Personal Defense World
  • News
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Shotguns
    • Class III & More
  • Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Holsters
    • Knives
    • Optics/Lights
    • Safes
    • Suppressors
  • Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • First-Time Shooters
    • Home & Self-Defense
  • Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • PDW Videos
    • Free Gun Friday
    • SCCY Brand Videos
    • Video Series
      • Everyday Carry
  • More
    • Sweepstakes
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Personal Defense World
  • News
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Shotguns
    • Class III & More
  • Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Holsters
    • Knives
    • Optics/Lights
    • Safes
    • Suppressors
  • Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • First-Time Shooters
    • Home & Self-Defense
  • Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • PDW Videos
    • Free Gun Friday
    • SCCY Brand Videos
    • Video Series
      • Everyday Carry
  • More
    • Sweepstakes
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Personal Defense World
No Result
View All Result
 
New Year, New FREE GUN FRIDAY! Enter to WIN the Smith & Wesson and Black Hills package.

Gun Review: Springfield Armory’s 9mm Range Officer

Andy Massimilian by Andy Massimilian
October 1, 2014
in Exclusives, Guns, Handguns
0
The Springfield Range Officer 9mm sports an entry-level price tag. But make no mistake: With it’s match-grade internals and stellar build quality, the Range Officer 9mm delivers custom-grade performance.

The Springfield Range Officer 9mm sports an entry-level price tag. But make no mistake: With it’s match-grade internals and stellar build quality, the Range Officer 9mm delivers custom-grade performance.

0
SHARES
195
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
The Springfield Range Officer 9mm sports an entry-level price tag. But make no mistake: With it’s match-grade internals and stellar build quality, the Range Officer 9mm delivers custom-grade performance.
The Springfield Range Officer 9mm sports an entry-level price tag. But make no mistake: With it’s match-grade internals and stellar build quality, the Range Officer 9mm delivers custom-grade performance.
The RO 9mm features a skelotonized, match-grade trigger.
The RO 9mm features a skelotonized, match-grade trigger.
The target style rear sight is fully adjustable and finely calibrated.
The target style rear sight is fully adjustable and finely calibrated.

With its steel frame, the RO was easy to control during rapid firing.
With its steel frame, the RO was easy to control during rapid firing.
The RO 9mm sports a matte parkerized finish on the both the slide and the frame.
The RO 9mm sports a matte parkerized finish on the both the slide and the frame.
On the range, the RO achieved a best group of 0.84 inches using Black Hills JHP ammo.
On the range, the RO achieved a best group of 0.84 inches using Black Hills JHP ammo.

The RO’s match-grade bushing and barrel help contribute to the its impressive accuracy.
The RO’s match-grade bushing and barrel help contribute to the its impressive accuracy.




The new Springfield Armory 9mm Range Officer is an encore to the very successful .45 ACP Range Officer, which debuted in 2012. Though .45 ACP is by far the most prevalent caliber for the 1911 platform, pistols chambered in 9mm are now widely available and are being made by an increasing number of manufacturers.

There are compelling reasons why choosing a 9mm 1911 makes sense, particularly for target and competition use where the additional power and self-defense superiority of the .45 ACP are superfluous. Ammunition costs approximately 30 percent less than comparable .45 ACP loads, and recoil is milder, which often translates into more live-fire practice. The 9mm is also a great transition cartridge for a shooter who has become proficient with .22 LR and wants to step up to a centerfire.

The Range Officer is well suited to the many new shooters who have recently entered the market and prefer the advantages of the 1911’s crisp, sliding single-action (SA) trigger and balance over “polymer frame, polymer trigger” offerings, which are suitable for concealed carry but quickly show their weaknesses in bullseye-style shooting, where shot placement matters most.

As its moniker implies, the Range Officer is made for informal competition, and the pistol’s sights, trigger and barrel are what Springfield Armory focused on when designing the gun. Tactical features with little or no application to target shooting are absent from the pistol—and its price.

Custom-Like Details

The RO’s match-grade bushing and barrel help contribute to the its impressive accuracy.
The RO’s match-grade bushing and barrel help contribute to the its impressive accuracy.

The Range Officer is a full-size, American-made pistol. The locking system follows the conventional Browning design that uses a swinging link to attach the barrel block to the pistol’s frame via the slide stop pin, and the standard GI recoil spring guide rod that allows disassembly without tools.

The Range Officer is designed to provide superior target shooting performance for all but very formal competition within a price range that’s less than $1,000. It accomplishes this by including features that are relevant to its intended purpose and leaving off the “added cost” extras. For instance, the Range Officer has all of the functional features—extended beavertail grip safety, lowered/flared ejection port for more reliable ejection, longer trigger made lighter with skeletonized cuts, lightened hammer for faster lock time—that any shooter would appreciate and that two decades ago were considered aftermarket customizations. However, a tactical rail, an ambidextrous safety, frontstrap checkering and front slide serrations are left out in favor of what matters most.

More significantly, the Range Officer is made using the same forged carbon steel slide and forged frame, and shares the same trigger and hammer, as the higher-priced Trophy Match and TRP pistols. The pistol also features a match-grade stainless steel barrel and bushing. (The barrel diameter increases slightly at about 1 inch behind the muzzle to help make the lockup consistent.)

The RO 9mm features a skelotonized, match-grade trigger.
The RO 9mm features a skelotonized, match-grade trigger.

The Range Officer has a lightened, skeletonized, medium-length trigger with a set screw to adjust overtravel. Overtravel is the added distance that the trigger moves after releasing the hammer, and minimizing it reduces the tendency of shooters to dip the muzzle by camming the pistol downward. Underscoring Springfield’s attention to detail, the trigger is well fitted and does not have excess side-to-side or top-bottom play. The specified trigger pull weight is 4.5 to 5.5 pounds, and my sample had a clean let-off and measured 4.3 pounds using a Lyman electronic trigger pull gauge.

Fit and finish of the Range Officer are very good, and no corners seem to have been cut in assembly. Another welcome feature is the lack of a plastic mainspring housing, which, sadly, some pistol-makers are now using instead of steel in at least some models in their 1911 lines.

The steel sights are the same fully adjustable target style used on Springfield Armory’s higher-priced competition pistols, and they give a very clear sight picture. They feature fine horizontal serrations on the rear edges to reduce glare and lend a crisp image to the shooter. Adjustment is simple using a screwdriver, and the sights are dovetail mounted, which I strongly prefer instead of staked because they can be easily replaced or drift adjusted for windage. This sight is finely calibrated, and each click moves point of impact 0.375 inches at 50 yards.

The RO 9mm sports a matte parkerized finish on the both the slide and the frame.
The RO 9mm sports a matte parkerized finish on the both the slide and the frame.

The Range Officer has a smooth, Parkerized finish. The grips are made of cocobolo wood, which is attractive, durable and expensive as compared to other stock grips often seen on 1911s. The Springfield Armory logo and diamond-pattern checkering are very nicely executed.

Though the Springfield Armory manual advises not to carry a round in the chamber until ready to fire, the Range Officer has a lightweight, titanium firing pin and an extra-power firing pin spring that the company explains makes the pistol “drop safe.” This particular system is preferred by some target shooters who feel the trigger pull is smoother than designs that use the other commonly used drop-safe method, known as a “Series 80”-style firing-pin safety. The Series 80 system incorporates a spring-loaded plunger into the slide, which prevents the firing pin from moving forward unless the trigger is depressed.

Like all current-production Springfield Armory 1911s, the Range Officer has an internal mechanism that will lock the hammer in the downward position when applied. The locking device is unobtrusively located in the mainspring housing, is activated with a small key and does not affect reliability in the least.

RO 9 Range Report

On the range, the RO achieved a best group of 0.84 inches using Black Hills JHP ammo.
On the range, the RO achieved a best group of 0.84 inches using Black Hills JHP ammo.

The Springfield Range Officer performed exceptionally for a 1911 in its price range—indeed, it is among the most accurate 1911 pistols I have ever tested. Firing from a Caldwell rest at 25 yards, Black Hills 115-grain JHP loads turned in a best five-shot group of 0.84 inches and an average of 1.75 inches. All groups were less than 2 inches wide when measured center to center. Moreover, all three brands of ammo tested shot very accurately, and I am certain that the results would be even better had I tested this pistol using a machine rest. Though the pistol printed a few inches high from the box, the sights were easily adjusted and windage was right on the mark. Reliability was very good with one failure to feed a hollow-point round in 200-plus rounds of testing.

The chronograph told a familiar story on the ammunition selected. Black Hills ammunition shot an average of 131 fps faster than the equivalent weight Winchester USA brand round. The USA brand ammunition is an economical and reliable FMJ practice load that’s ideal for casual use and for teaching new shooters. The Black Hills ammo costs much more, but provides everything a custom round should offer—accuracy, reliability and full-power performance.

It is important for defensive rounds to be loaded to full power because they must drive hollow-point bullets fast enough to reliably expand on target. The Black Hills 9mm +P load is one such round that approaches .357 Magnum performance. This Black Hills +P load is also accurate, producing a best five-shot group of 1.2 inches.

The Takeaway

With its steel frame, the RO was easy to control during rapid firing.
With its steel frame, the RO was easy to control during rapid firing.

The Range Officer is a well-made pistol with accuracy that is competitive with far more expensive 1911s. The forged frame is a sign of added quality, and the value of the match-grade components used in the Range Officer is evident in this pistol’s range performance. Added accessories and a lifetime warranty make this American-made pistol one of the best values in 1911s available.

Simple upgrades I would consider are adding bumper pads to the magazines for shooting matches requiring reloading under time constraints and an ambidextrous safety (those who want more options can contact Springfield’s Custom shop).

For more information, visit http://www.springfield-armory.com or call 800-680-6866.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

CLICK HERE FOR COMMENTS

Related Posts

first handgun buying tips

5 Tips for the First-Time Handgun Buyer

The Canik SFx Rival-S Steel Framed Pistol.

Stifle the Competition with the new Canik SFx Rival-S Pistol

The Davidson’s Exclusive Gunsite GLOCK Service Pistol.

Davidson’s Feature Rich Exclusive Gunsite GLOCK 45 Service Pistol

The Springfield Armory Hellion brings the heat.

The Springfield Armory Hellion Bullpup Brings the Heat in 5.56

Load More

PERSONAL DEFENSE WORLD VIDEOS

Discussion about this post

FEATURED POST

Study Proves the Good Guy with a Gun Theory.

Good Guy with a Gun: Study of CCW Holders Stopping Mass Shootings

Following the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, gun control advocates have taken the anti-gun narrative to a fever pitch. They insist...

Read more

TRENDING

first handgun buying tips

5 Tips for the First-Time Handgun Buyer

...

Taurus 605 TORO and 856 TORO Revolvers.

Taurus Releases New Optics Ready 605 TORO and 856 TORO Revolvers

...

pocket pistol, pocket pistols, concealed carry handguns, concealed carry handgun, concealed carry pistol, concealed carry pistols

Best Pocket Pistols for Personal Defense [2022]

...

concealed carry, concealed carry handguns

Top 13 Compact 1911 Handguns for Concealed Carry

...

PICK A CATEGORY

CONCEALED CARRY SPOTLIGHT

gun drawing tips techniques

Tips & Tricks for a Fast Gun Draw

You have the right gun. Your cutting-edge holster is made with some lightweight, futuristic material. Your belt is even specially made to carry your...

CONCEALED CARRY SHOWCASE

The FightLite SCR Bandito Pistol.

Shot at SHOT Show: The FightLite SCR Bandito Pistol in 5.56 or 300BLK

Are Switchblades Illegal?

Are Switchblades Legal to Carry in the United States?

Two New Concealed Carry Pistols from Rock Island Armory.

Two New Rock Island Armory Concealed Carry Pistols at SHOT Show

The GPO Spectra Reflex Sight.

GPO Debuts Spectra Reflex Sight at SHOT Show – Its First Reflex Optic

The Tisas Bantam Carry 1911.

Tisas Bantam Carry 1911: A Feature-Rich Pistol with Custom Performance

The Taurus TX22 Compact .22 LR.

Seen at SHOT Show: Taurus Ups the .22 LR Ante with the TX22 Compact

How to Choose a Gun for Self-Defense

How to Choose a Gun for Self-Defense

gun drawing tips techniques

Tips & Tricks for a Fast Gun Draw

AMMO SPOTLIGHT

Getting a Jump on SHOT Show 2023.

7 Personal Defense Related Products to Start SHOT Show 2023 Early

SHOT Show 2023 is almost here and the anticipation is killing us. Of course, the staff of Personal Defense World...

site logo
Gun News, Gun Reviews, and Self Defense Tips

Tactical

  • tactical-life.com

Magazines

  • Tactical Life
  • The Complete Book of Reloading
  • Guns of the Old West

Facebook

  • Tactical-Life Facebook
  • Guns of the Old West Facebook

Twitter

  • Tactical-Life Twitter

Self Defense

  • PersonalDefenseWorld.com

Magazines

  • Personal Defense World
  • Combat Handguns

Facebook

  • Personal Defense World Facebook
  • Combat Handguns

Twitter

  • Personal Defense World Twitter

Shooting Lifestyle

  • BallisticMag.com

Magazines

  • BallisticMag.com

Facebook

  • Ballistic Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Ballistic Magazine Twitter

Alpha Lifestyle

  • SkillsetMag.com

Magazines

  • Skillset

Facebook

  • Skillset Magazine Facebook

Twitter

  • Skillset Magazine Twitter

Instagram

  • Skillset Magazine Instagram
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • California Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Policy
© Athlon Outdoors, All Rights Reserved.
You use of this website constitutes and manifests your acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and awareness of the California Privacy Rights. Pursuant to U.S. Copyright law, as well as other applicable federal and state laws, the content on this website may not be reproduced, distributed, displayed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, without the prior, express, and written permission of Athlon Outdoors.

Manage your GDPR consents by clicking here. Manage your CCPA consents by clicking here.
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Guns
    • View All Guns
    • Handguns
    • Shotguns
    • Rifles
    • Class III & More
    • Sponsored
  • Gear
    • View All Gear
    • Accessories
    • Ammo
    • Holsters
    • Knives
    • Optics/Lights
    • Safes
    • Suppressors
  • Lifestyle
    • View All Lifestyle
    • Concealed Carry
    • First-Time Shooters
    • Home & Self-Defense
  • Videos
    • PDW Videos
    • Free Gun Friday
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.