The box that arrived was plain, but inside were a pair of Ruger boxes. When I opened the first one, my reaction was, “Another SR? What now?” Considering the possibility that Ruger had done something just a bit odd, like chambering it in .357 SIG or .45 GAP, I dropped the magazine out of it as part of my “check and unload” routine.
As I was holding the mag, my coffee-starved brain noticed that the magazine was not shaped like the 9mm and .40 I already have here. I turned the pistol over to see the model name: SR45. Wait a minute, this can’t be.

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However, while the 9mm and 40 .SRs each have barrels a fraction over four inches (4.14 inches, according to the book specs and my dial caliper), the .45 ACP has a barrel of 41/2 inches in length. Not because the .45 ACP needs that much to get bullets up to speed, but that happens to be the barrel length that balances well in .45 ACP configuration. Similarly, the .45 is a quarter-inch taller, at 53/4 inches. That’s necessary to get that 10th round into a flush magazine.

In width, however, the book specs are the same, at 1.27 inches. That is the width to the widest parts that stick out, namely the thumb safety. The 9mm and 40 are both thinner than that where your thumb rests, being under an inch, while the .45 is just a smidge larger, but not much. Complaining that the .45 is thicker there is like complaining that a supermodel is a size four instead of a size two.

The trigger? It’s the expected little-bit-gritty because it’s a new gun, but it started to clean up with a bit of dry-firing.

The Other .45

In all the excitement and glee at looking over the new SR45, I had almost forgotten about the other Ruger box in the carton. So, after sorting through the ammo stack and finding the ones I wanted to test in the SR45, I opened the next box. Oh my.

There, in a zippered Ruger rug, was a stainless SR1911, Commander-size. The frame simply reads “SR1911,” but the spec sheet lists it as the SR1911CMD. The frame, slide and barrel are stainless, while the other parts are blued steel. The grip safety is highly upswept and sculpted on either side to allow your hand to ride as high as humanly possible. The thumb safety is low profile but more than big enough to use at speed or under stress. The mainspring housing is flat, checkered, steel and properly fitted. The slide stop is classic, unchanged from what has worked for a century.

The sights are Novak three dot, and there was a detail I noticed on the front blade that took me back in time. It has been customary for decades to finish a front blade so it is flush with the slide on the front and project rearward past the dovetail. When I was fitting Novaks back in the 1980s, I’d trim the blade so it did not go backward past the dovetail. And so this one is fitted, too. I’d like to think I had some influence there, but probably not. And Ruger went one better. The front blade, while full width at the face, is narrowed forward of that, so as to provide the clearest possible sight picture.

The trigger is the Ruger standard, with three triangular-shaped holes through it. In function, it is clean and crisp, and while competition shooters might mutter a few objections to it being “too heavy,” those who intend it for daily carry will find it to be clean enough to use and heavy enough to be carryable.

The Commander-size 1911 has always been one I’ve admired, even though (curiously) I haven’t owned many of them. The weight is listed as 21/2 ounces less than that of the Government-size SR1911, but the big advantage is size. The three-quarters of an inch off the slide and barrel makes it a lot easier to carry than the Government model, and the near-Government weight makes the all-steel Commander-size pistol fun to shoot.

With a standard barrel design (no integral feed ramp) and a slot to be used as a loaded-chamber indicator, the SR1911CMD went into the bag with the SR45, and I doubled the ammo supply to take to the range.

But on the other hand, we’ve just seen what to other makers should be an alarming bit of info: Ruger plans to fill every market niche with a handgun. Making a full-size and then compact 9mm/.40 pistol is a slam-dunk in this era. Everyone wants one, and every one you make, you can sell. But to continue and make a full-size .45? And I’d bet good money a compact version is in the pipeline. What’s more, while the fans of the original polymer pistol have been begging for a single-stack .45 for, oh, decades now, the Ruger SR45 is in actual size a single-stack .45 but with double-stack capacity.

And for fans of the 1911, the SR1911CMD is another eye-opener. Again, to make a full-size 1911 is easy, and you can sell them like hotcakes. But an all-steel Commander size? And again, I’d bet good money that an aluminum-alloy version is in the works.

Ruger is coming out with new handgun models almost faster than I can test them and certainly faster than I can buy them. If you haven’t cracked open a Ruger catalog recently, you may be surprised.