My initial impression of the Ruger Charger 9mm

[teamRR]

I picked it up Saturday, never handled their PC carbine, just read a few reviews and my interest was peaked on the pistol model and I ordered one.

My initial itial impression when unboxing it is these are not a cheap toy; has a little heft to it, very solid, the takedown mechanism (which I saw as more of negative originally) is both smooth and positively locking.

I forget the terminology they use but essentially the reciever and handguard is aluminum, the shroud below the reciever is polymer.

1st stupid Ruger thing I ran into: my vision, and it very well may have been too short of a rail for this, was to use a set of magpul flip ups as the sights and then a lazer on the rail. They left so little room below the picatinny that the flip up mechanism can't operate.

I didn't want a high profile optic on this, I see it as a very compact weapon you could even conceal to a degree, so went with a Burris Fastfire I had that needed a home - easily zerod with that setup, and will also be adding a lazer (likely a crimson trace in green)..

Takedown to superficially clean the barrel, extension, bolt face, basics, is stupid easy with this design. A complete breakdown is also easy, no tricks to it, and literally everything comes out, but there are a significant number of small parts.. again, difficulty I would say is much less than a 10-22 or mini 14/30 because there is just nothing to give you trouble.. mine came absolutely loaded with oil so shooting it first was probably not even possible. I would say though, with a couple threaded items to remove, frequent complete takedown likely wears the threads out over time.

I will be using this with 33 round Glock mags (adapter supplied in box, remove stock adapter and add the Glock one basically) but initially tested it w/ the proprietary 17 round mag it shipped with. Remington 115g FMJ, 250 rounds and one stovepipe experienced, time will tell.

I was happy to find ambi QD sockets at the end of the reciever; hangs nicely w/ a single point. Not sure what to do w/ the muzzle at this point, may add a blast forwarder but don't like the idea of making it longer either. Recoil is minor being essentially a heavy pistol in 9mm.

Accuracy perfectly reasonable, zerod mine at about 30 yards and when using a rest but without getting all technical about it, my shots all were within a few inches with 2 shot groups touching each other fairly common. The trigger isn't bad and appears to be a 10-22 design, potentially upgradable.

Anyway, so far so good; I believe its worth owning at this point.

 

[jkelly1229]

That's straight out of a bad 80s movie. To each their own but my pcc's i prefer the hk look

 

[cockpitbob]

Needs a wrist brace

 

[bigben111435]

In Mass we will never know how the charger pistols perform.

 

[JRT]

That 1913 Picatinny rail is begging for a brace or SBR. Thats the biggest hand stop I have ever seen, at what point does a hand stop become an VFG and a dead doggo.

 

[Deutsche_Dog]

That 1913 Picatinny rail is begging for a brace or SBR. Thats the biggest hand stop I have ever seen, at what point does a hand stop become an VFG and a dead doggo.

Heh, I thought it was a tiny forward grip at first.

 

[Kevin_NH]

If Ruger (or at least Dark Horse) doesn't already have plans drawn up for an integrally suppressed 8" accessory barrel, they're leaving money on the table.

Tempting, but I'm thinking my next 9mm suppressor host "pistol" will need to be something other than straight blowback (probably CMMG's RDB).

The trigger isn't bad and appears to be a 10-22 design, potentially upgradable.

Gotta wonder if the trigger system is close enough to the 10/22 to accept Franklin Armory's BFSIII™ 22-C1?

 

[Waher]

This is a common setup. The lack of a rail on the top of the barrel for a BUIS or other accessories is a frequently noted complaint. I don't know why Ruger/Magpul(who designed the chassis) didn't provide one unless they had a noted issue with the point of impact being inconsistent upon reassembly? The PC line with the Magpul chassis for whatever reason omits a good capability for BUIS on the basis that most people run optics, but I think it is a huge unforced error.

 

[teamRR]

Here is where I ended up.

Crimson trace green & a Sig Romeo 4. Glock happy sticks.

Basically although I liked the pistol red dot, it was too low to put the lazer on the rail ahead of it where I wanted and the Romeo 4 with the cross hairs is about as good as it gets for this weapon at that height.

I really see the lazer as the primary sight, in some sense I almost might be happy with just that but the cross hairs dot gives you the ability to really aim for a longer shot in bright light conditions outside.

I get that some would want a brace, and maybe some day I change my mind, but basically I see this as a weapon that is fired from the hip or however you hold it, even at 50 yards a man sized object is quickly riddled with holes this way in anything dimmer than the brightest sunlight (inside at any distance or lighting the lazer is clear as anything). A brace just clutters up the weapon - kinda the advantage of these over an AR9, no buffer tube.

Reliability wise put another 250 through it with no malfunctions. If it goes another 500 without a hiccup practically its probably as good as anything. Very happy with it so far still.

Girlfriend insisted flowers stay in the pic. "Ok honey" ...

 

[teamRR]

If Ruger (or at least Dark Horse) doesn't already have plans drawn up for an integrally suppressed 8" accessory barrel, they're leaving money on the table.

Tempting, but I'm thinking my next 9mm suppressor host "pistol" will need to be something other than straight blowback (probably CMMG's RDB).

Gotta wonder if the trigger system is close enough to the 10/22 to accept Franklin Armory's BFSIII™ 22-C1?

I believe its the same trigger literally. Some day will compare and try a swap even, someone else likely has tried this?

 

[teamRR]

This is a common setup. The lack of a rail on the top of the barrel for a BUIS or other accessories is a frequently noted complaint. I don't know why Ruger/Magpul(who designed the chassis) didn't provide one unless they had a noted issue with the point of impact being inconsistent upon reassembly? The PC line with the Magpul chassis for whatever reason omits a good capability for BUIS on the basis that most people run optics, but I think it is a huge unforced error.

I think BUIS is mostly tacticool, especially on a special purpose gun like this.

But secondary problem is they shrunk the depth of the existing picatinny so magpul flip ups can't function, which was my initial plan for sights - ie something discreet that could be left flipped down. Is really stupid they did that over 1/16 inch or something. Ya you could put a riser under them but that is getting stupid too.

 

[teamRR]

Other thing I wanted to mention is this is a fairly quiet 9mm design. I made the mistake the other day while walking back and forth sighting in of leaving my ears off (was hot as hell). Shooting off the hood of my truck, which is real reflective/loud it just occurred to me that it sounded a little loud those last couple shots and I should check for some problem - then realized no ears. Was running Remington fmj target ammo. Usually that mistake would leave my ears ringing for an hour.

I will try it with subsonic sooner or later but even as is, a self defense situation would not instantly stunt your senses. My original idea on this was subsonic and a blast forwarder (not into the suppressor nfa game), definitely seems like it could be enough to take the edge off this gun.