New to me Ruger P94 .40 S&W

[gsbuickman]

Hiya Guys ,

2 new Ruger's in 2 days ( picked up a 10/22 Carbine yesterday), who woulda thunk it .
I was working on my brothers computer tower last night when a local guy here hit me up about a computer tower that I sold a couple of months ago but still shows up on the Facebook Marketplace even though I deleted that post just after I sold the thing.

We got to talking and I found out he was having the same problem that I'm having with the majority of my older PC games, most of the games are old enough now they're not compatible with any of the new systems that I've built for friends and clients over the last couple of months since I've been laid up. He was looking for a system that he could play the command and Conquer series of games with & was offering this really nice Ruger P94 in trade for it. We talked about options between a computer tower and a laptop and he decided that he wanted the Toshiba Satellite 2.3Ghz Turion 2 dual core laptop top that I picked up for a song in Kuna, ID. last summer.

The system was fully loaded with just about every Bell and whistle you can think of on it and I even added Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds clone campaigns running off a virtual drive for him so he didn't need the disc. He came over and checked it out and he really liked it so we shook on it and called it a deal. He shut it down and packed it up in the Targus laptop case along with the rodent and mouse pad that I threw in as a bonus so he could game with it without using the on board touchpad & headed home to play with his new system while I got a good look at this new P94 .

I've wanted something from the P-Series for quite some time now and I've been pondering a P90dc .45 but I hadn't got around to picking one up yet, so it's kinda funny this 94 model crossed my path instead.

After pouring over a crap load of reviews on the different P-Series pistols, it's true what they say, for a polymer lower and a satin chrome slide this thing actually seems like a pretty nice autoloader overall. It's a full size semi-auto, it's big and it's bulky and it reminds me of holding the Taurus and Beretta 92's that I've had but this one actually fits my hand much better and it points naturally. It's got 3 dot Siglite style sights with a fixed front sight and a dovetailed Novak rear w/ a commander style hammer and a real smooth decocker. Unfortunately the slide release and the magazine release are a little awkward and leave a little to be desired compared to most of the other ke a Beretta 92 and a taize 1911, but the contoured polymer finger groove grip feels nice and kind of reminds me of holding my Sig Sauer SP2022, only I wish that thing would of had the Contour grip that this has.

It came with the Plain Jane Ruger box, two 10 round double stack magazines, a speedloader & a nice shoulder holster w/ a double mag holder on the opposite side of the rig. I won't be using this in EDC rotation, it's too bulky and heavy for that, but it will be nice to carry in the field or as a range toy .

 

[Devonai]

Treated with an average amount of respect, I imagine this and any P-series Ruger will last pretty much forever. Good find.

I have a S&W 4006TSW that sort of fits the same role. While too heavy for belt carry, it is often my choice for my man purse (Maxpedition) on hikes. I once had a 1006 that served the same purpose, but like an idiot I sold it before prices skyrocketed. Still, the 4006 should be adequate for anything I'm liable to run into in the woods of Connecticut.

 

[Mike J]

I've had one of these since about '99. They are reliable guns and will last for a long time. That looks like the Hogue grip I have on mine. Though later Ruger P-series pistols did use polymer the P94 has an aluminum frame. I hadn't shot mine in a long time & was somewhat pleasantly surprised when I took it out & shot it again recently. I wanted to put the plastic grips that came back on it to see how they felt again but I can't seem to figure out what I did with them. I hope you enjoy your most recent acquisition.

 

[gsbuickman]

Oye, idk how but I forgot to talk about my opinion of the trigger on this thing . I guess I can start by saying it's certainly not my favorite trigger but overall it's not bad. The closest thing I can compare it to is the trigger on the Sig Sauer SP2022 also in 40 S&W.

This is a sa / da setup and the SA trigger is a long pull & has a lot of creep but it is smooth, not as buttery smooth as the Sig Sauer but smooth overall with a fairly nice break. I'd say it's probably about 4.5 lb on the pull. The DA trigger is an equally long but smooth pull that's probably about 8.5 pounds that does require a little more effort to be consistent with. Overall it's not bad but it could use a little massaging. If this wasn't so big and bulky based on the trigger it would be a decent safe Choice as a daily carry, but imo it still ranks in the field carry / gun range toy category.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Nice find.

I picked up a P95 earlier this year and it's noticably different than yours. No option for different grips, different slide release, different trigger guard and a rail. I wonder what the differences are between years? I'm thinking mine is older than yours.

BTW I really like the grips on yours.

And they are built like tanks.


Here's mine...

 

[If1HitU]

Look like a winner to me,i've never own one.Congrats!

 

[gsbuickman]

I've had one of these since about '99. They are reliable guns and will last for a long time. That looks like the Hogue grip I have on mine. Though later Ruger P-series pistols did use polymer the P94 has an aluminum frame. I hadn't shot mine in a long time & was somewhat pleasantly surprised when I took it out & shot it again recently. I wanted to put the plastic grips that came back on it to see how they felt again but I can't seem to figure out what I did with them. I hope you enjoy your most recent acquisition.

Thanks . Good eye, I hadn't really thought about it yet but these certainly aren't the factory style grips that I'm used to seeing that Good ol' boy has on his P94, and you're correct, they are the Hogue grips and they feel nice and they're pretty comfortable. Definitely a nice improvement over the factory style Ruger grips. In a way I wish this did have the aluminum frame on it, but I have a feeling that maybe the older models, idk ?. Unfortunately this one has the polymer lower but I guess if I do some poking around and I find an aluminum frame that will interchange with it I'll probably jump on it just because.

 

[Mike J]

If it is a Ruger P94 the frame is made of metal not plastic. The frame is made of cast aluminum. The P95 was polymer, as I believe was the P97 & P345. The Ruger P guns before the P95 used aluminum frames. The Polymer frames don't have removable grips that can be changed although some people put grip sleeves or a piece of bicycle inner tube on them.

 

[Zebraranger]

I've wanted something from the P-Series for quite some time now and I've been pondering a P90dc .45 but I hadn't got around to picking one up yet, so it's kinda funny this 94 model crossed my path instead

As all have stated, the P series are very hardy & robust handguns that is tough as nails. Big & heavy, but accurate and reliable. I came across a great deal on the P90 DC .45 about 10 years back and its never had any failures, its very enjoyable to shoot. After I purchased it, I discovered that the metal followers on the factory 8 round magazines will ding up the feed ramp, so I changed them out to the plastic followers to prevent any more damage. This 8 round mag was designed using a devil follower and a wider spring. Its never affected its performance, but I polished it out a little after this photo was taken just to be safe, it still runs like a clock to this day. As far as I know, this was only an issue with the P90 .45.

 

[JTQ]

After I purchased it, I discovered that the metal followers on the factory 8 round magazines will ding up the feed ramp, so I changed them out to the plastic followers to prevent any more damage. This 8 round mag was designed using a devil follower and a wider spring. Its never affected its performance, but I polished it out a little after this photo was taken just to be safe, it still runs like a clock to this day. As far as I know, this was only an issue with the P90 .45.

Chip McCormick (1911 mag maker that also uses the Devel follower) has since come out with their PowerMag+ follower that won't "ding" aluminum frames. You should be able to use these followers in your P90 mags.

The follower for sale http://www.chipmccormickmags.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=12002

Explanation of the PowerMag+ (note I'm not saying the McCormick mags will work in your P90, just that the new follower should work in your mags, and be safe for your gun)

http://www.cmcmags.com/Powerplus.html

 

[Zebraranger]

Thanks for the info and links JTQ.

 

[gsbuickman]

As all have stated, the P series are very hardy & robust handguns that is tough as nails. Big & heavy, but accurate and reliable. I came across a great deal on the P90 DC .45 about 10 years back and its never had any failures, its very enjoyable to shoot. After I purchased it, I discovered that the metal followers on the factory 8 round magazines will ding up the feed ramp, so I changed them out to the plastic followers to prevent any more damage. This 8 round mag was designed using a devil follower and a wider spring. Its never affected its performance, but I polished it out a little after this photo was taken just to be safe, it still runs like a clock to this day. As far as I know, this was only an issue with the P90 .45.
View attachment 766818
View attachment 766819

Thanks for the heads up and nice 45 . I will keep that in mind if I run across a p90dc one of these days. My go to 45 is a High Standard Crusader officers Compact 1911 ...

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I had a P94 like yours- the only .40 Ive ever owned- and a bunch of P85/89/90s as well. The P94 was the only one I had an issue with, severe feed failures.
Sent it back to Ruger and they replaced the slide, ran like a top after that, cost me only shipping. Only sold it because of the .40 thing, was trying to consolidate my ammo supplies.
Great guns that go for peanuts these days!

 

[gsbuickman]

Oops, it looks like I spoke a little too soon, sorry my bad. It looks like the frame on this thing is aluminum after all, I could have sworn it was one of those new fiberglass filled composite Jabs, apparently I was mistaken. Surprisingly there are no Machining or tool marks on the outside of this Frame anywhere, and I didn't find any until I Field Strip it and got a better look on the bottom of the inside of the frame before I found a few. Whatever plant made this Frame was certainly on the ball that day for sure.

A couple more observations. The Swinging barrel link and full size guide rod on this thing reminds me of several 1911's that I had, the last of which was my Llama Max-1. Then again, now that I think about it my current High Standard Crusader .45 has a full-length guide rod on it as well & The wide mouth ejection on this thing reminds me of the Beretta 92fs and Taurus pt92 that I had for a while.

I also have to say out of all the semi-auto handguns I'm owned and handled, this thing has got to have the strongest hammer spring out of them all. A hammer strikes on this thing are hard fast and solid, unlike the hammer strikes on me SR1911 which is well-known for soft strikes and notorious for unfired primer issues. That certainly isn't the deal with this thing. Well, at least since I've confirmed the frame on this thing is made of aluminum and not composite it goes a long way to explaining why this thing is so damn heavy, but I bet as soon as I get it out to the range and run some shells through it, it does an excellent job of absorbing The Recoil ...

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

there are no Machining or tool marks on the outside of this Frame

Ruger did mostly investment (aka lost wax) castings back then at their Pine Tree facility- this process produces a fairly smooth, nearly finished surface which explains the lack of exterior machining. The downside is the material has too be somewhat thicker for a given strength- hence the general bulkiness of these pistols(and Rugers in general).
By the way- nice X-Wing! Ive got 7 in the large scale, 2 vintage small scale, and about 15 A, Y, and B wings....

 

[gsbuickman]

[QUpotf "NIGHTLORD40K, post: 10672770, member: 229289"]Ruger did mostly investment (aka lost wax) castings back then at their Pine Tree facility- this process produces a fairly smooth, nearly finished surface which explains the lack of exterior machining. The downside is the material has too be somewhat thicker for a given strength- hence the general bulkiness of these pistols(and Rugers in general).
By the way- nice X-Wing! Ive got 7 in the large scale, 2 vintage small scale, and about 15 A, Y, and B wings....[/QUOTE]

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha . I've been collecting Star Wars stuff off and on for a few years now and I have a somewhat modest collection going on, most of which is packed into my big Oak China / display Hutch . I didn't realize my X-Wing made it into the background, that's funny. I have a lot of miscellaneous Star Wars stuff in my Hutch but the vehicles I've accumulated are :

95 potf lights and sounds X-Wing Fighter
95 potf Vader's tie fighter w/ Vader figure
95 potf lights and sounds Millennium Falcon
95 potf Luke's landspeeder w/ Luke figure
2 95 potf empire speederbikes w/ drivers
95 tonka x wing
A-Wing fighter from Return of the Jedi
Collectors edition electronic lights and sounds AT-AT walker ...

I've mainly focused on original vintage action figures and small stuff like that and the vehicles from the 95 power of the Force Series because that seems to be the best bang-for-the-buck in the local market right now , and some of it is actually pretty nice . I have access to a ton of Star Wars stuff through a local toy collector that I've been buying from periodically, but I'm kind of out of room to display stuff and I'd rather not spend what I'd like to on some of it anyway,.

I tend to think of my Star Wars collection as a hobby like my gun collection and like the rest of my hobbies I prefer to do them in rotation rather than trying to focus on several things at one time, it seems to work better for me, that way I don't get burned out on anything, I can set it aside and pick up the next thing in rotation and roll with it for a while ...

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

[QUpotf "NIGHTLORD40K, post: 10672770, member: 229289"]Ruger did mostly investment (aka lost wax) castings back then at their Pine Tree facility- this process produces a fairly smooth, nearly finished surface which explains the lack of exterior machining. The downside is the material has too be somewhat thicker for a given strength- hence the general bulkiness of these pistols(and Rugers in general).
By the way- nice X-Wing! Ive got 7 in the large scale, 2 vintage small scale, and about 15 A, Y, and B wings....

Banana haha haha banana . I've been collecting Star Wars stuff off and on for a few years now and I have a somewhat modest collection going on, most of which is packed into my big Oak China / display Hutch . I didn't realize my X-Wing made it into the background, that's funny. I have a lot of miscellaneous Star Wars stuff in my Hutch but the vehicles I've accumulated are :

95 potf lights and sounds X-Wing Fighter
95 potf Vader's tie fighter w/ Vader figure
95 potf lights and sounds Millennium Falcon
95 potf Luke's landspeeder w/ Luke figure
2 95 potf empire speederbikes w/ drivers
95 tonka x wing
A-Wing fighter from Return of the Jedi
Collectors edition electronic lights and sounds AT-AT walker ...

I've mainly focused on original vintage action figures and small stuff like that and the vehicles from the 95 power of the Force Series because that seems to be the best bang-for-the-buck in the local market right now , and some of it is actually pretty nice . I have access to a ton of Star Wars stuff through a local toy collector that I've been buying from periodically, but I'm kind of out of room to display stuff and I'd rather not spend what I'd like to on some of it anyway,.

I tend to think of my Star Wars collection as a hobby like my gun collection and like the rest of my hobbies I prefer to do them in rotation rather than trying to focus on several things at one time, it seems to work better for me, that way I don't get burned out on anything, I can set it aside and pick up the next thing in rotation and roll with it for a while ...[/QUOTE]
Ya, its funny, I got back into Star Wars to give me an activity to do with my daughters from ages 4 to 12, now they are 13 and 18 and both are proficient rifle shooters. The oldest has a fondness for the Garand, believe it or not, and the little one has already graduated to an M1 carbine! So the shooting sports are front and center again...lol.
My SW habit, uh, I mean, hobby kinda got out of control a bit- I was around 5k figures and 250 vehicles and play sets when I stopped counting. Unfortunately, that collection is in deep storage right now, but since I finished my armory project, I'm hoping to build a new climate controlled hutch/ mini building inside the garage soon to display it all.

 

[gsbuickman]

Awesome . If you decide to part with some of your Star Wars stuff, let me know because I might be willing to add it to my collection ...

 

[gsbuickman]

Thanks to Sootch's review & Rugers info, this is technically a KP944D, but it's stamped P94 on the slide. According to the information on Wiki it's a special edition P94 with some upgraded features and the P94 was discontinued in 2004'.

 

[JTQ]

As far as Ruger "coding" goes, the 94 was basically a 4" (a midsize version) barreled version of the P89 their full size 9mm gun. I believe the 94 was available as a 9mm and a .40S&W. However, the 944 was .40S&W only.

The "K" would indicate a stainless steel slide (the frames are all aluminum), and the "D" or "DC" is decocker only lever without the safety ability. The lever when rotated down, would lower the hammer, but the lever would spring back up rather than stay down as the safety/decocker models would do. Most folks preferred the "D" versions and they usually command slightly higher prices on the used market.

 

[JTQ]

deleted

 

[Mike J]

You did well getting the Decock only version. Mine is a safety model. I really don't like the slide mounted safety. It feels backwards. I had read that you could use it to decock then carry it safety off. I did that some but one day I discovered it had gotten bumped on unbeknownst to me. It probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been using a climbing stand but that was enough to turn me against the idea.

 

[JTQ]

I had read that you could use it to decock then carry it safety off.

Admittedly not everybody, but nearly everybody, carries their safety/decocker guns that way, from Walther P38's, to S&W Traditional Double Actions (TDA's), to Beretta 92FS, to Ruger P-Series. Generally speaking, the only ones that carry their TDA gun with the safety engaged are those required to by their employers.

 

[Mike J]

Admittedly not everybody, but nearly everybody, carries their safety/decocker guns that way, from Walther P38's, to S&W Traditional Double Actions (TDA's), to Beretta 92FS, to Ruger P-Series. Generally speaking, the only ones that carry their TDA gun with the safety engaged are those required to by their employers.

The reason it bothered me was that I thought the safety was off & discovered it was on because it had bumped into something. That could lead to a bad situation if you actually needed the gun in a hurry.