*Ruger's P89 DC*
About 1989 my wife bought me a Ruger P89 as a birthday present. While it was a nice present, I actually thought "Another gun to sit in the Gun safe". At the time I was doing a lot of activities that were hard on equipment, so I began carrying the Ruger so I wouldn't "Mess up my nicer guns". Then it seemed like the P89 laid under my truck seat for several years amongst the French fries and Spilled soft drinks, but it always ended up back in my holster when I didn't want to mess up my "nicer guns".
One day it dawned on me that I wasn't carrying any of my "Nicer Guns" at all! The Ruger always seemed to be with me. Then The Brady Law went into effect and suddenly my Ruger was a "Pre-ban weapon", one that could still accept a high capacity mag. At that time, the Ruger was back to rusting under my truck seat, so I cleaned it up. The Ruger had seen many years of hard abuse by this time (Roughly 1999) so I asked a friend to Bead blast it and give it a new bluing... Instead he gave it a matte black Teflon coating. Talk about a new life!!! With the new look also came a new ease of maintenance. With the Teflon coating, you don't have to oil it, and most parts simply wipe clean. If you know someone that can do this, have it done, you'll love it! (Please, don't write and ask if my friend will Teflon Coat your weapon, he won't.)
So once again the Ruger was back in my Holster, but now as one of my favorite guns that's stood the test of time for reliability, ease of use, and yes, even accuracy.
The Ruger has always fired about any 9mm round I cared to put in it. Anything from cheap Israeli Surplus ammo, to Corbons, to "Surplussed DEA rounds" (My Favorite ammo). A friend of mine once said "I think you could put Charcoal in a piece of 9mm brass, put a head on it and that Ruger would fire it." I've put MANY thousands of rounds through it and it probably shoots better today than when it was given to me. I had it out last weekend shooting steel targets and somewhere between the "Pows" and "Pings" it hit me that I needed to write a field stripping piece on it since those are a bit hard to come by nowadays.
The Ruger comes from the factory with a set of cheesy plastic handgrips... leave them at the gun store. Pick up a set of Hogue Grips and slap em on it... it takes about 2 minutes and will make you think it's a whole different gun. In my opinion, Ruger would do MUCH better if they changed their politics and their handgrips... Both suck.
The "DC" in "P89 DC" stands for "Decocking". The P89 has no safety, so after racking a round into the pipe you need a way to safely lower the hammer. When you push down on the Decocker with your thumb, the firing pin is blocked so that the weapon can't fire while the hammer drops. Intellectually I know it can't fire accidentally, I know how the block works etc, but Mr. Murphy is ever-present, so NEVER trust ANY decocking mechanism! ALWAYS point the weapon in a safe direction when using the decocker! I had a young friend once that thought it would be funny to rack a round into his P89, point it at my head and hit the decocker... The firing pin disconnect works, cause the Ruger hit the floor without firing shortly after he did... that kinda crap aint funny. Unsafe weapon handling is not something I tolerate at ANY time.. not even once.
The Decocker is designed for left or right hand use... the decocking lever extends through the frame and has a duplicate lever on the other side of the weapon.
Field Stripping
The usual and customary legal disclaimers apply here... Before Field Stripping, make SURE the weapon is unloaded! Check it, and then check it again! Remove the Mag from the Magazine well (it is NOT a "Clip", it is a "Magazine"... There IS a difference! A clip is a thin metal device used to feed bullets into a weapon, Like the SKS uses to feed bullets into it's fixed magazine, Or an older Garand uses to hold the bullets while in the weapon).
Before you tear it up while tearing it down:
If you hand the average handgun shooter a P89, they'll never figure out how to get the slide off the thing (There's an interesting story about a Fascist Cop in WV and my Ruger, but I'll save that for another day.. I still have my Ruger, he does NOT still have his job).
Pull back the slide and lock it in place. Then look down into the weapon from the ejector port and you'll see an ejector arm. This arm is on a hinge and rocks forward to about a 45 degree angle which allows the slide to pass over the top of it during slide removal. If you don't push this arm forward and down, the slide will not come off!
Once the ejection arm is down, line up the hole on the side of the slide to the break-down pin. I find it easier to wrap my hand around the slide and frame and hold the slide in position while I push the break-down pin out with my finger. Once you push the pin in, grab it from the other side and pull it fully outward. It DOES NOT come completely off the gun.
At this point, the Slide simply slides forward and off the frame.
The Slide spring assembly simply pulls upward and out now, and the barrel is removed the same way. Simplicity at it's best!
When removing the slide spring from it's notch in the barrel, pay attention to how and where it is seated so you can put it back in correctly... it's hard to screw this up, but I've seen it done :)
Grips
I mentioned above the Hogue grips on my Ruger. If you want to install a set it's very simple. Just take out the small screw from both sides of the hand grip area to removed the old grips. Slap on the Hogue grips and replace the two screws.
Simplicity
From start to finish, I can disassemble and reassemble the P89 in under 20 seconds... can you?
Click HERE to race me ;) (Must have Realplayer)
With a little practice, you can do it blind folded, it's that simple.
Warlord
www.AlphaRubicon.com
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