wristtwister
Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2008
- Messages
- 419
I sell guns every day at our shop. The majority of people come in asking about "what's a good carry gun"? Then, we have the people who come in and won't have anything but a specific brand, or some "special gun" they've read about in one of the gun rags. They all have a "list" and only want to look at something specific, until I throw in Ruger's SR9C.
I make no bones about the fact that the full size SR9 was the best gun I ever took out of a box and shot. It performed flawlessly, and I thought Ruger had lost their minds when they announced that they were making a compact version... at least until I looked at what the gun was and what it gave the shooter.
As a mechanical engineer by training, I like things that work as designed... and feature for feature, the SR9C provides the most "bang for the buck" in the small pistol market. It is a chameleon for your needs, and provides the most features I've found in the carry gun market.
The loaded chamber indicator is the first thing I show a customer. It's designed so you can pick the gun up in the dark and know if you are "loaded" without having to spill a round onto the floor to make sure. While redundant, the striker indicator gives you a way to look at the end of the gun and see if you're "ready to fire" if you happen to miss the LCI. The 3-dot sight system is excellent, and while some live or die by having "night sights" on their guns, I learned that night sights are only useful if you're shooting in the dark... and usually where you can't see the target... even though you can see the sights...
That problem is solved by the light rail thats on the gun, so you can attach a streamlight or flashlight/laser combination on the gun. Crimson Trace also makes a "trigger shroud" laser sight that attaches to the pistol and provides a "grip mounted on-button" for a laser... so it's up to you to decide how you want to light and laser your gun.
The trigger system is excellent. It has a locked system with the "glock trigger" that puts a pin block into the sear and locks both the striker and the sear... so having a round in the chamber isn't the only requirement for making the gun go bang. The "first trigger" has to release the trigger and striker system, but once done, the trigger is excellent.
The gun comes with ambidextrious safeties and magazine releases, so it's easily handled by both right and left-handed shooters, and functional if you happen to pick up the gun "wrong handed" and need to shoot quickly. You don't have to fumble with getting to the safety or disconnecting a mag to reload in order to get off a shot.
The real brilliance in this design is in the magazine changes. The compact comes with both a 10 round and 17 round magazine... which provides exactly the same grip on the pistol when shooting with either mag in place.
Yes, I said that correctly... the grip on the pistol feels exactly as it should regardless of which magazine is in the gun. I carry my 10-rounder in the gun for concealed carry, and the 17 rounder in my back pocket... so I'm packin' 28 rounds should the need arise.
As for comfort in shooting, the gun has a reversible "backstrap" adjustment that simply requires you to punch out a pin with a ball point pen, and flip over the rubber "palm swell" to get either the "flat profile" or "palm swell" profile in the grip. Stick the pin back in place, and your grip is changed... no extra parts from somewhere else... just packaged and put in place.
Yes, there are smaller pistols on the market... even Ruger's own LC9... which has the LCI, 3-dot sights, and left-side safety... for about sixty bucks less... but "dollar for dollar" isn't even in the same ball park. It stops being a feature gun there, and while a 9MM, only packs 7+1.
The accuracy of the gun is on a parallel with the full size SR9, because the barrel is only about an inch shorter than the full size barrel. While I've had no problems carrying a full-sized SR9 concealed, the options of the SR9C make it such a versatile change-up, that it's really amazing that it hasn't completely overwhelmed the market. It's a "carry gun", it can be a "night-stand gun", a 'range gun"... and probably a lot of other applications that just don't come to mind right now.
While I like shooting all calibers, the SR9 and SR9C have proved to me that 9MM can be fun and functional... and if I need more "punch", I can pick up my SR40 and SR40C... oh, did I forget to mention that it also comes in .40 S&W... it's just that they're exactly the same size... only carrying 9+1 or 15+1 in .40 S&W.
My hat's off to Ruger for this project... they've developed something that is not only functional, feature loaded, and fun to shoot, but so versatile that it is hard to imagine a need it can't fill with some thought. Unlike guns that need "trigger jobs" or "sight upgrades", etc. , these guns come from the factory "ready to go", and don't take much if any "break-in". My first 50 rounds out of my SR9C were shot at our state-required 15 yards on "half size" targets, and all 50 were in the body outline in "kill zones". Not bad for an "out of the box gun"... but it was what I expected... it's the same thing I got with the full sized SR9.
WT
I make no bones about the fact that the full size SR9 was the best gun I ever took out of a box and shot. It performed flawlessly, and I thought Ruger had lost their minds when they announced that they were making a compact version... at least until I looked at what the gun was and what it gave the shooter.
As a mechanical engineer by training, I like things that work as designed... and feature for feature, the SR9C provides the most "bang for the buck" in the small pistol market. It is a chameleon for your needs, and provides the most features I've found in the carry gun market.
The loaded chamber indicator is the first thing I show a customer. It's designed so you can pick the gun up in the dark and know if you are "loaded" without having to spill a round onto the floor to make sure. While redundant, the striker indicator gives you a way to look at the end of the gun and see if you're "ready to fire" if you happen to miss the LCI. The 3-dot sight system is excellent, and while some live or die by having "night sights" on their guns, I learned that night sights are only useful if you're shooting in the dark... and usually where you can't see the target... even though you can see the sights...
That problem is solved by the light rail thats on the gun, so you can attach a streamlight or flashlight/laser combination on the gun. Crimson Trace also makes a "trigger shroud" laser sight that attaches to the pistol and provides a "grip mounted on-button" for a laser... so it's up to you to decide how you want to light and laser your gun.
The trigger system is excellent. It has a locked system with the "glock trigger" that puts a pin block into the sear and locks both the striker and the sear... so having a round in the chamber isn't the only requirement for making the gun go bang. The "first trigger" has to release the trigger and striker system, but once done, the trigger is excellent.
The gun comes with ambidextrious safeties and magazine releases, so it's easily handled by both right and left-handed shooters, and functional if you happen to pick up the gun "wrong handed" and need to shoot quickly. You don't have to fumble with getting to the safety or disconnecting a mag to reload in order to get off a shot.
The real brilliance in this design is in the magazine changes. The compact comes with both a 10 round and 17 round magazine... which provides exactly the same grip on the pistol when shooting with either mag in place.
Yes, I said that correctly... the grip on the pistol feels exactly as it should regardless of which magazine is in the gun. I carry my 10-rounder in the gun for concealed carry, and the 17 rounder in my back pocket... so I'm packin' 28 rounds should the need arise.As for comfort in shooting, the gun has a reversible "backstrap" adjustment that simply requires you to punch out a pin with a ball point pen, and flip over the rubber "palm swell" to get either the "flat profile" or "palm swell" profile in the grip. Stick the pin back in place, and your grip is changed... no extra parts from somewhere else... just packaged and put in place.
Yes, there are smaller pistols on the market... even Ruger's own LC9... which has the LCI, 3-dot sights, and left-side safety... for about sixty bucks less... but "dollar for dollar" isn't even in the same ball park. It stops being a feature gun there, and while a 9MM, only packs 7+1.
The accuracy of the gun is on a parallel with the full size SR9, because the barrel is only about an inch shorter than the full size barrel. While I've had no problems carrying a full-sized SR9 concealed, the options of the SR9C make it such a versatile change-up, that it's really amazing that it hasn't completely overwhelmed the market. It's a "carry gun", it can be a "night-stand gun", a 'range gun"... and probably a lot of other applications that just don't come to mind right now.
While I like shooting all calibers, the SR9 and SR9C have proved to me that 9MM can be fun and functional... and if I need more "punch", I can pick up my SR40 and SR40C... oh, did I forget to mention that it also comes in .40 S&W... it's just that they're exactly the same size... only carrying 9+1 or 15+1 in .40 S&W.
My hat's off to Ruger for this project... they've developed something that is not only functional, feature loaded, and fun to shoot, but so versatile that it is hard to imagine a need it can't fill with some thought. Unlike guns that need "trigger jobs" or "sight upgrades", etc. , these guns come from the factory "ready to go", and don't take much if any "break-in". My first 50 rounds out of my SR9C were shot at our state-required 15 yards on "half size" targets, and all 50 were in the body outline in "kill zones". Not bad for an "out of the box gun"... but it was what I expected... it's the same thing I got with the full sized SR9.
WT
J/k...kinda.
