In 1991, Smith & Wesson chambered their Centennial-style Model 940 in 9x19mm, and Ruger built some SP101s in the caliber around the same time, but neither of the guns lasted long in the catalog (the 940 was gone by 1998, and the Ruger a little before that, I think). 357 Magnum revolvers were still being carried as the standard police weapon-I didn’t see where they fit in. The Ruger guns were designed to work with clips, which actually made them more efficient to reload than the 547, but here at home-where. Later on, Ruger chambered some of their excellent “Six” revolvers for the 9mm (again, to pursue European contracts), but I dismissed them just as quickly. 45 ACP guns to fight the “War To End All Wars.” However, the French were trying to clean house and simplify things by going to a single revolver type, so ammunition compatibility wasn’t as important.(2.) I wrote the idea-and the interesting S&W 547–off as an oddity. 45 ACP M1917 revolvers made sense to me as a wartime substitute because the M1911 was already the service standard, and we desperately needed more. 357 Magnum? Why go through all the hassle?(1.) I understood the 9mm was popular in Europe and the French were probably sitting on a pile of it, but why would you chamber a revolver for an autopistol cartridge when the same gun could be chambered in a more efficient and powerful revolver cartridge, like the. The gun came in two flavors (a 4” square butt and a 3” round butt) and had all the right looks (blue steel and walnut-a classic recipe!), but I couldn’t figure out what it was good for. The 547 incorporated a unique ejector system which made the gun work without the use of clips. The first one I recalled seeing was the Smith & Wesson Model 547, which was built in 1980 for the French police, but offered to the U.S. It had taken me a while to get to this point, because the 9mm revolver, as a class, had always struck me as an odd duck. I also shot the 9mm SP101 the following year, which I enjoyed very much, but my fancy for the LCR had grown strong by this point, and I knew I had to add the lightweight gun to my stable first. The opportunity to shoot the 9mm LCR finally came at SHOT Show Media Day a few years back, and I was smitten right away. I wasn’t willing to buy one without shooting it first, however, so I delayed. When a trusted friend gave it a thumbs up, I became even more intrigued by the metric LCR. 38 Special model, but when Ruger launched the 9mm version, my curiosity was piqued. My initial brush with the LCR was with the flagship. Then, the performance caught my immediate attention, and I realized I’d been missing out on a helluva gun. As I mentioned in my previous article, the gun’s radical looks were a turnoff to my conservative tastes, and I didn’t get excited about it until I started getting some trigger time on them.

Ruger 9mm review