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Ruger P series handguns

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19K views 50 replies 19 participants last post by  johnlives4christ 
#1 ·
i have owned a ruger p95 and i liked it a lot. im considering getting another one since the price is less than 300 most of the time. so the other day i went to a gunshow and got to handle a ruger p93 and i fell in love with it. it's basically the same shape and design except that it's frame is aluminum instead of plastic.

so i reckon my question is what does everyone think about the rugers?

any info regarding these guns will be appreciated.



~john
 
#3 ·
I had the P94 special edition two tone and loved it. Bought it used for 200 sold it for 300 after being bugger for a year from my nieces BF. They are no longer together and he is in financial hardship. I am going to look him up and see if I can buy it back from him. The only time he ever shot it was when I would take him to the range which wasn't too often. I will gladly give him what he gave me for the gun I liked it that much, JUNK
 
#4 ·
the p94 and the p93 look identical to me in the pictures. does anyone know the differances? i know the p93 and p94 are 9mm with the p944 being a 40 caliber variant of the p94.
 
#5 ·
I like Ruger. I think the entire P series is overlooked far too often. I have a P95, which I like and a P93DC fitted with Crimson Trace Grips that I keep as my primary home defense pistol. Both shoot very well, have never give me a single problem as long as I fit them with the 10 round clips with which they came (back when that was all they allowed).

I bought a 2nd party 15 round clip which I eventually just threw in the trash and figured it was because it was not a genuine Ruger clip. But a friend just bought his first P95 and it came with a 15 round clip which is reliable only if he loads it with 12 rounds or less. Maybe because his is brand new or something. In any event, I'm fine with 10 + 1 rounds in either of my weapons. They sure are nice to shoot and the P93DC is heavy enough that it is really easy on the hands too.

The Glock 19s my wife and I also have are fun to shoot too, but for just plinking, the P93 is my first choice. For the price Ruger P series is very hard to beat IMHO.

And, I've never heard anyone give a bad review of them.
 
#6 ·
thanks for the reply kda.
i've never heard of them not working with the factory 15 round magazines. the p95 that i had 4 or 5 years ago had only the 10 round magazines. i dont think i would want one of them now if there was a problem using the factory 15 round magazines. does anyone else have any experiance with the rugers using the 15 round magazines?

i guess my way of thinking is that if im going to have to use a 9mm i want to have as many rounds of that lil critter in my gun as i can get.
 
#7 ·
I have Rugers in P-90 P-94 and P-85 the 94 and 85 are both 9MM. With 15 round Ruger mags, I load and shoot a lot of Lyman cast bullets. And have never had any major problems. The 94 is stainless and took a little longer to break in. After market Mags will give you trouble. And like all Semi-Auto handguns. Some just don’t like some ammo.
 
#9 ·
when i had the p95 that i had before i had factory 10 round magazines and i ended up buying some cheap 15 rounders and they didnt work well so i tossed them. i've never tried the factory 15 round magazines but am looking forward getting another ruger and trying them out.
 
#12 ·
i've seen the mecGar mags for sale before and best i recall they are around 20 bucks. i've heard mecgar is really good stuff but i haven't tried anything by them. how do they compare to the factory mags?
 
#13 · (Edited)
My P95 has been perfect with both the factory magazines and the MecGar 17 rounders. No malfunctions with either.

MecGar makes a lot of OEM magazines for various handgun manufacturers.

I got mine from Cope's for around nineteen dollars, a couple years ago.

Just as a side note, CDNN now has Ruger factory Mini 14 20 round mags for $26.99 and 30 rounders for $29.99, with five dollar shipping.
 
#14 ·
I bought a P94 when they first came out in 40 S&W. That was before they started calling the 40's P944. It is accuracy sensitive to bullet weight with the 155 gr giving me excellent accuracy and 180 gr not so much. It also shoots to point of aim at 25 yards with the 155's so that is what I use. I purchased it new when I still carried an FFL (before it expired in the Clinton purge) in 94-95 timer frame and it has never had a failure of any kind. I don't particularily like the length of the D/A trigger pull or the take up in S/A mode but figure under stress it won't be an issue. It sits in the nightstand stoked with W/W 155 gr STHP and a nearly full spare mag nearby.
 
#16 ·
i've been looking at buying one of the p93's like i said i had a p95 a few years back, and i have a handgun book that gives measurements for the two and they have the same barrel length, but the p94 has a slightly longer length, but they all take the same magazine. in the book it says the 93 is "compact" but i dont see that happening.

does anyone know the differance between the 3 models? i know the 95 is plastic, but since i havent had a chance to shoot or field strip a 93 or 94 i am wondering what the differances other than the plastic frame are.

~john
 
#17 ·
As I mentioned, I own both the P93DC and P95DC. I got them together for this picture:

and as you can see, the only meaningful external difference is the P95DC has a polymer grip and blue slide (on my P95DC). The P93DC is sporting a set of Crimson Trace Laser Grips I installed.

The P95DC, with full clip (10 rounds of 9 mm) weighs in at 2 lbs, 1.5 oz. while the P93 with full clip (10 rounds of 9 mm) weighs in at 2 pounds, 4.8 oz. and that is with the CT grips which are not stock and could add some weight to the P93DC I suppose. Both have 1 round in the chamber too.

The view from the top is identical as is the view or other side of the pistols, so I didn't bother to take more photos.

Field strip procedure for both is identical too, the owners manual for one works fine for the other. If there is some difference internally when field striping, I never have noticed and I have cleaned them one after the other on days when I have taken both to the range. Maybe I missed something but ....

Now you have me wondering. Except for the frame materials (and changeable grips on the P93DC), I'd be very hard put to talk about any differences and certainly none that would be important if you didn't want the fatter grip and perhaps wanted to install a CT Laser. I will note the grips on the P93DC make a big difference in how much of a handful you feel when you pick it up, compared to the P95DC. I rather like the larger grip on the P93DC.

Both of these are early enough to not offer the rail for a supplemental light, etc., and I think I saw that the current versions do have a rail.

Were I to buy another (and I may some day) I'd opt for the P93DC with the bigger grip (easier to hang on to also). And I'd once again fit it out with the CT Laser Grips. Love em.
 
#18 ·
I like Rugers.
+1

I owned a Ruger P90 45acp. One of the best pistols i have ever owned!!!!
Back when i was having all kinds of problems with stovepipe jams from my 1911s, glock G21 45acp, and even the Sig P220... the Ruger NEVER had even one stovepipe jam... or any jams of any kind at all.

The downsides are that its not the greatest conceal pistol because if its size...and i think it has a good potential for snagging on things...and it one of the ugliest pistols i have ever seen. But its RELIABLE....UTTERLY RELIABLE!!!
As a home defense pistol its matched only by a few.... Its possible... i say "possible" that it might be slightly more reliable than even a Glock? At least the one i had was.

mike
gn
 
#19 ·
I had a P91 in 40 and that was the best pistol I ever owned. I should have kept it since Ruger axed the 91 for the other models. If I ever run across another one for under 500 I would snatch it up in a heart beat.
 
#20 ·
KDA

nice set of weapons you got there. you said your friend had a p95, and that he has problems if he loads more than 12 rounds into the mags. what is his problems? are they factory mags?

~john
 
#21 ·
KDA

nice set of weapons you got there. you said your friend had a p95, and that he has problems if he loads more than 12 rounds into the mags. what is his problems? are they factory mags?

~john
Yes, factory magazines. I will say that when we were at the range that day, it was the first day for shooting his new pistol. Everything was as new and stiff as it was ever going to be.

I had pretty much put him onto the P95DC when I spotted it at the gun shop since I had Rugers, loved them and I knew he was shopping "price" to the point where my effort to put him into a Glock G-19 was doomed to failure. Price was $309 I think. New, all original, two 15 round clips with Ruger stamp on the bottom etc.

I routinely shoot PMC and S&B 9 mm. Both work exceedingly well in my Rugers and Glocks. So as he was filling out the paper work for his purchase, I grabbed a box of PMC off the shelf for him.

So FYI, two things were going on that day. First he had trouble with the PMC ammo, kept getting stove pipes (FTEs). I immediately thought it might be a stiff new recoil spring so traded him out with some WWB 9 mm I had brought along to shoot up in my G-19. The WWB worked perfectly in his new P95DC and the PMC worked perfectly in my G-19 (but then again, I think I should shoot fried eggs in the G-19 if I could get them in the chamber somehow).

So having solved the FTE problems with a switch of ammo, he began to experience Failure To Feed issues with every clip he loaded and tried to use. This problem reminded me of my experience with that old 3rd party 15 round clip I had tried. But I kept thinking that since these were Ruger clips, they should not be having any problems! Then I thought "stiff and new" again and guessed that the clip springs might be pretty stiff, so I suggested he start loading 12 rounds only to see if that helped.

12 rounds worked perfectly, the six year old WWB rounds were hot enough to function perfectly and the session went well after that.

I fully expect (and have told him so) that both issues will work themselves out after he has put a few hundred rounds through the barrel and, perhaps, left the clips fully loaded with 15 rounds for some time.

I do remember that neither my P93DC nor my P95DC ever had problems shooting any ammunition at all and never gave me issues with the factory 10 round clips that came with them at the time. But, like me, they are old. Perhaps the new Rugers are built to tighter specs and will require a bit of a break in, like most modern pistols (except my Glock G-19s which were perfect out of the box as were my earlier Rugers you see pictured above).

Anyway, I saw nothing at the range that day with his P95DC that will deter me from purchasing another Ruger P series pistol if I should run across one at a fair price.

Solid weapons. Well made and fun to shoot. Reliable enough I'd trust my life to them without hesitation. But the P series is just not light enough to be a good carry weapon. So I also have my G-19s.
 
#22 ·
okay, thank you for givin me the facts. do you know if he cleaned and lubed the pistol before shooting it? it might have needed a lil lube because it was new.

it is a rare occurance that i buy a new gun. i have, but normally i prefer to buy a used one with some patina already attached.

i had a G17 and a G22 and loved them both. they both shot anything i gave them and worked flawlessly

the ruger p95 i had worked flawlessly as well with factory mags. i had a few problems with some cheapo's but then i tinkered with them and they worked fine. 20 rounders too. i was a dumb butt for selling all 3 of those fine guns.
 
#23 ·
the p94 and the p93 look identical to me in the pictures. does anyone know the differances? i know the p93 and p94 are 9mm with the p944 being a 40 caliber variant of the p94.
My P94 was a 40 cal John. One of the best shooting 40's I have ever shot. It said on the side of the slide P94 Special Edition.
 
#24 ·
i am told that the original p94 was 40 caliber, then they changed the model designation to p944 for the 40 and left p94 for 9mm.
 
#25 ·
okay, thank you for givin me the facts. do you know if he cleaned and lubed the pistol before shooting it? it might have needed a lil lube because it was new.
I know for a fact that he did not clean and lube the pistol before shooting it, so perhaps that contributed to the problems he was experiencing.

This raises a good question for the group following your thread here. I know Glocks do best with minimal lubrication placed on a few very specific points. Does the Ruger P series need more lubrication? Guess I never thought about it with mine and they still shoot perfectly but if that could be an issue, my buddy would like to know I am sure.
 
#26 ·
as a general rule i lubricate all handguns in the same manner as i would a glock. one drop on each slide rail. lightly coat the barrel locking lugs and where it contacts the bushing. a drop on the disconnector. and always a drop on the barrel link/pin/cam area. on guns with an external hammer once in a while i'll let a drop run down each side of the hammer to lube some of the innerds.

i would say that lack of luberication would have atleast contributed to his problems. when guns are sent from the factory they have a light coat of oil on them to keep them from rusting.. i would expect that the oil used is bought with cost in mind, and that it is used sparingly to save cost. i would also expect that the guns set for an undetermined amount of time from lube to consumer. maybe a week or maybe a year.
 
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