I have experience with this. Recoil is very soft, it laughs at sketchy handloads, it is shockingly accurate, I have never witnessed it malfunction. An unsung hero in my opinion.
@@offcamber782 my granddad and dad both owned P-series, and they loved shooting semi-wadcutters through them. I’ve never seen a malfunction. They really were great duty and bedside guns
I bought one because it had a handload stuck in the chamber and wouldn't cycle. I got it, fired it and while a hot round the pistol didnt care. Use it to test my own handloads now
Ian wasn't generous in his description, but he was accurate. The P-series aren't flashy or fancy, but they simply eat everything they are fed, hit what they are aimed at, and keep chugging along year after year, with only basic cleaning and lubrication. Almost 2 million P-series were manufactured by the end of their run, and the majority of them are still out there working fine to this day. Bill Ruger was a manufacturing guy, NOT a "gun guy", and he passed away in 2002. The Ruger company makes all sorts of firearms that come with standard capacity magazines, such as 30-rounders for their ARs.
Bill Rugers support of the AWB mag caps and his championing of the mini-14 over the AR15 have him cemented as a fudd. I am convinced Ruger Co. started selling AR15s with Bill Rugers name on it as a cost saving measure as they can now use his spinning corpse to power their factory.
All of the P-Series are tanks, they will shoot everything from sketchy hand loads to +P+ without complaining. I've never had one malfunction. The P85/89 was also used by Arnold in True Lies.
I've carried the P86 for over 30yrs. It's indestructible, next to zero mussle climb and always on target & shoots everything reliably.. And I've always prefered a heavy handgun. I love it.
Yes, indeed he was _not_ a gun guy. For those who remember, Bill Ruger did more than merely "going along" with the 10-round limit. For many from that era, Ruger's not to be forgiven for sucking up to Clinton's gun control agenda by adding his _own_ proposal the lawmakers to castrate magazine capacity to ten rounds. I'll say it again: _he didn't just accept the limit; the 10-round limit was Ruger's suggestion to begin with_ .
@@993isgawd Actually, he suggested 15 rounds, because he couldn't figure out how to get more than 15 in his pistols and therefore wanted to level the playing field against pistols that had 17 or more rounds. He also made this suggestion in order to save his PWECIOUS MINI-14, which was HIS BABY. It didn't work out well for him, he got stabbed in the back and spent the rest of his life sulking like a spoiled toddler.
Function over form. The closest to a snazzy (1) looking Ruger pistol imo is a Mk ll/lol or lV with custom grips and bull barrel. The best looking firearms ever built were the Woodsman, the Wolverine and the PPK. 1) The word sexy and firearms do not mix imo.
My P85 has the decocker. It was a fairly early model that got caught up in a recall in about 1990. I shipped the gun to them and got it back in just a couple of weeks. No muss, no fuss. Have always loved this gun.
@@simiwing Was it the recall regarding the safety? I sent mine in for this and it now has the decocker also. I sent it back in 2016 and they fixed it and sent it back in a new box with a extra, new, magazine. Good CS.
I have a "prefactory" P-85 with decocker. I don't remember the year, but I got a recall letter from Ruger, caution Not to depend on the decocker, in case of an unintentional discharge. It also gave a range of serial #'s for return to factory for correction. The letter indicated that my P-85 #'s were not involved in the recall. I've always used the decocker (aimed safely), and have never had a single problem with this pistol. Dependable, cost effective, accurate, easy to field strip and service, are all very sexy attributes in my choice of firearms! I wouldn't sell it.
I had a P85 for a number of years. You summed them up perfectly. Inexpensive (rather than cheap) and built like a tank. They had nothing flashy, but were simple, reliable, and effective. Thanks for bringing back some memories Ian!
I've owned 2 P-85's and got them right when first available. The worst part of the trigger pull was a massive amount of over-travel which was easy to fix with a small bit of brass filed then epoxied into the back hollow of the triggers. Totally acceptable triggers on both guns afterwards. One of the 'selling points' when first introduced was their extreme durability which Ruger demonstrated by test firing examples hundreds of thousands of rounds without any failures. They then took one of the guns and sliced the right side of the slide basically extending the ejection port all the way down and through the slide so that only the left side was holding it together...then fired many thousand more round and gave up because nothing was wearing or breaking. They then plugged the barrel with a threaded rod that came within .100" of the nose of the 9mm NATO round they fired to see what would happen. It went BANG...the case blew out over the extractor groove ruining it and severely scorching the breech face but...after replacing the barrel and extractor went on to again fire many thousands of rounds without further issue. In other words....if you need a pistol to function as close to 100% almost no matter what...you'd be hard pressed to find another pistol able to take the punishment the P85 series can.
All the way through I was thinking of “Volvo - they're boxy but they're good.” from the 1990 Dudley Moore film Crazy People. But as Ian was only about 6 when it came out I'll forgive him not mentioning it.😆
@@terracar2003 About 30 years ago now other manufactures laughed when Volvo entered their 850 Estate car in the British Touring Car Championships. But not only was it very fast, all the other cars just bounced off it as it barged it's way to the front. The Volvos were hardly scratched & the BMW's, Fords & other cars had bits flying all over the track. Brilliant race.
In 1989 I was 17 and joined the Army. After training, I came home. On July 18tm 1989, Mom and I were at the Rod and Reel shop in Laporte IN. With her assistance, I purchased a base model P85 ($410) as well as an AMT .380 back up for her. She managed to "show" it to a few unsuspecting men over the years! A few years later my apartment was robbed, and I lost the P85, a GP100, as well as a MKII target bull barrel. About 4 years ago my son replaced my lost P85. Around that time I replaced my GP100. Mom passed back in 21. I now carry her AMT everyday in my left front packet. I will always be fond of the P85 even tho the trigger never allowed me to hit anything, and today, my pistol collection is over 40 in total.
$410 is a little over $1000 dollars today! That is crazy expensive for that pistol IMO. Different times I guess, makes you realize how good we have it now
@troyverburg9600 I agree. I didn't know any better. I was fresh home from basic/AIT, I had a pocket full of $$ that I couldn't spend whilst I was there.... A couple months later, I turned 18. That very week I applied for an Indiana Concealed Carry license. I loved that P85. I even slept with it!! I retired it for an S&W 659. Then, when the 1st shipment of Glock 20s hit our shores, I was Glock from there on out. However.... about a month ago I was at a SIG factory event, and snatched up a 365 X Macro TacOps. Upon retiring my G48, it will end a 32 year run for Glock. Boy oh boy. This TacOps better deliver the smoke!
I have a ‘92 production P89 and I’ve always found its accuracy to be pretty dang good, never had the 85 though, might be a little more rough. The 89 is externally identical but bundled the revisions and upgrades of the 85s into a new model
the p89 and p90 were two of the first guns I ever shot. "boring, durable, unsexy brick" is incredibly fitting but dang it, they shoot really well for being so hefty
The triggers on these have a springy, "clicky" feeling that I haven't experienced on any other gun but it is really intuitive. I have never shot a better first group than I did with a P90.
in my opinion it shoots like a revolver, it has zero creep but a ridiculously large take-up. its a difficult gun to get a good grip on because its so top heavy, and because of the chonky slide reciprocating it is very poor at rapid shot placement. it's a great gun for the price but i really don't know why people try and glaze it
@@Cheesemonk3h Yes, the grip is for man-hands, to be sure. I wear a large glove size, but need adjust my grip to reach the slide release. Wish they made it single-stacked.
Admittedly, I passed on the Ruger when I was a new police officer because it seemed big, heavy and ugly, even though I was a Ruger fan. Many years later those things haven't changed but I've grown to admire it's tank like reliability and I can even see that it does have a unique, rugged beauty of it's own. Very good pistols overall.
"Boring, Durable, Unsexy Bricks" is weirdly, a great and expressive aesthetic. No nonsense and realiable is what you want when things get dire for a long time, and the Franchise that does this so well while making a lot of their weapons iconic and cool, is Warhammer40K. The same reason why a blocky industrial Bolter has become one of the most iconic weapons. That fascination with the purely practical carries over into a lesser degree in real life, which is why to me, this weapon has an understated style to it. Or in simpler terms, to quote marge Simpson " I just think they're neat."
A family member had one of these, we had to temporarily remove it from their possession due to medical reasons. (They got it back fairly quickly, don’t worry) I thought it was garbage at first glance, but after taking it to the range I found it to be a fairly nice shooting piece.
Happy KP90 DC owner checking in. It's got that affordable big chonker charm and it shoots great. I just remember the Ruger pistols looking cool in 90's movies like True Lies and Desperado.
@zach I knew you'd be here, I just didn't think I'd find you here Kinda like going to a big rock show and bumping into your favorite indie singer in the crowd
My very first handgun was a Ruger P89 purchased new back in 1998. I had my choice between a P89 and a P95 and I chose the P89 because of the aluminum frame vs the polymer frame of the P95. I put over 2000 trouble free rounds through it and still have it in my gun safe.
So the SR series was phased out sometime in the early teens and then replaced with the Ruger Security series and the Ruger American series of pistols. The Security was meant to be a more budget friendly gun while the American is a tacticool law enforcement style gun. Both of which I feel like are inferior to the SR series. I do have a nostalgic love of the P series guns. I think it stems from the blocky utilitarian design and when I started collecting guns after the assault weapon ban sunset in 2004 you could pick them up dirt cheap. Not to mention in 10,000 years when humanity is gone and the cockroaches take over the earth, one roach with find an old P85 in the ruble of a city and use it to kill another roach.
The SR9C trigger was great. Should have never gotten rid of it. Ended up putting a ghost something or other trigger bar in the full size and they both felt the same. Just passed up a bubba polished full size for three hundo.
@@DavidLLambertmobile I had a full size in 45. nearly blew my toes off. went bang as soon as it got into battery one day. no idea why. never found anything wrong with it. but it came apart. slide/barrel/recoil spring came off the frame.
I made this same comment a second ago, as owner of both SR and American models. 100% agree. My American had an unsafe malfunction and I no longer purchase from this brand. The SR series was fantastic, and idk why they wanted to replace it.
Ian hit the nail on the head with that opening statement. They are cheap and reliable. I have several Ruger products and they just work, well enough for any real life situation and affordably.
@@seancooney1310 How's their AR-556? I ask because it's about the only AR-15 available for under 2000€ here, which makes it an interesting starting point to build from.
When you need a gun to show off how much money you spend on guns, you pull out the Staccato. When you are in trouble and need a gun to work; boring, durable, unsexy bricks are amongst the sexiest objects on the earth.
I owned a P85 that I bought in a pawnshop for `125.00. Super accurate pistol. The trigger pull was atrocious! At least on mine. I own a lot of different Ruger's. Always have loved them as a company. Yeah, the owner coming out in support for limitations on magazine capacity was a "sell-out" move, but never really affected my buying decisions when it came to the brand.
This is the same guy who claimed a golf course was a waste of a good range . Baffled hell out of me, but I think it was just BS PR to help with the XM-10 trials.
At the very least, the current management of Ruger I think has rehabilitated their image for a lot of gun owners. I can also say from experience that their customer support is superb.
My dad had one of these originals when I was younger. At 9 yo his P85 taught me the hard way that the firing grip for a pistol is COMPLETELY different than a revolver! My thumb has never forgotten that lesson!
Growing up, my local PD switched from their old S&W K frames to Ruger P-85s, and they also upgraded to the new Crown Vic Interceptor shortly after. Such a huge change in a relatively short amount of time.
Ruger makes tons of castings for medical and aerospace applications. If you have ever seen the head of the institutional model of the Exergen TemporalScanner it is a stainless casting made by Ruger.
A shame that Ruger discontinued this series. They were real dependable. I also liked it being featured in _True Lies_ (albeit the KP90 variant) and in one scene in Cowboy Bebop. As for future videos, I hope that Ian will get to feature a pistol from the LASERAIM Series.
My first thought was why has no one recommended me this as a no frills but reliable first gun? Then the mention of support for the assault weapons ban by the owner answered that question
I think like you said in a video about the mini-14, Ruger quietly operating with great success in their zone of simply making reliable and well-made guns while simplifying construction and leaning on castings to make them reasonably priced. For the owner who drives a Toyota because we all know it's the most sensible choice.
My department used these back in the day, well before my time, but some of the old heads actually loved them. Most bought theirs when they were retired from service.
I had the .40 version (P94) as my first handgun. It was good, completely reliable and accurate enough but kind of clunky and chunky. Not bad at all but it really left me wanting something better so after a couple of years I picked up a Sig 228. Much better pistol.
One of the weapons Spike keeps in a fridge on the Bebop. While he does load, clean, and aim down its sights, he ends up not using it for the shootout and instead opts for his Jericho and a Beretta 92 lent to him earlier. As short as that feature was, as a gun nut I still like it due to how well the Ruger was drawn, trade dress and all. It also reflects on the huge level of dedication behind the series, even for objects with minor appearances.
@@paleoph6168you want some well drawn guns go watch Gunsmith Cats. Heck the first scene the main characters CZ-75 is detailed down to the grooves and markings.
I've had a p89 for decades now, never had a problem. Picked up a p345 a few years back and can say the same. First gun I ever owned, 10/22, was in 1972 for $52 with a brick of 22s, stil have it nothing ever went wrong with it. I've stayed with Ruger and never needed repairs or mods. Reliability over flash anyday.
My cousin in-law was issued one of these at a corrections department. He stated that it had no ergonomics but worked every time! I have a friend of mine that inherited one about five years ago. I keep reminding him that when he wants to Sell it that, I get first dibs!
@mikeks8181 Author, trainer & match shooter: Massad Ayoob wrote years ago how a few NH, CT police 🚔 issued or used P series Rugers. .45acp type P90s, KP94s in .40, P89s 9mm etc. I'm left handed and looked into a DAO style P93 9mm. 1990s.
From the net, "Ruger issued a recall for certain P85 9mm pistols manufactured between 1987 and 1990 that could accidentally discharge when the safety/decocker lever was engaged. This could happen if the firing pin broke in a certain way."
I still shoot my P-85 every now and then. Had to replace the grips as they started getting sticky due to rubber/plastic breaking down over the years. Simply Works.
@nucleargrizzly1776 I saw and shot a few P series. 🤔 My friend owns 2 Ruger semi auto guns; P89 9mm & P97 .45acp model. He likes both. I owned a excellent Ruger GPNY surplus. .38spl +P GP stainless steel 4". Great design.
Both the Ruger P85 and the S&W line of automatic pistols were once reliable workhorses, but their popularity in the entertainment media is unusually low compared to cool European pistols like the Beretta 92. Truly forgotten weapons.
"That's why the Ruger P series are the most quintessentially American handguns of all time: pistols for the working man, utterly unpretentious and priced for anyone." - Hop in his video on the Ruger P series
Never did I imagine seeing my first pistol (which I bought off my mother for $20) on here. It's just like Ruger themselves: boring, reliable, and simple.
@@tomwinterfishing9065 It was for legal requirements. If it was a gift, it would have taken months or a full year to get the transfer paperwork back. But, since it was (legally speaking) a private transfer, no paperwork required. Plus, once she got a subcompact .32ACP for her purse, she didn't want it anymore.
I had one of these, my stepdad was a police officer and bought a couple right when they came out. They were getting priority on early delivery and he bought them for as I recall, $350 or less. At the time, there weren't many options on the market for double action & relatively inexpensive. As a lefty, it was much harder in the 80's to find pistols that had ambi controls. So cheap, ambi friendly and not single action made it VERY attractive to me. I only had it for a couple of years and it got stolen. To my knowledge it has never turned up, my step-dad would check from time to time. I don't recall having any issues with it shooting wise and it seemed accurate enough. Not outstanding, but not bad. Boringly good. I was always worried about sticking a finger into the opened action to push down the ejector for take down. But it was never an issue.
I don't know if one of the two most popular current-production hunting handguns on the continent really counts as a forgotten weapon. Like anyone who hunts in a state that allows handguns, is virtually guaranteed to have a slicked-up Super Blackhawk in .44 Mag and/or a TC Contender. Both current production That'd be like doing a video on the Savage 110. Like, they're great. I love mine. But I just don't know if it's in any way a Forgotten Weapon.
Sold a ton of all of the models in my shop in Indiana. Locals didn't have a lot of money and they appreciated the price and durability. A decent "truck gun".
It is a great pistol. It was my carry pistole for a time. My daughters loved the soft recoil a .45ACP. I gave it to a daughter. Went back to my 1911A1. 45ACP in 7+1.
Bought one at the pawn shop for less than the price of a hi point, that didn't have the mk ii update. Ruger sent me a shipping box, replaced the springs, recrowned the barrel, repainted the sight, performed the firing pin upgrade, and sent it back to me. With a new 15 round magazine.
What they managed to pull off here, is Ruger made a duty pistol that cost half of what its major competitors had at the time. It also happened to be dead reliable and super durable. The fact that it was heavy, chunky and way not sexy was a minor consideration. Its closest competitors were basically Smith & Wesson and Beretta which cost at least double the Rugers price tag and Sig, Colt, and HK were even more expensive.
Boring, durable, reliable Unsexy bricks is to be fair is how i've also heard people describe: The beretta 92 series because of its weight and size, the Entire CZ-75 line Including the SP-01 and the entire H&K USP line including the MK 23.
The ruger SR pistols are actually now almost a decade out of production. They have moved on to the “American pistol” and sucurity 9, which have no design lineage. I was actually going to suggest you do a video on the SR pistols as they are now a nearly forgotten weapon.
I'll have to disagree with Ian on the statement that Ruger doesn't do initiative things. The LCP, LCR, LC9, SFAR and 10/22 have all been initiative firearms. Innovation may not be their bread and butter, but it is something they have dabbled in.
@jongreen5638 Big ups ✅️ to the Ruger LCR and later X 3" design. Robust, easy to clean, holds up to rough use. My friend had a red laser Laser Max since 2013.
I have to disagree with regard to the SFAR. Ruger was the third company to do what the SFAR does, be a very lightweight small frame AR-10. They just made it cheapest of the three. POF came up with the idea when they made the revolution, then made it even lighter with the Rogue. And Roam also made a lightweight small frame AR-10, but I can’t remember theirs cuz it was stupid expensive. When the SFAR first dropped, it was 1,200 dollars while the POF Rogue was (at the time, now it’s much more expensive) 1,600 dollars. And the POF was half a pound to a pound lighter than the SFAR.
I've never owned one, but a friend of mine is a retired cop and he's had his since 1989 when he joined the department he retired from. He had to supply his own gun {small town department} and this was the best choice as far as reliability and price for a young rookie on a budget back then. Over the years he never saw a reason to replace it. He's put thousands of rounds through his and I've been fortunate enough to put a bunch of rounds through it myself when we've gone shooting at some property his family owns. It's a good pistol that shoots well and I've never seen it malfunction. I kinda wish I would have picked one up back in the day.
I worked part-time doing security about 10 years ago and the company bought these things as issue pistols (we were allowed to use our own instead, which I did). I shot a qual with one of the Rugers to try it out. What sticks out in my mind was how many sharp, pointy bits it had on it to poke and scratch me every time I manipulated the slide. I didn't like it, but I passed the qual with ease.
My first handgun ever was a Ruger P series. I have a genuine fondness for them. The p89 is a fantastic handgun that fixed the issues of the iterations of the p85. The P95 made the top heavy chonk issues worse that the metal frames didn't have as badly.
For those that don't know and want a bit more detail than was provided in the video, these pistols were the reason why Bill Ruger supported the Brady Bill and magazine size restrictions. The Brady Bill supporters were desperate to find someone in the gun industry that would support their position on magazine size restriction and they found what they wanted in Bill Ruger. He initially suggested a 15 round limit, because he literally couldn't figure out how to get more than 15 in his pistols' existing form factor. He thought he would make a smart business move by using legislation to level the playing field against the large and ever-increasing number of pistols that had 17 or more rounds in the same or smaller footprint. He also made this suggestion in order to save his PWECIOUS MINI-14, which was HIS BABY, or so it was said by associates at the time. The price for his support was supposed to be that his Mini-14 would specifically or 'coincidentally' written out of the ban. (Note: I had close family members in the firearms industry at the time and have had this verified by people that knew Bill Ruger - not that this was exclusive information, it was widely alleged at the time and most of it has long since been proven through other means. Also, seriously, the man was a giant arse by this point and he really was that obsessed over his Mini-14.) It didn't work out well for him; he got stabbed in the back by the people he'd sold out to as we all know. He then spent the rest of his life sulking like a spoiled toddler. This was publicly demonstrated by his consistent refusal to manufacture factory magazines for the Mini-14 of more than 20 rounds (even for LEO) and by how much his design output dropped off - in fact, by how much Ruger weapon development just stagnated from the point of his betrayal forward. It isn't until after Ruger dies in 2002 that his company can start playing catch-up and begin to design and produce modern firearms instead of being stuck in the mid-80s. Privately, he had apparently invested so much of his ego into his actions that he could never admit he was wrong to try this and as far as I recall never recanted his support for the ban despite how much it screwed his own company; his passing may have been the one move that saved it because things were getting *bad*.
I guess we'll forget that Ruger completely blew up the pocket 380 game with the LCP, and then totally outdid themselves and revolutionized the capability amd Firepower of pocket pistols with the LCP Max.
I have an LCP II I always carry as a backup, was at a park one night with my girl and I forgot I put it on the top of the car. Until going down around a steep curve I hear a loud noise. My heart sank. It was unloaded but it took a HARD hit. Basically just gouged the lower and scratched the slide a bit. I did have to replace the mag in it as it was warped all to hell. But about 200 rounds later, little darling still runs like a champ.
My dad's favorite handgun is his Ruger P95DC - basically the same model as these, but with a decocking lever instead of a safety, and a polymer frame. It is remarkably unsexy, but it's undeniably one of the smoothest guns I've ever handled. No idea how much of that is good manufacturing and how much of it is the many decades worth of ammunition that have gone through it to break it in, but the result is a very comfortable pistol.
Keep in mind that when Ruger introduced the P85, there weren’t that many new Semi-Automatic pistols on the market. Glock had just come out, but it was basically 1911s, Hi-Powers, Walther PPKs and junk Pot Metal .25s. Plus Revolvers. And any War Souvenirs that might have been brought home. That’s about all you could get in the 1980s.
Do a piece on the P95 series. One of the few polymer guns that literally has no steel inserts for the slide to ride on. The slide simply runs on the Isoplast frame rails.
My Grandfather owned a P89. He sold it to a friend when his mobility started going, but he spoke highly of it praising it's accuracy and the way it felt in his hand. He was a true to form hunter in his youth shooting anything that moved from squirrel to elk and everything in between and I think he owned more Ruger firearms than any one other manufacturer. Close second would be Remington. Never held one of these myself, but I consistently hear only good things about these pistols, the exception being the bulky slide. Might need to pick one up sometime the mess around with.
As a proud owner of a 300 series P85 this video really hurt my feelings. Ian, do you often go around telling people that their babies are ugly? :) Long time subscriber here, great videos, thank you for the knowledge and entertainment over the years.
I've always thought the Blued ones looked awesome. I know the reason for the specific shade of the bluing they have is actually what they'd call a defect in their bluing process but to me I think it looks very beautiful. I'm a 1911 guy and don't really care for da/sa guns but I've always found the ruger p series to be really interesting guns.
It has to be said: the P85 and all the other guns produced by Ruger may not be flashy, sexy or cool-looking like their contemporaries but that's Ruger's whole shtick as because they are reliable, easy to use and cost-friendly(TV Tropes refers to it as Boring but Practical). Thanks for showing it to us Ian, it's nice to see a plain and simple gun every once in a while.
Had a P-85 when I was stationed in Germany, picked it up at the rod and gun club in Ludwigsburg. Picked it up for $325 in 1988. Great pistol for the time, very reliable, but chunky, unlike the CZ-75, Browning Hi Power, or the Beretta 92. Almost bought the HK P7 for $500.
Did a buncha research and testing with a friend trying to find a 9mm option that fit all the desired criteria. I’m an H&K fan, yet he decided on H&K VP9SK and I went with the Ruger SR9C for half the price. Even after shooting his, I’m still happier with my choice.
I had purchased a P-85 in 1991 as my first semi--auto when I was a rookie Police officer. I started the job with a S&W 66. I shortly sold it for Beretta FS 92. I had purchased the P-85 because it was cheap, under $300 and rugged. I sold it because I have medium size hands and it was too chunky. Now I carry the Glock and I love them . 😏
My first gun was a P94DC, .40 caliber derivative of this gun. Paid $325 in ‘96 at the Greenville NC National Guard Armory gun show one Saturday. Added some Hogue wrap-around grips and a big dot front site. It never had a malfunctioning, cycling everything it was fed. A beast of a gun that like many have said is highly underrated .
Always love any Ruger I get. I am pretty sure Ruger's philosophy on making guns is, "Someone already designed a good gun, let's make it indestructible"
Ruger is an example of "Boring is good." And that itself is a good thing.
If you have to pull the trigger you want your gun to go bang, and lets face it Ruger is very good at making guns that do just that.
The SR556 would disagree with your “boring” accusation! LOL! It’s also one of my most accurate rifles I own!
The Volvo of guns?
Ruger is to guns what Timex is to watches.
@@GrumpyGenXGrampsyou act like boring is a bad thing. Boring is a good thing.
I have experience with this. Recoil is very soft, it laughs at sketchy handloads, it is shockingly accurate, I have never witnessed it malfunction. An unsung hero in my opinion.
"Unsung" because the ammosexuals got all butt-hurt when Bill Sr. tried being a responsible gun owner.
@@offcamber782 my granddad and dad both owned P-series, and they loved shooting semi-wadcutters through them. I’ve never seen a malfunction. They really were great duty and bedside guns
Ruger is the king of casing
I bought one because it had a handload stuck in the chamber and wouldn't cycle. I got it, fired it and while a hot round the pistol didnt care. Use it to test my own handloads now
100%
You know you’re getting old when the P85/89/95 pistols are now being covered on this channel.
Well to be fair coil guns were also covered in the past on this channel😂😂😂
Ian wasn't generous in his description, but he was accurate. The P-series aren't flashy or fancy, but they simply eat everything they are fed, hit what they are aimed at, and keep chugging along year after year, with only basic cleaning and lubrication. Almost 2 million P-series were manufactured by the end of their run, and the majority of them are still out there working fine to this day.
Bill Ruger was a manufacturing guy, NOT a "gun guy", and he passed away in 2002. The Ruger company makes all sorts of firearms that come with standard capacity magazines, such as 30-rounders for their ARs.
Bill Rugers support of the AWB mag caps and his championing of the mini-14 over the AR15 have him cemented as a fudd.
I am convinced Ruger Co. started selling AR15s with Bill Rugers name on it as a cost saving measure as they can now use his spinning corpse to power their factory.
All of the P-Series are tanks, they will shoot everything from sketchy hand loads to +P+ without complaining. I've never had one malfunction.
The P85/89 was also used by Arnold in True Lies.
I've carried the P86 for over 30yrs. It's indestructible, next to zero mussle climb and always on target & shoots everything reliably.. And I've always prefered a heavy handgun. I love it.
Yes, indeed he was _not_ a gun guy. For those who remember, Bill Ruger did more than merely "going along" with the 10-round limit. For many from that era, Ruger's not to be forgiven for sucking up to Clinton's gun control agenda by adding his _own_ proposal the lawmakers to castrate magazine capacity to ten rounds. I'll say it again: _he didn't just accept the limit; the 10-round limit was Ruger's suggestion to begin with_ .
@@993isgawd Actually, he suggested 15 rounds, because he couldn't figure out how to get more than 15 in his pistols and therefore wanted to level the playing field against pistols that had 17 or more rounds. He also made this suggestion in order to save his PWECIOUS MINI-14, which was HIS BABY.
It didn't work out well for him, he got stabbed in the back and spent the rest of his life sulking like a spoiled toddler.
I remember firing the .45 variant for the first time (P90). I thought it was ugly, but man it shot well. Extremely accurate.
At the time there were several magazine tests showing the Ruger more accurate than a Sig P220.
I really like my P90. It fits into my hand like a glove. The 1911 does not. It shoots like shit, the 1911 does not!
@@oldesertguy9616 Very accurate indeed.
Function over form. The closest to a snazzy (1) looking Ruger pistol imo is a Mk ll/lol or lV with custom grips and bull barrel. The best looking firearms ever built were the Woodsman, the Wolverine and the PPK.
1) The word sexy and firearms do not mix imo.
A P90 was my first handgun, I sold it. I regret it.
My P85 has the decocker. It was a fairly early model that got caught up in a recall in about 1990. I shipped the gun to them and got it back in just a couple of weeks. No muss, no fuss. Have always loved this gun.
My dad's P85 has a decoder too, that caught my attention as well.
Funny.. I would have described the Glock exactly the same way 😂
@@simiwing Was it the recall regarding the safety? I sent mine in for this and it now has the decocker also. I sent it back in 2016 and they fixed it and sent it back in a new box with a extra, new, magazine. Good CS.
I have a "prefactory" P-85 with decocker.
I don't remember the year, but I got a recall letter from Ruger, caution Not to depend on the decocker, in case of an unintentional discharge.
It also gave a range of serial #'s for return to factory for correction.
The letter indicated that my P-85 #'s were not involved in the recall.
I've always used the decocker (aimed safely), and have never had a single problem with this pistol.
Dependable, cost effective, accurate, easy to field strip and service, are all very sexy attributes in my choice of firearms!
I wouldn't sell it.
@@qinfinity00 yes, it was the safety recall.
I had a P85 for a number of years. You summed them up perfectly. Inexpensive (rather than cheap) and built like a tank. They had nothing flashy, but were simple, reliable, and effective. Thanks for bringing back some memories Ian!
I've owned 2 P-85's and got them right when first available. The worst part of the trigger pull was a massive amount of over-travel which was easy to fix with a small bit of brass filed then epoxied into the back hollow of the triggers. Totally acceptable triggers on both guns afterwards.
One of the 'selling points' when first introduced was their extreme durability which Ruger demonstrated by test firing examples hundreds of thousands of rounds without any failures. They then took one of the guns and sliced the right side of the slide basically extending the ejection port all the way down and through the slide so that only the left side was holding it together...then fired many thousand more round and gave up because nothing was wearing or breaking.
They then plugged the barrel with a threaded rod that came within .100" of the nose of the 9mm NATO round they fired to see what would happen. It went BANG...the case blew out over the extractor groove ruining it and severely scorching the breech face but...after replacing the barrel and extractor went on to again fire many thousands of rounds without further issue.
In other words....if you need a pistol to function as close to 100% almost no matter what...you'd be hard pressed to find another pistol able to take the punishment the P85 series can.
All the way through I was thinking of “Volvo - they're boxy but they're good.” from the 1990 Dudley Moore film Crazy People. But as Ian was only about 6 when it came out I'll forgive him not mentioning it.😆
Less Volvo, more Plymouth/ Chrysler.
I agree, Volvo's are the bricks of the car world
They were.
@@terracar2003 About 30 years ago now other manufactures laughed when Volvo entered their 850 Estate car in the British Touring Car Championships. But not only was it very fast, all the other cars just bounced off it as it barged it's way to the front. The Volvos were hardly scratched & the BMW's, Fords & other cars had bits flying all over the track. Brilliant race.
Metamucil......it makes you go poop.....
In 1989 I was 17 and joined the Army. After training, I came home. On July 18tm 1989, Mom and I were at the Rod and Reel shop in Laporte IN. With her assistance, I purchased a base model P85 ($410) as well as an AMT .380 back up for her. She managed to "show" it to a few unsuspecting men over the years!
A few years later my apartment was robbed, and I lost the P85, a GP100, as well as a MKII target bull barrel.
About 4 years ago my son replaced my lost P85. Around that time I replaced my GP100.
Mom passed back in 21. I now carry her AMT everyday in my left front packet.
I will always be fond of the P85 even tho the trigger never allowed me to hit anything, and today, my pistol collection is over 40 in total.
🇺🇸
$410 is a little over $1000 dollars today! That is crazy expensive for that pistol IMO. Different times I guess, makes you realize how good we have it now
@troyverburg9600 I agree. I didn't know any better. I was fresh home from basic/AIT, I had a pocket full of $$ that I couldn't spend whilst I was there....
A couple months later, I turned 18. That very week I applied for an Indiana Concealed Carry license.
I loved that P85. I even slept with it!!
I retired it for an S&W 659. Then, when the 1st shipment of Glock 20s hit our shores, I was Glock from there on out.
However.... about a month ago I was at a SIG factory event, and snatched up a 365 X Macro TacOps.
Upon retiring my G48, it will end a 32 year run for Glock.
Boy oh boy. This TacOps better deliver the smoke!
I have a ‘92 production P89 and I’ve always found its accuracy to be pretty dang good, never had the 85 though, might be a little more rough. The 89 is externally identical but bundled the revisions and upgrades of the 85s into a new model
RUGER: "We do what it says on the tin."
Facts.
also ruger - "no one needs weapons of war"
Ruger: gun go bang
@@randylahey2242 Bill Ruger is dead he was a boomer fudd back in the eighties. Any way his sons are much more foward thinking.
@@randylahey2242 That was Bill, not the Ruger company and Bill has been dead for 20 years.
the p89 and p90 were two of the first guns I ever shot. "boring, durable, unsexy brick" is incredibly fitting but dang it, they shoot really well for being so hefty
The triggers on these have a springy, "clicky" feeling that I haven't experienced on any other gun but it is really intuitive. I have never shot a better first group than I did with a P90.
Yes. Spongey and creepy, with a mile of overtravel.
in my opinion it shoots like a revolver, it has zero creep but a ridiculously large take-up. its a difficult gun to get a good grip on because its so top heavy, and because of the chonky slide reciprocating it is very poor at rapid shot placement. it's a great gun for the price but i really don't know why people try and glaze it
@@Cheesemonk3h Yes, the grip is for man-hands, to be sure. I wear a large glove size, but need adjust my grip to reach the slide release. Wish they made it single-stacked.
My trigger felt like a wet sponge. Sold it a got a g19 lol
Admittedly, I passed on the Ruger when I was a new police officer because it seemed big, heavy and ugly, even though I was a Ruger fan. Many years later those things haven't changed but I've grown to admire it's tank like reliability and I can even see that it does have a unique, rugged beauty of it's own. Very good pistols overall.
Maybe i am biased because it was my first firearm BUT the design of P85 is awesome.
“Boring, durable, unsexy brick” sounds like somebody describing their ex.
sounds like me
Durable lmao
I wouldn't say "durable" lol
dad bod energy
But not an ex- they have any beef with.
The Ruger P90 .45acp is the gem of that series. Basically a poor mans Sig P220.
Every once in a while I think about trying to find a modern (kydex taco, AIWB) for it, and actually carrying it.
The p90 was my first pistol, many years ago. I traded it for a Glock and nothing but regrets.
Good enough for Harry Tasker and Omega Sector!
@@NatePlaysMM You traded a Landcruiser for a Tercel.
@@tylerwilliams6022and El Mariachi as well
First handgun I ever shot was a Ruger P89. Simple, rugged and reliable but not the most ergonomic thing ever made.
"Boring, Durable, Unsexy Bricks" is weirdly, a great and expressive aesthetic. No nonsense and realiable is what you want when things get dire for a long time, and the Franchise that does this so well while making a lot of their weapons iconic and cool, is Warhammer40K. The same reason why a blocky industrial Bolter has become one of the most iconic weapons.
That fascination with the purely practical carries over into a lesser degree in real life, which is why to me, this weapon has an understated style to it.
Or in simpler terms, to quote marge Simpson " I just think they're neat."
A family member had one of these, we had to temporarily remove it from their possession due to medical reasons. (They got it back fairly quickly, don’t worry)
I thought it was garbage at first glance, but after taking it to the range I found it to be a fairly nice shooting piece.
Happy KP90 DC owner checking in. It's got that affordable big chonker charm and it shoots great. I just remember the Ruger pistols looking cool in 90's movies like True Lies and Desperado.
"Mom, can we get the P90?"
"We have P90 at home."
P90 at home:
I know it's the 9mm not the 45, but shut up.
thought the p90 was in 5.7...
Wat up, I got both the P85 and P90. Love them, built lile a brick $#!% house.
The 9mm guide rod is as big as the 45s.
@zach I knew you'd be here, I just didn't think I'd find you here
Kinda like going to a big rock show and bumping into your favorite indie singer in the crowd
Rutabega!
@@Dapstartthey are referring to the fact Ruger has a pistol called p90 in 45acp and FN has a pdw (carbine) in 5.7mm
Waiting for these to come back.... The Ruger Classic Line.
My very first handgun was a Ruger P89 purchased new back in 1998. I had my choice between a P89 and a P95 and I chose the P89 because of the aluminum frame vs the polymer frame of the P95. I put over 2000 trouble free rounds through it and still have it in my gun safe.
me too! Same year even! Lol.
@@stinkyfungus I got the p95 and it was terrible. My dad got it for me for Xmas and was pissed at how shitty it ran.
My friend owns 2 Ruger guns; P89 9mm and a P97 .45 model. He shoots, uses both 2024. I owned a 9mm American 2010s. Did not like it.
So the SR series was phased out sometime in the early teens and then replaced with the Ruger Security series and the Ruger American series of pistols. The Security was meant to be a more budget friendly gun while the American is a tacticool law enforcement style gun. Both of which I feel like are inferior to the SR series. I do have a nostalgic love of the P series guns. I think it stems from the blocky utilitarian design and when I started collecting guns after the assault weapon ban sunset in 2004 you could pick them up dirt cheap. Not to mention in 10,000 years when humanity is gone and the cockroaches take over the earth, one roach with find an old P85 in the ruble of a city and use it to kill another roach.
The SR9C trigger was great. Should have never gotten rid of it. Ended up putting a ghost something or other trigger bar in the full size and they both felt the same. Just passed up a bubba polished full size for three hundo.
Bought a NIB American 9mm full size. Not well made in my mind. A few +s but not worth carrying. Maybe new Americans are better. Function better.
@@DavidLLambertmobile I had a full size in 45. nearly blew my toes off. went bang as soon as it got into battery one day. no idea why. never found anything wrong with it. but it came apart. slide/barrel/recoil spring came off the frame.
I made this same comment a second ago, as owner of both SR and American models. 100% agree. My American had an unsafe malfunction and I no longer purchase from this brand. The SR series was fantastic, and idk why they wanted to replace it.
As a consumer, if I had to pick just one company to buy my guns from for all disparate purposes, it'd be Ruger.
Yup, their lineup covers pretty much everything you need to do with guns unless you are the USMC.
Ian hit the nail on the head with that opening statement. They are cheap and reliable. I have several Ruger products and they just work, well enough for any real life situation and affordably.
Close. They don’t make a shotgun.
@@seancooney1310 How's their AR-556? I ask because it's about the only AR-15 available for under 2000€ here, which makes it an interesting starting point to build from.
@@TheScaleTech They DID make the Red Label O/U shotgun . It's considered a collector's item and extremely well made.
When you need a gun to show off how much money you spend on guns, you pull out the Staccato. When you are in trouble and need a gun to work; boring, durable, unsexy bricks are amongst the sexiest objects on the earth.
I owned a P85 that I bought in a pawnshop for `125.00. Super accurate pistol. The trigger pull was atrocious! At least on mine. I own a lot of different Ruger's. Always have loved them as a company. Yeah, the owner coming out in support for limitations on magazine capacity was a "sell-out" move, but never really affected my buying decisions when it came to the brand.
This is the same guy who claimed a golf course was a waste of a good range .
Baffled hell out of me, but I think it was just BS PR to help with the XM-10 trials.
If I could take the slack out of that trigger, I swear, I'd run it for competition. But ggyyaaahhhdddd the 2 mile finger-hike to the break is mean.
@@tombogan03884 In fact Ruger did contract cast golf heads for some top brands.
At the very least, the current management of Ruger I think has rehabilitated their image for a lot of gun owners. I can also say from experience that their customer support is superb.
@@ExodusC The current company can go to hell.
My dad had one of these originals when I was younger. At 9 yo his P85 taught me the hard way that the firing grip for a pistol is COMPLETELY different than a revolver! My thumb has never forgotten that lesson!
Growing up, my local PD switched from their old S&W K frames to Ruger P-85s, and they also upgraded to the new Crown Vic Interceptor shortly after. Such a huge change in a relatively short amount of time.
Definition of a proper tool I guess
Ruger makes tons of castings for medical and aerospace applications. If you have ever seen the head of the institutional model of the Exergen TemporalScanner it is a stainless casting made by Ruger.
Boring and unsexy? These sounds like me!
A shame that Ruger discontinued this series. They were real dependable. I also liked it being featured in _True Lies_ (albeit the KP90 variant) and in one scene in Cowboy Bebop.
As for future videos, I hope that Ian will get to feature a pistol from the LASERAIM Series.
and antonio banderas rocked 2 p90s in "desperado"
@@ripvanwinkle2002and another dual wieldier being Andre Shame from _A Low Down Dirty Shame,_ where he uses two KP94s.
@@ripvanwinkle2002 with the grips chopped so they would fit up his sleeve. If you slow mo the scene you can see it.
Make me a fun gun. Ruger: This fires all the bullets. How fun are we now?
My first thought was why has no one recommended me this as a no frills but reliable first gun? Then the mention of support for the assault weapons ban by the owner answered that question
I think like you said in a video about the mini-14, Ruger quietly operating with great success in their zone of simply making reliable and well-made guns while simplifying construction and leaning on castings to make them reasonably priced. For the owner who drives a Toyota because we all know it's the most sensible choice.
My department used these back in the day, well before my time, but some of the old heads actually loved them. Most bought theirs when they were retired from service.
Call me wrong, but those stainless P85's are attractive handguns.
Was thinking the same thing. I would carry one of these lol
I actually agree. I always kinda wanted to pick up an inexpensive KP90, just because I think they're cool pistols.
I like em. Are they the prettiest? Nah. But they're still cute. 😂
I had the .40 version (P94) as my first handgun. It was good, completely reliable and accurate enough but kind of clunky and chunky. Not bad at all but it really left me wanting something better so after a couple of years I picked up a Sig 228. Much better pistol.
Wrong 😂
This is Spikes other gun in Cowboy Bepop. Everyone is obsessed with the Jericho, but this is his backup.
One of the weapons Spike keeps in a fridge on the Bebop.
While he does load, clean, and aim down its sights, he ends up not using it for the shootout and instead opts for his Jericho and a Beretta 92 lent to him earlier.
As short as that feature was, as a gun nut I still like it due to how well the Ruger was drawn, trade dress and all.
It also reflects on the huge level of dedication behind the series, even for objects with minor appearances.
@@paleoph6168 They had that Sunrise staff and budget, plus a team that was dedicated to make it all perfect. Couldn't be done today.
@@paleoph6168you want some well drawn guns go watch Gunsmith Cats. Heck the first scene the main characters CZ-75 is detailed down to the grooves and markings.
Also Arnold’s gun in True Lies
Well Ruger does make that new 5.7 carbine that you can get in a variety of calibers so I’d say that’s pretty cool.
Good old Ruger. Nobody can brag about them but everyone can count on them.
Awesome customer service, as well.
I wish the P85/P94 would come back.
I waited on the 94. No complaints. The 85 had two many safeties.
You're on the mark about Ruger's customer service. It's second to none.
I've had a p89 for decades now, never had a problem. Picked up a p345 a few years back and can say the same. First gun I ever owned, 10/22, was in 1972 for $52 with a brick of 22s, stil have it nothing ever went wrong with it. I've stayed with Ruger and never needed repairs or mods. Reliability over flash anyday.
My cousin in-law was issued one of these at a corrections department. He stated that it had no ergonomics but worked every time! I have a friend of mine that inherited one about five years ago. I keep reminding him that when he wants to Sell it that, I get first dibs!
@mikeks8181 Author, trainer & match shooter: Massad Ayoob wrote years ago how a few NH, CT police 🚔 issued or used P series Rugers. .45acp type P90s, KP94s in .40, P89s 9mm etc. I'm left handed and looked into a DAO style P93 9mm. 1990s.
From the net, "Ruger issued a recall for certain P85 9mm pistols manufactured between 1987 and 1990 that could accidentally discharge when the safety/decocker lever was engaged. This could happen if the firing pin broke in a certain way."
I still shoot my P-85 every now and then. Had to replace the grips as they started getting sticky due to rubber/plastic breaking down over the years. Simply Works.
Sometimes, it’s not about being flashy-it’s about having a tool that will perform every time, no questions asked.
My P97 45 ACP is stupidly reliable. It shoots whatever I can fit in the chamber: Crayons, rocks, double A batteries... it's dang accurate too!
Every man "Of a Certain Age" I know at one time or another had a Ruger P series. Every one of us regrets selling/trading theirs off.
I'm keeping mine forever. It does its job well.
@nucleargrizzly1776 I saw and shot a few P series. 🤔 My friend owns 2 Ruger semi auto guns; P89 9mm & P97 .45acp model. He likes both. I owned a excellent Ruger GPNY surplus. .38spl +P GP stainless steel 4". Great design.
Both the Ruger P85 and the S&W line of automatic pistols were once reliable workhorses, but their popularity in the entertainment media is unusually low compared to cool European pistols like the Beretta 92. Truly forgotten weapons.
Ruger in 1985: "We are gonna make the chunkiest pistol of all time!"
Hi Point comes along: "Hold my beer!"
Ruger: We make guns for the common man that work
Yes
"That's why the Ruger P series are the most quintessentially American handguns of all time: pistols for the working man, utterly unpretentious and priced for anyone." - Hop in his video on the Ruger P series
SILENCE, POORS!
If you want to be the , Plymouth of guns? Okay.
They really do.
Pine Tree Castings in Newport, NH is Ruger's in-house casting factory. Pine Tree also casts parts for a huge amount of other firearms companies.
Never did I imagine seeing my first pistol (which I bought off my mother for $20) on here. It's just like Ruger themselves: boring, reliable, and simple.
That comment sounds extraordinary to an Englishman!
@@tomwinterfishing9065 It was for legal requirements. If it was a gift, it would have taken months or a full year to get the transfer paperwork back. But, since it was (legally speaking) a private transfer, no paperwork required. Plus, once she got a subcompact .32ACP for her purse, she didn't want it anymore.
Never thought a flashy gun would hit the target better than a reliable one.. p95 just works.
This and old S&W’s being in every bad action movie in the 90’s & 00’s lol
I had one of these, my stepdad was a police officer and bought a couple right when they came out. They were getting priority on early delivery and he bought them for as I recall, $350 or less. At the time, there weren't many options on the market for double action & relatively inexpensive. As a lefty, it was much harder in the 80's to find pistols that had ambi controls. So cheap, ambi friendly and not single action made it VERY attractive to me. I only had it for a couple of years and it got stolen. To my knowledge it has never turned up, my step-dad would check from time to time. I don't recall having any issues with it shooting wise and it seemed accurate enough. Not outstanding, but not bad. Boringly good. I was always worried about sticking a finger into the opened action to push down the ejector for take down. But it was never an issue.
Do one next on the Ruger Blackhawk or Super BlackHawk
Dad had a Blackhawk, it was cool. What I really want is a Redhawk but it's pricey for a fun gun.
I don't know if one of the two most popular current-production hunting handguns on the continent really counts as a forgotten weapon. Like anyone who hunts in a state that allows handguns, is virtually guaranteed to have a slicked-up Super Blackhawk in .44 Mag and/or a TC Contender. Both current production That'd be like doing a video on the Savage 110.
Like, they're great. I love mine.
But I just don't know if it's in any way a Forgotten Weapon.
Sold a ton of all of the models in my shop in Indiana. Locals didn't have a lot of money and they appreciated the price and durability. A decent "truck gun".
It is a great pistol. It was my carry pistole for a time. My daughters loved the soft recoil a .45ACP. I gave it to a daughter. Went back to my 1911A1. 45ACP in 7+1.
This was my first gun when I turned 21 and was able to buy a gun. It was rock solid and never failed me. Wish I still had it!
I mean there is nothing boring at all about a side folding stock stainless steel Mini-14.
Bought one at the pawn shop for less than the price of a hi point, that didn't have the mk ii update. Ruger sent me a shipping box, replaced the springs, recrowned the barrel, repainted the sight, performed the firing pin upgrade, and sent it back to me. With a new 15 round magazine.
Cast barrel is actually pretty interesting
What they managed to pull off here, is Ruger made a duty pistol that cost half of what its major competitors had at the time. It also happened to be dead reliable and super durable. The fact that it was heavy, chunky and way not sexy was a minor consideration. Its closest competitors were basically Smith & Wesson and Beretta which cost at least double the Rugers price tag and Sig, Colt, and HK were even more expensive.
a cast barrel is wild
Boring, durable, reliable Unsexy bricks is to be fair is how i've also heard people describe: The beretta 92 series because of its weight and size, the Entire CZ-75 line Including the SP-01 and the entire H&K USP line including the MK 23.
The ruger SR pistols are actually now almost a decade out of production. They have moved on to the “American pistol” and sucurity 9, which have no design lineage. I was actually going to suggest you do a video on the SR pistols as they are now a nearly forgotten weapon.
Still have my old P89. Still works just fine. Doesn't matter what ammo you feed it it just works.
I'll have to disagree with Ian on the statement that Ruger doesn't do initiative things. The LCP, LCR, LC9, SFAR and 10/22 have all been initiative firearms. Innovation may not be their bread and butter, but it is something they have dabbled in.
@jongreen5638 Big ups ✅️ to the Ruger LCR and later X 3" design. Robust, easy to clean, holds up to rough use. My friend had a red laser Laser Max since 2013.
SFAR is just a Ruger mfg DPMS design. They pay royalties. Their striker fored guns are all Keltec
LCP and LC9 are direct copies of Keltec. I do agree they have done some innovative things. The Deerfield carbine for instance
I have to disagree with regard to the SFAR. Ruger was the third company to do what the SFAR does, be a very lightweight small frame AR-10. They just made it cheapest of the three. POF came up with the idea when they made the revolution, then made it even lighter with the Rogue. And Roam also made a lightweight small frame AR-10, but I can’t remember theirs cuz it was stupid expensive. When the SFAR first dropped, it was 1,200 dollars while the POF Rogue was (at the time, now it’s much more expensive) 1,600 dollars. And the POF was half a pound to a pound lighter than the SFAR.
LCP=literally copied pistol from the keltec p3at. I've even swapped slides.
I've never owned one, but a friend of mine is a retired cop and he's had his since 1989 when he joined the department he retired from. He had to supply his own gun {small town department} and this was the best choice as far as reliability and price for a young rookie on a budget back then. Over the years he never saw a reason to replace it. He's put thousands of rounds through his and I've been fortunate enough to put a bunch of rounds through it myself when we've gone shooting at some property his family owns. It's a good pistol that shoots well and I've never seen it malfunction. I kinda wish I would have picked one up back in the day.
*Did Ian just use the words to describe Glock but applied them to Ruger instead?*
I love how it looks. It looks classic and modern at the same time.
They may be boring but I always liked the aesthetic of them! Love that they are reliable too.
I was very critical of Ruger and their AWB stance but their “Hard-R” promo brought me back.
Hey Ian how come there aren’t any modern exposed barrel pistols in higher caliber anymore?
I worked part-time doing security about 10 years ago and the company bought these things as issue pistols (we were allowed to use our own instead, which I did). I shot a qual with one of the Rugers to try it out. What sticks out in my mind was how many sharp, pointy bits it had on it to poke and scratch me every time I manipulated the slide. I didn't like it, but I passed the qual with ease.
Arent these the "Desperado" guns?
Cant remember the proper name for the .45 version that was in Desperado, but yes.
@@Phlostonparadise2971Ruger KP90
@@Phlostonparadise2971 God I effin loved that movie! Thanks
My first handgun ever was a Ruger P series. I have a genuine fondness for them. The p89 is a fantastic handgun that fixed the issues of the iterations of the p85. The P95 made the top heavy chonk issues worse that the metal frames didn't have as badly.
Unfortunately the SR series has also since been discontinued.
Why, Ruger, why? 😢
@@paleoph6168 to make room for the American and Security series
Great platform.
I don’t know, an ACTUALLY ambidextrous mag release at that time is pretty slick.
Honestly, other than being kinda chunky, the P-85 wasn't too far from the cutting edge when it was introduced.
Fricking early gang. Feeling basic like this pistol
Yo! Reporting for duty. Feeling like El Mariachi.
For those that don't know and want a bit more detail than was provided in the video, these pistols were the reason why Bill Ruger supported the Brady Bill and magazine size restrictions. The Brady Bill supporters were desperate to find someone in the gun industry that would support their position on magazine size restriction and they found what they wanted in Bill Ruger. He initially suggested a 15 round limit, because he literally couldn't figure out how to get more than 15 in his pistols' existing form factor. He thought he would make a smart business move by using legislation to level the playing field against the large and ever-increasing number of pistols that had 17 or more rounds in the same or smaller footprint. He also made this suggestion in order to save his PWECIOUS MINI-14, which was HIS BABY, or so it was said by associates at the time. The price for his support was supposed to be that his Mini-14 would specifically or 'coincidentally' written out of the ban. (Note: I had close family members in the firearms industry at the time and have had this verified by people that knew Bill Ruger - not that this was exclusive information, it was widely alleged at the time and most of it has long since been proven through other means. Also, seriously, the man was a giant arse by this point and he really was that obsessed over his Mini-14.)
It didn't work out well for him; he got stabbed in the back by the people he'd sold out to as we all know. He then spent the rest of his life sulking like a spoiled toddler. This was publicly demonstrated by his consistent refusal to manufacture factory magazines for the Mini-14 of more than 20 rounds (even for LEO) and by how much his design output dropped off - in fact, by how much Ruger weapon development just stagnated from the point of his betrayal forward. It isn't until after Ruger dies in 2002 that his company can start playing catch-up and begin to design and produce modern firearms instead of being stuck in the mid-80s. Privately, he had apparently invested so much of his ego into his actions that he could never admit he was wrong to try this and as far as I recall never recanted his support for the ban despite how much it screwed his own company; his passing may have been the one move that saved it because things were getting *bad*.
I guess we'll forget that Ruger completely blew up the pocket 380 game with the LCP, and then totally outdid themselves and revolutionized the capability amd Firepower of pocket pistols with the LCP Max.
I have an LCP II I always carry as a backup, was at a park one night with my girl and I forgot I put it on the top of the car. Until going down around a steep curve I hear a loud noise. My heart sank. It was unloaded but it took a HARD hit. Basically just gouged the lower and scratched the slide a bit. I did have to replace the mag in it as it was warped all to hell. But about 200 rounds later, little darling still runs like a champ.
My dad's favorite handgun is his Ruger P95DC - basically the same model as these, but with a decocking lever instead of a safety, and a polymer frame. It is remarkably unsexy, but it's undeniably one of the smoothest guns I've ever handled. No idea how much of that is good manufacturing and how much of it is the many decades worth of ammunition that have gone through it to break it in, but the result is a very comfortable pistol.
Keep in mind that when Ruger introduced the P85, there weren’t that many new Semi-Automatic pistols on the market. Glock had just come out, but it was basically 1911s, Hi-Powers, Walther PPKs and junk Pot Metal .25s. Plus Revolvers. And any War Souvenirs that might have been brought home. That’s about all you could get in the 1980s.
I think this was the start of the " Wonder Nines"!? When everyone just started coming out with the double stack 9 mm semis!
You're forgetting the entire S&W line of semi-autos
Do a piece on the P95 series. One of the few polymer guns that literally has no steel inserts for the slide to ride on. The slide simply runs on the Isoplast frame rails.
One of my favorite gun cameos in Cowboy Bebop!
My Grandfather owned a P89. He sold it to a friend when his mobility started going, but he spoke highly of it praising it's accuracy and the way it felt in his hand. He was a true to form hunter in his youth shooting anything that moved from squirrel to elk and everything in between and I think he owned more Ruger firearms than any one other manufacturer. Close second would be Remington. Never held one of these myself, but I consistently hear only good things about these pistols, the exception being the bulky slide. Might need to pick one up sometime the mess around with.
Can confirm, oddly accurate and bulky but there's a lot of purchase to hold on to at least
James reeves super happy rn
nobody knows who that is 😅
@@robertsaget6918 you must be new here
Why? I don't know his opinion on the p85
@@dak4465 I can just invent fake people too - Bob Klatz would be impressed!
@@robertsaget6918 james reeves is one of the hosts of TFBTV. He has a cerain love for the ruger P series handguns
As a proud owner of a 300 series P85 this video really hurt my feelings. Ian, do you often go around telling people that their babies are ugly? :) Long time subscriber here, great videos, thank you for the knowledge and entertainment over the years.
Hmm what about that LC 10mm they showed yesterday in their newsletter???
A blowback PCC? How innovative and daring! 😆
@@ForgottenWeapons😅😂
@@ForgottenWeapons it not that boring and pleasing to the eye
@@davegravel882 Beauty is in the eye of the person who is wrong in this conversation
Maybe Ruger should reintroduce their P series and call them their Retro P Series lineup for collectors
I've always thought the Blued ones looked awesome. I know the reason for the specific shade of the bluing they have is actually what they'd call a defect in their bluing process but to me I think it looks very beautiful. I'm a 1911 guy and don't really care for da/sa guns but I've always found the ruger p series to be really interesting guns.
It has to be said: the P85 and all the other guns produced by Ruger may not be flashy, sexy or cool-looking like their contemporaries but that's Ruger's whole shtick as because they are reliable, easy to use and cost-friendly(TV Tropes refers to it as Boring but Practical). Thanks for showing it to us Ian, it's nice to see a plain and simple gun every once in a while.
Rugger put out an old ad called the 'hard R' lineup.
Ohohohoho
👀🤦
@kawaiiarchive357 HK had a print ad with 9x19mm rounds loaded backwards! 🤓 ....
Chirp
Had a P-85 when I was stationed in Germany, picked it up at the rod and gun club in Ludwigsburg. Picked it up for $325 in 1988. Great pistol for the time, very reliable, but chunky, unlike the CZ-75, Browning Hi Power, or the Beretta 92. Almost bought the HK P7 for $500.
Did a buncha research and testing with a friend trying to find a 9mm option that fit all the desired criteria. I’m an H&K fan, yet he decided on H&K VP9SK and I went with the Ruger SR9C for half the price. Even after shooting his, I’m still happier with my choice.
I had purchased a P-85 in 1991 as my first semi--auto when I was a rookie Police officer. I started the job with a S&W 66. I shortly sold it for Beretta FS 92. I had purchased the P-85 because it was cheap, under $300 and rugged. I sold it because I have medium size hands and it was too chunky. Now I carry the Glock and I love them . 😏
My first gun was a P94DC, .40 caliber derivative of this gun. Paid $325 in ‘96 at the Greenville NC National Guard Armory gun show one Saturday. Added some Hogue wrap-around grips and a big dot front site. It never had a malfunctioning, cycling everything it was fed. A beast of a gun that like many have said is highly underrated .
Always love any Ruger I get. I am pretty sure Ruger's philosophy on making guns is, "Someone already designed a good gun, let's make it indestructible"