In this episode of TFBTV, James reviews his most favorite Ruger handgun of all time, the Ruger P89. James has a KP89DC in 9mm and gives a range review, and also provides a general overview of the Ruger P-Series centerfire semi-automatic pistols made by Sturm, Ruger & Company from 1985 to 2013. These pistols are reliable and good shooters, although their aesthetic is controversial. At present, they can be bought very cheaply and represent one of the best bargains in the 9mm auto market today.

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Transcript ….

– Hey guys.

James again with TFB TV and if you want a true TF Buzzfeed headline for this video it would be, “Millennials Won’t Know What This Gun Is.” This is the Ruger KP89 DC which is, in my opinion, the best hand gun that Ruger has ever made.

They stopped making it, depending on who you ask, between 2007 and 2009.

So it hasn’t been made for about a decade.

But you can still find them floating around.

This was the first hand gun I ever owned.

In fact, back in the day, I think cost around 300 bucks.

However, I found this beautiful example of a Ruger KP89DC K meaning stainless, P89 being the model, which is the successor to the P85, the original Ruger P series pistol, and DC means that this is a decocker without a safety.

I picked this guy up for a little over 200 bucks on a classifieds ad.

And it looks like it’s brand new.

So I’m really happy with this purchase.

I wanted to share it with you guys and I wanted to do a video about this gun which, I think, is really a very underrated pistol.

I’ll get into it in more detail but in my opinion the P89 is the nicest of all of the iterations of the Ruger P series.

Especially the stainless decocker model.

You have an alloy frame with Ruger polymer grips.

Ruger, I think it’s time to resurrect this throwback.

I think these grips are absolutely gorgeous and I love the way they feel.

It has an ambidextrous mag-release.

So, see it was doing ambidextrous mag-releases before they were cool.

This is a double action, single action model.

So it’s pretty straight forward there.

You cock the hammer, you get a single action pull or you can have a double action pull for your first round if you like.

There’s a decock lever on the left hand side of the slide.

Standard three dot sights that are kinda crappy because they’re a little small but it can be looked passed.

Comes standard with a 15 round capacity but I don’t doubt if they were still making these guns, you could cram 17 in here.

And guys, this is just a cool looking gun.

It’s a little heavy so very light recoiling.

And it looks a lot more powerful than it is.

You kinda feel like you’re holding a Bren 10 whenever you’re shooting the Ruger P89.

But let me go over some more details with you real quick and then I’ll take this thing out to the range.

The Ruger P series came about as Ruger’s bid when the military decided that it was going to replace the venerable 1911 as the side arm for it’s armed forces.

As we all know, the Beretta M9 won that contract.

Obviously, this didn’t stop Ruger from developing the Ruger P series line and it was manufactured for a couple decades after that.

And it saw use in law enforcement and even in some Middle Eastern militaries.

One of the first thing you’ll notice when you take apart a Ruger P series pistol is that they use a sig-type locking mechanism.

And they use a 1911 style tilting barrel with a link.

The barrel on all the internals are stainless steel.

While the slide is carbon steel.

The Ruger P85 was developed in 1985 and went into production in 1987.

A P85 Mark 2 was introduced after it was discovered that the Mark 1 could generate enough force when using the decocker lever to slam the firing pin into the primer and cause an accidental discharge.

The P85 series was discontinued in 1992.

That’s when the P89 picked up.

The Ruger P89 has a weight of 32 ounces, an overall length of seven point seven five inches and a barrel length of four and a half inches.

It has three dot sights and a 15 round capacity in nine millimeter.

The P90 was introduced in 1991 as the first 45 ACP of the P series line.

And more or less, it was in direct competition with the Sig 220.

The Ruger P91 is the Ruger P89, but in 40 cal.

It was only made in 1992, 1993, and 1994.

The P93 is a compact version of the P89 with a four inch long barrel and a smaller slide and frame.

The P94 is a midsize with a four point two inch barrel right in between the P93’s four inch barrel and the P89 four and a half inch barrel.

It was made in nine and 40.

In 1996 the Ruger P95 was introduced.

It was the first polymer frame pistol using a fiberglass reinforced polyurethane frame.

The P95 was discontinued in October 2013.

Shortly after the P95, the P97 was introduced and it was a 45 caliber version of the P95.

The P series of pistols was phased out in 2013 with the introduction of the Ruger SR series of pistols.

(gunshots) (gunshots continue) So real talk, guys.

I love this old dinosaur of a gun.

The trigger’s not the greatest, but it’s not the worst either.

In fact, I would say it’s even comparable to a 226.

You’ve got, of course, a pretty heavy double action pull, but it could be a lot worse.

And then your single action pull, you’ve got a little bit of take up here.

As you can see.

So you got a little bit of take up but there’s no stacking whatsoever.

Once you hit that wall, just a little bit of pressure will put you over.

So I actually think that the trigger in this gun is extremely underrated and a lot of people used to crap on the trigger.

I don’t think they’re that bad in the least.

The sights are atrocious, but they are dub tailed so at least the rear sight, which is the main problem is replaceable.

I guess at this point though, good luck finding sights for it now, right? Now they did make quite a few of these in the 10 to 20 years they were in production.

So you should be able to pick some up.

This is a really heavy gun.

So the recoil is not bad at all.

In fact, whenever you pick up a polymer gun right after you shoot this one, you’re kinda like, Hey what happened? I wouldn’t concealed carry this, but it does tame the recoil.

Which is probably why Harry Tasker used it in True Lies.

One of the best movies ever in my opinion.

The mag release is really nice.

It is an ambi-mag release.

But it’s very very teensy.

So you have to really deliberately hit it to get that magazine out.

And then one nice thing, lanyard loop.

You don’t see that anymore, huh? Pretty nice feature to have.

I guess if you wanted to conceal carry this, you could do it Flava Flave style, right? Get a lanyard loop, carry it around your neck? That’d be pretty gangster.

Alright, let’s gas it up one more time.

(gunshots) You guys should see this.

It really does shoot well.

(gunshots) Look at that! Look at Grand Pappy’s old heater go.

I’ve just shot several hundred rounds through this thing back to back.

It’s pretty hot right now.

I’m gonna give it a rest.

Well I hope you guys were interested in this generation X throwback full service pistol.

The Ruger P89.

If you’re interested, keep your eye out for Ruger P series pistols.

There were a bunch of them.

I think they’re really cool.

I like them a lot and right now you can pick them up for less than 300 bucks.

Again, I think this one, I paid 230 dollars after shipping and it’s in fantastic shape so I think these are bargains waiting to happen.

Hope the price doesn’t go up after the video.

But I hope you guys enjoyed watching this as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thank you so much for watching.

Thank you to subscribers, patronage, supporters.

All the ammo we shot today, Ventura Munitions and you know what? Check some estate auctions on ProxiBid, our other sponsor.

You might find some of these on their website.

In any event, thanks a lot guys.

I will see you next week.

Take care.

(The Stars and Stripes Forever by United States Army)