Being in my late 50s and having spent about 26 years in IT using a keyboard a lot, my hands no longer take well to heavy recoiling guns. I recently got a CZ-82 in 9mm Makarov but being a straight blowback, I'm limited to about 50 rounds per session with that gun.
A couple days ago I traded off my SIG P365X, which had gotten unpleasant to shoot, in favor of a Ruger Security-380 Lite Rack. It's based on the Security-9 Compact but chambered for .380 ACP. Size-wise it's comparable to a Beretta 81 or 84 Cheetah .32 or a SIG P365 AXG Legion. Unlike the blowback Berettas, the Ruger is a locked-breech gun so my hope was that it would have mild recoil.
Shown between a 3" S&W Model 10-8 K-Frame and a S&W Model 432UC J-Frame (my EDC):
I tried a few holsters that I have on hand for other guns and found that it fits my El Paso Saddlery M-1942 Tanker made for the S&W M&P M2.0 Compact 9mm:
It's large trigger guard kept it from seating in a Tanker holster for 1911s.
The Ruger came with two 15-round mags (for this RSR-exclusive SKU), a mag loader, chamber flag, owner's manual, and gun lock.
The front sight is a green fiber optic while the rear is blacked out with a U-notch that gives just the right amount of space on the sides of the front when aiming. Sight visibility is excellent.
My hands are medium-sized and I'm able to grip the gun and reach the trigger comfortably.
There is a thumb safety on the left side, but not on the right for us lefties. The safety lever is small and might not be easy to work with gloves on. I plan to ignore it.
One caution I saw in a video review by Honest Outlaw on YouTube is that if you eject magazines and let them fall onto a concrete floor, they may shed their floorplates and possibly break. So, don't do that.
Today was a good day to test my theory that a locked-breech large .380 pistol would be good for folks with hand issues, because they were acting up.
While .380 ACP may not be as powerful as 9mm, the ballistics are similar to those of the Colt 1851 Navy .36 percussion revolver, which put a lot of men in the ground in the late 19th Century. Think of the Ruger as a 15-shot Colt Navy.
I put 137 rounds of .380 FMJ through it (38 Federal American Eagle, 49 CCI Blazer w/aluminum cases, and 50 rounds of PMC). The gun ran perfectly.
The trigger pull is consistent and my SWAG is that it breaks at about 4 - 4.5 lbs. There is zero overtravel due to a stop molded into the trigger guard. There is a little takeup in the pull before you encounter resistance, similar to a two-stage military rifle trigger.
The two 15-round mags that were included with the gun definitely need a magazine loader to fill, especially for the final round. I used my Maglula UpLULA instead of the one included with the gun. The magazines have the same bodies as those for the Security-9, but with a spacer in the back to work with the shorter .380 rounds. Any mag loader meant for double-column 9mm pistol mags will work.
Seating a fully loaded magazine with the slide forward requires you to give it a good whack on the bottom to ensure it's latched in place.
I shot it on paper at 10 yards and on steel at 25 yards. The point of impact is a little to the right at 10, more so at 25. Looking down at the top of the slide it looks like Ruger didn't get the rear sight perfectly centered. It's a hair off to the right. I'm going to center it before I shoot it the next time.
Field stripping is easy but may require a small flat head screwdriver to pull out the takedown pin, if it's dirty or dry. A good accessory for this gun would be a Czech surplus CZ-82 cleaning rod, which has a flat head screwdriver on the tip.
Despite Ruger not getting the rear sight properly centered on my sample, overall I'm very impressed with the Security-380.
The recoil is very soft, similar to the Beretta .32. However, the slide is much easier to rack than the Beretta's, more like a .22 autoloader's. Even after 137 rounds my hands weren't feeling much worse than when I started. If you have hand strength or pain issues, or are just recoil-sensitive, this is a gun to seriously check out.
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