.45 ACP CDR SR1911

This week’s Thursday Day at the Range is a back-to-the-.45-SR1911 Day. Ruger’s SR1911 Series is a refreshingly direct rendition of the classic M1911. You’ll find no extraneous ornamentation – at least if you look past the Doug Koening Custom Shop Special, that is.

This time we’re reshooting the steel .45 ACP CDR SR1911. Why? Well, we had good luck improving the accuracy of another M1911 pistol by upgrading the stocks. So, when we added this set of beautiful stocks from Bill Griffith to my steel .45 Ruger CDR, we wondered if history would repeat itself. Well, doggone it, it sure did!

If you were to scroll down to the earlier report on this pistol from last year you would see a group that is at least twice the size of the one illustrated here. Of course, the new glasses that I’ve gotten in the interim might have helped too, but permit me my flight of fancy. Alas, I can’t guarantee that a set of Bill’s stocks will improve your pistol’s (or your) shooting to this extent, but the change in appearance is worth the effort in itself.

I like this pistol a lot, almost as much as the Ruger SR1911 9mm LW CDR. It does shoot as well as it feels and looks. When folks ask what brand M1911-type pistol I prefer, results like this compel me to include the SR1911 line in my recommendations.

The usual protocol applies, seven yards, unsupported standing Weaver, 230-grain FMJ (in this case, aluminum case), best of five, five-shot groups.

BY WALTER JULIUS KULECK