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.
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.
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