I consider the P89s, and especially later-production P89s to be among the Q-ships of the semiauto pistol world. It's a platform that successfully completed the rigorous XM10 DoD pistol trials, is significantly overbuilt for the 9mm cartridge (and I mean that in a complimentary way), and the later production variants have actually pretty darn good ergos with the final version of the safety/decocker levers, slide and magazine releases, and quite decent sights out of the box. Accuracy is decent (my personal example is spectacularly so)-especially with later production models whose breech butt is raised above the plane of the slide when in battery. DA triggerpulls are long, but smooth-very Ruger revolver-like (shocker..); SA pull is crisp, with a short and discernible reset point. Factory OEM Xenoy grips are more than adequate, and virtually indestructible. Originally, mine wore a set of Uncle Mike's Craig Spegel-designed grips, but when I noticed some slippage/retention issues with the right grips due to age/deterioration, I replaced them with the current set of Hogue rubber fingergroove grips, which provide a great grip and feel (and also expedite strong- and weak-hand only firing).
Frankly, whenever I get bitten by the HK bug, and am significantly tempted to consider a HK P30/P30L, I take out the venerable P89, and ask myself, "Why?" Not that there's ANYTHING intrinsically undesirable with these HKs, but that the P89 really fills that DA/SA 9mm niche...It really is more than it appears at first blush. That Ruger marketed them as kind of a volkspistol for the lower end of the market, and the gun world's perception seems to be that they're a bit of a "bubba" gun doesn't mean that they're really far better than that marketing and/or market perception.
I feel very comfortable in carrying mine, successfully using it in IDPA competition periodically, and employing it as a nightstand gun. It is designed to work with any commercially available and/or military issue 9mm cartridge-mine has worked successfully with some very hard-primered Israeli submachine gun 9mm fodder (especially in single-action), and work well in pretty much any environment. I have, and have had, many more expensive and critically regarded (or esteemed) 9mm pistols-but the P89 is a keeper (and user) in my collection. For me, it significantly personifies the concept of value in a combat/defensive pistol.
Best, Jon
