My .02c on the subject.
Myself I am having fun with the IPSC classic division, I have used a 9mm Ranger ll for 10K rounds, and recently switched to a govt length Trojan .40 for the last 2k rounds. Still keeping the ranger as a backup/fun gun.
Ranger in 9mm has no recoil if you're holding on to it, I reload my 9mm around 135-137PF, because when I switch from my major PF .40 it feels soft anyways.
Ranger has way better pointability than the Trojan, 1 inch shorter sight radius really get's you pointing. 20+ yards shot require a little more discipline to squeeze the shot if you're in a hurry, 1 inch shorter makes a difference.
My first 1000 rounds with the ranger I had many failures, my last 9000 rounds I have not had a single one. This involved replacing my hollow point ammo for FMJ, and changing my cobra mags for metal form at the time. Metal forms are a beast, they are cheap to buy from brownells, perform flawlessly, nice 10 rounders with big plastic basepad.
With the service I have had at Tripp research lately, I cannot diss them though. If you go Cobra mags and have failures, email them and ask for advice instead of switching mag brands like I have, they have corrected my feeding issues in my .40, even the non-mag related stuff.
Recoil master, I hate them. Recoil feels like 2 stage. You think it's recoiling a certain way and midway thru it it changes speed, it sucks to efficiently manage this. I use a full length guide rod that I have cut to length, and use 11# springs with 11 coils cut off so they don't bind in the sorter slide. Feels like 8# when all is done, and tracks really nice.
