I shot a brand new (330 series, 09 production) SR9 today. Black stainless model.
Low 40's and overcast, but a nice day spent shooting on private property in a relaxed environment perfect for someone new to handguns.
The mag safety was removed (by me) and I shot it with the 124gr. Swiss stuff from AIM. The trigger was very crisp for a striker fired gun, and the pistol easily shot sub 2" groups @7-10 yards. Not a great feat I know, but quite acceptable. I didn't notice any appreciable trigger overtravel, nor did the owner. He's a new gun owner, and we shot my 1911 side by side. He has it set up with the MSH curved. Its made of rubber, and felt great in the hand.
The mags are tough to load, but they will ease up.
The manual safety gets a bad wrap, but I found it easy to manage. It was stiff out of the box, but the owner has been working it for hours a day for a week now. It's quite smooth now.
The next step is going to be preemptively polish the barrel hood the ward off any peening. On a side note, I don't know why Ruger opted to blast the chamber area. I think it looks like crap, and it marks up quickly with normal cycling. The loaded chamber indicator is about the size of the rudder on a battleship. It's huge, painted red, and says LOADED WHEN UP on it in case you didn't know. At the very least, the red paint is coming off.
Bottom line, the Ruger SR9 is a good pistol for the money.
There are a higher percentage of guns out there (than usual) with minor to serious teething issues, and the design of the magazine safety is not ideal. Thankfully, the mag safety is easily removed and not considered necessary for most users.
My friend is very pleased with his purchase. He wanted something American made and striker fired. I suggested the M&P as well, but he chose the SR9 because of Ruger's sporting reputation. I think the "M&P" designation turned him off, but I'm not sure.
