1911 Torture Test: Springfield Armory Range Officer 9mm

You asked, and I listened. The next gun in the 1911 Torture Test/Review series will be the Springfield Armory Range Officer in 9mm. Right off the bat, there are a few features that I really like: the adjustable sights, the lack of a full length guide rod, and the fact that magazines actually drop free! It’s pretty much ready to go out of the box for use as a carry gun.

To get it ready for competition, I’d want to make two changes: first, I’d ditch the factory stocks and replace them with a set of Hogue 1911 Magrips, which would make the gun easier to grip and easier to reload. You can even get them in red, which is a nice touch. The next thing I’d do would be add a Wilson Combat ambi safety. The reason I want an ambi safety on a competition gun is simple: weak hand only starts. It’s a real pain in ass to do a WHO start with a gun that lacks an ambi safety.

Now, per our 1911 Rating System, these two things that I’d change are not dings against the gun. It’s not an objective system if I start jacking guns up for what amounts to end-user preference. The rating system is designed to focus primarily on mechanical function. I’ll be hitting the range this week with the RO to get it through it’s first evaluation, which will be an accuracy test, and the dreaded 10-8 Function Test.