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Ruger capitalized on the pistol caliber carbine at the perfect time. The Ruger PC Carbine introduced an affordable, easy-handling, accurate rifle. Ruger then shrunk that rifle into a large format pistol known as the Ruger PC Charger.
Ruger PC Charger Specs
-
Caliber
9mm -
Weight
5.2 lbs -
Length
16.5″ -
Length (barrel)
6.5″ -
Capacity
17
The Ruger PC Charger – What’s The Deal?
Ruger uses the term “Charger” whenever they shrink a rifle into a pistol. To be fair, they’ve only done it twice, once with the 10/22 and again with the PC Charger, but twice makes for a pattern. Fun fact: Ruger produced a PCC before the PC Carbine and Charger series, but it wasn’t all that successful. That was the Ruger Police Carbine.
The Ruger PC Charger and Carbine don’t look all that different from the original Police Carbine but have some serious fundamental differences. Namely, the operating system. The dead blow blowback system is a huge improvement over the straight blowback design of the original. The dead blow blowback system implements a tungsten weight that moves back and forth as the bolt reciprocates.
The weight’s movement reduces felt recoil and prevents bolt bounce. This makes a simple blowback gun much softer shooting. The Charger variant maintains that system while trimming the barrel to 6.5 inches. The gun’s overall length is only 16.5 inches and weighs only 5.2 pounds.
The Charger uses a tactical variation of the PC chassis. It features an M-LOK pistol handguard, an AR-type pistol grip, and a 1913 rail at the rear of the gun for braces and similar goodies. The gun retains its ability to remove the barrel and break down into two pieces. The gun is optics-ready, and the threaded barrel is perfectly suited for a suppressor.
One interesting feature is the interchangeable magwell. It comes with a magwell for Ruger Security 9 magazines and a spare magwell that can use Glock mags. Like most people, I immediately swapped magazine wells to use Glock mags.
The PC Charger creates an interesting little platform, and I wanted to see just how well it could rock and roll.
The dead blow system in the PC Charger makes the gun a smooth shooter. There is some moderate recoil, not a whole lot, but it handles exceptionally well. It’s devoid of the violent recoil associated with straight blowback firearms. It handles exactly how you’d expect a 9mm of this size to handle. The 5.2 pounds soaks up the recoil and makes it super easy to shoot.
The PC Charger can fire Bill Drills from the low ready in less than two seconds. If you’re like me and mounted a red dot, the dot barely moves as you squeeze through long strings of fire. The little gun is exceptionally easy to control, and muzzle rise is nearly nonexistent. From a practical perspective, the PC Charger can be an awesome defensive firearm.
If you SBR’d it, you could make an excellent competition carbine. The ease of control and low price make it a better option than most straight blowback PCCs in this price range. That means it outperforms most bog-standard AR-9s.
The Ruger PC Charger can produce nice tight groups. At 25 yards, with a red dot and a brace, you can create three-inch groups from an offhand shooting position. Put the gun in a rested position, and the group transforms into about two inches and a little change. Not much, but I never shot a group tighter than two inches.
I did a minute of bad guy test at 100 yards. I set up a Sage Dynamics thoracic target and fired seven rounds. This minute of bad guy drill is fired from the standing and offhand, and I fire seven rounds. If the majority of those rounds hit the target, it’s “minute of bad guy” accurate. With the PC Charger, I landed five of the seven.
The trigger is crisp and solid. It’s light and short, with a nice break. The light nature of the trigger and the short trigger pull results in a gun that shoots fast and shoots straight. There is a mix of everything that makes a gun good at the range with the Ruger PC Charger.
Best yet, ergonomically the PC Charger is set up to succeed. The charging handle can be easily swapped from left to right to accommodate any user. The magazine release can be swapped from left to right as well. The safety is a cross-bolt design which is naturally ambidextrous and easy to use.
All the controls are easy to handle and make the gun easy to operate. The PC Charger is easy to operate, and it embraces folks of the “wrong hand” variety.
I’ve owned the PC Charger for a few years now, and it’s never had any significant malfunctions. We get a few ammo failures, but that’s the name of the game. Since it uses Glock magazines, there are a wide variety of Glock mags of varying quality. I’ve not found one it can’t run reliably.
It chewed through the OEM mags, Magpul, KCI, and ETS magazines. The Rattlesnake Tactical magazines don’t work well in it, but they (RT) say that on their website, so I didn’t expect anything different. The PC Charger scores high in the reliability category.
Ruger PC Charger Pros and Cons
- Low Recoil
- Accurate
- Ergonomic
- Interchangeable Magwells
Report Card | ||
Reliability | At its core, the 590R is still a 590 and maintains the reliability that’s made these guns so legendaryThe Ruger PC Charger proved to be an extremely reliable firearm with a ton of different magazines and ammo types over several years. | A+ |
Accuracy | It’s as accurate as you’d expect from a micro-sized subgun. | B+ |
Shootability | The dead blow system turns what’s normally a violent recoil impulse into something much softer and more controllable. | A+ |
Ergonomics | The ambidextrous or reversible controls are a solid touch, but the charging handle reciprocates, and the controls are a bit dated compared to modern guns. It’s also a bit heavy. | B+ |
Value | At around 600 dollars, the Ruger PC Charger can be one helluva solid value. | A+ |
Ruger PC Charger
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Although ammo’s rather scarce at the moment, that doesn’t mean you won’t find anything. We recommend that you pick up two different rounds as well. Home defense and some training ammunition.
Upgrades for Ruger PC Charger
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Red Dot Holosun ARO Red Dot |  |
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