Barrel longevity for a Ruger P89

[Raymond loves his P89]

Hi there, I am new to the Forum but not Ruger pistols. Love my 2004 9mm P89. It was given to me about 15yrs ago and looks and performs flawlessly. I have put probably a couple thousand rounds through it. Both fmj and HP of varying grains and pressures.

Question for all: How long is the barrel good for or should I say what has your experience shown you?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[hittman]

Welcome

 

[Jim Walsh]

Don't recall the year but I bought my P89DC the year they came out. I've shot a couple thousand rounds easily, the barrel is in fine shape and accuracy is the same. Not exactly a target gun but that's not what it was designed for.

 

[DeletedMember275]

You can't afford to shoot the barrel out, unless you're either getting free ammo or are related to Elon Musk.

 

[Raymond loves his P89]

Don't recall the year but I bought my P89DC the year they came out. I've shot a couple thousand rounds easily, the barrel is in fine shape and accuracy is the same. Not exactly a target gun but that's not what it was designed for.

Thanks so much. Yes, mine is still accurate, well when my old eyes work right

It's my bedside companion. I own other brands of pistols that I regularly target shoot but I still love my P89 the most

 

[Mike J]

I can't give a link or tell you where I read it but I seem to recall the P-series barrels having a life expectancy of about 15,000 rounds. Then again I could be completely wrong. It has been a long time.

 

[Sam Summey]

Hi there, I am new to the Forum but not Ruger pistols. Love my 2004 9mm P89. It was given to me about 15yrs ago and looks and performs flawlessly. I have put probably a couple thousand rounds through it. Both fmj and HP of varying grains and pressures.

Question for all: How long is the barrel good for or should I say what has your experience shown you?

Thanks so much for your help!

I am not certain that the chamber and rifling will ever be worn out. The locking mechanics (barrel/slide interface) can wear out, the slide to frame can wear out or become sloppy but it will still work reliably. It is my belief that the slide to barrel lockup is the most critical point contributing to accuracy, I expect with the massiveness of the P89 slide to barrel lockup interface and the pin/barrel lug interface you will never wear it out.

In 1985 it was determined that a preponderance of the 1911/1911A1 in use with the US Army had at least 1,000,000 rounds fired in each of them. All had been through the armories several times for rebuild/parts replacement/refinish since the Second World War, that was 42 years, some of the 1911 pistols had been in service for 74 years.
In 1985 the government replaced all the 1911/1911A1 pistols with the Beretta 92F/M9. In 1993 (the Gulf War) it was discovered a preponderance of the M9s were worn "slap ass out", yes, they still functioned as long it they had good magazines but accuracy was crapped out. The locking lug/flapper and the mortise in the slide were worn, the "T" slot that the barrel slides in the frame when the gun fires were worn out, that is only 8 years. It took the US Department of Defense 27 years to realize a problem and to test pistol designs to find a replacement.

Along about 2018, on the same weekend, I had two 92Fs brought to me with the same complaint, accuracy had gone to pot. I called the Army Marksmanship Unit at Ft. Benning inquiring what I could do to fix or relieve the accuracy issues. The civilian gunsmith said, "buy a new one". I eventually replaced the locking blocks with oversize ones which helped with accuracy, but it never returned to the original level. Both handguns had had about 23,000 rounds fired in them.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

In 1985 it was determined that a preponderance of the 1911/1911A1 in use with the US Army had at least 1,000,000 rounds fired in each of them. All had been through the armories several times for rebuild/parts replacement/refinish since the Second World War, that was 42 years, some of the 1911 pistols had been in service for 74 years

I can't speak to the Army but the Navy sent the 1911 pistols back to NSWC CRANE for rebuild every 15,000 rounds. Each pistol had a maint card with round count and dates of use/routine maint/inspection. I saw a lot of 1911s...many slides from Colt, Remington Rand, Singer, Union Switch & Signal.....but those slides most likely were on many different frames over the years. None of the 1911's were all original as they had been rebuilt many many times over. The Navy still widely issued the 1911 well into the 90's. It was awhile before the M9 completely phased out the 1911's. I got out in the early 90s and rarely saw a Navy issued M9. By the way, all 1911's I came across in the Navy as either a Armorer, Small Arms Instructor or just issued for duty were marked Property of US ARMY.

 

[kmoore]

Barrel wearing out? Inside or outer lock up points. People talk about barrel wear mainly on the inside and mean rifling or chamber, maybe feed ramp. Doubt that will ever happen.
Other parts on the gun, yeah. They can wear out or even break. When will they, depends on many things, how you maintain/clean the gun, the ammo, even how you fire it.
Take it to the range once or several times a year, shoot several box's of ammo through it. Strip and clean and lube all points Ruger says need it. Don't give another thought about wearing the barrel out.

 

[the_leper_colony]

Just for grins, I'll pass along something that was mentioned to me, years ago, by Captain Obvious: how long your firearm lasts depends on what you feed it. Jacketed bullets generally cause more wear than cast, and high performance defensive loads generally cause more wear than target loads. As always IMHO, YMMV, FWIW, rumor has it, etc., etc.

 

[pisgah]

If you shoot your P89 enough to wear out the barrel, I will buy you a new barrel...

 

[Mobuck]

"I have put probably a couple thousand rounds through it. "
That should break it in nicely. Good to go for the rest of your life.

 

[DGW1949]

Wear on barrel contact points?.....If it slides, grease it. If it rotates, oil it....You can get by a while with neither, but you'll get by much longer if you do it....Disclaimer: May not apply to plastic guns, dunno...I've never had one.

DGW

 

[Sam Summey]

I can't speak to the Army but the Navy sent the 1911 pistols back to NSWC CRANE for rebuild every 15,000 rounds. Each pistol had a maint card with round count and dates of use/routine maint/inspection. I saw a lot of 1911s...many slides from Colt, Remington Rand, Singer, Union Switch & Signal.....but those slides most likely were on many different frames over the years. None of the 1911's were all original as they had been rebuilt many many times over. The Navy still widely issued the 1911 well into the 90's. It was awhile before the M9 completely phased out the 1911's. I got out in the early 90s and rarely saw a Navy issued M9. By the way, all 1911's I came across in the Navy as either a Armorer, Small Arms Instructor or just issued for duty were marked Property of US ARMY.

When the 1911/1911A1 went in for refinish the parts were all mixed up no attempt was made to keep associated parts together. As you noted, the 1911/1911A1 were built and rebuilt over and over again. The point to note was that they could be rebuilt into acceptable accuracy levels, the M9s couldn't, when they were worn-out they went into scrap. Note in the 1920's-30s the Navy did let orders direct to Colt for Blued "Property of US Navy" marked 1911s. 1911 handguns so marked are quite valuable. Several years ago a guy whose father had recently passed brought a pristine US NAVY marked 1911 to "customize into a "race gun". I saw this and said NO, put it for sale and buy a custom race gun from Staccato. As it turned out the gun was bought within 15 minutes of posting it online. He got enough money to pay for the Staccato with money left over to buy some ammo.

 

[Sam Summey]

I once had the lug on the barrel that the link is mounted to break off of a Springfield "Compact" at 23,000 rounds of mostly LSWC target loads. I attributed that failure to a design/manufacturing flaw. Seems Springfield barrels are a two-piece design. The locking lugs and link lug portion is either a casting or forging which is silver soldered to the barrel to form an assembly. Can't knock them, I have seen this technique of manufacture used by Colt too. The one that failed just didn't get any silver solder in the lug area. It was about .010-.015 thick at the lug.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

"Property of US Navy" marked 1911s.

I handled a ton of 1911's in various commands both east and west coast and never came across one of those. Would like to have seen one. Everything marked US Army was so taboo...

 

[Raymond loves his P89]

Thanks so much guys for all of your help! I was worried about the rifling of the barrel due to its age and not knowing how much the gun was used before I acquired it years ago.

I actually am one person that loves maintaining and keeping my firearms cleaned and lubed.

So you all have put my mind at ease on continuing to use my favorite 9mm within my collection .

 

[Sam Summey]

I handled a ton of 1911's in various commands both east and west coast and never came across one of those. Would like to have seen one. Everything marked US Army was so taboo...

The reason they are so valuable is because of their scarceness.
I was wrong in my previous post these were made prior to 1920.

Colt: S/N (approx.) 20,000 to 83,856 = Jan. 1913 to Aug. 19, 1913

• S/N 38,001 to 43,900 Navy Model (USS New York) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 43,901 to 44,000 Navy Model (USS Texas) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 36,401 to 37,650 U.S.M.C. Model made by Colt = July 9, 1913

5) Colt: S/N 83,856 to 89,801 = Aug. 19, 1913 to July 20, 1914

• (S/N 83,901 to 84,400 U.S.M.C. Model = May 12, 1914)

6) Colt: S/N 89,801 to 108,601 = July 20, 1914 to Feb. 8, 1915

• (S/N 96,001 to 97,537 Navy Model (U.S. Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915)

7) Colt: S/N 108,601 to 290,000 = Feb. 8, 1915 to May, 1918

• (S/N 109,501 to 110,000 Navy Model, S/N 223,953 to 223,991 Navy Model, S/N 232,001 to 233,600 Navy Model)
• (S/N 151,187 to 151,986 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 185,801 to 186,201 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 209,587 to 210,386 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 215,387 to 217,386 U.S.M.C. Model)

 

[XUSNORDIE]

The reason they are so valuable is because of their scarceness.
I was wrong in my previous post these were made prior to 1920.

Colt: S/N (approx.) 20,000 to 83,856 = Jan. 1913 to Aug. 19, 1913

• S/N 38,001 to 43,900 Navy Model (USS New York) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 43,901 to 44,000 Navy Model (USS Texas) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 36,401 to 37,650 U.S.M.C. Model made by Colt = July 9, 1913

5) Colt: S/N 83,856 to 89,801 = Aug. 19, 1913 to July 20, 1914

• (S/N 83,901 to 84,400 U.S.M.C. Model = May 12, 1914)

6) Colt: S/N 89,801 to 108,601 = July 20, 1914 to Feb. 8, 1915

• (S/N 96,001 to 97,537 Navy Model (U.S. Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915)

7) Colt: S/N 108,601 to 290,000 = Feb. 8, 1915 to May, 1918

• (S/N 109,501 to 110,000 Navy Model, S/N 223,953 to 223,991 Navy Model, S/N 232,001 to 233,600 Navy Model)
• (S/N 151,187 to 151,986 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 185,801 to 186,201 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 209,587 to 210,386 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 215,387 to 217,386 U.S.M.C. Model)

This is very interesting information. Thanks!.

I'm curious if the ones that appear to have been made for/shipped to a specific command had that marked on the slide as well. That would be really cool.

 

[Sam Summey]

The reason they are so valuable is because of their scarceness.
I was wrong in my previous post these were made prior to 1920.

Colt: S/N (approx.) 20,000 to 83,856 = Jan. 1913 to Aug. 19, 1913

• S/N 38,001 to 43,900 Navy Model (USS New York) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 43,901 to 44,000 Navy Model (USS Texas) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915
• S/N 36,401 to 37,650 U.S.M.C. Model made by Colt = July 9, 1913

5) Colt: S/N 83,856 to 89,801 = Aug. 19, 1913 to July 20, 1914

• (S/N 83,901 to 84,400 U.S.M.C. Model = May 12, 1914)

6) Colt: S/N 89,801 to 108,601 = July 20, 1914 to Feb. 8, 1915

• (S/N 96,001 to 97,537 Navy Model (U.S. Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.) = March 9, 1912 to March 5, 1915)

7) Colt: S/N 108,601 to 290,000 = Feb. 8, 1915 to May, 1918

• (S/N 109,501 to 110,000 Navy Model, S/N 223,953 to 223,991 Navy Model, S/N 232,001 to 233,600 Navy Model)
• (S/N 151,187 to 151,986 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 185,801 to 186,201 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 209,587 to 210,386 U.S.M.C. Model, S/N 215,387 to 217,386 U.S.M.C. Mode

Here's the link: https://sightm1911.com/1911Production.htm