Back to the Future...

Currently underway is a 2,000-round test on a Ruger P89. The P-series Rugers had a reputation on the internet (Usenet rec.guns and later gun forums on the web) for being reliable, but those were the days when "flawless reliability" was a pretty nebulous thing.

It will be interesting to see how it runs and compare it to shooting newer test guns. Personally, I vastly preferred the 5906 I ran earlier this year to the P89.

It's worth noting, however, that the MSRP in the 1993 Gun Buyer's Annual for the Ruger was $410, which is a good bit less than the $672 Smith & Wesson wanted for a 5906 with fixed sights. (The blued steel and alloy 5904, perhaps a more direct comparison to the P89 test gun, was $610.)

Both the P89 and 5906 are no more, of course. The P89 was discontinued in 2009, ten years after the 5906 left the Smith catalog as a standard item (although department sales continued for a while longer.)

What killed them was the other gun in the second picture, a Gen2 Glock 19. In that same 1993 catalog, the MSRP for the Glock was $579.95. (It's only $20 more for a Gen3 right now.)

The upper is fifty rounds at seven yards and the lower is fifty at ten. Both were trying to push as much speed as I could. It was obviously very difficult. I'll discuss reasons in a published article in the near future, and there's also some ongoing discussion at my Patreon page.

The story thus far: I cleaned the gun on arrival and lubed it with a generous amount of FP10 and started shooting the other day. It has thus far fired 200 rounds of ammunition since it was cleaned and lubed with no stoppages of any type to report. 1,800 rounds to go.
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