I started concealed carry with a full size 1911 31 years ago but drifted away to a Hi Power for over a decade before switching to a Kimber Ultra Carry, then a CZ 75 and eventually a CZ 75 Compact.    I like the 1911, but I also recognize the benefits of grater magazine capacity and my ability to make more A zone hits in X amount of time with a 9mm than with a .45 ACP.    Still, the lure of the 1911 and it's superb trigger and short reset is strong and I've never been able to do double taps and failure to stop drills as well with a Hi Power or a CZ 75 due to their longer trigger resets and generally grittier triggers.

I started looking at various 9mm 1911s, in part because of the available 10 round magazines minimize the capacity loss in the single stack 1911 - 10+1 compared to 14+1 in the CZ 75 Compact and 15+1 for the Hi Power.      

I picked up a Ruger SR1911 in 9mm this weekend after comparing it head to head with Springfield Armory's Range Officer Compact and Lightweight Champion pistols.  

The quality and the crisp 4 pound trigger on the SR1911, were better than the Springfields, the reviews were positive and the price was about $100 less than the Springfield pistols to boot.  I also am not a fan of fiber optic sights that come standard on the Springfields but that was mostly a moot issue as my carry guns all get tritium night sights.

One feature I like on the Ruger SR1911 9mm is the length of the barrel mounted feed ramp and the depth it extends into the frame. This is important on an aluminum framed 1911 as the frame otherwise takes a beating in this area and it's a common feature on aluminum framed 1911s. Below are the feed ramps from a steel framed 1911, a Kimber Ultra Carry and the SR1911:



Ruger's feed ramp extends about 3/32 to 1/8" deeper than the feed ramp on my Kimber Ultra Carry and while it doesn't down like much it's important as this area gets beaten hard as the round count added up.  Below is the frame of my high round count Kimber Ultra Carry showing the peening that has occurred just below the barrel mounted feed ramp, which has actually rolled over and created a slight lip on the frame.  It doesn't create a symptoms, but a little extra length to the feed ramp is a nice addition on the Ruger and will probably prevent it from looking like the frame on my Kimber (The rest of the wear on the Kimber's feed ramp is due to the use of magazines with exposed followers that peck at the feed ramp, back before I figured out what was happening and stopped using them.) :



It's a little early to say definitively whether the deeper ramp will eliminate the issue, but after 240 rounds there is not a mark on the Ruger's frame:




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I normally don't make any changes to a firearm until I've shot it a bit, but I've shot my various 1911s enough over the years to know what to know what I like and what I don't, and I didn't like Ruger's thin rubber grips.  The rubber compound was nice - a good balance between too soft and not tacky enough, but the thin profile didn't fit my hand well.  And I had a few set of wood grips on hand already so it got a set of walnut grips.  

I took it to the range today and put 240 rounds through it.  It had a single jam early in the process, putting a 124 gr XTP into the top of the chamber, but was flawless for the rest of the session with various round nose and truncated cone bullets as well as another 124 gr 100 XTPs.    

Accuracy was excellent at social shooting distances with this 20 round group at 5 yards:  




The 15 yard and 25 yard groups were ok as well and probably show my limits more than the pistol's limits:





If there is a negative it's that the last round in the standard 9 round Ruger magazines is a bit hard to load, and you have to be very careful to get the round seated all the way aft in the magazine.  I suspect that short seating a round in the magazine was the cause of the single misfeed I experienced.

Another minor negative was point of impact being slightly left of point of aim, but the front and rear sights are drift adjustable so it's an easy fix if you have a sight pusher.   Like the Kimber pistols I have owned, the sights are very solidly set in their dove tails.

In any case, I'm installing a set of Trijicon night sights this evening and I'll re-zero sometime this week.

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The SR1911 9mm weighs 26.4 oz empty and 33 oz fully loaded.   That compares to 29 oz empty for my Kimber Ultra Carry, despite it's 3" barrel and shorter slide and grip.  The Springfield RO Compact is similarly heavy and I suspect much of the difference is in the full length guide rod and dual spring design those pistols use.   After replacing my Ultra Carry's recoil spring many times at $45-$50 a pop, I like the inexpensive, traditional single spring of the SR1911.

I found the stock recoil spring worked well with my self defense loads, based on felt recoil, reliability and the ejection pattern, but I've got 16 and 18 pound Colt Commander springs to play with as well.

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I added the Trijicon sights and while I had my doubts initially, I like the looks.  The sight picture is great and the rear sight is very effective if you ever need to rack the slide one handed by pressing the sight against your belt or the seam on your jeans:

Nice, thanks for the report.

Nice, thanks for the report.

+1.

If Ruger made a full-size 9mm version I'd be all over it.

I'd like to see that as well as a full size 1911 in .38 Super.