Ruger LCP Trigger Pull

It sucks....By necessity I suppose.

Your daughter should be fine but she'll have to practice with it.

Accuracy to 30 feet?
You could probably hit a large trash can if you are a good shot. These guns are not made for 30' accurate hits. They are made for average 'across-the-room' hits in an average-size room, about 12 feet or so. So, the bad guy and you are both in the same room, the bad guy will be roughly nine feet away, perhaps closer.

A girl could easily get used to the trigger pull.
I would advise snap caps, and have some kind of system so there is never any live ammo in the same room as where the trigger-pull activity is going on and each time the trigger is pulled, the gun is aimed at something that will catch any bullet that haphazardly ended up in the chamber!

Cocking the action (slide) is harder than the trigger pull will ever be!

The LCP is what I call a specialized gun. It doesn't have a light trigger pull per se but it is consistent and with practice, can be made to be very accurate. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn when I bought my first LCP. A couple of years later, I'm much better with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR-uRVn4irQ

Accuracy to 30 feet?
You could probably hit a large trash can if you are a good shot.

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I'm only an average shot, and I can hit a pie plate at 15 yards with an LCP. It will take a few shots to get used to how the trigger pulls. It's not the force needed, it's the length that will mess a person up. After 10 or 15 shots, you'll be used to it and it's as accurate as you can hold on the target.

Gadzooks Mike said:

I'm only an average shot, and I can hit a pie plate at 15 yards with an LCP. It will take a few shots to get used to how the trigger pulls. It's not the force needed, it's the length that will mess a person up. After 10 or 15 shots, you'll be used to it and it's as accurate as you can hold on the target.

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Well sure, the LCP is accurate if you carefully aim and take your time. I doubt you'll have that much time, when you're confronted with a life or death situation.

When I practice, I draw quickly from concealed, point quickly and shoot double taps while moving back and left or right, at multiple targets.

Can you hit pie plates with your LCP at 15 yards, using this type of drill/technique?

Can you hit pie plates with your LCP at 15 yards, using this type of drill/technique?

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I'm sure he could with practice.

As far as I know, the gun will be accurate, well within minute-O-man

BUT the major limiting factor is-----------
SMALL, as in 2 finger (if you're lucky) grip
SMALL, as in ~4 inch sight radius
SMALL, as in the size of the sights

so, once you realize that the pistol is difficult to shoot, most of the accuracy limitation is on the user side, I'm pretty sure that if you lock it in a Ransom rest you could find the equipment limitation, but it will be less that the human accuracy limitation that are inherent of the difficulty of shooting a small gun accurately.

You won't learn anything useful from what we say here. Some people hate the LCP trigger. I like it a lot: it's long but smooth, and pressing it doesn't tend to pull the gun off target. But that's me; your hands and grip are surely different from mine, so your mileage may differ.

The trigger pull on the LCP is looooong and it takes some adjustment
on the part of the shooter. Once you've made that adjustment however,
the accuracy will come, decent enough for a pocket pistol. I understand
the long trigger pull is needed for safety reasons, but IMO, it is a little
overdone.

I'm very much not fond of it myself. It is indeed smooth, but it's moderately heavy and VERY long. Aside from the trigger pull, the sights are also an abomination. Unless shooting something that's fairly bright out in broad daylight, they almost become undiscernable from the top of the slide.

My 10 yard groups are around 12-15" and tend to be a bit low. Now, I'm not a great shot by any stretch of the imagination, but with larger guns and better sights, I see dramatic improvements.

That said, the gun isn't meant to be a target gun. It's not fun to shoot and after a box or two through it to ensure functionality I doubt most people will care to shoot it much more at all.

All in all, if you're looking for something to serve dual-duty as a range gun and for carry, then look elsewhere. If you still want to go Ruger, the SR9C is an excellent choice as it not only is compact when you need it to be, the 17round mag + grip collar basically makes the grip full-sized. Pretty much a regular SR9 with a slightly shorter barrel at that point.

The LCP on the other hand is for strictly concealed carry use, and IMHO serves well as a backup carry option for when your dress garb simply doesn't allow you to conceal something any bigger.

LCP comments

The trigger pull on mine is on the long side and what you would expect from a double action trigger, but it is much lighter than my Ruger revolvers' double action trigger. At the range, I only practice from 7 to 10 yards out, shooting 5 shots in quick succession. Usually, I am in the 12-15 inch circle range. As previous posters have said: Practice, practice, practice.....

Lone Star said:

I was asking about the limits of the gun's accuracy with careful shooting, not how it works while doing a certain rapid fire drill.

Both are relevant, but it is the maximum accuracy that I asked about. The other is too user-dependant.

LS

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The LCP is quite accurate and that is well documented here.....Check the search function, lots of info there.

I didn't see anything in your original post about "careful shooting". It's a little defensive pistol, not a target pistol. You or her better be able to shoot it effectively, quickly and accurately while under pressure and on the run. IMO

My gf can shoot it just fine. And i can get a 3inch group at 10 yards which is way smaller than a "trash can". Its an accurate little pistol.

I found it easier to shoot than I thought. All my shooting with it has been at 7yds or so and firing at a fairly rapid pace. Very acceptable accuracy IMO.

If I couldn't try trigger I would go to another dealer . Ruger same as my KelTec long but once used to no trouble . I have 3 of the 32 KelTec my wife and daughters carry and shoot them. with out trouble

Fastcast, I can pull quickly and hit the pie plate, but the pie plate isn't shooting back at me. However, that wasn't what I was getting at. I was refuting the statement of Friendly, Don't Fire that you could only hit a trash can at 30 feet if you were a good shot with an LCP. Bullets don't come out of the barrel of the LCP sideways. If you point straight, it will shoot straight. I believe that's what the OP was asking.

Having said all of that, again I'm only an average shot and I'm sure you're much better than I am. I can neither dance around corners, pop up from behind cover, or anything else fancy. I can't put a double tap on a trash can with a hammer. But I'm glad that you can.

Long, heavy, crappy trigger. If you can shoot a DA j-frame well, you'll be able to shoot the LCP ok.

Check out the Taurus TCP and Sig 238, which have much better triggers than the LCP.

Gadzooks Mike said:

I'm only an average shot and I'm sure you're much better than I am. I can neither dance around corners, pop up from behind cover, or anything else fancy. I can't put a double tap on a trash can with a hammer. But I'm glad that you can.

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Go ahead Mike and twist things around, that's what many here do best.

I thought it was quite obvious that I was saying the LCP would be difficult to shoot pie plates well (for me) at 15 yards, while using a defensive type drill.

Hey, if you gentlemen want to slowly bull's-eye shoot your LCP at 15 yards, go for it.....Good luck with it though, if you really need to use it for its intended purpose.

I made the statement considering that a first-time girl is going to be shooting the pistol and that she may have never fired a pistol in her life.

I also stated that they are not extremely accurate out at 30 feet or so. I certainly would not want to be shooting river rats on the bank at 30 feet away, as I am sure I would miss them, even though I am a Sharpshooter (NRA, June, 1969). For that I would use my worked-up .22 Target Pistol!

I also stated that, instead of wondering weather she could pull the trigger, I think she might need to workout on her hands so she can fully rack the slide without slipping or pinching herself. The slide is much harder to pull than the trigger!