I bought one a couple weeks ago as after 30 years of liking the idea of a 9mm 1911 but hearing complaints of un-reliability, I decided to try one for myself.
Choosing it
I chose the aluminum frame 4.25 inch "Lightweight Commander" format because my goal was to once again carry a 1911, but with the advantages of lower recoiling 9mm para ammo. Given that 9mm hollow point performance is much better than it was 20 years ago, I don't feel I'm giving up much in terminal performance and that slight loss is more than offset by the ability to make accurate hits faster, and 2 more rounds in the magazine.
I chose the Ruger SR1911 9mm CMD specifically because the build quality was far better than RIA's offerings, and was still slightly better than the Springfield RO Compact I looked at. It was also priced well compared to the RO, going out the door for $800 after tax - a better deal than I could get on the RO.
It also offers most of the things that should be standard on a modern 1911, including the enlarged ejection port, flat mainspring housing, beavertail grip safety, extended safety and slide release and decent sights - Novak 3 Dot sights in this case. Ruger does have 3 dot Novak style night sights available on their web site as an after market option.
It is also a no frills, no gimmicks Series 70 style 1911 with no firing pin safety. While I don't mind the Schwartz system on the Kimbers, I really despise the series 80's trigger activated safety, and the Ruger's lack of a firing pin safety is not objectionable in the least.
Shooting it
I've put about 450 rounds through it so far and it has proven to be very reliable and capable of excellent combat accuracy.
It will shoot nice one hole groups at 10 yards - the fliers are my fault:
15 yards rapid fire:
25 yards rapid fire - here my skills issues start to show:
The thing I like most about shooting it is that between the short reset 1911 trigger and the low recoil of the 9 mm Luger round it will allow incredibly fast and accurate double taps and failure to stop drills. It offers the trigger of a 1911 with the low recoil of a Hi Power and all the rounds stay in the bottle - but with far more speed than I can manage with a 1911 in .45 ACP with similar accuracy. I'll have to save and post a target.
After a single range session I concluded that I should have got a 9mm 1911 years ago.
Grips and sights
I did not particularly like the thin rubber grips, but any standard 1911 grip will work on it and it's a quick fix. Bear in mind that the frame is aluminum so don't go crazy tightening the grip screws as you can potentially cause the steel inserts screwed into the aluminum frame strip the threads in the frame.
The 3 Dot Novak sights (seen in the first target picture above) provided an excellent sight picture and other than shooting slightly left from the factory I had no complaints.
I intended to just correct the slight left shooting tendency of the sights, but as I was digging my sight pusher out, I recalled I had a set of Trijicon night sights designed for a Novak cut 1911. They don't last forever on the shelf, so I just went ahead and replaced the Ruger sights entirely.
I then used the sight pusher again to center them up to shoot dead center on windage. The Trijicon sights are also putting my full power 124 gr loads to point of aim at 10 yards as well so it's an unexpected bonus.
I like the Trijicon's large U notch rear sight and the large orange dot on the front sight (with the tritium insert in the center). It's not ideal for target accuracy, and probably less accurate for target work than the stock Novak sights, but it's ideal for establishing a flash sight picture for combat shooting, double taps, controlled pairs, etc.
Magazines
I also wasn't a real fan of loading the 9 round Ruger magazines as the last couple rounds were tough to load. They got a little easier after leaving them loaded for a week to break in the spring, but that last round still makes you want to buy a magazine loader and that's odd for a single stack 1911 magazine.
I also wanted to take advantage of the 10 round magazine capacity in the full length 1911 grip frame on the Commander sized SR1911.
I ended up buying 10 round Mec-Gar magazines and they are much easier to load. Indirectly they are also more reliable. I had two failures to feed with the 9 round Ruger magazines, and I determined it was due to one of the lower rounds in the mag working forward while I worked to load the last couple rounds. It's a total non problem with the Mec-Gar magazines.
The Ruger magazines use an insert in the rear of the magazine to accommodate the shorter 9mm Luger round and the 3 dimples on each side are there to hold the insert in place. It works, and it would increase the slide over run time and distance which isn't a bad thing, but it is a bit unsightly.
The 10 round Mec-Gar magazine gains the extra round by using a longer magazine body extending inside the "bumper pad" of the magazine, and that avoids the problems that can be caused by some types of collapsible followers in aluminum frame pistols and feed ramps (more on that below).
The Mec-Gar magazines use a difference approach with a channel along the front edge extruded as part of the magazine to shorten the interior length of the magazine. This places the base of the cartridge at the back of the magazine as in the .45 ACP.
Both magazines use semi-tapered "hybrid" feed lip designs, but the Ruger round releases the base of the round much sooner than the Mec-Gar, particularly given the insert at the rear of the magazine that moves the round forward already. The angle of the round is also slightly higher with the Ruger Magazine.
Given the differences I was not sure the Mec-Gars would work, but they proved to be flawless in feeding a wide variety of point shapes including hollow points, flat points, truncated cone and round nose bullets.
Aluminum frame feed ramp cautions
We talked a little about aluminum frames and feed ramps above and the Ruger uses a feed ramp that is integral to the barrel and also comparatively long and that's a very good thing.
However, you should still avoid using a magazine with a collapsible follower as the upper part of the follower will get pulled forward with the last round and "peck" at the aluminum portion of the feed ramp in the frame. Over time this will put a divot in the feed ramp and will start to peen the upper edge of the frame over a bit.
Compare my high round count Kimber (top) with the SR1911 in the image below.
450 rounds and the SR 1911's frame is still perfect in this area and I'm planning on keeping it this way by avoiding collapsible followers.
Summary
All in all I am very pleased with my SR 1911, doubly so because they seem to sell for around $700-$750 rather than the $979 MSRP.
Choosing it
I chose the aluminum frame 4.25 inch "Lightweight Commander" format because my goal was to once again carry a 1911, but with the advantages of lower recoiling 9mm para ammo. Given that 9mm hollow point performance is much better than it was 20 years ago, I don't feel I'm giving up much in terminal performance and that slight loss is more than offset by the ability to make accurate hits faster, and 2 more rounds in the magazine.
I chose the Ruger SR1911 9mm CMD specifically because the build quality was far better than RIA's offerings, and was still slightly better than the Springfield RO Compact I looked at. It was also priced well compared to the RO, going out the door for $800 after tax - a better deal than I could get on the RO.
It also offers most of the things that should be standard on a modern 1911, including the enlarged ejection port, flat mainspring housing, beavertail grip safety, extended safety and slide release and decent sights - Novak 3 Dot sights in this case. Ruger does have 3 dot Novak style night sights available on their web site as an after market option.
It is also a no frills, no gimmicks Series 70 style 1911 with no firing pin safety. While I don't mind the Schwartz system on the Kimbers, I really despise the series 80's trigger activated safety, and the Ruger's lack of a firing pin safety is not objectionable in the least.
Shooting it
I've put about 450 rounds through it so far and it has proven to be very reliable and capable of excellent combat accuracy.
It will shoot nice one hole groups at 10 yards - the fliers are my fault:
15 yards rapid fire:
25 yards rapid fire - here my skills issues start to show:
The thing I like most about shooting it is that between the short reset 1911 trigger and the low recoil of the 9 mm Luger round it will allow incredibly fast and accurate double taps and failure to stop drills. It offers the trigger of a 1911 with the low recoil of a Hi Power and all the rounds stay in the bottle - but with far more speed than I can manage with a 1911 in .45 ACP with similar accuracy. I'll have to save and post a target.
After a single range session I concluded that I should have got a 9mm 1911 years ago.
Grips and sights
I did not particularly like the thin rubber grips, but any standard 1911 grip will work on it and it's a quick fix. Bear in mind that the frame is aluminum so don't go crazy tightening the grip screws as you can potentially cause the steel inserts screwed into the aluminum frame strip the threads in the frame.
The 3 Dot Novak sights (seen in the first target picture above) provided an excellent sight picture and other than shooting slightly left from the factory I had no complaints.
I intended to just correct the slight left shooting tendency of the sights, but as I was digging my sight pusher out, I recalled I had a set of Trijicon night sights designed for a Novak cut 1911. They don't last forever on the shelf, so I just went ahead and replaced the Ruger sights entirely.
I then used the sight pusher again to center them up to shoot dead center on windage. The Trijicon sights are also putting my full power 124 gr loads to point of aim at 10 yards as well so it's an unexpected bonus.
I like the Trijicon's large U notch rear sight and the large orange dot on the front sight (with the tritium insert in the center). It's not ideal for target accuracy, and probably less accurate for target work than the stock Novak sights, but it's ideal for establishing a flash sight picture for combat shooting, double taps, controlled pairs, etc.
Magazines
I also wasn't a real fan of loading the 9 round Ruger magazines as the last couple rounds were tough to load. They got a little easier after leaving them loaded for a week to break in the spring, but that last round still makes you want to buy a magazine loader and that's odd for a single stack 1911 magazine.
I also wanted to take advantage of the 10 round magazine capacity in the full length 1911 grip frame on the Commander sized SR1911.
I ended up buying 10 round Mec-Gar magazines and they are much easier to load. Indirectly they are also more reliable. I had two failures to feed with the 9 round Ruger magazines, and I determined it was due to one of the lower rounds in the mag working forward while I worked to load the last couple rounds. It's a total non problem with the Mec-Gar magazines.
The Ruger magazines use an insert in the rear of the magazine to accommodate the shorter 9mm Luger round and the 3 dimples on each side are there to hold the insert in place. It works, and it would increase the slide over run time and distance which isn't a bad thing, but it is a bit unsightly.
The 10 round Mec-Gar magazine gains the extra round by using a longer magazine body extending inside the "bumper pad" of the magazine, and that avoids the problems that can be caused by some types of collapsible followers in aluminum frame pistols and feed ramps (more on that below).
The Mec-Gar magazines use a difference approach with a channel along the front edge extruded as part of the magazine to shorten the interior length of the magazine. This places the base of the cartridge at the back of the magazine as in the .45 ACP.
Both magazines use semi-tapered "hybrid" feed lip designs, but the Ruger round releases the base of the round much sooner than the Mec-Gar, particularly given the insert at the rear of the magazine that moves the round forward already. The angle of the round is also slightly higher with the Ruger Magazine.
Given the differences I was not sure the Mec-Gars would work, but they proved to be flawless in feeding a wide variety of point shapes including hollow points, flat points, truncated cone and round nose bullets.
Aluminum frame feed ramp cautions
We talked a little about aluminum frames and feed ramps above and the Ruger uses a feed ramp that is integral to the barrel and also comparatively long and that's a very good thing.
However, you should still avoid using a magazine with a collapsible follower as the upper part of the follower will get pulled forward with the last round and "peck" at the aluminum portion of the feed ramp in the frame. Over time this will put a divot in the feed ramp and will start to peen the upper edge of the frame over a bit.
Compare my high round count Kimber (top) with the SR1911 in the image below.
450 rounds and the SR 1911's frame is still perfect in this area and I'm planning on keeping it this way by avoiding collapsible followers.
Summary
All in all I am very pleased with my SR 1911, doubly so because they seem to sell for around $700-$750 rather than the $979 MSRP.
