Well, it’s official. Ruger has entered the rather crowded 1911 pistol game. Ordinarily, I’d respond to this with a yawn, but a few factors make me suspect they’ll do great things with it.
Jeff Quinn wrote a nice writeup on it, and he sounds optimistic. It’ll have a cast frame, which is little cause for worry since the folks at Pine Tree Castings have been proving the investment casting process to be capable of great durability for decades. A point of interest is the fact that the plunger tube is cast as part of the frame, which corrects one of my greatest complaints about the design.
When I first heard they’d be making a 1911, I worried a bit. Ruger being Ruger, I expected them to slap a giant lawyer warning on the side of the slide (like they do on their revolvers). They avoided that, and surprisingly, the gun is quite traditional in form. Continued...