Doug Koenig
has established himself as one of the top competition shooters
America has ever produced; his prowess with a pistol is
legendary, his match wins are legion, and he even has a
long-running TV show to his credit. When Ruger approached Koenig
to headline their shooting team and asked him to design the
pistol that would take him and the Ruger Shooting Team to
victory after victory, Koenig didn't mess around: the pistol
Koenig designed for Ruger has no compromises, and is everything
that could be desired in a serious competition pistol.
Jeff and I first saw the Ruger Custom Shop
SR1911 at the 2018
NASGW show in Pittsburgh, PA, and we were very impressed
from the start. The pistol just exuded quality upon viewing and
handling, but it is not until one actually shoots the pistol
that one fully realizes what the Custom Shop SR1911 really
is.
Any quality competition pistol begins with a
quality base pistol, and the Ruger Custom Shop starts out with Ruger's
wonderful stainless SR1911 pistol. Although I own semi-auto
pistols of many makes and designs, I consider myself a
"1911 Guy", and I can honestly say that the SR1911 is
my favorite 1911 pistol; also, my favorite carry 1911 is my SR1911
Lightweight Commander.
The Custom Shop SR1911 is a beautiful pistol,
but that only scratches the surface; starting with a
full-stainless SR1911, the Ruger Custom Shop concentrates a lot
of effort where this effort is not seen, but where it is vitally
important. The barrel is hand-fit to the frame, the barrel lugs
are hand-fit to the slide, and the frame and slide are hand-fit
together; this yields a very tight, yet smooth and reliable
action, offering the perfect balance of accuracy and 100%
reliability. The frame is stainless steel, finished in
black nitride, while the slide is similarly stainless steel,
finished in a matching black nitride with polished sides, which
gives a really attractive two-tone finish to the pistol.
Detailing is everything one would expect from
a custom-made competition pistol costing much more than the
SR1911 Competition Pistol's price. The front of the frame is
checkered very nicely at 40 LPI (Lines Per Inch), and the
thankfully-flat mainspring housing is similarly checkered at 40
LPI; coupled with the aggressively-textured Hogue Piranha G10
grip panels, this makes the pistol feel very solid in the hand.
A slippery pistol is very much not to be desired in either a
competition or Social Work situation, and sweaty hands would
pose no problem here. The top of the frame behind the trigger
guard is relieved so as to allow the pistol to ride a bit lower
in the shooter's hand, effectively lowering the bore axis
relative to the hand and reducing muzzle flip. The base of the
frame features a generous mag well, which is only barely wider
than the width of the grip panels; this adds speed in reloading
without compromising the ability to conceal the pistol for
defensive carry, and also gives the pinky finger a very nice
place to rest. The polished sides of the slide sport fore and
aft serrations for ease of racking; these serrations are very
attractively configured in a "K for Koenig"
arrangement which visually echoes the lightening "K"
cut in the trigger. The trigger itself is lightweight aluminum,
featuring a flat face and an adjustable overtravel stop, and is
wonderfully smooth and creep-free in operation, releasing
consistently at 3.4 pounds on my scale. The hammer is
Commander-style and lightened, nestling perfectly into the
upswept beavertail grip safety, which features a generous
"bump", allowing one's strong-hand thumb to properly
"ride" the thumb safety without fear of the palm not
properly actuating the grip safety. The extended ambidextrous
thumb safety is hand-fit, solid and positive in operation, and
not extended so obnoxiously so as to make holstering or
concealing the pistol a problem. The magazine release button is
nicely checkered and extended, but again not so extended so that
holstering becomes a problem.
The sights on the Ruger Custom Shop SR1911
Competition Pistol are superb, consisting of a light-gathering
fiber optic front sight coupled with a fully-adjustable
low-mount rear sight. The front sight's fiber-optic rod is set
into a square post ramp, offering a great target-style sight
picture with the added benefit of a luminous green dot; the
fiber-optic dot is great for lower-light shooting conditions,
while the square post ramp is finely serrated to reduce glare in
higher-light shooting conditions. The rear sight blade is
generous in size, precisely notched, and is also finely serrated
to reduce glare. The result of all this is a sight picture that
is quick and easy to pick up in a wide variety of lighting
conditions.
The Ruger Custom Shop SR1911 Competition
Pistol comes with a generous assortment of accessories: a very
nice Ruger Custom Shop-branded hard case; Certificate of
Authenticity; Custom Shop window decal; Custom Shop challenge
coin; Custom Shop-branded prop rod; Custom Shop-branded
polishing cloth; Ruger-branded bushing wrench; sight adjustment
tool; lock; instruction manual; and two ten-round Ruger
magazines. The magazines feature a slightly-extended base pad;
just enough of a base pad to make the magazines smack home
easily, but not enough to make the magazines hard to carry or
conceal.
The SR1911 Competition Pistol was a joy to
shoot. The pistol ran perfectly, eating up any and all ammo I
fed it. Reliability was 100%, with zero malfunctions of any kind
using a variety of ammunition types. Furthermore, the positive
feel of the pistol, coupled with the ease of acquisition and
speed of the sights, made it a breeze to shoot with speed and
accuracy.
Specifications - Ruger®
Custom Shop® SR1911® 9mm Competition Pistol
Model / UPC #: |
6766 |
Caliber: |
9mm Luger |
Barrel: |
5 inches, 6-Groove,
1:16" RH Twist |
Slide: |
Stainless Steel, Black
Nitride Finish w/ Polished Sides (Two-Tone) |
Frame: |
Stainless Steel, Black
Nitride Finish, Checkered Grip Front & Mainspring
Housing |
Weight, Unloaded: |
41 ounces |
Overall Length: |
8.67 inches |
Overall Height: |
5.63 inches |
Grip Panels: |
Hogue® Piranha G10 |
Front Sight: |
Fiber Optic |
Rear Sight: |
Adjustable Target |
Trigger: |
Aluminum, Flat-Front,
Adjustable for Overtravel |
Trigger Pull: |
3.4 pounds |
Magazine Capacity: |
10+1 |
Magazines Supplied: |
2 |
Accessories Provided: |
Ruger Custom Shop Hard
Case, Decal, Certificate of Authenticity, Challenge
Coin, Sight Adjustment Tool, Bushing Wrench, Prop Rod,
Cleaning Cloth, Lock, Instruction Manual |
MSRP as of September
2020: |
$2,499.00 US |
At $2,499.00 MSRP as of this writing, the
Ruger Custom Shop SR1911 Competition Pistol is obviously not
inexpensive, but those of us who have shopped-for or bought
custom competition pistols know that a custom pistol can cost
far in excess of Ruger's suggested retail price. With a street
price of probably $2,000.00 or less, the Ruger Custom Shop
SR1911 is as good as any high-dollar pistol I have ever fired,
is backed by Ruger's legendary customer service, and really is a
bargain considering the full set of features offered.
The Ruger Custom Shop SR1911 Competition
Pistol is match-ready right out of the box. I am no hot-shot
competition shooter by any stretch of the imagination, but I
found the pistol extremely easy to shoot with accuracy and
speed. Ruger offers similar versions of their Competition Pistol
in either 9mm Luger or 45 ACP, so a variant of this excellent
pistol is available for a wide range of competition disciplines.
As well-designed as the SR1911 Competition Pistol is for
competitive shooting, it remains also a very good fit for
defensive shooting. For Social Work, with proper loads, one
could scarcely go wrong with either the 9mm or 45, and the Ruger
Custom Shop SR1911 Competition Pistol would be a great choice
for either competitive or defensive shooting.
Check out Ruger's extensive product line at: www.
Ruger's current Custom Shop offerings can be
seen at: www.ruger.com/micros/customShop/
To find a Ruger dealer near you, click on the
DEALER FINDER at Lipsey's: www.lipseys.com/
To order online, click on the GUN GENIE at
Davidson's Gallery of Guns: www.galleryofguns.com
Order ammo online at Lucky Gunner: www.luckygunner.com;
Buffalo Bore Ammo: www.buffalobore.com,
and Double Tap Ammo: www.doubletapammo.com
Hogue Grips: www.hogueinc.com
For a great variety of holsters from a great
American company, check out Simply Rugged Holsters: www.simplyrugged.com
Boge Quinn
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