The New Ruger PC Carbine in 9mm

[JJNA]

Has anyone shot the new Ruger PC Carbine in 9mm? How is the recoil on it? Is it something that a 6-10 year old can shoot comfortably?

[LilHog]

I think they would have no problem shooting it with the reduced LOP this rifle comes with. 9mm can be slightly snappy shot out of a rifle, but still very manageable. There are several youtube videos on this rifle, most very interesting.

[ThomasT]

I haven't shot the ruger but I do have a Marlin model 9 Camp Carbine. Its about like shooting a bolt action 22 mag rifle. Your kid shouldn't have any problem with the recoil. My bud had a camp 9 and his 13 year old son killed his first deer with it.

I was carrying and shooting an Ithica double barreled 12 gauge when I was 7 years old and hunting dove with it. So I think your kid should be able to handle a 9mm rifle.

[Apple a Day]

I got one last weekend at a local gun show. I paid $550 for it (there were only two I could see at the show and the other vendor was selling for $647).
When I got it I immediately added the extra spacers because I'm tall. I also switched magazine wells so that it takes the Glock mag's.

Recoil was more than I expected from a 9mm. It was like a sharp thump. I have a Henry Big Boy in .357 magnum which isn't any worse to shoot. With .38 specials the Henry is a lot gentler. It does NOT feel like a 10/22 but it isn't bad. It's not the first thing I'd put into a kid's hands but if they're ready to step up from a .22 then they're ready for this.

The sight picture is better than I expected. With the rear ring I was expecting it to be small and difficult but with the short overall package it's very usable.

Reliability was very good. I put 200 rounds of Wolf 115 grain and 50 rounds of Freedom Munitions 115 grain round nose hollow point. It had a single hiccup feeding a Wolf round which might have been a little hinky to begin with. I reloaded the round by hand and it fired. No fails to extract, eject, or fire. I used several Magpul 17 round and 12 round mags.

The trigger is... different. When I tried to stage the trigger and ease it back for max accuracy it broke maybe a little inconsistently and maybe I'm just not used to it yet. I knew instantly when the rounds were a shade off and when they were dead on target. It tended to do better when I just lined up the sights and gave the trigger a single hard pull rather than trying to stage it. Banging away it was more accurate than when I was trying to baby the trigger.

[JJNA]

Thank you for the first hand report. My older kids like shooting 5.56mm-chambered rifles, but the little girls (6-9 year olds) don’t like anything over Ruger 10/22 with bull barrel. How does the recoil compare to an AR-style carbine in 5.56mm?

[Apple a Day]

It's very different (comparing the AR carbine to the PC-9). With the AR you get a long smooth stroke but with the PC it's a much shorter 'bump'. I'm not sure it's less jarring recoil-wise but there's certainly less noise and muzzle blast with the 9mm
I've got a Volquartzen hammer kit on the way so I can sweeten up the trigger. I've been very happy with those on two 10/22s. It should arrive Thursday which should give me enough time to install it and try next weekend. I will NOT forget the little Allen wrench to adjust the iron sights this time. They were a couple of inches low and right at 25 yards out of the box

[Apple a Day]

WARNING: BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU INSTALL A VOLQUARTSEN TRIGGER ON A PC-9

Well, I can scratch "firing something full-auto" off my bucket list. And I need a new pair of underwear.
I put the new Volquartsen trigger in the PC-9 and it was very light. Unfortunately, when I took it to the range I was getting a lot of malfunctions, especially light primer strikes. At times it wouldn't seem to cycle far enough to pick up a new round. I was firing some Wolf 115 grain ammo and some Freedom Munitions 124 grain JHPs, both of which worked just fine the first time I took the rifle to the range. I found that if I pulled the trigger sharply to the rear and held it all the way back as the rifle cycled that it cut down on the number of malfunctions. I stripped the gun down and checked the new trigger but it seemed to be properly positioned. It's the third Volquartsen hammer I've installed and the other two have been beautiful, no problems at all through thousands of rounds.
In frustration I was about to pack the rifle up and take it home when I thought I would remove one last variable: I'd been shooting today with a bipod attached to the forward rail. Maybe that's causing some sort of flexing, I thought. I took off the bipod, set the forearm on a little rest to brace it and when I tried to fire it ripped off a 5 round burst. At that point I quit for the day.

I'm going to strip it down again, replace the original hammer parts, and check to make sure that the firing pin can move freely. I don't know what the problem is exactly but I could feel when the gun cycled completely, resetting the trigger and when it didn't.

I sent a letter to both Ruger and Volquartsen. Nobody got hurt, no damage was done to the range. I'll check the rifle. I got scared out of 19 years' growth though.

Maybe my gun just had a malfunction but if anyone else is thinking of installing a Volquartsen hammer on your PC-9 be careful. Be safe.

[Big Shrek]

quitting for the day & hauling butt was probably the best decision...hopefully nobody spotted the burst...
next you'll want to pull that hammer out & destroy it...constructive possesion of a full auto device & all that...
or maybe mail it back to VQ as Defective and hope they give you a replacement that works

There's more than a few horror stories out there about folks that got narfed after a malfunction.
BATF does not play. Even if it's just a malfunction, they like to go for the jugular.

[Apple a Day]

It worked just fine with original parts reinstalled