So way back in a simpler time when cell phones didn't have camera's and we were all worried our toasters would short out and cause nuclear war I picked up the quintessential truck gun. That year was 1999.

I was poor, the assault weapon ban was in full effect and I wanted an inexpensive large bore semi auto. I didn't want a 1911 because I had cut my teeth on DA/SA SIGs and the like so I picked up a .45 caliber Ruger P97DC (Decock only). It was my first plastic pistol.

Well I liked it and shot it for years until I decided to store it in another location as sort of an in case stuff gets stolen gun. I loaded two mags up with 230 grain Golden Sabers and away it went. That was 12 or 13 years ago. I pulled the old girl out recently I decided to run her without any TLC right from storage just to see what would happen.

So on to my 20 years too late range report on a long since out of production, budget plastic pistol, because......well you know what Ole' Jack Burton always says....."What the hell."

So lets get to it. This is how she came out of storage. She's a looker ain't she. Honestly I never got the hate on the looks of the P94/P95/P97. I actually thought they all had pretty good lines, especially compared to the earlier Ruger P-series guns.



As always each score is out of 5 and completely my personal observations of this particular gun.

VALUE - 5
Even back in the day these were a solid value. They worked, had good company support and fairly priced mags and accessories.

TRIGGER - 4
The trigger on this particular gun is quite nice actually. Smooth double action pull, ok break, steel trigger, audible reset that isn't too far out for a DA/SA gun and all in all a pretty nice experience. Single action isn't super crisp but still certainly not a bad experience at all.

ERGOS - 3
You know for a .45 caliber DA/SA gun in the earlier days of polymer(I know Glock and HK plastic fantastic really hit it's stride in the late 90's and early 2000's) it feels pretty good. The grip is easy for my small to medium hands to hold, the magazine release is shaped and placed in a way to make it easy to manipulate, decockers are ambi and work well. It's just a pretty decent feeling gun. Where it starts to fall apart is the plastic is very slick with no real gripping surface. In 2018 I would probably put some grip tape or Talon's on this.

RELIABILITY - 4
So in the years I was running the gun it was very reliable. I cannot really remember any reliability issues at all. Now that being said part of my pulling out of storage and shooting cold was to test the gun, magazines and ammunition after sitting for more than a decade. The two magazines loaded with Golden Sabers fed and fired perfectly. A subsequent magazine of some 230 grain FMJ did yield one odd failure. The last round in the magazine sort of popped out and nosed down acting as a sort of un-fired upside down stovepipe failure. Either the magazine lips were slightly out of spec. or there is a possibility that the magazine wasn't assembled properly as when I was cleaning I noticed that either Ruger or I many years ago upon re-assembling may have not set the spring into the follower as it should be. (there is a small metal cut in the follower that the spring needs to sit against and I believe it wasn't.) At any rate I had one malfunction out of 61 rounds fired and the hollowpoints that had been loaded for so long fed and functioned perfectly. So probably a magazine issue, and quite possibly a re-assembly issue by me many moons ago.

Bad magazine or idiot assembly of said magazine? Surely couldn't have been ME! I mean that's just crazy talk.


RECOIL - 4
The P97 is a fairly soft shooting gun. It does however have bit of muzzle flip and as much as I am not a bore axis is everything kind of guy I do feel the high bore axis in the P97. It certainly isn't punishing to shoot in any way even with defensive ammo.

ACCURACY - 4
I remember being fairly accurate with it when I was shooting it more regularly many years ago but as for pulling it out after not so much as touching it for more then a decade I was fairly happy with my and the guns shooting. Certainly not gonna win any trophy's but definitely MOA if need be. (Minute of asshole)



CARRY-ABILITY - 3
It's not a small gun but it's not too heavy and being a single stack is fairly thin. Decent belt and holster and it wouldn't be a huge chore to carry. Not a first choice but not a CZ-97 either.

EFFICIENCY - 2
8+1 of pew pew isn't bad but as time as moved on we have found ways to make only slightly thicker 45's with double or stack and half capacity of 10 or greater. Back in the day 8+1 of .45 in a single stack was par or even 1 extra for the course. I wouldn't feel unarmed with 8+1 of .45 ACP but I feel there are better choices today, which frankly two decades later, there should be.

SIGHTS - 3
Decent steel three dot sights that shoot point of aim. They are a little small for my liking or more to the point my eyes are no longer 1999 eyes, sigh.....I had crappy eyes in 1999.....I digress. Point is they are steel, well made and put the little pieces of lead basically where the pointy end of the gun is pointing. Are they Trijicon HD's? Hell no. Are they Glock dovetail protectors.....also, thankfully, hell no.

FIT AND FINISH - 2
It's a big, cast gun with an early polymer frame design. It rattles a bit, and the polymer frame could be finished better. The slide, however is put together well and looks pretty good. It is, as I have said the quintessential "truck gun" It's reliable, beefy but not so expensive or pretty that you really care about it. Its a good tool. DISCLAIMER - I use the term "truck gun" as a descriptor only. I don't believe anybody should leave a firearm unattended in a vehicle. It is too easy for them to be stolen and although you might not care about the monetary loss you should care about the people that weapon could harm. Wow, it's really hard to climb down from a horse this high.....sorry about the preaching.

TAKE DOWN - 3
Fairly easy. There is an internal piece that is folded down in the mag well that is a bit odd, but beyond that, pull slide back to take down point, remove slide stop, remove slide........take down and clean like most every other DA/SA type gun. You don't need 3 hands or tools or an engineering degree. You will not reassemble incorrectly or loose parts.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS
The oddest thing about the P97 is the fact that the frame rails are polymer. GIANT THICK POLYMER RAILS. It's almost odd looking at them today. That being said 20 years later and they didn't break so I guess I cannot really fault them.

For those who ask about rotating defensive ammo or ammo shelf life, I shot sixteen rounds of Remington Golden Saber and it shot like the day it was made which was probably damn near fifteen years ago.

The Ruger P97 was a good honest gun in 1999 and in 2018 its......a good honest gun. Will it stir your soul? Probably not? Will it be at Rock Island in years to come? Doubt it. Is it a fun gun to shoot that is reliable and still viable after all these years, I would say absolutely.

Sometimes praise can be a subtle thing. Something doesn't have to be spectacular or warrant an emotional bond to be worth while. Sometimes just being a good tool is, in and of itself, high praise. So I will end by saying of my Ruger P97......"That'll do pig."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cslinger,

16 rounds in minute of bonehead after twelve years in storage and -

quote:

Sometimes just being a good tool is, in and of itself, high praise. So I will end by saying of my Ruger P97......"That'll do pig."

I like it.

I always wondered if the trigger guard on those and similar Rugers shoved the bottom three fingers of the shooting hand down enough to perhaps exaggerate muzzle flip, but I suppose it depends on the shape and size of the shooter's hand.

If you have the time and inclination, I'd argue for a retest of the mag that might've failed after ensuring the magazine spring is installed properly. Personally, I'd settle for reliability testing with defensive ammo if only because different ball bullets (like, I suppose, different hollow points) can do funky things during the feeding process.

Those are great guns. Especially for the money. I have a KP 93 and a KP 94 both in 9 mm. Ask just about anyone who has had them. Most people who have sold them in the past wish that they had them back. That says it all.

Great post. Thanks,I enjoyed it very much.

Greet post. My first auto was a P85. Still have it. Never failed.

Both the 95 and the 97 are great pistols, I would argue they are highly underrated. Wish I could find a 97 for a good price....you don't see them often used. The ones I have fired had very good DA actions....better than the 92 Cent I carried at the time.

My old boss managed to lock up his Ruger 90, it was in his bedside table for a couple years. Not sure if it would have fired or not, it only took one good thwap on the couch arm to open it up. Returned it lubed working

I've been a Ruger P series fan for years.... a combination of corporate idiocy added to consumers wanting 'new and improved' was the demise of the P Series. I think the P95 was finally built to perfection... much like the Sig P226 and so there was no room for new corporate executives to figure out how to make it better and so they had to eliminate them and start with something new. (Then of course comes the recalls for problems with the new and improved)

Last year i bought a p85mkii and did a similar write up.

They are solid performers.

Awesome summary

quote:

Originally posted by DSgrouse:
Last year i bought a p85mkii and did a similar write up.

They are solid performers.

Awesome summary

Are those nil grips? Might have to find some. Very nice!

Had one. Sold it in a fit of gun snobbery. Still miss it

I love the old Rugers , they go bang and I think they look fine . I have a P95 later gun and two newer P 89 guns , they shoot great and I can carry in an older basket weave thumb brake holster . I did run into a 40 cal real dirty Ruger P 94 for 149 bucks I jumped on it for that makes a good truck gun .

Thanks for the report.
It was interesting to me.

ruger357, both sets are from houge.

It's funny how much love these old Rugers generate these days. Back in the day, most of the officers I knew who carried them hated them! Bad triggers (lots of slack; weak resets), blued magazines prone to rust, rattled, blocky, etc.

I hired in with a very large agency back in 1996 that issued all generations of Ruger 9mm, all the way from the oldest P-85s to the newest (at the time) P-95s. The chief LOVED Rugers. When I hired in, he asked, "Are you going to let me issue you a Ruger?" I said, "Chief, can I just carry my own W. German Sig P226?" He curled up his nose like he smelled something bad and said, "Yeah, you can carry that blued Taurus if you want."

I love the old Rugers. They were the T-34 tanks of the handgun world back then. Hard to even find a P-90 these days.

I forgot that the P-95 and P-97 slides rode on polymer rails!!!! I've never heard of one ever failing!

A lot of the blued Ruger P's would turn purple over time... seems Ruger was ahead of their time with 'colored' guns.

I still have my first handgun, a P89, along with my first rifle, a PC-9. Couldn't afford a Sig back then, brand new the P89 was less than 350 bucks new, same with the PC-9. Both are fine firearms.

quote:

If you have the time and inclination, I'd argue for a retest of the mag that might've failed after ensuring the magazine spring is installed properly.

Ran 50 rounds today of UMC 230 grain with no issues what so ever. Pretty sure the mag spring wasn't installed right when I cleaned them so many years ago. No issues today beyond those caused by the trigger puller.

I have to say how much fun I am having shooting this cheap old rattle trap. I mean in the many years since I bought this I have been shooting everything thing from SIG's to ED Browns to HKs etc. etc. yet this old thing with its high bore axis and sloppy old slide movement just kinda brings smile to my face for some reason. I guess when it comes right down to it there are the girls we want to take home to mom.......but every once in a while we all like a little trailer trash.

The P series Ruger pistols are large and built like a tank. I have an older P89 that was refinished and I replaced all of the springs after as well. That thing still runs like a champ and is pretty accurate. Of course, recoil is nil. The only thing on it I don't understand couldn't be done better was the magazine release. I don't know how the first guy installed one of those on the first gun. I did mine and it was a job and a half.

quote:

Ran 50 rounds today of UMC 230 grain with no issues what so ever. Pretty sure the mag spring wasn't installed right when I cleaned them so many years ago. No issues today beyond those caused by the trigger puller.

I knew it! Say what you will about trailer trash, the time always comes when it's a classic!