From Reader Brad_In_IL comes this excellent rant / exposition:
Kim,
I’m certain that you recall my pistol-caliber carbine dilemma from a few months ago.Well, I thought about all the comments, tightened my belt, increased my budget and purchased the Ruger PC-9 carbine. It’s a fun little rifle, I can shoot it reasonably well and it shares magazines with Ruger’s SR9 series pistols. For your Readers who are Fanbois of Glock 17/19: the carbine ships with interchangeable magazine well inserts allowing it to alternatively run Glock double-stack magazines. Changing to the Glock mag insert takes but a few minutes.
And: Ruger also made the bolt face removable. In the future, if they want to produce variants in .40 S&W or say .45ACP, new bolt face, new barrel, additional mag well inserts, new recoil spring in the blowback system, and VOILA !!! New Rifle !!! Can you tell I’m sold on the concept? Thought so. And how does it shoot? Off-hand at 25 yards, if I do my part reasonably well, it patterns to minute-of-fist with junky “range grade” practice ammo.Here in IL, the inmates are most decidedly running the asylum. As the progressive political winds of doom grow stronger and the political clouds of doom darken to the point of sack-cloth (re: miserable rich-boi fat-fuck toilet-yanking, property tax avoiding, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life JB Pritzker), I decided the time for a carry piece as a companion to the Ruger rifle was to be the order of the day. Remember from above I mentioned about the carbine sharing magazines? I contacted a buddy of mine with an FFL and procured Ruger’s SR9c compact, giving me…
…wait for it…
[drum roll]
a Gratuitous Gun PAIR !!!
So today I give you the modern version of the paired carbine & pistol, sharing not only ammo, but also sharing magazines. Think of it as the modern incarnation of the Old West cowhand who carried a lever-rifle and revolver chambered for the same ammo.
Also:
A few days ago you put up a post about being angry, and that we’d get more of Classic Kim. Angry? Am I angry with how IL is quickly degrading to be almost Kommiefornia? You bet your pasty-white conservative South African ass I’m angry. The Dem-progs here in ILL-Annoy are driving a once-good state, The Land of Lincoln, down the shit-hole. Those feckless moronic mouth-breathing pension-hoarding troglodytes can suck my gunsmoke all day long, and double on Sunday.
Now… time for me to get BUSY. I’ve got two stripped AR lower receivers sitting on the shelf doing me no good. Time to begin my first AR build, because AR rifles cause the Progs here and everywhere to get a crippling case of the vapors, and because a hearty FUCK YOU to the dem-prog hoplophobes in Springfield, Cook County, Deerfield, Highland Park, Aurora and elsewhere. Buggering sods.
Gah. I need a drink. Now, where did I leave my heirloom rye whiskey?
Now that, my friends, is how to deal with living in a GFW location, i.e. which is not part of the United States — other than leaving it, which I’m constantly nagging Brad to do. And that, too, is a fine rant. (The “miserable rich-boi fat-fuck toilet-yanking, property tax avoiding, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life” appellation is worth the price of admission alone.)
And allow me to be the first to congratulate Brad on his gunny activities. That matched pair is a joy to behold.
Final thought: Is it my imagination, or are Ruger products starting to become more-imaginatively (i.e. better) designed?
I still own property in Illinois, and I miss the 4 seasons and textured land and the fact that people speak English. But there’s still a lot to be said about moving to SE Texas, like a state government that’s not insane and gun laws that aren’t too restrictive. I wish I could have my Texas government back in my home state of Illinois.
I was looking seriously at the carbine question for my car gun here, but decided to add another AR15 instead. I do like his answer, but I actually spent less (I got a heck of a deal). If compactness were a critical factor, I’d go with the Ruger or the Kel-Tec.
Ruger designs have never been what you could call dainty or delicate. Ruger designs their firearms
to be used and abused. They are stronger, heavier, and tougher than their competition. Graceful? NO. Functional and reliable? Most definitely.
Okay, Okay, the Bearcat is the exception that proves the rule, but it is still almost unbreakable and reliable.
Marlin came out with the Camp45 some years ago; a carbine chambered for .45 ACP and using 1911 magazines. i’ve seen one. It’s been on my wish list for a couple of decades. They also make one in 9mm if memory serves. My current carry pair for life here in the frozen freakin north of the last frontier are a S&W wheel gun and a lever carbine, both in 45 Colt. There is a certain reliability in mechanical operation in the snow and mud.
The Camp 9, used S&W magazines. They discontinued both just prior to the turn of the century IIRC.
Someone was advertising a conversion kit so the Camp 9 would use Browning Hi Power magazines, but both disappeared from the market during a time I had no money.
I saw one time in a Texas gun store an M-1 Carbine in 9mm that used BHP magazines, but again circumstances prevented me from picking it up then and I never saw or heard of such a beastie ever again.
they pop up every now & then on gunbroker…. biggest issue seems to be the stock cracking just aft of the trigger assembly
I’ve owned a Camp 45 I bought new at Big 5 in Las Vegas when they were in production; its the uncheckedered earlier type. No problems with parts breakage except the bolt stop does wear, and the factory buffer crumbles after a while. It can be pretty dirty too, and the microgroove rifling isn’t great with cast lead reloads; plated bullets (like current Blazer) work ok.
A heavier recoil spring and urethane buffer with the new bolt stop and I expect it will last the rest of my life. It is a wonderful carbine.
No mag interchangeability, but I always thought the ideal Carbine/Pistol combo was the M1 Carbine and AMT Automag III.
Kim, everyone,
A few additional comments, in no particular order.
1) I’ve ordered a scope for the carbine, because I have astigmatic 5x year-old near-sighted eyes.
2) In addition to being small and relatively light weight, the carbine 9mm carbine is a take-down. In fact, it was inspired by Ruger’s 10/22 takedown.
3) I am a member of Illinois State Rifle Association. While important, it is a largely ineffectual group because there are too many dimocrats in the state. That said, here is what we face in IL if Dimocrat candidate JB Pritzker, is elected. Oh, and I neglected to mention, Pritzker will not be his own governor. He’ll be the whipping boy bitch of the person who really runs the state, speaker of the IL house, Mike Madigan. Perhaps the name sounds familiar? It should. His daughter is the outgoing Atty General, and she tried to block enforcement of things like the federally mandated concealed carry law, etc. Anyway . . . JB & Madigan never met a gun rights restriction bill they didn’t absolutely love.
http://www.isra.org/News/TabId/1068/ArtMID/4612/ArticleID/34142/ISRA-Thursday-Bulletin-October-18-2018.aspx
As bad as it is in California, everything I hear about Illinois is worse. Our gun rights groups are active and strong, and if we can’t defeat all the legislation (we do better than you’d think), we’re quick to subvert or go around whatever stupid laws do go through.
Yes, but California is rapidly becoming the UK of the United States. It’s worse than Maryland…which takes considerable doing.
I’m waiting for the declaration of a state of insurrection and the restoration of civil rights by force. (I’ve long thought the critical moment in the racial equality movement was not a court decision, but Eisenhower’s deployment of troops to implement the law by force of arms).
I looked at the Ruger PCC. The weight turned me off; PCCs as a class should be light and short.
Still I like the concept. An AR-15 is a bit of overkill inside the house, and bad for your hearing.
I had a Marlin Camp 9. Although the trigger was quite heavy, it was surprisingly accurate. Still, it was not a gun I could like much, so I sold it. Probably shouldn’t have…
I do like the latest iteration of the KelTec Sub2000, but the sights seem too low for the cheekweld. And I don’t carry a Glock, so magazine commonality does not work.