Initial observations and shooting...
Let me say off the bat, mag spring tension of the 7 round mags is tight. The CMD didn’t have much lube on it as packed by Ruger. Trigger pull was gritty and not very good, but I have felt worse. Over travel was properly set. Grip safety spring tension was light. The white three dot Novak sights are well regulated for a defensive pistol. The pistol never missed a beat during the 60 round initial shooting. It did ding one ejected case solidly off the top of my forehead. Need to fix that. Targets shown are 10, 15, and 25 yard distances, respectively. I was okay with this pistol as a production gun. 10 yard target was rapid fire but not blazing speed (I’m not the blazin-est shooter).

Pictured are the original targets.

 

Back home, pistol in hand, a closer look.

The finish on the pistol is well done. Lines are consistent side to side. Slide and frame meet evenly on rear of pistol. No slide/dust cover interference is evident on slide spring tunnel. All black parts are blasted to a similar texture as the frame, both of which are aesthetically appealing. Pistol is dehorned.

The grip safety fit leaves something to be desired, the underside of the beavertail to frame blend is not well done. There is some looseness of the grip safety in the frame, no pinch points, though. While I like thumb knuckle cuts on grip safeties, the forward corners behind the frame cause some dig annoyance, but no discomfort in firing the pistol using strong thumb over safety hold. Engagement is not too deep, not too shallow. There is considerable ‘structure’ in the front of the hammer cutout of the grip safety. I pondered this for awhile (to save material or weight maybe) and just accept this as some Ruger production need. The thumb safety snicks on and off nicely and properly safes the pistol. In the off position the curved edge is not parallel to the frame profile. The mag catch was stiff and gritty in operation.

Pictured is the grip safety fit...

 

The mainspring housing is checkered, the amount of mainspring housing ‘reveal’ on both sides of the back strap was decent and fairly even. The mainspring housing extends below the bottom of the grip frame a few thousands of an inch.

Pushing down on the barrel chamber end HARD yielded a little movement. I shook the pistol, got a rattle, no issue for me there since I don’t go around shaking the pistol. Thumb on barrel, coaxing the slide to the rear indicated some rear hood/slide clearance. This clearance measured .010” measured by inserting feeler gauges until the slide just closed. Unlocking the pistol slightly, considerable barrel/bushing and bushing/slide free play was evident.

Grips are appealing and fill the hand well, they are keepers. The Ruger emblem is aligned vertically relative to the pistol not the grip frame. Grip screw bushings extend ever so slightly into the magwell.
Trigger…gritty, rough, long pull, 4 pound 6 ounce pull force needed to drop the hammer. The trigger was very loose vertically, horizontally and had no spring pressure before takeup. Overtravel was properly set.

 

Disassembly and inspection…

Slide/frame clearances were measured with a dial indicator both front and rear of slide. Clearance was .0032-.0040” both laterally and horizontally. Using a caliper, it was determined bushing/slide clearance was .0035” and bushing/barrel clearance was .005”. Oddly, the slide stop pin has a flat on the bottom from the end of the pin to 70 percent of its length. This creates an effective difference of .003” end to end diameter. The pin also exhibited bottom lug strikes only on the left side of the pin. The link is properly fitted to the barrel lower lugs. No barrel bump was evident and barrel timing is okay.


The grip safety internally did show the relief on the top of the blocking arm allowing removal and replacement of the grip safety without removing the mainspring housing. Nice when adjusting disengagement depth. This grip safety is scary like the STI which is in one of my parts boxes. The thumb safety was well formed and pin had a flat as on the slide stop pin. The mainspring housing was loose in frame grooves for it, particularly at the top.

The trigger was very loose in the frame in all directions. Small gouges from the sharp disconnector paddle lower edge was evident on rear of bow. Sear was only contacting the hammer hooks on one side and there was a slight relief instead of a secondary angle. The rest of it was decently formed. Hammer hook faces were rough and planes uneven, typical in some MIM product, in my experience. Both hammer hook heights were .026”. The end of the hammer strut was beveled front and rear but not rounded. Disconnector was minimally prepped. The sear spring contact points were deburred but not beveled and polished.

The mag catch had signs of hard sliding contact in two places. The end of the mag catch lock pin was almost square and there is a ‘collar’ around the locking end contributing to rough operation.

 

What I did to correct some of the shortcomings...

A few strokes of a smooth file took care of grip screw bushing protrusion into the magwell.

Touch up the high spots and deburr bore of the mag catch. Round off end and smooth lock pin. Relieve collar on one side of lock head which was catching. Square up the ends of the mag catch spring.

Clean up trigger and hammer tracks in frame. I cut a takeup adjustment tab in front of trigger bow and bent it forward. Dimple, polish, slightly spread and fit trigger bow to frame. Loosen trigger over travel screw. Ruger applied a locking compound so it was a bear to loosen.


Then I smoothed the disconnector interface surfaces, round and polish paddle sharp lower edge, window, form and polish NM bevel on disconnector head.

Pictured is the finished trigger and disconnector in progress.

 

Next at bat...

The sear primary and secondary sear angles were honed and the peak between the two was relieved. The hammer hook faces were trued, polished and cut to .022” height. That height was chosen since it is a defensive type pistol. I then beveled the top corner of the hooks and rolled the stone around the bevel. The sides and edges of the hammer, sear and disconnector were deburred.

The end of the strut was rounded and polished. Sear contact checked, corrected and pull weight adjusted to 4 pounds, 7 ounces. Takeup, half cock trigger freeplay, and overtravel were adjusted and good. The thumb safety engaged smoothly and without movement when engaged and trigger pulled.

The left side of the sear spring rubbed against the left side of the frame spring cutout. I’ve encountered this in other 1911’s. The interference was corrected by filing lengthwise and deburring the left side of the spring. The sear spring leaf ends were beveled and polished.

 

Mainspring housing rails were dimpled on the upper rear edge of the rails then filed to fit to eliminate looseness. In this case the dimples were placed on the top rear of each rail to push the top of the housing inward. I choose this location since most of the looseness was at the top and moving the top in evened up the housing reveal relative to the frame. First one rail was fitted then the opposite to eliminate guesswork.

Slide/frame fit was left unaddressed. I didn’t have a tighter commander bushing on hand. I did have a blue/black MGW prefit for 5” gun. Bushing ID and OD measurements said go for it….so I mic’d the Ruger’s bushing skirt length, Dremel cut the MGW bushing close, filed square and deburred to length. The MGW bushing matt bluing worked with the two tone theme of the pistol.

Replaced and fit slide stop with Smith and Wesson new part. All barrel movement was eliminated. Lower lug strikes on the top and rear of the slide stop pin were evident on both sides of the pin. Both the Ruger and S&W slide stop appear to be from same supplier but spec’d differently. Just an observation and personal impression….

The extractor was clocking. I removed and checked the extractor. The front lower face of the hook was not round and the groove/feed bevel corner left sharp. I shaped the round, knocked off the sharp corner and polished both surfaces. Tension was okay so no need for adjustment there. I fitted an EGW oversize firing pin stop to eliminate the clocking. I profiled the bottom with an approximate .040” radius.

 

How it worked out…

The pistol was test fired and ran well with zero malfunctions. Group consistency improved, trigger good, ejection not at my head, lug strikes on stop pin good. Only minimal windage sight adjustment was required – this is a well regulated handgun. The original larger radius firing pin stop was taken along and swapped with the EGW slide stop. This was for some side-by-side shooting. The smaller radius actually took some of the harshness out of the felt recoil.

The picture of the first after work target has a mix of groups shot using different sight pictures at the distances noted on the target. Though some of the ‘groups’ were only three shots it does indicate the pistol’s consistency. The 3 dot and standard sight pictures exhibited POI which coincided when used at the appropriate distances. Using one or the other exclusively would yield sound practical hits on target as well. Not match grade but it builds confidence..

The second ‘Trident’ target was shot at 25 yards. I did throw a couple shots low left and one high right. I had called them as I did the others so I feel the pistol showed some improvement. The reader can draw their conclusions.

Last picture....using the dropper pipe supplied with bottles of lube or aerosols to depress the safety pin during thumb safety installation on the frame.

 

Good review. Shows what can be done to improve a decent basic gun with a minimum amount of time/money. I'm a long time Ruger fan going back to the 70s, but I've had a hard time finding any love for the centerfire autos in the lineup. The SA/DA guns were/are just butt ugly and have poor ergonomics (at least for me). The cosmetics of the 1911s has left me pretty cold, too, but one of the pro smiths (John Harrison I think) reworked one a while back and it turned out beautifully. I may develop some love for these after all.

 

Thank for the acknowledgement. I was actually in the market for the 5" SR1911 just after they hit the market. Couldn't get one, "indefinite backorder" one distributor told the FFL I use. So I went with a Sig Nitron. At the end of the 7 day mandatory purgatory, I went to pick up the Sig. They had a 5" Ruger. I compared them side by side. The Ruger was definitely rough compared to the Sig. I just stayed with the extra for the Sig. I am a Ruger fan but not product blind.
This Ruger CMD induced good vibes compared that first one I handled. Hence, I bought it.

 

Magnumite - nice write up - thank you. I Have the Lightweight CMD. I wound up replacing the slide stop and mainspring housing with EGW. Replaced the very limp thumb safety with Colt GI style and the plunger and spring with Ed Brown. Replaced the extractor with Nighthawk and firing pin stop with Wilson so I could fit the extractor and stop to eliminate clocking. I used a stainless extractor for the heck of it since I thought it looked better to match silver slide. I sent slide to Novak and night sights put on since my CMD front sight was to tall and pistol shot low - plus use it for carry and much prefer night sights just in case. Put new bushings in and added VZ grips. I prefer the full thickness grips.

Like you I bagged parts and they are in the original box as working spares. I really like my Ruger and it has run great. When I got the slide back from Novak it shoots POA. Thanks again for the nice detailed post - Ed

 

INHO Ruger makes a fantastic 1911 right out of the box.

I have had 3 full size and 3 commanders. Nothing wrong with any of them. I just trade too much.....ask my wife.

They all shot just like this out of the box too!

 

My one CMD originally had all the problems mentioned by Magnumite. Also, too much material had been removed from the barrel bottom lug and the lug was cut back so much that there was no "flat" for the slide stop pin. I fixed all the problems including replacing the barrel with one from Fred Kart.

It's now one of my favorite 1911s and serves as one of my bedside weapons.

I'm long past prime for shooting accurately, but 15 yard targets I shoot with my CMD look very much like the one posted by neorebel above sans the 3 outliers.

 

Thank you, Ed G..

 

Nice write up. I have had a couple of the 5 inch but sold one to a friend. Have a few of the Commanders. There is no way I would buy one of these without looking at it first. My three Commanders all came from a gun store where it is O.K. with them if I field strip the gun before I buy it.



For the price they are impressive pistols unless you get a bad one. I have not replaced any of the parts on any of the Commanders except for stocks on the first one I bought back in Jan. 2013. Now I have found little things to clean up with a fine file during a detail strip of a new pistol. That black Night Watchman calls out for a black EGW bushing and maybe a black trigger but both are fit well in the original pistol.

I have looked at the 9mm and will probably get one down the road but again will look at it before hand.

 

Nice results after your upgrades, too bad they could not get it right from the start.

 

Thank you for this write up. My first and only 1911 is a Ruger CMD. I have had problems with ejecting, brass hitting me or going straight up to the ceiling. It isn't consistent but annoying. I installed a wilson combat firing pin stop but the extractor was still clocking. I will take your advice and order a EGW oversized firing pin stop.
Thanks again

 

"Nice results after your upgrades, too bad they could not get it right from the start."

What gets me the most are the flats on the slide stop and thumb safety pins. I'll have to email Ruger engineering to get the low down on that...probably fitting measure, though that doesn't make sense since the pin will cause uneven interfaces between the related parts.


" I will take your advice and order a EGW oversized firing pin stop."

Good place to start, ejector nose shape will affect that as well.

 

Magnumite, regarding the ejector nose shape, what do you recommend?

 

For the modest price I think Ruger makes a very good 1911. It would definitely be my recomendation for anyone looking to buy their first 1911.

 

Thanks for the detailed write up. I have allot to learn and this was a pleasure to read all the way through. Wonderful work, I got allot of insight on what to look for during trouble shooting. Not at your level to comfortably work on everything but good to see what you look for after noticing some irregularities.

 

Excellent write up and maybe some "how to" questions to follow

 

Check out the provided link and scroll down to the post with the illustration in it. It illustrates the concept pretty good. The upper inside corner of the ejector nose is the one that gets the job done if you have a difficult to eject pistol. I work from that corner and use the angle of the nose to help direct the brass out of the port.

https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=681313


I built one pistol which ran like a dream for many thousands of rounds. It started having ejection issues. Extractor was good and it turned out the ejector was at fault. I noticed the nose of the ejector was battered some so it must have been soft. I put in a good machined steel ejector. I had to bend the nose IN (and relieve just enough to clear the slide) toward the middle of the pistol to obtain proper ejection patterns.

I am going to do one of two things...install and narrow a 9mm/38 Super ejector and/or have the slide milled for a 9mm ejector. The Commander size guns generally have them even in 45 ACP caliber, the Ruger does as one of those makes.

 

Thanks for this information. I understand that the nose should be bent "IN" (top view), how about when looking at the ejector from the side, do you prefer it being slanted back or forward? This is what boggles my mind, because the factory ejector nose is slanted forward.

 

Sorry about the delayed response. I missed the post.

The ejector nose tip slanted forward toward the top (side view) puts the strike on the rim closer to center. You can change the position of the forward most tip to get the case to eject properly. Look at enough guns you'll observe some with angle the nose up, down, even 'pointed' for reliable ejection.

I don't typically bend the ejector noses at all. But the ejector groove in slide of the one pistol mentioned is milled off slightly toward the outside of the rim.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have since installed a EGW extended ejector on my commander. I left it pretty much vertical and it ejects perfectly at 4 o'clock. I also filled it down until I was able to eject a live round.