Here's my probem on Ruger, boys and girls...my experience is not the same as a couple of people's experience on the Forum.
My new SR9 has a perfectly serviceable trigger...yeah, I wish it was lighter, but so what? I would wager that I handle on the average more new guns than anyone else on this Forum and 90% PLUS of all new guns have crappy triggers. On triggers, the lawyers won. My old SR9 had the same trigger, and yet I went through the GUNSITE 250 shooting pretty much the same scores I shot with an S&W M&P the year before. Frankly, I shot the GUNSITE 250 better with a 1911 .45, but I also spent 15 or so years as an active IPSC competitor shooting 1911 .45s...if I didn't shoot better with a 1911 it would surprise the heck out of me.
I've shot (in some cases extensively) examples of all the polymer-framed service pistols out there, and depending on whihc example you pick up they're all, for lack of a better word, baseline. I would not feel undergunned with any of them. I like the SR-9's 1911 feel, the M&P's trigger, the Glock's doomsday reliability, the Sig 250's ergonomics, the XD's accuracy...my current favorite is the FNH FNP-9 9mm which does everything pretty well. HOWEVER, I carry a small 1911-style gun, the Para Carry 9...why, see above on shooting competiiton with a 1911.
RE: The LCP, I carry mine daily. I don't know if it chews up cases because I don't reload .380s. Nor should you for a back-up self-defense pistol. I know my LCP shoots Black Hills ball and the whole panoply of Cor-Bon specialty ammunition. Mine shoots great. Over the last few weeks I've been traveling extensively to facilities that cater to military and law enforcement special teams, and I have heard a LOT of talk about the LCP...and ALL of it has been good. I have not heard one bad word about the LCP from people who carry guns FOR A LIVING. And most of the guys who didn't yet have an LCP were on a waiting list somewhere.
I don't shoot ANY of my pocket pistols a lot...it's not what they're made for. On J-frames, I followed Walt Rauch's excellent advice and purchased a .22 LR J-frame, which I've put far more rounds through than my centerfire pocket revolvers. My ideal wish would be for Ruger to make a .22 LR LCP "camp gun, but such a gun is not in the works to the best of my knowledge. I do have another small .22 LR semiautos (a Taurus), and I practice with it.
RE: The target Mini-14, yes it is butt-ugly, but it also shoots like a champ (at least mine did). That's what it was supposed to do. I do not have nor have I shot any other of the new Mini-14s off the new tooling, but I have talked to LEOs who purchased a few for evaluation and they are completely happy with them...reliable, accurate and a valid choice over a much higher priced AR. My old Series 181 Mini was a workhorse...I shot 3-Gun with it back in the 1980s and used it as a teaching rifle in the 1990s. No, it was never a "tack-driver," but I also never felt undergunned in those early 3-Gun matches (our ranges were limited to 300 yards and closer in Florida). I remember a match in Brandon, FL, with a 300-yard gong and me standing there offhand and ringing it over and over again with the Mini and a 1st gen Aimpoint. I still have the gun and have no intention of ever getting rid of it.
Jay, I luv ya, bruther, but I think you're a bit off base here (although you notice I have let the threads run their course). Ruger is not a "bad company," nor do they make bad guns. Quite the contrary. I have been in their factory and worked with their engineers, and I have shot literally hundreds of their new guns. They also support this website and my programs, and I have taken the criticisms on this Forum to the company's top executives...they listen to me and they listen to you.
I am not going to let this Forum become another one of the endless HATE COMPANY sites...it's bullshit. I'm asking you guys to stop...I'm not saying end all criticism of guns of any kind, but this jihad stuff needs to end.
So, please?
Michael B