Ruger P85 sights and modifications

[Excedis]

Hello all.

This is my first time posting here, so thanks for having me! Now on to the purpose of this post. I have a Ruger P85 (my first firearm) and want to know what is available for it. I have already located the grip, holster, and everything else I wish to get for it, but I'm having trouble finding upgraded sights. I am not a big fan of the stock sights and was hoping to find a fiber optic or even tritium upgrade. I like the fiber optic myself but I do not know enough about pistol sights to say either or. Do any of you know where I could find these sights? Please no auctions, I leave for USMC boot camp and later SOI soon so I have to wait until I get back to purchase this.

My next question is what can I do to modify the internals? I would take it to a gun smith to do so, but I don't know the first thing about what can be done to the internals or how this will affect the performance of the firearm. I was curious about trigger changes (making it harder or softer to pull), and other things of the like.

Thanks for your help.
Excedis

 

[dcmdon]

Excedis,

Nobody's answered because, well, there is no satisfactory answer.

I've been a SR fan long enough to remember the P85 and when it came out. In all honesty its not worth upgrading. You could spend all this money on upgrades and it would still be a P85.

If its in good shape, leave it stock, its practically a collectors item. Compared to "modern" guns, its heavy, inaccurate and nearly impossible to get a decent trigger pull out of. Remember, this was SR's first crack at making a semi-auto, other than the MkI/II.

As far as the front sight, the P85's is staked in. So I doubt anyone makes a replacement. You could have a dovetail cut in the slide and then use a sight that fits the dovetail. But you are talking about spending probably what a new SR9 costs just in these improvements.

I'd suggest leaving it stock, or maybe dressing it up with grips and leaving it alone. It is a good, reliable gun though. Its just a tool, not a toy.

Finally, thank you for your service. Stay safe.

Don

 

[jdesro]

As much as I respect dcmdon's opinions on a number of matters, I'll have to disagree with him here.

Fiber optic front sights are available to use with the factory rear sight, and Trijicon makes tritium night sights for it as well (these are what I have on my P89, which, for the most part, is the same as the P85). See here: Ruger P85 | Ruger | Gun Parts by Gun Make & Model | Gun Parts

No need to cut a dovetail for a different front sight. The front sight is held in by two small roll pins. Punch out these roll pins and the front sight will come right off (it is a tight fit, so you may need to yank it out with a pair of pliers or something, but it will come out).

The new front sight will have to be drilled for the roll pins to hold it in, but this is an easy task with a drill press and the appropriate sized drill bit.

The rear sight is held in by your typical dovetail, and held tight by an allen set screw. Loosen the allen screw, and the rear sight should come off with just a liitle bit of effort. Remove it slowly, because the firing pin block and spring are underneath the rear sight and held in place by the sight, and will launch themselves across the room if you are not careful.

Wolff gunsprings makes reduced power mainsprings to help lighten the trigger pull. Again, this is an easy modification to do yourself, and can make quite an improvement in the trigger pull.

Another trigger mod. that works with the P89 (so I assume it should also work on te P85) is to swap out the trigger with one from the P95. Ruger changed the curvature of the trigger with the P95 model, making it much easier to reach in both the the DA and SA mode. Only a slight modification to the P95 trigger is needed to make it work in the P85/89, and it works great! More info on that can be found here: RugerForum.com ? View topic - P-89 Modification to P-95 Trigger

Also, you say you have a P85, but do not specify if it is the early version or the Mark II version. The first version had a problem with the safety/decocker, and could possibly discharge if you use the decocking lever. Ruger fixed this with the Mark II version, and I believe they will still fix the earlier P85 to rectify this if you have one that has not been upgraded.

dcmdon is correct that the early P-series pistols from Ruger are a bit large and clunky, and some of the early P85's had terrible accuracy, but they are made brutally strong and usually work perfectly. If you have an accurate one, with a few simple modifications they can be really nice shooters.

I'm no expert on these, but I have also been around long enough to see them first come out and have owned a few of them over the years, so if you have any other questions feel free to contact me and I will try to help.

 

[Mike-Mike]

I got my first P85 when I was 19 for $250. It has seen 10's of thousands of rounds, It has never failed me and if you sent me to battle with that blocky brick of a gun, I wouldn't worry a bit. Leave it alone.

 

[dcmdon]

jdesry - We don't necessarily disagree. My point is more that its not worth modifying than that it can't be done.

Thank you for correcting me on the front sight. I forgot it had those roll pins. My brain was stuck on the fact that it wasn't dovetailed in.

But again, the idea of spending $125 for a new set of tritium sights for a $250 gun just doesn't make sense to me.
I do like the idea of swapping out springs, since we're probably talking about a $15 modification. Although once you do that, if the spring affects the strength of the hammer fall, you need to test for 100 rounds at minimum with your defensive ammo to make sure there are no issues. Or use Federal ammo with its soft primers. HST is great stuff.

Don