Compact pistols seem about right to me. I prefer Commanders to full size 1911s and the Glock 19 mid-size pistol to the Glock 17 full-size. The compact pistols generally shoot well, are easier to conceal and carry and don’t have the sharp recoil and difficult handling characteristics often associated with the tiny sub-compact pistols. Most manufacturers start out introducing a full size pistol, followed by the compacts and sub-compacts; a pattern we’ve seen repeated by Colt, Smith & Wesson and Glock, among others. When Ruger brought out their full-size American Pistol they announced it was going to be the first of an entirely new line of pistols in various calibers and configurations so it’s no surprise the next pistol in the lineup would be a compact version in the most popular pistol caliber these days – 9mm Luger.
My sample pistol is a Pro model, meaning it has no manual thumb safety or magazine disconnect and comes with a compact 12 round magazine as well as a full-size 17 round magazine. A Manual Safety model with these magazines is available as well. Both the Pro and Manual Safety models can be purchased with two 10 round magazines in lieu of the scary “high capacity” magazines in states where magazine capacity prohibitions exist. The pistols come with three grip modules to adjust grip size and are equipped with excellent Novak sights with three white dots.
Ruger is rightly proud of the trigger on the American pistols. I can tell you, having handled and fired many prototypes over several years, the triggers were continually being adjusted and re-designed throughout the development period. Using fixtures hooked up to computers the engineers at Ruger charted the various factors that go into how we feel about the trigger when we shoot a pistol. In addition to weight of pull there are subjective factors involving take-up, length of pull, over-travel and trigger reset. While the trigger on my sample Compact averages a little over 6 pounds when I test it on my electronic trigger tester it feels lighter to me. The trigger is crisp, in that it snaps cleanly, and has a fairly short reset. It’s easy to manage and that promotes accurate shooting.
For reasons I cannot fully explain, the Compact seems to fit my hand and feels better than the full size American. Maybe it’s the extension on the 12 round magazine, but regardless, I like it better. I even like the sights, whereas I’m usually not a fan of three dot sights. You see, in many cases the dots on three dot sights don’t line up the way they should. In a perfect world, with perfect sight alignment, the dots should appear perfectly aligned horizontally. The point of impact of the bullet in this same perfect world should be precisely in the center of the front sight dot, but rarely do sights with dots achieve this. Because the folks at Novak’s understand this and Ruger wisely chose to use Novak sights on the American pistols, I’m happy to report the sights on my sample pistol are perfectly aligned. The dots line up just the way they are supposed to and covering up what I want to hit with the front dot produces satisfying hits.
As is my usual practice, I shot the Compact through the Gunsite 250 School Drill right out of the box with no practice or prepping of the pistol like cleaning and lubricating. My immediate impression? This is an excellent pistol to shoot through a weeklong class. Recoil is mild, the trigger works well, the sights are aligned correctly and the pistol is lacking in sharp edges and surfaces that tend to cut up the hands during a week of intense training. Carrying on, I shot a number of fast pairs and failure drills (two to the body, one to the head) at 3, 5 and 7 yards with satisfying results. Switching over to a metal plate I dropped back to 25 yards and fired repeated headshots then moved back to 50 yards and made shots to the body until it became boring. Okay, I’m a pretty good shooter but I’ve tested a lot of guns that don’t work as well for me as this American Compact. It’s very easy to shoot well and satisfies my criteria that the gun, the sights and the trigger need to work well enough with me so I can shoot these drills. As far as reliability is concerned I fired a bunch of premium defensive ammunition from Hornady, Sig and Ruger through the Compact without a single malfunction of any kind. Both the 12 round and 17 round magazines functioned flawlessly and were easy to load, with only the last round being a bit tough to stuff into the magazine.
I’ve fired a lot of rounds through various American pistols, in one case running almost 700 rounds through a 9mm pistol in about an hour, so I don’t see any need to run thousands of rounds through this American Compact before proclaiming it is good to go. It is. With a retail price under $600 and a street price likely to be under $500 the Compact is a bargain. If you’re looking for a defensive or concealed carry pistol, or a pistol to shoot through a week of class at Gunsite you could do a lot worse and not much better.
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About the Author:
Ed Head is a regular on Shooting Gallery, Gun Stories and Down Range TV. He has worked for almost 30 years in law enforcement, first in the United States Air Force and then with the United States Border Patrol, retiring as a Field Operations Supervisor. During his Border Patrol career, Ed worked in a variety of patrol, investigative and training capacities. Ed has an extensive background as a firearms instructor, having trained thousands, ranging from beginners to police, military and special operations personnel. Having taught at Gunsite for 20 years, Ed first trained there under the world famous shooting school’s founder, Jeff Cooper, then later ran the school as the operations manager for more than five years. Ed lives in Chino Valley, Arizona, where he continues to teach and write.