Well, good news and more good news. The R9S is one of the few pistols I have purchased over the years which I came away from my first range practice feeling even better about the purchase than when I wanted it (no buyer's remorse here!).
I practiced the disassembly-assembly 5 times and had it down, for now at least. The pin was not hard to push out using hand pressure, no hammer needed. The recoil spring assembly was difficult to get lined up until I tried leaving the barrel out, pushing the end of the assembly through the hole, compressing the spring, and then sliding the barrel into position. Only have one small blood blister! I did decide not to strip and clean at the range as the parts seemed to fly away all too often and I did not want to loose them in the dirt.
My subjective evaluation of the recoil was that it was not bad at all. I do fire the 454 Casull in the Freedom Arms pistol and that is painful!! I also fire a 500 S&W and it seems distinct but far from painful. The only 44 and 357 magnums which seem to have much recoil are the S&W scandium/titianium ones. The R9 was a dream, not near what I thought it would be.
The pistol does twist in my hand. It needs some form of abrasive something on the front strap especially.
i fired 68 rounds total. It failed to feed a total of 5 times, 3 of which occurred within the first 10 rounds. The other two I think were a result of not tapping the magazine to seat the cartridges back in the magazine. Also, I was not being careful about hitting the nose of the bullet on the bottom side of the magwell when insterting the mag. I corrected these two things and no more malfunctions of any kind.
I fired the following loads (why, because that was all that was available in standard loadings, not +P or +P+, at the sporting goods stores near me):
Winchester Silvertips 115 gr. = 1 3/16"
147 gr. = 1 7/16"
Winchester Supreme 147 gr. SXT = 1 1/16"
Speer Gold Dots in 115 gr. = 2 7/16"
124 gr. = 1 10/16"
147 gr. = 2 10/16"
Federal Classic Hydro-Shock 115 gr. = 3" 1 key hole
147 gr. = 1 10/16" 5 keyholes
Federal Premium Hydro-Shockl 124 gr. = 1 9/16"
135 gr. = 2 3/16"
147 gr. = 2" 2 key holes
I fired with a supported left arm at a target 15' away (but not on a rest as I wanted to measure center of impact vs. center of hold w/o a rest changing the center of impact), 6 shot groups, and measured the best 5 to account for my lack of control (I had several called flyers so went with best 5 in all cases).
Center of impact was high and left of center of hold on all groups except the Winchester Silvertip 115 gr. and the Winchester Supreme SXT 147 gr. which were both at the same point.
Conclusions:
1. The R9 is a GREAT pistol of its type!
2. For me the recoil is over rated but I am accustomed to shooting large bore magnums.
3. Again, for me the difficulty in disassembly-assembly is also over rated but I have been taking pistols apart for 40 years.
3. This pistol does need checkering, abrasive tape, or stippling at least on the front strap if not on both the front and rear straps.
4. The best ammo in my pistol for both group size and center of impact were Winchester Silvertip 115 gr. and Winchester Supreme SXT 147 gr. Head and shoulders above the rest. Was this pistol designed using these loadings?
5. I have no reservations about highly recommending this pistol.
My hat is off to the Brothers Rohrbaugh for designing and producing a very fine pistol!!
Gary...
