The Ruger LCP

The other day I was window shopping at Guns Galore in Fenton, MI, looking at various toys I couldn't afford, like a really nice replica Sharps rifle in .45-70, and checking out a number of what are sometimes called "mouse pistols."  I was handling a used NAA Guardian in .32, appreciating its small size, when I noticed this used LCP at an extremely attractive price. I asked the clerk if I could compare the two, and he obliged. My immediate impression was that while the LCP was larger than the Guardian, it was not significantly wider, and it was significantly lighter. It was also $50 cheaper, came with a Fobus holster, and I already had a good collection of .380 ammunition at home.  As an added bonus, it was the green model that Ruger doesn't make anymore. I thought about it for about fifteen seconds, and decided to buy it.

I also bought a box of 50 Sellier and Bellot .380 (I believe I paid $15.95) on the advice of the sales clerk, as I was on my way with a shooting buddy to the Island Lake outdoor range. (As a side note, Island Lake is one of the nicer places to shoot in Southeast Michigan.) Although the LCP is strictly a close-up, defensive arm with primitive fixed sights, I decided to test it at 25 yards to see how accurate it was at that range. I set up a pair of 16"x16" Champion Redfield Style Precision Sight-In Targets on the backstop, one above the other. I figured I could keep the horizontal dispersion pretty much under control, but I didn't know how well the elevation of the sights corresponded to the actual trajectory.

The LCP is a double-action-only (DOA) pistol with a half-inch long trigger pull, half of which is very light. The last bit is stiff, but it's smooth. It's actually smoother and lighter than the PPKJ in double action mode. Accuracy at 25 yards was decent for this kind of pistol. All my shots hit the target I was aiming at, which is to say just about all of them all fell within a 16" square. That's not bad for a gun designed to be used at distances more like 7 yards, and I suspect I could do much better with practice. Just extrapolating from the 25 yard results implies I could keep most of my my shots in a 4.5" square at 7 yards.

I'd read enough about the LCP that I was curious as to how it would compare with my Walther PPK, a gun I've written about previously. The LCP is slightly less than half the weight of the Walther (9.5 ounces versus 22), so you'd expect that recoil would be much worse with the lighter gun. Surprisingly, the LCP is a much more pleasant gun to shoot. Part of the reason is the polymer frame of the LCP, which, but the biggest reason is the action. The PPK uses a fixed barrel, straight blowback action. This contributes to the accuracy of the PPK, but in a cartridge as powerful as the .380, straight blowback requires a heavy bolt and spring to prevent the breech from opening until the pressure in the chamber has dropped to a safe level for extraction of the spent cartridge. The momentum of that heavy chunk of steel creates a very sharp and unpleasant kick when it stops in its rearward movment.

The LCP relies on a more sophisticated  design, the locked breech action found in the classic Browning 1911. The barrel is initially locked to the slide via a series of interlocking grooves. On firing, the barrel and slide move backwards as a unit, the additional mass of the barrel slowing the movement of both and delaying the opening of the breech until the pressure has dropped somewhat. After the two have moved a short distance, the barrel hinges downward, unlocking the slide, allowing it to retract further and extract the spent cartridge. The advantage compared to straight blowback is that the slide and spring can be much lighter, and the recoil can be milder. While the LCP is still not a gun you'd want too shoot all day, it's nowhere as unpleasant as the PPK.

Back home, I also compared the LCP to my other "James Bond" pistol, the Beretta 21A bobcat.  The LCP is only 5% longer (5.16" versus 4.9"), but it's 22% lighter that the Bobcat and 25% narrower. Given that the the .22 stingers that cycle best in the Beretta have an ME of between 80 and 90 foot-pounds, and the .380 produces in excess of 200, the LCP appears to be the better self-defense gun. I'm not selling the Beretta, though, as it's still a neat little pistol, especially with the custom engraved Altamont grips I added. But I think the PPK is going to be heading out the door. As much as I appreciate it from a historical (and literary) point of view, and as well made as it is, I just don't have any real use for it.