Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Guns and Gear Review #28: Ruger PC9 carbine

 Hey folks, 12-Gauge Chimp here. Got another G&G Review for y'all today. 


Today I'll be looking at the Ruger PC9 carbine. 

This is my most recent firearms purchase and it's one that's been on my list for awhile. 

Thanks to some selling off of my collection as well as of some other stuff I didn't need anymore, I was able to pick up a brand new PC9 carbine. 

I had originally planned on buying a Glock 19 Gen 4 because a friend had gifted me a couple older G19 mags last year. Well, my quest for a G19 went sideways and I ended up looking at the PC9 instead. Mostly because I already had a G17 and could use the same mags thanks to Ruger including a magazine adapter that allows the PC9 to use the common Glock style magazines. 

Unfortunately, I seemed to have gotten into the PC9 market at the wrong time. It seemed that no one had a PC9 in stock. Gallery of Guns was out of stock, so was Bud's and a few other sites I frequent. I found one on Armslist, but the seller that had it wasn't very good at communicating and seemed to have chosen to ignore me instead of selling me their PC9. Oh well, their loss. 

Feeling like I'd have to wait a longer period than I'd hoped, I decided to check out a local farm supply store that also had a large firearms section one day. As I browsed the damn near empty cases, I asked one of the employees if they had a PC9 carbine in stock. At first, the employee said they had sold the only one they had, but he offered to check the gun room and see if maybe they had another one. 

After a few minutes, the employee comes back and says they have one left in 9mm, which is what I was looking for. I thank God and tell the guy I'll take it. He brings it up to the counter, I check it over to make sure it is indeed a 9mm PC9 (Ruger also makes them in .40 S&W now, by the way) and fill out the required 4473. A couple minutes later, I'm good to go, pay for my shiny new gun and I leave really happy. 

Now that this little backstory on how I got my PC9 is over with, here's the details on this handy little carbine. 

The Ruger PC9 carbine has a 16 inch fluted and threaded barrel and comes with two magazine adapters. One is for the SR9 pattern magazines and the other is for the ubiquitous Glock pattern magazines. A quick swapping of adapters and mine is set up to use Glock mags. I've got a few of those and none of the SR9 mags aside from the one that comes with the PC9 from Ruger. 

The receiver of the PC9 features a built in picatinny rail and a charging handle that's able to be swapped from left or right depending on shooter preference.  The front sight is a simple fixed post that's protected by two ears and the rear sight is a ghost ring style that's adjustable for windage and elevation. The front and rear sights are mounted on the barrel, which is removable from the receiver via a little lever similar to the Ruger 10/22 Takedown. Matter of fact, the PC9 is kind of like a 10/22 on steroids. Aside from the charging handle, the magazine release is swappable from left to right, again all dependent on shooter preference.

I've had some previous experience with the PC9 and that previous experience is what prompted me to purchase my own. Since purchasing my PC9, I've added an AR Stoner A2 style muzzle brake (this necessitated the purchase of a muzzle brake timing shim kit since my A2 brake didn't want to line up properly with just a crush washer.) as well as a Butler Creek sling from Walmart. 

I've got plans to purchase a Midwest Industries freefloat M-Lok handguard (which will make my PC9 look sort of a like a modernized PPsH-41, just in 9mm instead of 7.62x25) for my PC9 as well as their buttstock spacer with a built in QD sling mount. I've also got plans to purchase a few more Glock 17 mags for it as well. I'll probably pick up a few of those 33 round mags I've seen a lot. I might also pick up a red dot optic for it as well. 

Once the weather warms back up, probably next March, I'll take my PC9 out and put it through its paces. But until then, it's mostly dryfire practice and getting it in just the right configuration. 

I guess it's not really fair to call this a review just yet, more of an overview I'd guess you could say. 

Anyway, I like it and I'm glad I was able to pick one up when I could. So if you're in the market for a handy little pistol caliber carbine and want something that's not an AR style, the Ruger PC9 carbine might be just what you're looking for. 

As always, this is 12-Gauge Chimp signing off. 

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