New PC Charger

I recently picked up a Ruger PC Charger that appeared on my local gun store wall. I've been wanting one of these since they came out. In my opinion it's everything the PC Carbine should have been from the start!

Functionally almost everything is the same from the carbine but there are a few differences. The most obvious is the lack of iron sights. Not a huge issue given the short sight radius, but seeing as I don't have a spare red dot at the moment, a bit irksome.

The grip is different also. Instead of the monte carlo stock on the carbine, the Charger has a pistol grip - an AR compatible one at that. That makes changing it out a simple matter (and I in fact prefer the rubber Hogue grips on an AR). Interestingly, while the Charger itself is a completely different design from an AR, the grip housing is actually drilled out to accommodate the selector lever spring found on the AR platform. Perhaps there are grips that have the spring built in and they wanted to have compatibility with them.

The final major difference between carbine and Charger is the trigger. I replaced my carbine trigger and intended to do the same with the Charger, only to find that the geometry for each is different. The silver lining there is that I saved $50 on a trigger!

Most people seem to pursue the Sig MCX brace, which has a pic rail adaptor built in. That brace looked too flimsy for me though. I ordered a buffer tube adaptor from Thordsen Customs (they run about $50), necessary because the rear of the gun ends in a Picatinny rail. The adaptor allows me to mount any AR-compatible (really any buffer tube-compatible) stock, brace or stabilizer to the gun. I think this increases the versatility of the gun substantially.

SB Tactical makes a whole line of braces and I ended up finding an SBA3 brace which comes with the buffer tube. It works for now and I have a good starting point if I decide to SBR this gun down the road.

I have a red dot on my carbine which I will be transferring over soon. Eventually I will be purchasing a Holosun micro dot to go on the Charger.

This gun fills a particular niche for me in several ways that the carbine already provided only now I can leave my silencer permanently attached. I have a discreet carry bag that was originally designed to hold the carbine. With the short barrel on the pistol I can now keep the silencer attached when the gun is in the bag. The short barrel also keeps the velocity of the rounds down around pistol numbers (the 16-inch carbine barrel generates almost 200 FPS over my regular pistols). This keeps the muzzle velocity below supersonic.

I haven't had a chance to shoot the gun yet but I am looking forward to doing so in the near future. I will try to update this thread when I do. Hopefully I can even manage some better pictures! For reference, the silencers in the pics below are 9 inches long.

gotboostvr said:

Nice pistol and carbine.

I find it interesting that the pistol looks to have a longer LOP than the carbine.

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That's a function of the adaptor (about 2 inches long) and the buffer tube. The carbine doesn't have a tube. I could probably get a shorter tube but it works for me as is.

Joezilla said:

So, the adapter and the buffer tube both came with the brace?

I NEED one of these, but they are in stock NO WHERE!!

Joe

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No. The adaptor came from Thordsen Customs. The brace came with the buffer tube though. I bought the brace/buffer tube from AR15discounts.com. They were in stock as of last week.
I should add, the adaptor comes with a set screw to secure the brace. Pretty neat

Gordon said:

Nice! I've had one since June, I Ordered an SB TS 1913 triangle brace almost immediately and it was still back ordered till Nov , so I ordered and got a Sig 1913 Sig Brace. It is NOT flimsy, infact stiffer than the other than triangle SB braces I be seen. The latch assembly is beefier than the SB . I'll styled for it. I mounted it upside down to fold to the right, and swiveled the butt pad 180 degree on the Charger as I am running a left charge handle. I still fires folded ! The emptys are tossed over the folded brace. I am using an Aim Point Patrol optic on it on a cantilever mount with a small Light 600 lumen light /green laser mounted ahead of it. No room for fixed sights but I have two options. The design is very nice for a surpresdor and I tried my one on it for awhile. I keep the Suppressor on my Blackout pistol tho. The Charger seems robust, not a fussy feeder, I use Glock 32 round mags and a few Korean clones, all feed well.

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Gordon I saw your post about buying a Charger and I was quite jealous until I found mine! I almost got the Sig brace myself. I realized it was likely as solid as you are now confirming, but I wasn't sure if it would hold up over time for my uses. My carbine (and soon the Charger) spend most of their time sitting muzzle up in the corner. The side-folding feature also don't appeal to me since I use the takedown feature for storage.

Cannibul said:

I really wanted one of these when they were announced.

But then the reality set in.

To get one, get the brace adaptor and brace was $200 or more expensive than buying an AR9. I paid $650 for my PSA AR9.

I love my Ruger PCC. It's an amazing little carbine. Personally I wish they would have offered it in a non-takedown version. That would have shaved another $100 or so off the price.

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The takedown capability and HOW it takes down compared to the AR family are what make the PC Carbine and Charger so much more viable to me. My carbine can be assembled from a slung carry bag, ready to fire, in 15 to 20 seconds. I assume my Charger will be very similar. I can't possibly do the same with an AR and the forward extrusion on an AR is a weak point anyway. I don't consider the PC family to be a direct rival to even pistol caliber ARs. There's certainly some overlap, but the PCs excel in discreet/deep concealment and/or survivalist roles, whereas ARs I feel belong in more of a PDW and general use category.

Gordon said:

This is the gun when I first started using it, now I added a small Olight/green lazer combo ahead of the Aimpoint after I moved it back a little more when I FINALLY got my SIG brace which I mounted to fold to right. I notice you moved your controls left also ! Nice not to take hand off firing grip ! You can get a larger operationg knob and mount is left and put the original back right, think that is what I will do. I like your suppressor ; small and looks correct for the platform. Mine is a little too big, guess I will have to buy another (Form 1 this time !).

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If you are referring to my gun, I didn't change anything with the controls. I am left handed and I tend to grab for things, charging handles included, with that hand. I did order an extra charging handle recently. My previous experience with one was not satisfactory but I'm hoping this one is better constructed. At least I will have more options that way.

Both cans pictured are a product of @MachIVshooter. They are his model Phoenix IX. I have two additional cans that are 4-5 inches shorter than the Phoenix but I have those mounted on pistols. I may do a photo op with the short cans mounted on the long guns.

Here you go Gordon. I took time tonight to throw my TiRant in short configuration on the Charger.

MachIV has some nice K cans. Honestly there isn't much on the market that seems to beat his products IMO. It would be worth your time to at least ask him before you jump on a TiRant (not that mine isn't great).

I took the Charger out today for a quick shake down. I fired a total of 219 rounds through this gun over a span of about 30 minutes. I had a few jams that I was able to pinpoint to my new 50-round drum mag. I'm hoping to wring the issues out of that mag but that's a problem for a different day.

Accuracy and handling were just as expected - the gun handles a bit better than the rifle. One big issue I discovered was that this gun overheats pretty quick; to the point that the front end got too hot to hold towards the end. Heat transferring from the silencer may have contributed to this. Overall heat is not a major concern to me given the role the gun fills for me.

I also noticed some slop in the brace. When I got home I put on a standard AR castle nut and this locked the brace in nice and tight.

When I have time I will take the gun back out. My goal is to put a few hundred more trouble free rounds through the gun before giving it any "duties."

Ok, finally found the time to transfer all my "essential" goodies to the Charger. It's now fully functional and ready to save my life (but here's hoping it never has to).

dickydalton said:

I was pining for one of these but after holding one and thinking of power I went this way.

Saint Victor

• dickydalton
• Sep 30, 2020

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If you were thinking of power how did you end up there? .22 caliber bullets don't exactly evoke "power" to me - 3,000 fps or not. If outright power is the metric you are looking for, nothing is going to beat a small 7.62x51 package. But at the end of the day my Charger fits a narrow niche which I have described many times before.

1. It uses the same mags as my Glock. Since the pair are always next to each other this alone was reason enough for me to get the Charger. In fact my use for the Charger is really as a barricade guns.
2. 9mm is my standard defensive cartridge after years of screwing around with multiple caliber defensive guns in a plethora of calibers.
3. The PC series guns do something for me that no AR ever will - namely take down or go together in a matter of seconds. I travel fairly often and this feature is very valuable to me.
4. I like my ears. Rifle caliber anything indoors is a sure way to ruin that. I'm not letting some cretin destroy my hearing simply because he/they had the stupidity to break in to my house (please note, this would assume there would be gunfire which is not a guarantee).
5. The Charger (really the PC Carbine I bought prior to it) is just plain reliable. I can't say I've had the same experience with my ARs or those of my friends.
6. This one is really the most important to me. The controls on the PC guns work much better for me than anything on the AR.

All this is what works for me.