Just traded a Springfield Armory XD .45 for this Ruger SR9c.
See bottom of this post for a photo of the XD .45 I traded away.
I had been trying to sell the SA .45 for a long time in several websites etc. I relisted it in armslist and got a trade offer. Was not looking at the Ruger SR9c before that, but after the trade offer I took a good hard look at it, read what people were saying, saw that people seemed to like it and for some good reasons so I decided to go ahead with the trade.
Value was roughly the same, I had 3 mags with the XD .45 and the Ruger came with 3 mags and was in great shape.
It seems people like the plastic guns in smaller 9mm versions and the XD .45 was not getting much attention. It is actually a little larger then a 1911 .45. as I have one and did a side by side comparison.
I thought since it was a 9mm and smaller, I might be able to sell it off a little more easy then the XD .45.
After I got it in my hands I begin to think I might like to hang on to it. Not sure about that as I have not shot it yet.
The mags come in 2 sizes, it came with two 17 round mags and one 10 round mag. The 17 round mags have a extension sleeve that makes them look a lot better. This makes it an 18 round gun, 17 in the mag and 1 in chamber. This makes it an ideal night stand/home defense gun fitted with the 17 round mag.
If I keep it, I will put a crimson trace laser on it also. I like lasers.
Concerning the sights, it has both wind-age and elevation adjustable rear site, a good thing, but no night sites.
One thing the Ruger has that I had previously wanted to get away from is a safety. I once owned a Glock and it took a long time for me to become OK with not having a safety but after seeing the other safety features and long trigger pull and reading how many times under the stress of the situation, cops using guns with safeties forgot to put the safety off in the heat of a gun fight. After that I got used to the idea of no safety and liked it.
Now with this Ruger, it does have a safety, so ?....
Reading up on it, the reviews said because the Ruger has a very crisp trigger with almost no take up, the safety was necessary as unlike a Glock, pull the trigger even a little and it goes BANG.
One thing that did help concerning the safety was this, when I held the gun out in a firing stance, I could reach up and flick the safety off easily with my thumb and not lose my firing grip on the gun. In other words should I forget to take the safety off, I can flick it off and fire pretty quickly. If I did have to bring the gun back down, adjust my grip or use my other hand to flick the safety off, no question this gun would not stay in my ownership.
After I got hold of it I put a snap cap in and tried the trigger and as I read in the reviews, it seems very good. I do like a good trigger so that was a great point that helped me liked the gun.
It also has a loaded chamber indicator, I did not like the "idea", but after I had the gun in hand, I decided I did like that. It also has an indicator to show the gun is cocked.
When I pick up the gun, I know it's status as loaded or not and cocked or not. Got to admit I do like that. I have handled this gun, put it away, next day opened the drawer and picked it up etc. After a few days I got a favorable impression of the loaded and cocked indicators.
If I teach my wife to use this gun, I know if I teach her to use these loaded and cocked indicators, she will probably like these features also.
A bad thing....
A mag must be inserted to fire the gun. Gun reviewers do not like this feature. This feature can be disabled ether by yourself or by a gunsmith. This gun I traded for has this feature disabled and will fire without a mag inserted. Why would they build it like this?, is this supposed to be a safety feature?
If your mag is low and you pull it to reload and the bad guy pops around the corner.... and you have to insert a mag before you can use the gun to defend yourself? Who's idea was this?
A gun is a deadly weapon, it should not be in your hand in a defense situation unless you know what your doing and how to use it, so why build it so it can be disabled if the mag gets removed?
What if you end up in a hand to hand close quarter battle and the gun gets banged around and the mag falls free? You have one round left in the gun and suddenly you get the chance to end the fight and shoot the bad guy...
But no, your gun has been disabled by some do good nanny mod that the lawyers made the manufacture put in, in a misguided attempt at safety? The only good thing about this feature is it can safely be disabled.
So the final decision - will I keep this gun will come after I shoot it. Been busy and have not gone to the range in a while, got to do that soon and get some rounds down range.
One thing i do have to say, this is one good looking gun specially with the 10 round mag. The photos don't do it justice. To see better photos Click here
Robert
XD .45 I traded away below