My wife and I just finished taking down the Christmas tree and settling in for the New Year. 2018 had been a… curious year. I received a mailer from Maine’s DMV that read in paraphrase, “If you look like this, insert picture of Mr. Magoo on golf cart, you can no longer renew your motor vehicle license online. Now, you must report to a local DMV office for an eye, ear, nose, and throat examination and submit to mental acuity interrogation as conducted by one of our most excellent agents”.

Armed with my six year old prescription glasses, and my wife for moral support, I was able to withstand Agent Crystal’s simulated waterboarding, breezed through the eye test… including the little blinky lights in my peripheral vision and was subsequently turned loose on the highways, byways of Maine in my choice of auto, truck and/or motorcycle for at least… the next four years. See you on Live PD.

PERFORMANCE CENTER® SW1911 PRO SERIES® 9mm
Company	Smith & Wesson
Manufactured	Springfield, MA
SKU #	178053
Type of Action	Single
Caliber	9mm Luger & +P
Capacity	8+1
Barrel Length	3.00“
Barrel Material	Stainless
Rifling Twist Rate	1:10″
Slide Material	Stainless
Slide Finish	Black Armornite
Frame Material	Scandium Alloy
Frame Finish	Black Anodized
Grips	Synthetic
Front Sight	Dovetailed White Dot
Rear Sight	Dovetailed Two Dot
Weight of Firearm	26.2 Oz
Trigger Pull	4 lbs 11 oz
Overall Length	6.9″
Overall Height	5.0″
Width	1.25″ @ Grip
Thumb Safety	Ambi Thumb
Grip Safety	Yes
Mag Disconnect	No
Loaded Chamber Port	Yes
Key Lock	No
CA Approved	No
MA Approved	No
MD Approved	Yes
MSRP	$1,330

In keeping with my geezer status there will be no videos featuring me in profile, wearing a jaunty cap, shooting this pistol and ringing gongs at some vaguely defined distances. If we have to rely on my personality projections, or lack of the same, to get people to pay attention to this pistol, we’re… lost at sea.

Also, there will be no 25 yard, 10 shot groups fired from a rest to appease recently graduated engineers, as I am sure that circumstance is not typical of this pistol’s defensive purpose and the chances of this pistol seeing bullseye competition are slim to none.

This is the best small nine I’ve encountered in some time, based upon quality of assembly, reliability and ballistic performance. So let me see if I can figure out how to share what I’ve seen, in objective terms, and not do this pistol a disservice.

What’s in a name?

Smith and Wesson refers to the Performance Center SW1911 Pro Series 9mm as a subcompact. In the universe of true 1911 type pistols, and not presets and strikers packaged to look like 1911 types, the nomenclature fits like a glove. The Pro Series 9mm is less in length, height and weight than Government, Commander or Officers 1911 model standards.

Fortunately, the Performance Center SW1911 Pro Series 9mm share nothing more in common than cartridge type with diminutive 9mm Luger poly frame strikers that sting hands, leave little purchase for gripping, require a crow bar to rack their slides, and can only approximate bullet placement to direction of aim. The Pro Series 9mm, while shorter in grip length than a full size 1911, is still hand filling and controllable.

+P Ready

Smith and Wesson approves the Pro Series 9mm for use with standard a +P 9mm Luger ammunition. SAAMI transducer MAP standard for 9mm Luger is 35,000 psi and 38,500 for +P. They do not approve the pistol for use with “+P+” ammunition as that is not a controlled standard, but rather the label invention of ammunition producers. Approving a firearm for +P+ would be signing a blank check and assuming a liability for an unrelated company and with no standard basis for testing.

Open the SW1911 Pro Series 9mm and there are the typical 1911 components. In this case, a bushingless slide and an 80 Series type firing pin plunger safety.  The guide rod is full length carries double recoil springs, the inner captive, .the recoil spring plug is reversed.

I’ve seen the barrel described as a ramped bull barrel. I would label it as ramped and bullish. Bushingless slides for 1911’s typically have a 0.699″ hole where the barrel passes through and a barrel usually measures about 0.696″. Put a 0.452″ hole in the barrel and the result is a 0.120″ +/- wall thickness. If it is a bull barrel, that full diameter is carried back as gradual taper until it is reduced to 0.580″ for locking lug clearance.

Bushingless slides for 9mm 1911’s have the same 0.699″ hole at the end of the slide, so the outside of the barrel follows pretty much the same contour as the 45 Auto barrel, but the hole in the barrel is only 0.355″, so the barrel wall thickness at the muzzle is increased to 0.170″, leaving the impression it is a heavy bull barrel.  But on this S&W, the muzzle diameter only carries for approximately 0.250″ with no further taper, dropping to 0.580″ diameter. This is not a bull barrel, which means basically nothing as a practical matter.

The ramp is a good idea for a 9mm Luger chambered 1911, especially if the gun will see something other than FMJ ball type ammo as large cavity hollow point bullets tend to bump into the bottom edge of a non-ramped barrel’s feed contour. The S&W Performance Center Pro Series 9mm digested and cycled everything it was fed regardless power level or bullet type.

Better view of the dovetail mounted sights and port in barrel to allow checking for a loaded chamber. The thumb safety wings on the subject pistol are asymmetrical with the right side noticeably more narrow than the left.

In profile, the Pro Series 9mm has a commander style hammer, a significant memory bump on the grip safety to assure release when gripped and a less snagging round contoured butt. The lightweight trigger has an adjustable overtravel stop.

Interestingly, the right side profile is virtually identical to the left. Always a good sign. The extractor is oversize, which enhances reliability.

A user friendly small 9

The Performance Center Pro Series 9mm is a nice handling gun. The 9mm Luger cartridge makes for reduced slide inertia, which allows lighter recoil springs, which reduces slide racking effort and dampens recoil. The pistol’s controls, including trigger, are within comfortable reach from a high grip. The three dot sight system makes for rapid target acquisition. The combination of coarse grained grips, checkered backstrap and striated front strap with finger relief under the trigger guard make for a consistent grip.

There are approximately 112 popular 9mm Luger factory loads available. Four were selected to represents general types and configurations. Fired in full magazine quantities and in mixed ammo type full magazines without a failure to fire or fully cycle the pistol. The pistol’s accuracy was better than mine. From 10 yards, and shooting all types from a two hand hold, I could easily put five shots into playing card size targets, 3.5″ x 2.5″, taking reasonable time… 10 seconds for 5 shots.  From a rest, and shooting the same 10 yards in 3 shot groups, the center Remington rounds put up cloverleaves. Again, this is a pistol intended for close in self defense.

Velocity was pretty healthy for a 3″ barrel pistol and certainly high enough to get full expansion without fragmentation out of the Remington HTP and Ultra Defense ammunition. The Federal is non-expanding and the heavy Grizzly was still good for 50% expansion. The Remington Ultimate is designed for use in compact handguns, which proved out in rated versus actual muzzle velocity.

In closing…

I don’t buy tons of firearms, but I buy better quality firearms. The Smith and Wesson Performance Center Pro Series 9mm is not inexpensive, but it is still an excellent value based on high quality, performance features, accuracy, and reliability. I could do without a couple of polymer and stamped steel wonder pistols to one of these. Nice gun.