Ruger P-Series Custom Touches

When shooters discuss Ruger pistols, they are generally described with words like "rugged" and "reliable," with mention that they just don’t break. Those are very highly regarded attributes for any handgun to have. Words you never hear when describing these pistols are "extremely accurate," "elegant," or "beautiful." In fact, despite over a million of them having been manufactured and sold, if you look for aftermarket accessories, you’re going to be disappointed. I wondered why that was so.

With that many pistols around you would think there would be plenty of sources for improved triggers, decocking levers, magazine wells, match grade barrels or drop in accuracy jobs. About all I’ve been able to find are grips from Pachmayr and Hogue, Wolff Gunsprings and a few sight sets. Are the guns so well made that nobody can come up with better accessories? No. Actually, the guns seem to be bought by folks that don’t shoot them a lot and have little interest in customizing them.

Manufacturers that have tried to offer accessories were unable to sell enough of them to be profitable, so the unforgiving laws of business have left aftermarket parts pretty much unavailable. It would seem that most of those million pistols are sitting in night stand drawers, just waiting to be called to duty. To satisfy my own curiosity, I checked shooters at our local public range the last several times I was out there.

Despite the range being full and more folks waiting for spaces to open up, I was unable to find a single shooter firing a Ruger P-Series. A couple showed up at a zombie shoot I attended but I just don’t see many of them being used. What I did find in my search for accessories was factory parts. Both the auction sites and parts houses all seem to have a plen- Big and bulky, we will work on rounding out the facets and reducing the bulk.

Watch the transformation of the slide, frame, hammer, slide stop and trigger guard. tiful supply of Ruger factory parts. I guess that means that if I want a customized Ruger P-Series pistol I’ll just have to break out the tools and do it myself. The first complaint I hear about the pistols is that they are blocky looking, feel oversized and clumsy. I have to admit I agree, so the first thing to look at is how to we can reduce the pistol’s bulk and make it look and feel more slim and trim.

Have you ever compared a Ford Thunderbird to a Chevy Corvette? Both are classic designs but where the Ford is all about lines and angles, the Corvette is all curves and radii. The Rugers look to me like a Ford engineer designed them. Lots of lines and angles. Most other pistols, including the S&W M&P, Glock, XD, SIG and Walthers that look quite angular, have far fewer flat planes and facets than the Ruger. Perhaps the Ruger design isn’t so much bulky as

it is different and appears bulky due to its having so many angles. I wondered what would happen if I simply got rid of all those facets. Well, I have a P-89. Let’s try it and see. For starters, pick up the pistol and clear it, confirming the gun is empty. There is nothing worse than starting a project with a bullet hole in something valuable or something that will bleed. Disassemble the firearm, taking it completely down to its basic components.

If you don’t know how to do this, go to the Internet and type "Ruger P-XX disassembly" into any search engines. You will find several sites that will offer everything from free videos on how it is done to pages you can print out showing the disassembly procedure step by step. The process is not very difficult but it isn’t totally intuitive either. I chose the print out because I, like most old geezers with fading short term memories, prefer having the reference material in front of me as I work.

Once you have the pistol disassembled take a look at the parts. I immediately decided that the trigger needed to be polished and the web at the back removed, leaving a thin polished blade trigger in the trigger guard. Next was the massive hammer. My first thought was to enlarge the hole under the serrations for thumb cocking the gun. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the hammer is not only huge but also harder than woodpecker lips. Even my TI coated drill bits danced on the surface without making an impression.

After giving the situation some thought, I took the hammer to the grinding wheel and thinned the thumb-cocking piece. With a Dremel tool I ground away the underside, leaving a small pad to thumb cock the hammer. Dissatisfied with that look, I bobbed the hammer by completely removing the rowel. With its reduced mass lock time should be greatly improved.

There is also a web The muzzle end of the slide is being rounded or "melted." Far Here a 1/16" pin punch is used to remove the roll pins holding the sight into the slide. of metal on the hammer just below where the rowel was that could be removed. That will not change the outward appearance of the gun but will further lighten the hammer. I next looked at the ambidextrous decocking levers and decided that about the only improvement I could make to them was to sharpen the serrations.

They are long and wide enough as supplied. Making them longer would cause them to be taller than the top of the slide when shooting, an awkward and distracting modification. The slide release offended me for some reason. I simply didn’t like the way it looked so I ground the top line straight, polished off the remaining grooves and checkered the top to give a positive, no-slip surface. The last change to the external parts was to replace the original factory grip with a set of Hogue rubber grips. They give the

gun a completely different feel and made it feel much less bulky to me. Working the small parts over definitely made the pistol more personalized but the frame and slide were where a lot of ugly still lived. I started with the slide. At the top of the slide is a rib that runs from the front sight back an inch or so. It adds to the height of the slide and gives a tall look so I removed it by filing it off, leaving just an island under the front sight.

I then rounded the top of the slide with coarse Emery cloth, used in a shoeshine fashion until the angles disappeared and it looked more like a 1911 slide. I did this from the muzzle all the way back to the rear sight dovetail, giving the slide around top and eliminating the rib that runs from the front of the rear sight to the ejection port. I then went to the Scott Murray drum and blended the lines along the side of the slide from just in front of the ejection port and tapered the slide from there to the muzzle.

Once I had a look I liked I reduced the grit of the abrasive I was using until I worked my way down to 120 grit and polished the entire slide. Still not happy with the overall look, I rounded the front of the slide at the muzzle again using the Emery cloth until I liked the appearance. I also rounded the back of the slide behind the rear sight so the front and back looked like they belonged on the same gun. Now that we had a softer looking slide with fewer lines and more curves, it was time to tackle the frame.

There was a lot I didn’t like about the frame. The dust cover The sharp angles of the dust cover and around the trigger will be rounded. is once again faceted, so that was rounded in the same manner as the slide. I then decided that the most objectionable part of the gun to my eye was the trigger guard area, being too thick and bulky. This is a feature I have seen and disliked on a lot of pistols, especially those with synthetic frames. The Glock comes immediately to mind.

The finger hook on the front is simply too massive and just plain ugly and the frame is once again faceted above the trigger guard. In keeping with the rest of the work, it was all thinned, rounded and, in the case of the finger hook,

removed. Now, if you happen to like the finger hook you can leave it but the guard itself, including the hook, is in desperate need of thinning and tapering inside and out. The trigger guard was thinned and rounded to present a thinner, more traditional look along its edge. I also slightly radiused the front of the frame just behind the dust cover where it widens out. Care must be taken in working this area because the serial number is on the right side and the trigger return spring and rod are on the left.

Do NOT under any circumstances file or grind off the serial number or any part of it! As Obi Wan Kenobi would say, it will help avoid any "Imperial entanglements." Once you have the gun looking a lot less angular and blocky and you’re happy with the change, polish out all the sanding and file marks and think about refinishing the gun. The frame on my P-89 is an alloy of some kind. I think it is stainless but, nevertheless, it is nonmagnetic and will not blue.

In years past that could be a major problem, however, today we have a number of spray on/bake on finishes that will be terrific for this application. They all go on easily and will give you excellent results.

I’ve used all of them at one time or another and my personal favorites are the Teflon/Moly Oven Cure Gun Finish (Brownells #083-048-801AE) and Aluma-Hyde II (#083-002-112AE.) The Teflon/Moly provides good looks, long wear and low surface friction while the Aluma-Hyde II is an air-cured epoxy that resists bore cleaners and does not require baking. Both are available in several colors from traditional black that old geezers like me favor, and whose stock numbers I provided, to grays, greens, sand and tans.

There are a lot of choices and they all work great. Of course, these are only suggestions to get you thinking about the possibilities. I elected to narrow the slide as much as I could and that nearly erased the Ruger name and Compare the slide, frame, trigger, trigger guard, slide release and hammer to the factory build. address. You can certainly leave them intact if you wish.

The key to taking on a project of this type is that it allows you to personalize your gun to make it into something both unique and more functional. It is also a great project for anyone with a desire to do a little gun work without investing in a lot of specialty tools. Because all that was done is parts modification with no work on the action or trigger, the only things required are files, emery cloth and the finish of your choice.

I’m quite happy with my "streamlined" Ruger P-89 and you can be just as happy with yours. All it takes is a few tools and a gallon or so of elbow grease. AG