Ruger SR9s: Ergonomic Advancement (page two)
Ruger’s SR9s represent a good ergonomic choice for small-handed shooters.
By Wiley Clapp
The SR9 operating drill is simplicity itself. With an empty pistol, insert a loaded magazine and then retract and release the slide. Press the trigger to fire a shot and repeat as often as necessity demands. To put the gun away in loaded-but-ready status, just pop the manual safety up and holster the gun.
In both big and small versions, the SR9 pistol is primarily a service or defensive firearm. As such, it’s important to look at the gun in terms of how it handles and performs. In size and weight, the original, full-size pistol is close to the average in competing designs. The long 17-round magazines, required because they position the top round at the feed ramp, drop free at a touch of the magazine catch. On the shorter Compact, either the long 17-rounder or the included short 10-rounder will work. This has implications for the police officer who wishes to carry the full-size gun in a duty holster and a second compact SR9 in concealment. The advantage is simply that both guns could be reloaded with the full-size magazines. As a matter of fact, Ruger’s literature states that the SR9c is a “17+1” capacity gun. It comes with one 17-rounder and one 10-round magazine. In the box, you will also find a molded collar that surrounds the bottom end of the 17-round magazine that produces the same butt contour as the SR9 when inserted in the gun. You can use a longer magazine without the collar, as long as you do not violently slam the magazine into the gun. That might risk parts breakage and cause malfunctions. Only in an emergency situation would I use a standard 17-rounder in a Compact.
The Compact comes with a finger-piece extension floorplate for the short 10-round magazine that replaces the flat-bottom floorplate that is standard-issue. Thus we have four different magazines that will work in the Compact: a stock 17-rounder, and one with the collar; and a stock 10-rounder, and one with the fingerpiece extension. In this way the Compact can take on a number or roles. It might be a service gun in a duty holster for a uniformed officer, but the same officer’s off-duty gun when he changes from a long magazine with collar to a short one. There is a great deal of flexibility built into this system.
At a local range, I fired the two pistols in the standard American Rifleman protocol of five consecutive, five-shot groups at 25 yards. Without the proper Ransom Rest inserts, I was forced to shoot over sandbags from a concrete bench. Accuracy was well-within the norm for competing 9 mm designs. However, I must note that I have had much better results with other Ruger pistols, particularly the P345. The trigger has the predictable first stage, during which pressure serves to fully load the striker, followed by a release stage. Both are gritty and have some movement. Although not an easy system to use for great accuracy, for the guns’ intended purpose—self-defense—it’s acceptable.
But this criticism is more than balanced by the gun’s 100 percent reliability and excellent ergonomics. If I were to get the question of which gun is best—among service 9 mms with higher-capacity magazines—for small-handed shooters, the answer is obvious. It is the new Ruger SR9. A slim pistol with an easy-to-manage trigger reach, the SR9 series guns in both sizes are great new semi-automatics for the nation’s handgunners.
Manufacturer: Sturm, Ruger & Co.; (928) 778-6555; www.ruger.com
Caliber: 9 mm Luger
Action Type: recoil-operated, semi-auto center-fire pistol
Frame: glass-filled nylon
Barrel: 4.14”; compact 3.50”
Rifling: six-grove, 1:10” RH twist
Magazine Capacity: 17; compact 10
Sights: fully adjustable, three-dot
Trigger Pull: double-action only; 10 lbs.
Overall Length: 7.55”; compact 6.85”
Width: 1.27”
Height: 5.52”; compact 4.61”
Accessories: lock, lockable hard case, owner’s manual, spare magazine
Suggested Retail Price: $565; compact $525
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