Very well. My experience with these pistols is that they come "in the rough" out of the box. They might be a good choice for a "do it yourselfer" gunsmith trying to keep down costs, and where time is no object.
One can pretty much count on a very heavy, rough trigger pull and possibly some accuracy issues resulting from poor fitting parts. Unless things have changed recently, the last one I worked on was not throated or polished either. It also took me quite a bit of stoning (on both hammer and sear) to finally get the trigger to about 3 3/4lbs. I think I did a pretty good job on that one since it started out over 7lbs.
A former student of mine is always bugging me to do work on his Rock Island for him, but he doesn't want to pay for the work either, so I haven't gotten around to really messing with it too much. He has had accuracy issues. At first, he thought he'd throw on some night sights and kill two birds with one stone - so to speak, but the accuracy problem (4" down and left no matter what, or who, at 25yds) was not cured. I think it's a barrel fitting/bushing issue perhaps? Of course it could also be a poor dovetail job on the slide. As I said, I haven't really taken a close look yet.
If I had a mind to purchase one of these, I'd insist on the seller allowing me to completely break down the gun first. I'd check the fit on everything and try to get some idea what I might be in for. If it was used, I'd definitely have to shoot it first.
Being the way I am though, I'd probably spend about $200 more and get the cheapest Kimber or Springfield, or something similar, since most of the work is already done on those and the barrels are very good right out of the box. While the Rock Island's are inexpensive, generally speaking, I can't honestly say that I believe they are a good value if someone plans to shoot them much or needs an accurate pistol.
Just my opinion.
