Ruger’s New 9: Ruger SR9c

OK, so you’re a big-time firearms manufacturer, and you design and manufacture a wildly popular new firearm. Will everyone be happy? Not a chance. You could make a firearm that brews your customers’ coffee, checks the tire pressure on their trucks and loans them money the day before payday and someone will still want more.”Can you make it smaller? Can you make it bigger? Can you make it in my favorite caliber?” Unless your favorite caliber is the 7mm/.303 Savage Ackley Improved, the answer to all those questions will be “yes.” But not all at once.

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When the Ruger SR9 was introduced, I went to the range with a crew of willing volunteers and proceeded to thrash it royally. We put 6,900 rounds through it in one afternoon, and I finished off the rest of the 10,000 rounds of Magtech hardball a few days later. I managed to put some 15,000 rounds through it soon afterward, and the end result was a pile of empty brass, tired shooters and a single malfunction. Which we blamed on the guy wearing heavy gloves to spare his hands from the overheated pistol.