Bought a Ruger P90 Today

[Down South]

Well, this is another of one of those just sort of fell in my hands guns. My daughter called me at work late this afternoon and said a buddy of mine was in possession of a like new P90 that one of his buddies wanted to sell. Supposedly the guy needed some cash NOW. He wanted $250 so I bought it. The guy is well known so I do believe the gun is clean. Anyway I’ll run the serial when I get home in a few days. I asked about the box and spare Mag but they were not with the pistol. I will try to get the box and mag. If I can’t then it’s still a good deal.
This will be the first Ruger pistol that I’ve acquired so hopefully they do well with cast. I saw a few days ago that there is a group buy on a .45 boolit mould. Don’t know if the group buy is still open but I’ll check it out later. These group buys are going to put me in the poor house. I’m in four GB’s now.
How do you folks like your P90’s? Are they accurate at all?

[OBXPilgrim]

My brother's got one, shoots better than my Glock 9mm compact, although feeding it cast can be trouble.

His likes the Lee TL 230gr TC & RN ball, otherwise you can forget it - hope you have better luck. He can't get through half a mag with 200gr SWC's (any of 4 mags).

[RU shooter]

The P90 was the most trouble free handgun I ever owned ,I carried it faithfully for 10 yrs. while I was a patrolman , Very nice DA trigger stroke,Also very accurate I regularly bested fellow officers Sig 220's at every qualification . The only boolit or bullet that it didnt shoot well was some swaged SWC I bought from Dillon once. Never a FTF ever! and ate any shape and size of ammo even 255gr SWC I loaded up,heck it even would feed empty brass from the mag, No BS!
The down sides are they aint that great a looking gun, big and blocky and not too slim for IWB carry
Stupid me I sold it and bought a combat commander! finicky eater and not near as accurate .

Tim

[454PB]

My P-90 is a fine cast boolit shooter.

[Hang Fire]

My brother-in-law who is an engineer with Ruger in Prescott AZ gave me a P-90DC in 1992 he had purchased. I don't know if it was an off the line pistol, but the internal workings are smooth as silk, both DA & SA.

The ramp is polished like glass and feeds CB perfectly. Another thing I don't know if standard, but got a 7 round 25 yard target with it and the group is excellent. (wish I could shoot it that good) Here is scanned pic of the target which came stapled to the P-90 Ruger manual, I used Paint program to black out SN..


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/TANSTAAFL-2/img465.jpg

[OBXPilgrim]

Well...obviously we haven't found what my brothers P90 likes.

Anybody got boolit modelnumber/profile/shape/weight & OAL measurements on what works so well in theirs. Load info works too, if you don't mind, no problem if you don't.

I'd considered the P90 of all the Ruger autos, but wouldn't buy one that couldn't feed boolits.

[Firebricker]

Try Mihec 45 hp over 7.5 Alliant Power Pistol oal 1.218 FB

[Frank]

Mayoob Assaad likes the P90. They're pretty valuable too. I saw a new P97 in the window for $325. Is that similar? :redneck:

[Bret4207]

Mas Ayoob likes anything the companies pay him to like.

[NHlever]

Mas Ayoob likes anything the companies pay him to like.

:D :D He was a cop in a town of 800 people, or so a couple of towns above mine for many years. No comment.

[NHlever]

My brother-in-law who is an engineer with Ruger in Prescott AZ gave me a P-90DC in 1992 he had purchased. I don't know if it was an off the line pistol, but the internal workings are smooth as silk, both DA & SA.

The ramp is polished like glass and feeds CB perfectly. Another thing I don't know if standard, but got a 7 round 25 yard target with it and the group is excellent. (wish I could shoot it that good) Here is scanned pic of the target which came stapled to the P-90 Ruger manual, I used Paint program to black out SN..


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/TANSTAAFL-2/img465.jpg

Looks like an "employee" gun to me. Ah, the good old days. It used to be like that in Newport, NH too. It will serve you well!

[Freightman]

. Anyway I’ll run the serial when I get home in a few days.?
How does an individual ck. the S.N. to see if it is not stolen?

[Throckmorton]

when my son has one,we both liked it,he only traded it because of 'something better'.
we've all btdt,no?
anyway,with cast boolits we had to seat deeper than 'book' so that the driving bands' leading edge would not hang up on the chamber throat.don't remember what brand the boolits were,dangit.
posted a ?? on this on the ruger board and several folks agreed that they had to do the same thing.
so.don't load but a few until you test them in the barrel for fully chambering.

good guns !

[13Echo]

I've had a P90 for several years and really like it. Compared to a Glock and several other pistols it really isn't bad looking. It is also hell for stout, utterly reliable, and pretty darn accurate and it is a very pleasant pistol to fire. For around the farm and by the bedside it's just about perfect but it isn't for concealed carry.

Jerry Liles

[Dale53]

I notice the adverse comments about Mas Ayoob. I know one thing, Mas shot a lot of competition where God and everybody watched. He didn't do all of his shooting with his typewriter. I have to respect a competitive shooter who writes. He wasn't afraid to be seen winning OR losing. That says a lot about someone and that "lot" is positive. I shot several times alongside him and found him an interesting fellow. He can have my back, any day.

I've seen a lot of big city policemen who shouldn't be in the same room with a loaded gun, so the fact he worked in a small town doesn't bother me (I've also seen a fair number of big city policemen who were ACES with a handgun, also).

Dale53

[Bret4207]

With all due respect Dale, I'm sure Ayoob is a fine shot, he's also a good writer and reputedly a fine expert witness. That's about where it stops for me. He's a salesman, a decent one, just like most other gun writers. And a part timer in a town of 800 isn't a "street cop of long experience" as he's claimed for as long as I can remember, and I've been reading his stuff for 20+ years. It's salesmanship. Shooting competition doesn't mean squat as far as his law enforcement claims go. I was a Marine, but I don't claim to have been a sniper or in Recon or any of that garbage. My BS meter can only go so far before it pegs out. My email correspondence with him asking for an approximation on how much actual street time he had resulted in an offer to send me his academic records. That says it all for me.

I have no issues with him as a writer, he needs to feed his family. My issues are with the cop claims and the "you'll go to prison if you use a handload" thing he started. That and some people blind obedience to his word on what you MUST have to SURVIVE in that life and death moment. In all fairness, he's calmed down on the "gear makes the man" rhetoric lately. For a while he read like a Jerry Ahern "The Survivalist!!!" book. And while he's not in the class on Clair Reese, David Fortier or some of the other true hacks, he still has to keep the advertisers happy or the gravy train stops. There are NO full time gun writers I'm aware of today who will say anything bad about a firearm or product currently in production, not a one.

[13Echo]

I'm not an expert with a pistol but I do shoot and as a pathologist with a considerable experience in forensics I have to say what Ayoob writes mostly rings true.

Jerry Liles

[hpdrifter]

My issues are with the cop claims and the "you'll go to prison if you use a handload" thing he started.

Bret, I'm far from an expert. Real far, but I was watching an expose on a trial in Arizona about a shooting. The man got 10 years and a couple of the jurist said that the fact that he used 'hollow points" was a determining factor. "Those things are meant to kill". Not specifically handloads, but the bullet was a factor'and possibly handloads coulda worked it's way in there, so I think the issue is far from moot.

I'm gonna stop short of defending Ayoob, I don't know enough. All I know is that I own a P97DC and it has never failed to feed anything I have used in it. I haven't used semiwadcutters tho, but I do use some assorted bullets within a magazine full. I put hollowpoints in the bottom of the stack, (first) then regular rounds to fill the magazine and it never misses a beat.

I don't depend on it as a carry gun, I haven't gottem my CHL yet, but it'll be what I carry when I do. I've on shot prolly 2500 rounds thru it and cann't recall a malfunction. It ain't pretty, but affordable. I bought mine $299+ tax. I kinda wished I paid a few dollars extra and got the one with the rail.

The only problem I have with it, being left-handed is that there is very limited selection of holster/carry platforms that I have found. I can't afford to buy different holsters to experiment with applicability.

[chaos]

My first big bore autoloader was a p-90. I think its actually a KP90DC. Stainless with decocker. I got it sometime around 1992 ish. This handgun has eaten everything I ever fed it and is as accurate as any other .45 ACP that I have ever fired.

With that said. I never take the thing out of the safe anymore. It has the ergonomics of a brick. It is not a 1911 by any means.

I took several whitetails with the thing but found it a bit top heavy and just doesnt balance good in my hands.

It will absolutely shoot right up there with my tricked out springfields at less than 1/3 the cost.


Chaos

[9.3X62AL]

The Ruger P-90 surely isn't the only pistol that balks on SWC-shaped bullets. The Glock 45s have a rep for stoppages with that boolit shape.

Most of my Ruger centerfire autopistol experience is with my P-89X in 9mm and 30 Luger, and I really like the pistol. I have only fired a couple P-90s, and those were brief test-drives, but I liked the pistols very much. Both Ruger and Smith & Wesson take a lot of flak that is entirely undeserved over their centerfire autopistols. A pistol need not be European to be a viable and reliable defensive tool.

I already got shown the door at another site for daring to question Mr. Ayoob's depth of real-world experience, and I do like it here--so I'll just discuss the weather, if that's OK. :)

In general, I would say that IPSC or other gun games are at best a two-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional reality, and should not be relied upon as an accurate predictor of outcomes when the elephant arrives on scene. About the best we can do is know our equipment and know our selves--our strengths and limitations--and prepare diligently while hoping real-time testing never becomes necessary.

[Bret4207]

If someone wants to show me the door for calling a spade a spade they are more than welcome.

If someone wants the straight skinny on gun fights and real police work a PM to someone like Al or Crash Corrigan would be a good start instead of listening to someone who gets paid by the word.

[Bret4207]

Bret, I'm far from an expert. Real far, but I was watching an expose on a trial in Arizona about a shooting. The man got 10 years and a couple of the jurist said that the fact that he used 'hollow points" was a determining factor. "Those things are meant to kill". Not specifically handloads, but the bullet was a factor'and possibly handloads coulda worked it's way in there, so I think the issue is far from moot.



The HP issue isn't the same as the "handloads = jail time" issue. So far, and I haven't looked since the last time we went through this, the only case coming close to the "handloads" issue is a shooting in which the shooter used handloads and the prosecution did a test with a factory load. Different powder residue patterns sent that guy to prison. Any decent attorney should have been able to point out that the loads were different and put a stopper on that.

Look guys, use what you want, listen to Ayoob if you want, follow the advice of whomever you wish, it makes little difference to me. I just find it hypocritical and dishonest for someone in relative authority to make claims that aren't accurate. If calling a spade a spade bothers people, fine lets all stick our heads in the sand and go back to the standard magazine line that all cast leads unless it's rock hard and even then speeds over 1800 fps are impossible.

[NHlever]

I meant no disrespect to Mas for all the things he does have considerable experience with. He is an expert shot, and there isn't much doubt about that. He did, however, upset the guy that owned the land our range was on enough with his small town swat team after dark exercises that the man closed the range. Now I drive 25 miles one way to shoot, and though that is not far compared to some, the other range was three miles away. I've also seen him trying to get attention in a public place, and I wasn't impressed. My small town reference only was because I know there was never a gunfight / firefight there while he lived here. What he experienced in the city, I have no idea, but I suspect that I have seen more actual firefights than he has, and I don't have much experience compared to many here. Do I trust what he says about firearms, Yes, do I enjoy his articles, usually, do I respect the ability he has with a handgun, certainly (we all might be that good if our ammo costs, and access to range time were the same), but I don't for a minute buy his gunfight expert BS.

[hpdrifter]

My small town reference only was because I know there was never a gunfight / firefight there while he lived here.

Maybe the crooks knew better than to challenge him!!!!:lol:

Joking, joking, just joking. Need some levity here.

Bret, I surrender.:-)

[Bret4207]

All right, look, I'm sorry if I came across as.......myself I guess. Humility is a fine quality and one I aspire to. God knows I make 10x the mistakes and poor judgments anyone ever should in one life time. If anything I should be on a regular diet of humble pie and crow. Self aggrandizement and inaccurate claims irritate me beyond words. I suppose I let that irritation spill over into this. I just have a problem with false idols.

[35remington]

"I saw a new P97 in the window for $325."

I'll try to keep this relevant and not hijack-ish.

If you own a P97, you have a potential jam lurking in your future, and Ruger engineers goofed. In following the popular rather than the proven reliable, Ruger made the colossal mistake of inserting a Devel (McCormick type) follower in their P97 magazine, and combining this with a weak spring so they could cram an eighth shot in there.

The short skirted follower promotes the increased chance of nose diving and the weak spring, after some use, allows the last round in the magazine to be ejected rather than fed into the breech. This clears reasonably easily most times but can tie up the gun on occasion.

Guess how I know? And also guess what I think about GunZine "reliability tests" that gave this eight shot flush fit 1911 type magazine no mention whatsoever as to its reliability downside.

It IS a 1911 magazine. Same length. Same type follower. Same mistake in trying to fit an eighth shot where it does not belong - in a designed to be flush fit, seven shot magazine.

Now, getting back to the P90 - at some additional expense, I've substituted the P90 idea of seven shots in a seven shot space with an adequate spring and non tipping follower. While experimenting with standard eight shot springs and Wolff Extra Power eight shot using the cruddy Devel follower. In addition, I've used the Wolff 10% Extra Power seven shot and Ruger factory seven shot springs combined with P90 seven shot followers. So far the factory P90 seven shot springs and followers look like a great improvement. The Wolff 10% extra power seven shot are a bit stiff but work fine.

Overall, things are looking very good, but almost anything would be an improvement over the factory eight shot magazine setup. Which certainly points up the folly of going from seven shots in the P90 to eight shots in the magazine for the P97. It wasn't worth it. I'd recommend completely abandoning the idea of an eighth shot in the magazine for reliability's sake.

This was just so those that might consider the P97 over the P90 might be fully informed about the P97 magazine issues.

Fail to upgrade them at your peril. They are NOT adequate. The warmer the load, the more likely recoil inertia will cause them to misfeed.

[Down South]

Try Mihec 45 hp over 7.5 Alliant Power Pistol oal 1.218 FB
I'm on one of Mihec's 45 HP GB's now.

Wow, Been away for a few days. Anyway to answer another question, checking the SN is easy. I’ve got a few LEO buddies that can run it or go to my local pusher. I think that he can run it. I’m really not worried as I found out the guy bought it new and he is well known. Supposedly he paid around $600 for it new. That seems kind of high to me.
I did get a chance to fire off a few rounds of white box ammo the other day. Tomorrow, I’ll put it to the test since I’ll have a little time to my self.

[35remington]

"Supposedly he paid around $600 for it new."

For a P90? Sound like he got held up with it.

[Geraldo]

I already got shown the door at another site for daring to question Mr. Ayoob's depth of real-world experience, and I do like it here--so I'll just discuss the weather, if that's OK.

In general, I would say that IPSC or other gun games are at best a two-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional reality, and should not be relied upon as an accurate predictor of outcomes when the elephant arrives on scene. About the best we can do is know our equipment and know our selves--our strengths and limitations--and prepare diligently while hoping real-time testing never becomes necessary.


It'll be a nice day if it doesn't rain...:-D

If we use the same gear we would in real life, competition can help a bit with gunhandling, reloads, etc, but beyond that it's just a fun afternoon out. I shot IPSC for a few years before the club switched to IDPA. I shot my first IDPA match using real world tactics--and lost big time because everyone else gamed it out. The only thing match "tactics" win you in real life is a trip to the trauma center or the morgue.

Don't get me wrong, I love to shoot in competition, but it's got nothing in common with the two way range.

[Bret4207]

Don't get me wrong, I love to shoot in competition, but it's got nothing in common with the two way range.

But....but.... the latest issue of Extreme Tactical Mall Ninja Elite SWAT Shooting and Operators Monthly had an article that said if I don't use the 3 Handed Israeli Squat and Stalk shooting method with Zig Zower P999 in 5.746x 29 1/2 shooting the depleted uranium 32.7 gr Razor Wire bullet at 7,659 fps while wearing Glomstomper Tactical underwear and Splumgenbothom Kevlar shoelaces I'm as good as dead the minute I step out of my Extreme Tactical Kevlar shower shoes!!!!!!!!! You can't seriously question an authority like Seymour Blatsfharst, the author of that article and a "man who has been there and done that" according to his by line?




:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[Dale53]

Bret4207;

But....but.... the latest issue of Extreme Tactical Mall Ninja Elite SWAT Shooting and Operators Monthly had an article that said if I don't use the 3 Handed Israeli Squat and Stalk shooting method with Zig Zower P999 in 5.746x 29 1/2 shooting the depleted uranium 32.7 gr Razor Wire bullet at 7,659 fps while wearing Glomstomper Tactical underwear and Splumgenbothom Kevlar shoelaces I'm as good as dead the minute I step out of my Extreme Tactical Kevlar shower shoes!!!!!!!!! You can't seriously question an authority like Seymour Blatsfharst, the author of that article and a "man who has been there and done that" according to his by line?


I nearly peed my pants while reading that!!:mrgreen:

The one thing competition DOES give you, however, is the ability to shoot well under pressure. That IS important.

My years in IPSC were before the gamers took over. It was treated as a martial art and was far more useful than today, admittedly. The power factor was 180 so we had really useful (powerful) loads that had some relevance. I well remember one regular shooter who was an Ohio State Patrolman. They were issued Model 19's for duty and THAT is what he used. He was a good shot but the choice of his handgun (revolver instead of auto pistol) limited his performance level to Class "B". He knew that, but used IPSC as a training format with his revolver and called it "Life Insurance". He was an excellent performer (it was a treat to watch him reload on the run - he was so good that you could hardly see him do it) and he certainly became a force to be reckoned with in real life by becoming extremely familiar with his duty revolver. He knew where his REAL priorities were. Kind of an example for the rest of us.

Dale53

[chaos]

But....but.... the latest issue of Extreme Tactical Mall Ninja Elite SWAT Shooting and Operators Monthly had an article that said if I don't use the 3 Handed Israeli Squat and Stalk shooting method with Zig Zower P999 in 5.746x 29 1/2 shooting the depleted uranium 32.7 gr Razor Wire bullet at 7,659 fps while wearing Glomstomper Tactical underwear and Splumgenbothom Kevlar shoelaces I'm as good as dead the minute I step out of my Extreme Tactical Kevlar shower shoes!!!!!!!!! You can't seriously question an authority like Seymour Blatsfharst, the author of that article and a "man who has been there and done that" according to his by line?






That's funny right there... I dont care who you are.