I stopped by my LGS the other day looking for a used, 38/357 snubbie in S&W. They didn't have one, but they did have a nice duty sized 9mm, Ruger P89, which I didn't need at all.

Somehow, it still followed me home. I'm looking forward to my first range date with it.

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Ugly, sure. Tough and reliable? That too. They're good shooters, a friend of mine had one that ate just about anything we tried to shoot through it. It was his "truck gun" and got treated as such, never cleaned, and generally abused. It impressed me.

If I found one at a good price, I'd buy it as well.

I still remember the review that Mr Leroy Thompson made on the Ruger in the SOF magazine a lot of years ago.

Congratulations on your new gun....enjoy it, and post some pictures please.

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"lets be careful out there"

Not very pretty, heavy, trigger usually terrible but tends to go bang every time. Can be used as a hammer should the need arise.

I think you described a Hi Point which it looks like anyway.

You might get a boat-
You will need a boat anchor!
Ok! A while back - I tried to trade a lens for one.
But I wouldn’t actually buy one!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

The Ruger P series are great pistols, sort of the Sherman Tanks of the semi-auto world. You can often find good buys on them, and they usually shoot very accurately. I currently have one in 45acp.

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P

I'm a fellow sinner - x2.
P94DC in 9mm
P97DC in 45acp
The only issue I've ever had with one is some light handloads that wouldn't quite reliably cycle that big heavy slide 100% of the time.

I have one. It's as close to a High Point as I'm likely to get.

It sure works, though.

I don’t have one, but have fired several. Decent pistols, I like them better than any of the current Ruger autos.

The P series are very reliable handguns. I only have owned just one, an original P85 (pre MKII), but I really like it. I would buy a P90 to go with it if I run across one for a good price.

I suspect that who ever compares these to Hi-Points has no first hand experience with either.

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Glad you stepped up and adopted it, ugly guns need a loving home too. I understand the concept of form and function...this gun is all function.

Oh man, tough crowd!

Me too - no High Points for me
I concur. These old Rugers are about as much like a High Point as a 1911 would be. Their construction and operation has much more in common with the 1911 than with the High Points too.
The only thing they have in common with a High Point is that they are big, and heavy. That's pretty much where the similarity ends.

Big, ugly and rattle a lot, but easily one of the most reliable pistols made. They were an economical choice for law enforcement in the 90s and stood up to the job. Many times. The are nothing like a hi point. Nothing.

After pondering on it for many minutes and holding my Ruger P90, it came to me that 150-200 years ago, a brace of P90s would make a very good set of horse pistols.

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P

Years ago, in the late 80s, maybe early 90s, the Chief of Campus Security of a local small college switched over from .38 revolvers to P89s. He was a good friend of mine.

The school's board of directors got wind of the change in less than a week and had a collective fit. Remember, this was way back when.

Their attitude was, "We don't need semi-auto pistols on our campus. Go back to the revolvers."

The Chief still had the revolvers and did as he was instructed. But he was very unhappy.

He got approval from the school's bean counters to sell them. They worked closely with that board of directors and the attitude was, "Just get rid of them. We don't want them on campus."

He let me buy the P89s for a song. There were 20 of them.

I gave the Chief one, kept one for myself and I sold the rest for a very nice profit.

When they were all gone, I took the Chief to dinner and, over some very nice steaks, handed him an envelope and told him to open it at home. We never really discussed it again.

I still have mine.

Yep, built like tanks and almost as reliable as Makarovs, the most reliable pistol ever made.

They are great pistols.

Me too.........


Sent from my SM-J320P using Tapatalk

I had a P-89! What a great gun. Yes, it was a tank. It scored 246 out of 250 on my first ever Texas CHL test. I sold it to a friend just as the Clinton "assault" weapons and high capacity magazines ban was going into effect in 1994. I had recently acquired a S&W 5903 SSV so I was happy to help a friend. Funny thing is, quite a few 9mms later, I have never fired that SSV and I still have it, NIB. My only pure as driven snow safe queen. Maybe someday someone will offer me enough money and I'll sell that puppy, too. But it will be a lot of money.

I had a P89 I sold a model 19 to buy just before the Clinton high capacity magazine ban. Mine was minute of paper plate at 25 yards with a 10 lb SA pull and a 20+ lb DA pull. Happiest day with it was the day I sold it 2nd happiest was the day I bought it. I kept it 5 or 6 years and ran over 1000 rds through it but it never loosened up much.

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Front sight and squeeze

Congratulations on your find. When I taught at the FLETC, the Federal Bureau of Prisons used the various Ruger "P" series D/A only pistols in 9mm as their standard issue handgun. We kept a large number of these pistols for training / qualification by the numerous BOP classes that came thru. The D/A only trigger pull on these pistols was pretty darn good.

Lots of rounds thru lots of guns, and I can say they were nothing but reliable and combat accurate. Sometimes more so than the other "big name brands" used by other agencies. Only issues I ever saw was the magazines tended to be fragile if stepped on, and some pistols would suffer chipped extractors with a lot of use. A very under rated pistol.

Larry

Ugly and clunky but very reliable and tough as nails. I have a stainless P89 decocker only that I bought many years ago to test out my reloads when I started reloading. The main reason I bought it was the strength of the design. When they first came out, Ruger did 2 tests that really impressed me.

First, they threaded the inside of a barrel and threaded in a plug that stopped something like 1/4" from the tip of a loaded round. They then fired the gun to see what would happen. The extractor blew out, that was it. They replaced the extractor and put a regular barrel on it and shot it many thousands of times without issue.

Second, they took a gun and cut out a huge part of the slide below the ejection port and proceeded to shoot the **** out of it. According to Ruger, the gun suffered absolutely no damage, nothing bent or anything else and they proceeded to shoot many thousands of rounds out of it.

I bought mine because I heard how hard it is to reload 9mm and I wanted to have something like that to experiment with instead of risking blowing up my W German Sig P226. As it turned out, reloading 9mm wasn't really any different than .45 ACP. The Sig ended up having a LOT of issues and Sig refused to do anything, so the P226 left a long time ago, while the P89DC is still in the safe. I take it out once in a while and shoot it. It really isn't that much bigger or heavier than any other metal framed full-sized 9mm, like a Beretta 92FS or something similar. It is, however, uglier, clunkier and bulkier. Despite that, mine has never failed, even with some of my first reloads that weren't the best in the world. As long as the cartridge had enough energy to cycle the gun, it would fire, cycle, spit out the brass, load another cartridge and be ready to fire again. Overall, a very good gun.

My P85 was originally owned by a good friend of mine. Back in late ‘80s he thought he wanted to be a police officer. At that time the deputies had to furnish their own sidearms and he chose the then brand new P85. After a couple of years he decided that he didn’t really want a career in law enforcement and traded his P85 to me for a Marlin 336. We both still have our trades and are both still happy about it.

The first center fire autoloader I ever owned was a P-95. I still have it and can't imagine parting with it. I liked it so much it prompted my first effort at writing about guns.

Gun Review: Ruger P95 - The Truth About Guns

Buy two Smiths, go forth and sin no more.

I'm very happy with the P89 I bought on March 30, of this year. I about swallowed my tongue when I saw the price! The gun looks like it has been shot little, beautiful shape. And it shoots great!

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You're exactly right,,, Ruger has made some beautiful handguns
my original 44 Flat Top was gorgeous, and shot very well, sadly I was taken in a moment of stoopidity, and traded it for a Colt Third Gen New Frontier in 45 Colt with an ACP cylinder as well..

now the P-85 was very reliable and reasonably accurate,, to call it a "High Point", is just un-American...

Good review, thanks for posting that.

I have shot three different Ruger semi-automatic pistols and all were reliable and had more than sufficient accuracy for a service or self defense pistol.

I bought one when they were brand new and hard to find. Stationed on Adak AK in the Aleutians while in the Navy, Guy at the Exchange was showing it to a friend. Looked at and said nice I will take one. He had already decided who he wanted to sell them too... Not happy that I bought one of the 4 he had. At any rate it was a total ***. Did not feed really well, trigger was ****, and was not accurate at all. Factory, hand loads etc. 4 to 6 inch at 25 yards. Worse than I can shoot. It was a "Had to Have" that the gun rags said was the one.. So I sold it for what I paid. My first and last Ruger Semi auto.

My son here in PA works at a Fed prison he said they use Ruger . He takes one and 4 mags on hospital runs and stuff .I have a few and they are flawless , I picked up a mint in box with papers and ex mag P95 for 200 bucks back in Dec .

I never could get into a Ruger auto other than the .22 that started it all.

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During the mid-1980's to early 1990's we watched as US law enforcement agencies rapidly transitioned from almost exclusively revolvers to mostly large-capacity semi-auto pistols. I actually remember turning down good old S&W Model 10's for $100 or less, and Model 19's could be had for $150 with few takers.

Larger agencies generally issue sidearms to officers, but the majority of departments require officers to purchase their own, within guidelines. I watched as the Beretta 92 became the sought after piece, then the Glocks started taking a big market share, all the while the Rugers (starting with the P85, then P89, and the decocker series pistols) maintained a modest portion of the market. Good single-action semi-autos (1911, Browning Hi Power) were generally frowned upon, primarily due to public perceptions about cocked & locked carry.

Being a police chief (1988-1995) I saw some officers struggle with semi-autos on the range, while others improved their scores noticeably. I received the nearly constant stream of reports and advisories following accidents (unintentional or negligent discharges), the rapid development of more reliable ammo in 9mm and other calibers, and changes in holster design (mostly revolving around striker-fired semi-autos without manual safeties). I got to shoot just about everything, either because my guys bought them and wanted to qualify with them, or because a sales rep showed up for demonstrations of the newest and the bestest (in their product lines).

I remember being very favorably impressed by the Ruger pistols. As others have pointed out, Rugers are built like little tanks, rugged and reliable as anything. Generally easy to shoot well. Not at all finicky about ammo. Really outstanding pistols, in my opinion.

But the Rugers were purpose-built to a fault. Not real easy to like, much less get enthusiastic about. Kind of like the girl who could dance better than anyone in history, but didn't get many dates because she was thick, wide, and a little bit ugly.

Many years ago I owned a P90 and a P345, both as reliable as anything I have ever fired. They go bang every time and are reasonably accurate to a fault. Never had a single problem with either one of them, if a good buy came along I wouldn't hesitate to buy again. Built like a tank.

Junk. Only pistol we banned from the state academy. recruits had nothing but problems with them. They locked up when dry. Other problems too. Tried to work with Ruger on this and basically they7 told us to pound sand. So we notified Chiefs statewide, none allowed.

My experience has been its cheap, accurate, and works. 1000 rounds with no issues. Not my best semi-auto but definitely reliable...

The P-89 is actually lighter than the 659. I own both and prefer the Ruger. 2 years ago, I picked up a P-85, called Ruger and they sent me postage to return it to add the MK11 modification. All P series use the same magazines for same caliber which means I don't have to worry about taking enough to the range. My pride is still the pair: new in the box P-85 and P-90, both serial number 33 within their respective series.

They went to the foundry manager.

Isn't this a Smith and Wesson forum? My collection of Rugers is not as extensive as my S&W collection!

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Al

Pretty much my experience with the P89.....bought it the first year it was out and was thoroughly disappointed. Reliable, but not at all accurate; felt clumsy to me.

I still have the P89 that I purchased new in February 1994. Zero malfunctions, reliable as a brick and will never be for sale.

Guilty as well . . . . . .




Wow, I can't believe this was my first post. Chronic lurker I suppose . . . . . .

After I graduated college and started working my first purchase was a Dishwasher; Second was a new truck and third was a new P85. First new gun I ever bought. It fit well and shot well for me. I never liked the decocker for some reason. It never failed me and I still have it.

I had a Ruger P89 for years, and I put thousands of rounds through it, And it was a workhorse. It had a nice capacity, mine had a trigger that I could live with, and when I finally sold it I recovered all plus some of what I paid. Comparing this to ai Hi-Point is kinda silly.

The only similarity between a Hi Point and the P89 I bought last week for $199, is the price. Beyond that, no similarity at all!

I bought my P89 9mm new back in the late 70's early 80's. It has shot 30-40,000 rounds and never once jammed or failed to feed or fire. At 50 yards, when my eyes were better 4-6 inch groups were the norm. It fires everything from hot factory loads to anything I reload and run thru it. I have had to replace one guide rod and that's it in almost 40 years. To this day it's still one of my most reliable and favorite pistols to take to the range.

In 2011 I bought a Beretta 92 FS thinking I would retire the P89 and was pretty impressed with it the first time I took it out shooting. In fact I took them both and after all these years the Beretta didn't really outshine the P89 at all. I was expecting it to shoot much better than the old Ruger but it was only slightly more accurate than my 40,000 round favorite.

To this day I still take it to the range with me but it has over the years developed the odd habit of throwing a flier 1 out of every 10 rounds. Not the first or the last round or from any specific magazine just 1 out of 10. At 25 yards I'll have 9 rounds in 3 inches but number 10 will be out a couple inches. Still a good chest shot. Accurate, dependable, a little heavy which helps, a real keeper.

The only other weapon I have had this long is a SS .357 Ruger Security Six with the 6 inch barrel. Same number of rounds and still going strong. Bought both back when Ruger's were good values with excellent quality control. Have had a lot of guns go thru my hands in the past 50 years but these two have never gotten close to going anywhere. Enjoy your P89.

Former P89 owner,now Proud owner of a P94 in 40 S&W.
Great guns. Enjoy

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S&W BG380, S&W 915 9mm

I would tell you to pound sand too ...because those p series pistols never jam. You probably used cheapo **** ammo

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S&W BG380, S&W 915 9mm

i'm beginning to see why some are knocking the nra lol

If I were still able to rack a slide I'd be glad to have a P89 as a house gun.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I carry one in a Galco black open top or Desantis speed scab and its no difference if I have my Sig or Beretta on . and it shoots just as good as a Sig . The ones I have do . most of the old Rugers around here go for around 300 to 339 for real nice ones , but you do not see many traded in . I got mine for about the 200 range and could not refuse them . took them home .