Ruger SR1911 Questions

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Can I have some impressions from people that own more than one 1911? Is it good for the money? Does it take a wide variety of ammo? Would ~$600 be a good price for the full size one?

Basically, I think I may have been pulled into the darkside known as "People who like 1911s" now that I have discovered that a beavertail done correctly on them makes them so much nicer to shoot.
 
$600 is a pretty good price for one. Not the best I have seen but not the worst either.
The Ruger 1911 for what it is, is a very solid value. Reliable, well fit, a good out of the box 1911. While it may not have the accuracy of a custom worked 1911 every Ruger 1911 I have seen or read about has been a solid performer. You can do much...much worse.

If I were to grade some out of the box 1911s based solely on fit and finish, I would put it something like this.

Colt
Kimber
Springfield / STI / Sig
Ruger / Remington
RIA, Rock River Arms, Citadel, etc... (all of the turkish guns)

Reliability, is hard to judge. I have seen top end 1911's run like crap and seen RIA economy 1911s that will go bang with pretty much anything you can get into the chamber.

In short, the Ruger is not a premium or top end 1911, however it is far from the bottom of the list and provides a lot of value for the price.
 
I think Ruger is a solid 1911 for the price. However, if you are in that price range, I would also look at Springfield Armory and their MilSpec series. I just did a side by side comparison of the two the other day and found the Springer to be (barely) slightly better in fit and finish. This may be those specific two pistols, but I would still check out both.

But again, Ruger is an excellent manufacturer so I would have no fear spending my money on one if it was a fair price.
 
I just picked up one of the CMD (Commander-sized) models. I've owned two Colts, two Tauruses, a Sistema, a Springfield and an STI.

So far, I've put about 200 rounds of hardball, and 50 of hollow points through it, with no malfunctions. I've never used the Ruger mags, though, which feel pretty cheap. I've got a pile of McCormick power mags, so just use them.

As to quality and such, the Ruger seems solid. Compared to others I've had, that puts it ahead of the Tauruses, which had some parts breakage, and the Springfield, which had feeding troubles, (though that was early in my 1911 career, before I knew to ignore the cheap factory mags and just use decent ones.)

Accuracy is better than the Colts and the Sistema, about on par with the Springfield, and not quite as good as the Tauruses. Doesn't come close to the STI.

Fit and finish is good for a factory assembled gun, pretty snug in slide to frame fit, controls work right, only niggle is that the grip safety isn't perfectly blended to the frame, leaves red marks on the web of my hand. Overall, though, it's got a lot fewer sharp edges than most.

The trigger is surprisingly good. Shows some hand fitting of the sear. Same weight, and almost as crisp as the STI. Far cleaner than any of the others.

It's a good looking, well put together gun. It costs half what a Colt does, and a third of an STI.

As soon as I get some sights on it, it'll become my primary CCW.
 
I've seen them in the mid $600 range local SG stores
I looked at several I have a full size S&W with similar
features as the SR1911 . Cast steeel frame & Slide
w/solid finish not quite as nice as the S&W imo

I ended upp getting a Colt Commander for just under $1K
1991 series seems it has a higher grip safetty tang which
has a notch for the holed trigger better than 80 series or
older. The full beavertail on the S&W is more comfy being wider

Gunsmith I know remarked he was converting a SR1911 to
have an ambi-thumb safety. The Wilson Combat ambi's pin
was too short - he measured things and found the Ruger frame
is thicker He recalled STI makes their frames thicker as well
so he orddered up STI's ambi safety and it was long enough
and it worked.

R-
 
IMHO, with everything you get with the Ruger, you should be paying $800 plus.
 
I will chime in and say that my copy of the SR1911 has been fantastic. It's capable of shooting 2 magazines with every round touching at 50' (alhtough not by me) I don't have an exact round count, but it's well over 10,000 so far and it's been fantasticly reliable. Since I started reloading at the same time I purchased the gun, and it's only had a few rounds of factory ammo through it - I cannot definitavely say whether the few malfunctions I have experienced were due to the firearm, or my load development. What I can say, is, once I reached the point where I stopped messing with my loads, it has not suffered a single malfunction.

I finally got around to having the trigger smithed and it's a whole new experience for me again. It was more than fine before, but now it really is smooth and crisp. It by no mean needed it, but I'm glad I did it nonetheless.

I know there are people who have had a few significant problems on their copies, and others who are not a fan of MIM parts,or cast frames. but I have to say - with no previous experience to 1911's before this one, it's more than holding up well for me.
 
Just bought the Gov't sized Ruger for $649 + tax. The cheapest I have ever seen one was online for $599. Most stores in my area have them for $700+, so $600 sounds like a pretty good deal. It's my first 1911 so far, but I compared it to a lot of others of similar price before buying. The only other one that I liked as well is the Springfield RO, but its at least $100 more. The Ruger shoots great, I like the way it looks and it is US made. One of the detail items I particularly like is the lack of an ambi-safety. The Novak sights are nice too. I have never liked them on any 1911 I've shot or handled. Don't have first hand comparisons like the OP asked, but I would definitely recommend the Ruger to anyone.
 
For the money, I believe Ruger to highly underrated.
Having both the Ruger and the Springfield Mil-spec, I sold the Mill spec because it just didn't compare in performance. Fit and finish was a little more refined in the Springfield, but The Rugers edge was in the trigger.
The Ruger does not have a sear disconnect, giving an advantage to the trigger pull. Sometimes I find it aggravating that
I am able to pick up the Sr1911 and out shoot my other guns that cost twice as much. I credit that mostly to the trigger.

In regards to the SA mill-spec, It has been too long since I sold it and I do not recall if it was with or without sear disconnect, but the trigger was not comparable to the Ruger.
 
OP, that's a great price, and the SR1911 is a lot of gun for the money. Go for it!

If I were to grade some out of the box 1911s based solely on fit and finish, I would put it something like this.

Colt
Kimber
Springfield / STI / Sig
Ruger / Remington
RIA, Rock River Arms, Citadel, etc... (all of the turkish guns)

I disagree with this list in so many ways, but I mainly just want to say that you cannot possibly have handled a 1911 from Rock River Arms. They were not Armscor (Filipino, not Turkish) 1911s like those you've mentioned. I would have thought that you meant Rock Island, but you included RIA in addition to Rock River, so it appears that this was a genuine misconception rather than a typo.

RRA made 1911s for a very short time, and they were incredibly well-fitted, high-quality semi-custom pistols. They sold for $2,000+ during production, and they go for $2,500+ on the very rare occasions that they show up on the used market.
 
I paid $700 plus tax when they first came out. In 1911s, I have a couple of Dan Wessons and an RIA. The Ruger has never had a problem and I have fed it all kinds of ammo. I think it has great fit and finish. It's not in the league of the DW but it's half the price and it's not far behind. Even at the high price I paid, I still consider it one of the best value guns I have. Buy it and be happy.
 
My 1911 ownership list includes Kimber, Colt, Springfield, Dan Wesson, and Ruger.

They only one I have at this point is my SR1911. I have made no changes to it.

I paid $499 for mine when they first came out before they became overly popular and the price went up.

It out performed all the others in accuracy and reliability. I use the factory mags, surplus USGI, Mec-Gar, and a couple of unknown USGI-ish mags with no trouble, even the one I hammered the dents out of.

Just for grins the other month we shot the US Army qualification course, to include mag changes, laying in the dirt and such, fired expert first try with it using CCI Blazer LOL.

It cycles steel-cased TULA, aluminum CCI, all sorts of brass, RN, HP, flat-nose 100% of the time.

For ~$600, if new, should be a decent deal.
 
98Redline, if you rate Rock River 1911's down with Rock Island and Citadel. I have to question your knowledge of 1911's
 
My first 1911 was a full-size SR1911, which I bought new for $650, followed by the CMD that I bought on sale for $570. Both are still completely stock, including the magazines, and each has gone through approx 1k rounds of ball ammo without a single hiccup. The SR1911 is a great value in the $600-$700 price range, and it's also a very enjoyable gun to shoot.
 
$600 is a fair price today for a good 1911, and other posts have pointed out
some nice ones. I own just two a Colt bought new in 1982 for $400 (heh heh)
and a Kimber bought this year for $1400, hardly broke in yet.

Both are fine shooters for me. The trigger on the Kimber is far, far better than
the one on my Colt. That much I can tell you. Both seem to eat whatever ammo
I put into them. The sights that came on the Kimber (a Custom CDP II) are easier
for me than the stock sights on the old Colt.

In buying the Kimber, I considered Springfield and RIA, but the Kimber was such
a looker! Also, I really couldn't find a Springfield locally to hold in my hand. In the
end, I decided that life is short and went for what I really wanted. Good luck with
your own hunt!
 
I don't understand how anyone could claim the SR1911 to be a lesser pistol then the SA Milspec, I've extensive experience with both and its not even close. The Ruger I have(Commander)put five rounds into a one inch hole at fifteen yards direct from the box! Thats right, the very first five rounds went into virtually the same hole.

The fit and finish on my lone Ruger sample is quite comparable to that of my Colt XSE commander, and my Railgun. In fact I have a preference for the bead blasted Ruger slide as it doesn't display scratches as easily as do the Colt's. The inside of the Ruger reveals no evidence of shoddy machining, all is steel, and all is fitted in solid fashion.

My Ruger has eaten around 1400 rounds of Magtech 230 gr ball & 230 gr bonded JHP without a single issue, and this includes running the pistol in high speed drills. I'm baffled by anyone claiming the Ruger to be a lesser of any other $1,000 or less production level 1911, I went to Vietnam with a 1911 that was nowhere near its level of fine, I would not hesitate to take the Ruger into combat. I don't like MIM parts, but they all come that way now, every last one of them.
 
Dan Wesson uses no MIM parts at all in current production pistols.
 
Dan Wesson uses no MIM parts at all in current production pistols.
Dan Wesson 1911 pistols are not priced at under $1,000 per either, in fact DW 1911's are rightfully classified as semi-custom. All are hand fitted to my knowledge.
 
Dan Wesson 1911 pistols are not priced at under $1,000 per either, in fact DW 1911's are rightfully classified as semi-custom. All are hand fitted to my knowledge.

Most definitely not.

Collapsing Wilsons and Dan Wessons into a single category deprives the term "semi-custom" of any useful meaning. Some amount of hand-fitting does not by itself move a gun to the "semi-custom" category. I own plenty of production pistols (Swiss SIG P210s, pre-Series 70 Gold Cup) and revolvers (Pythons and several older Colts) that received extensive hand-fitting during manufacture. Hand-fitting is obviously less widespread today than in decades past, but that does not make its presence a sufficient condition for declaring something a semi-custom piece.

Debates over the precise meaning of "semi-custom" amount to uniformly tedious and insoluble semantic disputes. Go pull up the option sheet on the lowliest Wilson you can find. Now show me something even remotely comparable for a Dan Wesson Valor. That's one reason, among a number of others -- e.g., the amount of time a present-day gunsmith spends hand-fitting the gun -- why virtually everyone regards the DW as a high-end production 1911.
 
Most definitely not.

Collapsing Wilsons and Dan Wessons into a single category deprives the term "semi-custom" of any useful meaning. Some amount of hand-fitting does not by itself move a gun to the "semi-custom" category. I own plenty of production pistols (Swiss SIG P210s, pre-Series 70 Gold Cup) and revolvers (Pythons and several older Colts) that received extensive hand-fitting during manufacture. Hand-fitting is obviously less widespread today than in decades past, but that does not make its presence a sufficient condition for declaring something a semi-custom piece.

Debates over the precise meaning of "semi-custom" amount to uniformly tedious and insoluble semantic disputes. Go pull up the option sheet on the lowliest Wilson you can find. Now show me something even remotely comparable for a Dan Wesson Valor. That's one reason, among a number of others -- e.g., the amount of time a present-day gunsmith spends hand-fitting the gun -- why virtually everyone regards the DW as a high-end production 1911.
Very good explanation.

I'm a huge fan of the value of DW 1911s, but don't even consider them remotely semi-custom...like Wilsons, Browns, Baers or Nighthawks.

What the DW 1911s are is a correctly built, mid-priced 1911 and one of the better values available in that market
 
Very good explanation.



I'm a huge fan of the value of DW 1911s, but don't even consider them remotely semi-custom...like Wilsons, Browns, Baers or Nighthawks.



What the DW 1911s are is a correctly built, mid-priced 1911 and one of the better values available in that market


Yes, the Heritage model is just over $1000. ($1150 before fees & tax if you shop carefully). It is a great value and some folks think it well worth the added cost over a Ruger. Figure out what you'll be happy with, buy it, and shoot it (a lot)!
 
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