What are your thoughts about Ruger?

Ruger Guns

I carried my Ruger SP101 .357 daily for quite a long time. It now resides in my daughter\'s capable hands in her own home protecting her new family. I taught her to shoot on a Ruger 10/22 rifle when she was 10. When she turned 12 she learned handguns on a Ruger Super Single Six S.A. revolver. She went from there to the SP101 and effectively made it her own until she graduated college and got married a couple of years ago when I made it one of her wedding presents. My only task now is to bring her husband up to her standards of gun handling. I also own a Ruger Mini-14 with the original factory folding stock. Fine weapon.

I admit old man Ruger\'s political antigun comments really pi$$ed me off, but I was tending to think that they were made in the interest of company survival in the face of the most antigun President in history. The original AWB didn\'t even mention the Ruger brand name. Commercial survival tactics at their best. I don\'t agree or condone it, at all. S&W suffered greatly for doing something worse. So did Colt when they stopped selling the AR15 to the public. But I\'m not a businessman.

I like the Ruger guns. I\'m rather considering their new \"Alaskan\" revolver as a woods gun. I have never really liked their semiauto handguns, but for me that has always been a matter of ergonomics, rather than a complaint against the reliability or accuracy of the product. I like S&W wheelguns and can\'t stand their semiautos for the exact same reasons.

As has been mentioned, the old man is dead and the company is in different hands. S&W has also changed hands and I have forgiven them the previous CEO\'s transgressions with the Clinton Administration.

Growing up my dad\'s favorite pistol was and still is his Ruger P85. He got it when it was the bleeding edge of technology. It\'s now well worn but it still breathes fire and spits lightning.

It was our constant guardian. As even a little boy I knew when we were traveling across country late at night, my dad was there watching over us and so was the Ruger.

Last year I received a very thoughtful gift of a Ruger P89 with a stainless slide. I shoot it all the time. It\'s my only automatic pistol and will be for quite some time. I found it works very well for me with Mec-Gar 17 round capacity magazines and Winchesters. I plan to take my CCW test with it.

Is it the nicest pistol you can get? No, but it\'s much more affordable than a SIG and it stands head and shoulders above the pot metal crap. It\'s a real working man\'s gun; a gun for someone who likes something that\'s not junk but can\'t afford to throw down $700 on a new HK. A gun that\'s better than what the criminals use.

It will always have a place in my collection. It\'s a double stack 9mm automatic pistol. I\'ve added some Hogue grips which make it like a whole new pistol. They improve performance 200% I swear. You seen the retaining pin on one of these things? It\'s a hard, solid shiny piece of steel. Not a little piece of plastic.

The Ruger P Series has been called the AK47 of the handgun world and I agree. It\'s not the most accurate, it\'s not the prettiest, and it\'s bulky in the hand for a lot of people. But it is rock solid. You could fire 20,000 rounds through this gun and I bet you that you\'d never break it. The magazine would wear out first.

My only beef with it is that the magazine catch doesn\'t always engage if you gently slide the magazine in, so it takes a certain touch. You have to insert the magazine firmly without slamming it.

Is it a good carry piece? No. Too thick. But does it have its uses? Oh heavens yes. It\'s taught me an appreciation for a well made automatic pistol for one thing. It\'s given me access to cheap practice ammunition for another so I can go shooting every other weekend and fire 250 rounds at a time. It\'s a tool that I have used to become a safer person, a more competent handler of firearms, and a better marksman who\'s more likely to succeed under stress.

I don\'t give a damn what someone whose surname is Ruger says. I won\'t cut myself off from such a tool.