Combining a Ruger, American or Glock pistol with a Ruger PC Carbine gives Dan Galusha a super match.

Today, we have semi-auto pistols that have several calibers and designs in magazines, none of which will fit one another. This carries over to semi-auto rifles and carbines.

Ruger has now done something to help with their line of PC Carbines, with PC standing for “pistol caliber.” Their carbine will accept magazines from the Ruger Sercurity-9 and SR9 pistols with one adapter, American with another, and with yet another adapter, Glock magazines. Although none of these magazines are interchangeable with the pistols, they can still be used with the carbine. The magazine adapters for the Security-9/SR9 and Glock come with the gun, but the adapter for the American must be purchased separately. The carbine is shipped with one SR9 magazine.

The PC Carbine model that I have comes with spacers to lengthen the gun, or you can remove all of them and shorten it to an overall length of 34 inches, such as I have done. These spacers fit in the butt plate area. All wrenches are also included for the changing of adapters and sight adjustment.

While on the subject of sights, it has an adjustable peep sight that can be adjusted for windage and elevation. It is extremely easy to adjust, but I found it was pretty much “dead on” with only a slight tweaking for windage.

It has two rails—one under the front of the stock for a light or laser sight, and one on top for a scope or red dot. At present, I have not found a need for any of these accessories, as the gun as been perfect as it is.

The only thing added so far is a Ruger sling. The gun comes with the mounts.

Another nice feature is the bolt handle being able to be removed and switched to either side. This makes it handy for people that shoot left-handed, or would prefer the handle to be on the left side.

Although I have not really used it, the feature that others and I have found very interesting is the bayonet-type barrel mount that makes it quick and easy to break down the gun into two pieces, and to carry it in a much smaller case such as a briefcase. You can get cases targeted towards these PC Carbine models, such as I have that comes with several pockets on the outside to hold extra magazines and ammunition. When using this sort of case, you have to break down the gun into the two pieces in order for it to fit. To break it down, the magazine is removed, bolt locked open, a lever under the forearm area pushed forward, front section twisted to the side, and then pulled upward. Replacing it is everything in reverse; except for after the barrel is pushed and twisted into place, it will click without having to move the lever.

The model that I have is a 19101. This is a 9 mm with a 10-round magazine, and fluted, non-threaded 16.1-inch barrel. It is also available in 9 mm Luger and 40 S&W models with a threaded barrel, free-floating handguard, pistol grip, quick-adjust butt stock and 17-round magazine.

If you use a Ruger magazine, the bolt will stay open after the final round is fired. However, I purchased some 32-round Pro Mag versions of the SR9, none of which will keep the bolt open after the final round is fired. A friend and I were comparing the Ruger SR9 magazines to this Pro Mag, and he feels that there is a very slight difference in the follower, which does not allow the gun to use the part of the magazine’s casing that stops the bolt from closing once the magazine is empty. So, if you want the bolt to work as it should, don’t purchase anything but an actual Ruger brand.

Weight is on the hefty side of things for being a carbine. Without being loaded it weighs in at 6.8 pounds.

As could be expected with the size and weight, for shooting a pistol round the recoil is fairly easy, so that about anyone can shoot this gun. I’ve encountered short 9 mm pistols with way more recoil problems than this carbine.

One question that I’ve received is on the accuracy at longer distances. Many have thought that around 25 yards would be the limit, but this is not the fact. The longest distances that I have fired are 30 to 50 yards, and after tweaking the windage adjustment, it placed several rounds in the middle of 10-inch bullseyes and 12-inch gong targets, with a few hitting out farther, but still on the targets. At 10 to 25 yards it blasts the middle of the target. At that range, the middle of a Shoot-N-See type target is a “Shoot-N-Gone.”

For more information…

You can watch Dan Galusha’s Shoot ‘N’ Plink videos using the PC Carbine, as well as other videos covering everything from shooting to sight adjustment, on his YouTube channel: youtube.com/dansfishntales.

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