Review of the Ruger P97DC by Sturm & Ruger
Ruger P97DC, Sturm & Ruger,
Feel
The feel of this gun is nothing spectacular. It is a little on the heavy side and in no way should be considered for a conceal carry weapon. This Sturm & Ruger pistol fit my over sized hands just fine while the pistol was not being fired. Upon loading a few rounds and taking a few test fires I soon found that this pistol was a bad match for my hand size. I am not sure why, but when shooting this handgun that after about 5 or 6 rounds the magazine would fall out. I am not sure if this was due to my finger hitting the ejector button, or just a loose magazine pin, but I found this to be extremely annoying. This gun had a considerable amount of kick when firing and I would not want my wife to handle this gun. I never felt that the gun would fall out of my hands upon fire, but the kick is noticeable.
Accuracy
I am not a sharp shooter. I have qualified for my conceal carry permit so I do consider myself a fair shot. The Ruger P97DC made me feel fairly incompetent. The closest groupings I could put together was around 8 inches at 10 yards. I can normally shoot 5 inch groups with my Springfield XDM. As with any handgun the further out I moved the more misses this gun had. None of my misses were so bad that I would fear using this gun in a self defense situation, but I certainly would prefer a different pistol in those situations.
Carry Ability
As I stated before, this gun is not a conceal carry weapon. I found this gun to be extremely cumbersome even in a holster. Unless you have extremely large pockets you will never fit it in your pockets. This gun is more suited to be a home defense weapon.
Reliability
Reliability is where the Sturm & Ruger company has made their name with this particular line of pistols. I fed approximately 1000 rounds through my pistol in just under an hour and had only failure to eject. If you take away the magazine falling out I could have easily shot this gun repeatedly without fail. I have since put around 5000 rounds of ammunition through this particular pistol and have had no problems.
Field Stripping
I found the Ruger P97DC to be extremely easy to field strip and clean. The instructions included with the gun were not even needed to break this pistol down. Keeping the P97DC clean is very easy. The accessibility of the barrel, ejector ports, and various pins make this gun extremely easy to maintain.
Overall
My overall opinion of the Ruger P97DC is that Sturm & Ruger could have built a better gun. I rarely shoot this gun and it is far from my favorite weapon. I keep this gun in the gun locker only because of its reliability, and because it is my only .45. I much prefer my Springfield XDM and my Glock.
Published by T.K. Moyer
Avid researcher who loves to read as much as possible. Freelance writer and a horribly curious know it all when it comes to all things sports. View profile
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19 Comments
Post a Commenthave always had, went to the range that afternoon just to confirm that reliability is still there, it is. I am and always will be Ruger fan and carrier. Good luck to you and whatever you carry, I hope you never have to pull it or worse case scenario use it
I have no idea what anybodies complaint about the P97DC could be I have emptied both magazines at 30 ft in 16 seconds, all head shots as far as concealing I was attacked 5ft out my front door by a knife wielding punk. I was able to pull my 97 from the waist of my PJs and get it in the face of my attacker before either of is knew what was happening. Fortunately I am a trained police officer and did not fire due to a not so clear field of fire, did not want the bullet going through this punk and hitting an innocent in my field of fire. I have an assorted choice of firearms to choose from to carry and my best and most accurate is my 97. I would suggest that you spend more time at the range, it might help in your choice of what to carry. I did not walk away from my incident unmarked I have a nice four inch scar from the corner if my right eye curving down to my ear lobe, but I do believe my attacker was more scarred than I was. Still I have all the dependability in my Ruger as I have alway
If you're going to get one, get one quickly before gun control goes into effect.
Excellent well thought out review, gsve the reader all they needed to make a smart choice bravo.
I find it interesting that you did a gun review and yoga relaxation exercise articles at around the same time..
Interesting review about your experience.
Nice review.
Nice review and a great change of subject here :)
excellent review. My dad was a gunsmith, and made flintlocks.
great well written review!