My P85 MKII that I picked up a few weeks ago. I don't think its had more than a couple of hundred rounds fired through it. The owner preferred shooting his PoS Davis P380. I picked the PoS up too.

Picked up a lnib P89 blue at the show today.  Box, papers, two hi cap mags.   $399.  Not a super buy but close enough.  

This was a nostalgia buy.   When these first came out I wanted one in the worst way.   But I had a wife, two small kids, a mortgage, a car payment and god knows what else.   I could buy a gun or we could eat. Wife is gone, kids are grown, I have the money.   Done deal  

Tracking a couple of grip options on eBay. There’s a set of Uncle Mikes but damn they are pricey.

My girlfriend has a Davis .380 and a Ruger P85. I'd be afraid to fire the Davis. Wasn't there a class action against them because the .380 was injuring people? Very dangerous pot-metal gun if I recall.

Davis was sued out of existence b/c a babysitter shot her charge by pulling the trigger after removing the magazine.  Quit repeating Leftist talking points.

I've handled it. It doesn't scream quality.

"In 1999, Davis filed for bankruptcy and went out of business as a result of a large number of lawsuits being filed by cities and municipalities." Sounds like more than just a single problem with one babysitter.  

Cities and municipalities run by leftists who didn't like their urban poor (blacks and Hispanics) armed with cheap effective blowback handguns - so they sued Davis out of existence.

I'm surprised Hi-Point hasn't suffered the same fate.

Hi-Point was careful to design an easily-removable magazine safety in their guns.  Also, the Lawful Commerce in Arms act protects HiPoint from a lot of frivolous lawsuits that sunk Davis.

I traded my P89 for a marlin lever action, still own a P94.

I am somewhat surprised at the following that has built up over this pistol .

I have owned  a P85  since the mid 1970s and was never very happy with it.

As far as I know the P85 and P 89 are about the same gun .

Strong yes , reliable yes but the Ruger trigger is just a handful to manage. I had a gunsmith try to lighten the pull and I put cases of ammo through it thinking it would smooth out some.

Funny thing when the gun is empty the trigger feels reasonable but when you load it up it the trigger is none too light and scratchy as all get out. The end result is something that is difficult to shoot well at all .

I suppose now that I am retired and have time on my hands I should try to get it running better. Don't think I have shot it in 6-7 years maybe 10 .

I am kind of trapped as CT is now a 10 round state so to sell it I would have to buy some 10 rd mags , sell it out of state or take a price beating selling it without mags . All of this is a PITA and when I bought it new I think I only paid $375 or so for it so there it sits

 Pics of time machine?

I was thinking the same thing. He had a P85... in the 70s? Must have been a pre-pre-production model.

Still have an unfired P95--bought it right before they were discontinued-----I'll break it out after I wear out the other one.

Local cop shop has a used P95 for $230.  I haven't given it a look to see if it's a newer version with a rail or an older. At least I think they upgraded it with a rail, didn't they?

Umm, so never??? LOL



For $230 I would be on it regardless.

Yeah, that's only $40 more than a PSA Compact Dagger.

Not anymore

Cheapest complete Dagger at this moment is $250.  Cheapest complete slide and complete frame is 230, so essentially the price of the missing magazine.

Now when the clearance sale started, you could do a complete gun without magazine for 190. But is it really a fair comparison if it doesn't come with a magazine?

ETS Glock mags sell for as little as $10. - so complete, $10 more than the Ruger, and those magazines are what, $40, 50?

Come on, you can't pick dog shit magazines and put them up against factory Ruger brand magazines for a price comparison, that's not close to being fair.


MecGar brand mags are between $20 and 30. I put one of those up against a Glock OEM magazine any day.  I'm not dealing with ETS or Magpul Glock magazines just like I didn't mess with ProMag and USA brand magazines back in the 90s and early 2000s. OEM Glock magazines are only a few dollars cheaper than MecGar Ruger magazines.


A better comparison would be what parts are you replacing on the dagger before you have full confidence?  If I bought an old p89 or 95, I'll probably be happy to just replace the recoil spring and shove a new magazine in there.



As far as the dagger, I've bought three slides in the last few weeks I'm going to have to spend extra to put an OEM Glock firing pin in there because I don't want to play the "will it fire or will it break?" game

Just so I'm not dogpiling on the daggers, I'll say the S frame I picked up last night feels good, damn good. Better than any full size Glock I've ever held. The finger groove doesn't bother me as bad as the compact, but it's still going to be moving to another dimension in a few days (Dremel emoji).

Shrug.  I run steel case in my 40 round ETS mag out of my SUB-2000 - and had the same failure w/ it in my Glock 26 Gen 5 as I did w/ a factory 33 round Glock mag, which is why my Gen 5 has been in Georgia for 9 months now.  I gave my son a Dagger on his 18th birthday, I'm perfectly confident it will work if he ever needs it.  If it has issues down the road, we'll fix em.

The Ruger is interesting as a historical piece, that's a decent price, but it's a dead end magazine.  The only PCC that ever took P-series Ruger mags is long out of production & up around $1k on GunBroker.  For a glovebox or tacklebox gun, throw a cheap multi-colored Dagger in there w/ cheap mags.  The Daggers are very nearly as cheap as a HiPoint, particularly if you add a 1911 mag catch & a 1911 mag to the mix.

That said, for $230, I'd buy the Ruger.

I looked for it today, somebody beat you to it

It's a shame, I didn't realize how cheap MecGar mags are at grabagun (17rd nickel for $21.xx).

The later production P95's came with a rail and a more rough textured frame-----the decocker option was dropped and only safety/decocker models were offered with a larger lever for right handed use while the other side had a minimal lever.

Looks like good condition P89s are going up in value ... this one just sold for $455 plus shipping.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1018410601

Picked this up today with 3 15rd mags for $260

Never owned one before, but their reputation for reliability precedes them, so I’m looking forward to a solid (literally) performer

This was $330. WAS...

I bought this NIB one off the EE in May
Attached File


I bought Hogue grips for it and finally got around to shooting the other week
Attached File


This is the second 89 that I've owned and I have to say this one shoots great

I have one, and it's how I learned to shoot lights-out on a double action trigger pull.

But whenever I handle it, I think:

"comically large and unnecessarily ugly"

Tough as nails though. Heck, my buddy shot some janky late 40's combloc surplus 9mm though it, a round detonated, and blew the extractor out. This taught me three things: 1. this is how the slide gets disassembled, 2. Shitty ammo can be really shitty, 3. Holy smokes the P89 is tough. Put the extractor back in (it's cast too) and kept on shooting something else.

I got on the Mec-Gar P89 mag clearance when CDNN had them on cheap.

That is a steal for the gun w/laser, plus the mags are almost worth the purchase price.
Are some of those 10 rd mags?

When I turned 18 in 1987, I bought a Remington 870 as my first firearm,  I said, when I turn 21, I'll buy a pistol.  In 1990, on my 18th birthday, I trundled down to the Sheriff's Department to get an NC Pistol Purchase Permit, for $5, as was required at the time,  Our local Sheriffs Office had switched to auto pistols the year prior.  While filling out the paperwork, I asked the Deputy on duty about his sidearm, and he said he loved their new auto pistol much better than the revolvers they used to carry, and I took note that they carried Rugers.

I went to my local Jumbo Sports and looked at 9mm's.  The Sig 226 I wanted was out of my price range.  The Beretta was still expensive, but at $550, closer to my range, and then I spotted the Roger P89 DC in the case.  $325 iirc, and the same gun our local law enforcement was carrying.  "Ring me up, my good man!"

I left with a 9mm, and 200 rods of ammo, went to a field and shot some targets.  That was my only pistol until maybe 1995 or so, when I bought a Beretta 92 INOX, a Springfield 1911, and a Colt Detective Special in short order.  A Ruger Mk II target and Glock 23 followed, and before long, the Ruger languished as "sexier guns" began piling up in my first storage cabinet.  I traded her off for a partial payment on an Sig 226, but she never hiccuped or gave me an ounce of trouble in the time I owned her.  Not the sleekest of guns, or one that gave you bragging rights, but she always went "BANG" when you pulled the trigger.  You never forget your first .