Ruger SR1911 Lightweight Pistol: A Scant Government Model

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Ruger has made its SR1911 series of pistols for nearly a quarter-century now, and it has grown into a complete line with Government, Commander, Officer’s, Target and Competition models. One of the newer offerings is the Lightweight, a Government model available in .45 ACP and 9mm Luger.

My sample is the 9mm version, a 9+1 pistol weighing just 32.2 ounces courtesy of an aluminum frame. The slide is stainless steel with a low-glare finish. It has chevron-shape slide serrations on the rear only. They’re fairly aggressive and offer a good grip.

Sights are Novak—not “Novak-style” but actual Novak combat-style three-dots set in dovetails. The rear is drift adjustable, with a set screw to keep it from moving during recoil or handling.

Controls include an extended single-side thumb safety and an oversize grip safety with a grooved memory bump. The serrated magazine release is extended, too, and the plunger tube is integral with the black anodized frame—not staked—so it will never come loose.

Trigger and Hammer

The trigger is a curved, three-hole aluminum job, and it breaks consistently at three pounds, seven ounces on average with just a hint of creep.

The SR1911 Lightweight has a super-fast lock time thanks to a skeletonized hammer as well as a light titanium firing pin. This pin, combined with a heavier firing-pin spring, allows the gun to be totally safe(r) without having to resort to the oft-maligned Series 80 trigger system.

The flat mainspring housing is nicely checkered at 25 l.p.i. while the frontstrap is smooth. Grips are G10. They have a black/gray zigzag pattern and are held in place by twin T10 Torx screws. Naturally, as with any 1911 the grip panels are replaceable if you want something different. Not sure why you’d want to; the black/gray grips against the jet black frame—with contrasting slide and trigger—look terrific.

I’ve been to Ruger’s Prescott, Arizona, plant where the SR1911 is built, and it’s an impressive high-tech facility. All the pistols built there come out of CNC-controlled machines, and the SR1911 Lightweight shows that off in spades, with good slide-to-frame fit. You can feel a tiny bit of side-to-side movement when you torque the slide with your hand while holding the grip firmly, but that’s not a bad thing when you’re looking for reliability right out of the box. Super-tight guns can require a break-in period, but this one didn’t. It functioned perfectly from the get-go.

Accuracy and Control

The fire-control system is your traditional Browning short-recoil setup with barrel bushing, and the stainless steel barrel features a polished titanium feed ramp. The ejection port is oversize to ensure cases clear the gun every time. An inspection port cut into the barrel hood allows you to see if there’s a round in the chamber—in good light, at least. The gun uses the traditional internal extractor.

Twenty-five yard bench accuracy was solid, as you can see in the accompanying chart. At least that’s about as well as I can shoot with combat-style iron sights at that distance.

Practical accuracy was what you would expect from a Government 1911 9mm, even a lightweight one. In a word, terrific. It’s such a great-handling gun, and a 1911 as well-built as the SR1911 Lightweight is a joy to shoot. I wouldn’t have minded if the G10 grips were relieved to make it easier to reach the magazine release, but since that part is extended it wasn’t hard to activate.

Feeding and ejection were 100 percent, both in my testing and on the set of “Handguns” TV. The only issue I encountered was that one of the two magazines—which are stainless steel with eight witness holes—wouldn’t always lock back the slide when empty. Not every time, but often enough that I marked it.

9mm Flavor Favor

As much as I’m a traditionalist when it comes to firearms, I’ve come to favor the 9mm chambering over the .45 ACP in the 1911. That’s especially true when it comes to aluminum-frame guns. I’m not particularly recoil-sensitive, but I’m not totally immune either, and I shoot the 9mms better when it comes to the lightweight models.

It seems a lot of folks feel the same way, which explains the 9mm’s growing popularity in the 1911 platform. And if you take a well-built, svelte 1911 like the SR1911 Lightweight and pair it with this cartridge, you’ve got a gun that’s good for just about anything. I’ve never carried a full-size, all-steel Government because I find them too heavy, but at just a tad over 30 ounces this one would be easy to carry—either concealed or as a trail/work companion. For those well-versed in the 1911’s manual of arms, it would also be an excellent home-defense gun because it’s so shootable—and affordable.

Ruger SR1911 Lightweight Specs

• Type: 1911
• Caliber: 9mm (tested), .45 ACP
• Capacity: 9+1
• Barrel: 5 in.
• OAL/Height/Width: 8.7/5.5/1.3 in.
• Weight: 32.2 oz
• Construction: low-glare stainless steel slide, black anodized aluminum frame
• Grips: black/gray G10
• Sights: Novak 3-dot
• Safeties: extended single-side thumb, memory-bump grip
• MSRP: $799
• Manufacturer: Ruger, ruger.com

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