a "cooked turkey" 🦃, ✅

What a shame that 'quality control' ( if there is any on these RIA rifles) didn't catch this glaring problem BEFORE it was sent on to dealers. I hope your friend Chase can get this extractor issue cleared away sooner rather than later and then, hopefully, you can show us what was done and how it operates after the repair.

You missed all those watersnakes.😂👍🇨🇿

I had higher hopes for this. I liked the RIA .38 wheel gun. Maybe just some lube or break-in period would help. 😢 By the by, sooo good to see you again! Always an enjoyable show. Thanks.

Rock island has never been top shelf , buffalo, you know that. Different shells might make all the difference. Not telling you anything you don't know. Great video. Thanks

Good review...maybe a spring failure...or maybe....

Great to see you still making videos Buffalo. That extractor looks like a weak point in the RIA gun. I will stick to Henry, cost almost the same and made in the USA.

Gobble gooble! 😊

I like it I wouldn't mind putting in a few bucks for it to perform better

Thanks for the video too expensive for a hang up

I love lever-action for nostalgia, and like 410 to play with(not much for hunting), but sadly most 410 repeaters, be it lever-action, pump or auto will have some operating issues, in my experience. The reason why I prefer break-actions in 410.

That's pretty cool. The lever action has become very popular. On a side note, I've got a new millwright working with me that could pass for your brother. He even talks like you. So I think about you every day. 😆

Sold me on the Salt Creek TSS ammo...

Was just thinking the other day……. Been awhile since I saw a Buffalo video.

Yeah, that's to be a lot of fun when it gets hot. To put your thumb on there

Beautiful gun, Buffalo...but bro...410? I aint gonna rain on your 410 parade.

Don't care for the white Billboad sign on the receiver, but still ,looks better than the Henry ! If it's new let it work itself out !

It is definitely good looking but the extractor needs a stronger spring by the looks of it. Not a biggie. Shoots pretty good but the price is a bit steep but not overboard.

Jeez that price is quite expensive for a Turkish shotgun, we get lots of them here in Australia and they don't cost like that (once exchange rate factored in) and ours are 12g. That extraction issue is a deal breaker.

Sure would like to try one but RIA products are skecy, Great review Buff.

I need to move where you folks live, cause here on the west coast we can't have anything worth a damn. "Where does he get all those wonderful toys?"

Maybe a bit of lube on the extractor and manipulate by hand a few times. Then wipe off the gritty oil that comes out. Repeat until clean. It shouldn't be there on a new firearm, manufacturing burrs and machining marks should be smoother than that.

I know bear creek make a .410 mag fed AR , both as a upper and a complete . $467

I'll bet theres burrs in the extractor spring channel that are hanging the spring up.

Keep those .410 hulls! Reloading those is like printing your own money in today's world.

Why won’t ammo companies make more 410 ammo? Hard to find and expensive. They charge more them and use less components to make them. If I owned an ammo company,410’s would be what I would make!!

I purchased this lever action, i have problems with the shells exctracting its super tight to load a shell and extract the shell.

Needs trip to the gunsmith or a quick diy projects.

Did you say you were breaking this gun in for a friend? Is it possible that there is some of the manufacturing gunk in the extractor area gumming up the spring? Always wonder about the proper cleaning and lubing of a new gun, as I have seen some new ones that come pretty gunked up from the factory.

410 shells are near impossible to find I still haven’t figured out why !

It is a nice looking shotgun but failing to eject is a big issue. Im wondering how Customer Service would respond. Should be an easy fix but how long to get it taken care of or replaced? Other brands Ive noticed have feeding issues. Appreciate your info & time. 👍🙏🇺🇸

Nice gun just needs a little Rem

I love lever actions, sorry it doesn’t look promising.

Pretty sweet shoot'en iron. Does it shoot 45 Long Colt as well?

I'd be curious if a new extractor/spring fixes it.

Henry’s reputation precedes it.

Might just need a stiffer extractor spring

As the saying goes you usually get what you pay for

👍🏻

As the shells float down your creek?...