Ruger LCR 9mm review

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Out of full sized guns, the 357 Golden Saber moves a 125 gr bullet at about 1250 fps. The 9 mm 124 gr +p will move at about 1200 -1250, depending on the flavor. From my perspective, this is a bit too much out of a small, 2" revolver. The flash and blast are a bit much from the 357 Speer Gold Dot SB 135 out of the LCR.
The 9 mm +p is going to be stiff out of a short barrel and won't produce the same velocity you get from a 4 1/2" full size gun.
Does anyone know what velocity the revolver in 9 will produce in the LCR?
If I had a 9 mm LCR (not really interested) I would plan on using it with a standard velocity load.
 
The Federal HST in both 124gr and 147gr are capable of expanding and penetrating to around 13" whether they will expand out of a 1.875" barrel remains to be seen. Hopefully someone will test.

I think standard pressure 147gr bullets may have a tough time but its just conjecture.

My opinion is that the Hornady 115gr Critical Defense will probably perform OK out of a smaller barrel. The 115gr bullet still has enough velocity to expand. The FTX design limits expansion by basically folding over and limited expansion means more penetration.

Out of a 3" barrel they penetrate to around 13", I am thinking out of a 1.875" barrel they're going to be right around 12"

I guess we won't see until someone starts doing actual tests out of the 9mm LCR.
 
I bought an LCR in 38 sp +P a year ago and bought an SP101 2.25" a bit later. I've traded away the SP101 and carry the LCR daily. The first three months I owned the LCR I contemplated selling it or trading it off because of the bite of the gun's recoil. Not only that, but the sight picture and my eyes meant that I could not group my rounds on target as well as I thought I could. However, I was determined to master that thing and now I don't think I will ever part with it. The thing is a beast, to be sure, with +P ammo (Buffalo Bore 158 grain hollow point ), but after reading an article by Ed Harris about full charge wadcutters, I rolled up some of my own -- 148 grains wadcutters, which drop from my mold at 152 from range scrap, over 3.5-3.6 grains of Red Dot. The recoil from these rounds is quite manageable and makes the gun actually pleasant to shoot. While I have no chrony data, these bullets supposedly run between 850-870 fps. They are accurate, and when I turn on the crimson trace laser, I can put bullets in the same hole all day long at 7-10 yards. I've learned to like my LCR. I enjoy shooting my GP 100 more! The SP101 was traded for a .357 Blackhawk. I'm hoping I'll enjoy shooting that most of all.
 
Artym said:
Out of full sized guns, the 357 Golden Saber moves a 125 gr bullet at about 1250 fps. The 9 mm 124 gr +p will move at about 1200 -1250, depending on the flavor. From my perspective, this is a bit too much out of a small, 2" revolver. The flash and blast are a bit much from the 357 Speer Gold Dot SB 135 out of the LCR.
The 9 mm +p is going to be stiff out of a short barrel and won't produce the same velocity you get from a 4 1/2" full size gun.
Does anyone know what velocity the revolver in 9 will produce in the LCR?
If I had a 9 mm LCR (not really interested) I would plan on using it with a standard velocity load.
Click to expand...


I can tell you that from a 2" Taurus 905 that 9mm Speer 124g +p gold dots leave the muzzle at over 1150 fps
 
And that is going to expand a little past .60 caliber and penetrate to around 13" in ordnance gel through 4 layers of denim - in other words, in most cases it is going to be adequate for self defense.
 
It looks like the Speer 9 mm may not lose much out of a snub revolver, but I just read a report of the 9mm Golden Saber 124 +p dropping some velocity. Any of these loads in 9+p are going to be like shooting a medium velocity 357 out of the LCR, but with higher velocity in some loads. The Speer 357 SB 135 only clocks, according to Speer, at about 990 out of a 2" barrel.
I wasn't prepared to fire more than 2 of the Speer short barrel 357 loads out of the LCR. I found the flash was blinding at the indoor range.
 
Remember if you measure effective barrel length the same way with a revolver compared to an auto a 2" snub nosed wheelgun suddenly has a barrel length close to a full sized service pistol.
 
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Well I won't buying one until the prices come down.

The 357 and 38 models go for $370-ish and this 9mm is going for $499 :eek:
 
I'm going to venture out here and say that this has probably been done before, a wheel gun in 9mm, and there's a reason it wasn't possible, probably because of the snap?

I'm really surprised though that it was that painful - it looks like the grips are pretty chunky and comfortable.
 
I'm curious how the recoil compares to the 38spl +p, unlike a lot of people (evidently) I find the recoil to be quite pleasant, I'm considering changing over to the 9mm though for ammo commonality in my carry guns.
 
I think if you shoot 105gr Guard Dogs out of it the recoil would be less than a 38 spl +P

I think if you shoot 147gr +P+ out of it the recoil would be more than a 38 spl +P
 
If you want rifle velocity/ballistics get a rifle. Me, I'm getting a LCR9 ASAP. I have some pissant loads I made that won't even cycle the slide on an auto. Shooting is more fun than pulling bullets.
 
In the future, for anyone who needs to adjust elevation on a fixed sight revolver, you can do that just by carefully filing the top of the front sight. I've done it on almost every fixed sight revolver I've owned... except J-frame .38's. For some reason, S&W seems to get the elevation right more often than not (for me). I will say that snubbies in general take some getting used to. The first one I owed was a M-60 .38 Special and I've owned a few since then. I'm at a point now where an aluminum J-frame are manageable, but it takes time and experience. Custom handloads with lightly loaded wadcutters also helped.

On the 9mm LCR, when I saw the news release that they were making them in 9mm, I had to ask myself "why?". There have been 9mm revolvers before, both J-frames and the SP-101, and they mostly have failed.
 
Failed in what way? Failed to sell? A few are still around. I suspect the 9mm LCR will do okay, but as long as I get mine first it doesn't matter much to me.:D
 
We bought a .38 special LCR for my Wife and it sterilized both of us with recoil and factory ammunition. +P was just plain painful. She gave it up for a Glock 42 and I mastered the little monster with hand loaded 110 gr. wad cutters and enough bang to make them kicky but not painful.

I have learned to shoot full house 158 gr. lead as an SD round but it will never be a range gun - 13.5 oz guns (or there abouts) are gonna be kicky little fire breathers and will require a significant training curve to master in most shooters I'd think.

Thanks for the review!! :)

VooDoo
 
13.5 oz guns (or there abouts) are gonna be kicky little fire breathers and will require a significant training curve to master in most shooters I'd think.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if a few ounces is going to make a difference in manageability but the 9mm version - model 5456 is the heaviest of all the LCR revolvers at 17.20 ounces.
 
Failed in what way? Failed to sell? A few are still around. I suspect the 9mm LCR will do okay, but as long as I get mine first it doesn't matter much to me.
Click to expand...

Yep, failed to sell. They haven't really been successful in the market.
As far as effectiveness, I carry a revolver and 9mm is an effective round... so it'd work well enough. It's not a bad firearm per se - it just doesn't really do anything that's not already being done.

For Ruger, the risk is relatively low. I'd imagine all they have to do is drill different chambers in the same cylinders they're already using and make some tweaks for moon clips. Even if they use a different sized bore, it's not that much of an investment, but I've shot .355 bullets out of .38 and .357 revolvers before and the accuracy wasn't bad. I wouldn't be surprised if the only difference is the cylinder and the moon clips.
 
9mm sized bullets in 38 Spl sized cylinders does bug me.

And I hope the barrel is actually for 9mm. Hopefully diameter in the groove is 9.02 mm and diameter in the field is 8.82 mm or there abouts
 
goon said:
Yep, failed to sell. They haven't really been successful in the market.
As far as effectiveness, I carry a revolver and 9mm is an effective round... so it'd work well enough. It's not a bad firearm per se - it just doesn't really do anything that's not already being done.
Click to expand...

I see where you're coming from. To me the advantage is ammo selection and price. At the moment I don't have my presses set up so I'm not loading ammo. Locally there's a surprisingly limited amount of .38 Special ammo to be had. Even ordering online from places like SGAmmo there's not a lot to choose from. The cheapest plinking ammo I can find in .38 Special is around $20/50, double what I'm paying for Federal Aluminum 9mm.

Plus in my case my LCR is the only .38 Special I have, so I need to stock ammo for just a single gun. That's not a deal breaker but it's a bit unhandy. It would be nice to be able to just run 147gr HST in all my CCW guns.

Lastly the moon clips might be a disadvantage to some but it's a plus for me. I'm not great with a speed loader and probably never will be with just one revolver for CCW. Moon clips are faster for me and lighter, easier to carry. True, they can be bent or lost but in a gun that will be carried a lot and fired a little I can live with it.

I won't argue that the 9mm in a revolver is a slam-dunk for everyone but for me it makes a lot of sense.
 
Phaedrus/69 said:
Plus in my case my LCR is the only .38 Special I have, so I need to stock ammo for just a single gun. That's not a deal breaker but it's a bit unhandy. It would be nice to be able to just run 147gr HST in all my CCW guns.
Click to expand...

I can see that point. If you're already stocked in 9mm, having another CCW gun that uses the same round would simplify things.

The OP here noted that his gun shot very low with most ammunition. It's possible that Ruger could be using the same front sight for the .38 and 9mm versions. The .38 round is obviously heavier and traveling slower, so using a front sight calibrated for that round with the lighter and faster 9mm would probably cause grouping to be low. When you buy one, if you have that problem, you can probably file the front sight down a bit to bring the point of impact up. I've done it on half a dozen revolvers.
 
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