Josey,
I have a pair of 87s (one for the wife). Haven't had any major problems that a good cleaning and oiling wouldn't fix. It balances in your hand better than what you would think by looking at it. Only prob with cleaning, is you have to remove the accesory rail with an allen key before you can turn the take down lever.
It should come with two front sights, one standard and the other thinner. I prefer the thinner one and the wife prefers the wider one (go figure1).
The biggest differences is that you rack the slide from the front of the trigger guard. Once you get used to it, it seems pretty good, until I bought a 92FS.
One problem I had with it was that the slide wouldn't stay back after the last round. Took me a while, but found that the wax coating on the ammo I was using was building up around the slide stop and stopping it from extending upwards all the way. A good clean and a bit of brushing sorted that one out.
Before I bought it I tried out a few of the range Ruger MkIIs. I don't know if it was because they were range guns, but they didn't seem to suit me like the range 87 did (The 87 was the newest range gun). I also preferred the exposed hammer on the 87. Have compared it to a Buckmark with a 5 1/2" bull barrel and the Buckmark seems to be front heavy, but I like the trigger better on the Buckmark.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Feral_Goz
