During this past Christmas I decided to purchase a Ruger LCP 380acp. It's roll would be EDC (Every Day Carry) primarily for pocket concealment. After reading many positive reviews on the web. Along with numerous article's in magazine's and of course handling them at my local gun dealers. I decided it was time to purchase. The weapon is so easy to conceal. I carry it daily in a Desantis Superfly Pocket Holster. I carry a spare magazine in a Remora Magazine Pouch. And even though I have not tried it yet. I know it would carry easily IWB (in the waist band) or OWB (over the waist band). There are other carry options I am interested in exploring. I will discuss those as other options in a later post. The following will be my initial impressions on the little LCP so far. As I get more comfortable with the gun and put more rounds down range. I will update accordingly.
The Ruger has a short barrel length of only 2.75''. And is only .82'' wide, and weighs in at a hole 9.40 oz (without the laser). This makes it an ideal concealed carry firearm. As you can see, mine has the Crimson Trace Laserguard installed. I don't know exactly how much the CT unit weighs. But trust me its not much at all. And I would highly recommend one. They will make you more accurate in a high stressed situation. And they activate as soon as you grip the weapon and apply a little pressure.
To field strip the weapon for cleaning or evaluation is easy. Remove your magazine and check, double check and triple check that the chamber is empty. Hold the gun similar to as you see in the picture above. Use your thumb to push the slide rearward only about 1/8th''. This is to align the slide notch up so that the take down pin can be removed.
This is one part of the design I don't like. Here you will have to use something very thin but strong such as a knife blade or flat head screwdriver to get behind the take down pin and pop it up. It doesn't take much pressure to get it to come up. After it comes out a little then you can pull it out with your fingers. I don't like this design because there is a risk of scratching your new gun. Not cool.
After removing the pin. The slide just slides forward off of its rails.
Now you will just turn the slide over on its top. And compress the recoil spring a little. Only takes about 1/4'' of compression to get it to clear the notch that it rides in on the bottom of the barrel. In the spring is the guide rod. They both will come out as one unit. However, if your wanting to do serious cleaning job. You can remove the guide rod from the spring. This is something I do not usually worry about unless it is visually dirty.
Now you can reach in and pull the little 2.75'' barrel out. Usually picking it up just a little and slightly forward clears everything enough to pull it straight out.
Now the weapon is completely field stripped and ready for a good cleaning and lubrication. I use CLP to clean just about everything including the bore. And it works fine. I also use a little Rem Oil to lubricate some of the moving parts. But be warned, a little bit goes a long way.
The inside of the frame will get very dirty as well. Depending on how anal you are about cleaning your weapon. It can be time consuming. There is a lot of nook and crannies in there to try to keep clean. I usually just wipe everything out as good as I can get to. Make sure the rails on the frame are clean with Q tips. And the internal hammer. And call it a day.
The reason I like this gun so much is that it is truly so easy to conceal. I have heard and read about numerous guns that was said to be easy to conceal. But do to wardrobe changes for whatever season it might be. They may not be entirely true. I live in Alabama were it is shorts and t-shirt weather about 8 months out of the year. So you have to have something that is super easy and light weight to conceal. If you don't. Then it gets left at home or in the car. And how much good is that doing you.
As mentioned above. Right now I am carrying the weapon in a Desantis Superfly Pocket Holster. Which I believe is a very good holster for the money. It doesn't add to much bulk to the pistol. Slides in and out of the pocket easy enough. And comes with a flap if you will (not shown) that Velcros onto the front of the holster (slide portion) and covers the grip also. It is removable as you can see. It was created to help break up the outline of the pistol in your pocket even more. But I did not find any need for it. I've worn the holster in my front pocket in jeans, cargo pants and khakis and it has disappeared in all of them. As long as your pants of choice of moderate to deep pockets your good to go.
Also, as mentioned before. I carry a spare magazine in a Remora Magazine Pouch. These are made were you can slide these down into your back pocket or carry them IWB. And they are very comfortable and soft to wear.
This is my ammo of choice for self defence carry. Its the Hornady Critical Defense 90 grain FTX. I have read great reviews on it and it seems to very popular. It comes in 25 rd. boxes for 18.00-20.00 per box. It is pricey. But good quality ammo is worth its weight in gold if and when you need it. For practicing I purchase whatever I can find on sale. Which is usually just standard FMJ rds.
At this writing. I have only put 100rds of FMJ for function testing and the 25rd. box of Critical Defence. And so far so good. No problem what so ever. No FTF, FTE, no stove pipes nothing. It has ran 100%. And at self defence ranges for what the gun was designed for. I believe it is going to be a good shooter. By just plinking around at the gun range trying to get a feel for it. I have had no problem keeping all 6 rds. in 8'' paper plate size target. I will be doing some accuracy testing very soon. Were I will try to see what the gun is capable of at different ranges. And none of my shooting will be from the bench. I don't think anyone should train that way. If you get attacked. The attacker is not going to wait for you to find a good prop. Stay Tuned!
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