I've owned a Blackhawk and I currently own an SP101. What I love about a Ruger is that I feel like if I needed to in a pinch, I could use it as a framing hammer. When I went to my local gunshop and asked to handle the Kel-Tec P3AT, it felt like a squirt gun. The cheap plastic feels like the gun would snap in my back pocket if I farted or sat down too fast. Personally, I couldn't care less if Ruger ripped off Kel-Tec. How many customers has Kel-Tec ripped off with their cheap guns? About half of them. And now all the Kel-Tec owners have to convince themselves they've got a great gun and spending an extra 30 bucks would only be for the Ruger name. Whatever, give me the Ruger any day. Thanks Ruger for stealing from Kel-Tec so I can have a gun that works.
You want to use a Blackhawk as a framing hammer? I hope it's not a blued one, since the grip frame is aluminum. Not sure how well it will stand up to that.
You've handled a KT in a store, and read about them on the internet. You've read reviews of the Ruger. Have you ever shot either? Have you got any comparative reliability tests that you've done? Or even durability? Where are you qualifications for coming out and bashing one, and lauding the other? Just their respective reps?
Moreover, perhaps someone can explain to me the logic behind shopping for a pocket pistol based on which one is bigger and heavier. Because it feels more solid? Because more weight automatically equals better quality? Here i thought pocket pistols were
supposed to be small and light.
Rugers aren't big and heavy because they're made better. they're big and heavy because they have to be for their investment cast parts to have the same strength as more conventional (and lighter) ones. I know in about four seconds someone is going to start screaming about "Ruger-only data." Yeah, you can shoot a .45 LC loaded up to .44 Mag levels out of a big Ruger. Care to guess why? It's not because it's a Ruger, it's because it's a .44 Mag with different sized holes drilled in it. Same deal applies with the Anaconda.
As far as Rugers being spectacular for reliability and product finishing, etc, that just ain't so. Anyone who wildly jumps around and yells about "rugged, reliable, Ruger firearms," needs to be bludgeoned with their own ruger. They break, just like anything else. If you haven't broken one, it's because you haven't shot it enough. "Oh! Oh! Oh! I've got 500 problem free rounds through my Ruger _______!" Call me back when you've got ten thousand down the pipe.
I have four Rugers, two super Blackhawks, two Bisley Vaqueros, and my dad's got a pair of New Vaqs, and a pair of Single Sixes. Care to guess how many of them have been 100% trouble free? None. That's right, zero. the 'Hawks have skipped chambers, slipped the base pin, failed to fire, broken a transfer bar, and one of them lost a sear. the Bisleys, when new, weren't even close to hitting where the sights pointed. One of them, on the very first full power round I put through it, the plastic grip fell in half. I've yet to even shoot a match with them. Dad's New Vaqs have both had internal parts break, cylinders lock, pins slip, etc. Getting the Single Sixes reliable enough just for practice guns has been a year long oddessy. However, with intelligent action work, and proper maintainence, they can be made into effective guns.
I've also got a p380 and a p32. I've had the .32 for six years, most of that time as either primary or secondary CCW. It's choked a time or two, but usually only when it's been in my pocket for several months at a stretch, and needed an oil change and lint removal service. The .380 hasn't had any probs other than not hitting where the "sights" point, but it's still got less than 1k rds through it.
Sorry for ranting, but guns are guns. Very few are trustworthy from the box, but most can be made serviceable. There is no such thing as 100% reliability. That's why you practice malfunction drills, and also what BUGs are for. And its as a BUG that KTs shine. The new Ruger-Tec may well shine there as well, but maybe ans a BUG for a slightly lighter primary, just to keep things even.