Thoughts on Ruger LCP?

[willowofwisp]

I am thinking of buying a Ruger LCP tomorrow as between Cabela's sale and a coupon i can get one for liek 285$ OTD.

I was thinking of using the gun as a BUG in a pocket holster and possibly a gun when i can't carry my 26 or 19.

I have never shot one and have heard both good and bad stories of these guns, so can anyone chime in with their experiences?

[Bantee]

I have been using my LCP for a bug for about a year and a half. It has only has about 400 rnds thru it, and it has been flawless thus far. Well worth the money. I

[number9xd]

I've got one that I picked up on a FTF deal. It came with a pinky extension on the mag. I had the mag dislodge from the gun twice in the same day at my shooting area. Seems the pressure of my hand on the pinky ext and the snap of the recoil caused my hand to bump the mag release button just enough to let it pop out. It lives in the safe now.

I've got a kel-tec P3-AT with a 1rd mag ext that I've never had that issue with so it is my pocket gun that I carry near daily. While not as good FF of the LCP, it does produce better groups for me at least.

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[anatolian B]

Love mine, carry it every day. It sits in my left front pocket as a back up to whatever may come. I typically train with it shooting it left handed (my weak hand). To date, after 14 months, I have put eight different types of HP and FMJ down the pipe with no FTF. I love to shoot the little thing. The Pearce mag extentions made it much more controllable for me and I wear small to medieum mens gloves for a grip size comparison.

[AMC29]

I have an LCP with a Crimson Trace laser, loaded with Hornady Critical Defense rounds.

I'm not a big laser fan, but the sights are very small, useful for short ranges. With the laser I can hit out to 25 yards without a problem. The gun has been very reliable. As a shooter, it's manageable, but not comfortable.

I carry it when I'm wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt during the summer time. Otherwise I carry something bigger (Kahr PM9 or Glock 36).

Overall, I'm happy with it.

[99HMC4]

Ive had mine for about a year and half. I carry it every day loaded with Corbon DPX. Happy with it so far but I do choose to carry my P30 when I can.....

[Dapimpspimp]

A good friend of mine calls it the Ruger "Little Crappy Pistol" for good reason. We have had quite a few officers bring the LCP out to qualify with as a BUG and find out that their new cute pistol does not function very well. We have seen multiple failures to feed and failures to fire.

The pistol lacks decent sights. I'm not sure that I would want to get into a gun fight with a pistol that I could not shoot easily during a stressful encounter. I understand that having a small pistol is better than have no pistol at all.

My recommendation would be a Smith and Wesson 5-shot .38 revolver. It had better sights,reliablity, and ballistics. I can easily keep 5 shots on a b-27 at 50 yards.

[markm]

It scares me that people carry these junk guns and consider themselves armed. The guns are low cap, unreliable junk in a ridiculously underpowerd caliber.

Back in the day we did a bunch of hill billy balistic testing on .380, and the round is friggin PATHETIC. I would NEVER use one of these trinkets for defensive purposes.

[stifled]

I like my LCP quite a bit. It's an excellent BUG and good if you tend to not take your full size gun with you to do quick errands. The sights are tiny and solid black so I recommend a Crimson Trace laser for it. It's also quite a handful, as its light weight means your hands and wrists are taking most of the recoil. I would not recommend it for an inexperienced handgun shooter. The grip is small so make sure your hand fits it. The 1 finger magazine extension became a necessity for me with the bit of grip lost to the Crimson Trace as it pushed some of my ring finger off.

It has its limitations, but all guns this size do. I've been considering a Rohrbaugh R9 as it is a slightly larger/heavier but 9mm, but haven't been able to find one in the area to shoot to see if recoil is still manageable.

[mhanna91]

It scares me that people carry these junk guns and consider themselves armed. The guns are low cap, unreliable junk in a ridiculously underpowerd caliber.

Back in the day we did a bunch of hill billy balistic testing on .380, and the round is friggin PATHETIC. I would NEVER use one of these trinkets for defensive purposes.

Well if that isnt a direct shot at those of us who happen to carry them, I dont know what is. Not gonna get me down though. I love mine. I carry it in the Talon Training wallet holster and it is never an issue to just drop it in my pocket whenever I am going anywhere (except for school). I carry my M&P9fs with Trijicon night sights, TLR-1, and APEX DCAEK in a Raven LC whenever I can, but that is usually not practical at formal events such as weddings, or at church which is where the LCP shines. It simply looks like, wieghs the same, and feels the same as a wallet in your strong-side back pocket.

Also, I dont know why anyone would have a huge beef with the sights on these guns. I painted my front sight with orange nail polish and they serve their purpose. I could easily keep my groups on the torso of a man sized target out to 25 yards, which is more than enough as this gun would be used at close range. It is not fair to assume that this gun would be any sort of "go to" weapon for law enforcement in a gunfight, that is what the primary if for. These are back up guns, to be used for back up only in that application. I am not a law enforcement officer yet, but I can't imagine a situation where an officer would run dry with his primary, and still need to make hits beyond the effective range of an LCP. And as for the effectiveness of the .380, its better than nothing. I know this question is overused, but would YOU want to be hit with one?