Ruger P90

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Ruger P90
Type	Pistol
Place of origin	United States
Specifications
Weight	34 ounces
Length	7.75 in
Barrel length	7 3/4"

Cartridge	.45 ACP
Caliber	.45 in (11.43 mm)
Action	Recoil-operated, closed bolt
Rate of fire	Semi-automatic
Muzzle velocity	800 ft/s (244 m/s)
Feed system	7 rounds (standard-capacity magazine), +1 in chamber

The Ruger P90 is a .45 ACP-Caliber semi-automatic pistol introduced in 1991 by Sturm, Ruger & Co. The model is part of the P-series, which followed the original P85.

[edit] History

The P90 .45 was in planning for a significant time before it was introduced in 1990. In 1988 the FBI adopted the 10 mm Auto pistol cartridge in light of its experiences in the 1986 Miami shootout, which lead many police and firearm commentators to believe that this round was going to be used a basis for all future police pistols. Ruger's design was intended to target this market.

Bill Ruger, Sr. and his engineers believed at that time that with full-power loads, the high energy of the 10mm damaged its host pistols. Reports of these damages included cracked frames in the first handgun to chamber the cartridge, the Bren Ten. The next major pistol to report more problems was Colt's Delta Elite. In light of these reports, the gun was constructed with significant heft in an attempt to overcome these problems.

By the time the pistol was finalised, the cartridge had fallen out of favour with the law enforcement community. Therefore, it was decided the pistol would be chambered for the .45 ACP, discarding the 10mm used in factory experiments. The resultant pistol was considered to be over-engineered for the lower-pressure cartridge. A corollary of this descision was that Ruger had no hesitancy in providing a warranty for use of .45 ACP +P ammunition, which had performance characteristics similar to the 10mm Auto.

In light of the P85's substandard performance in accuracy, Ruger hired Irv Stone of Bar-Sto Precision, a noted manufacturer of high-quality and accurate barrels, as a consultant on the barrel design of the new firearm.

During the first few hundred production examples, the magazine release button springs were found to be too light and they were replaced.

[edit] Design

The action of the P90 follows the U.S. M1911 type that utilizes a tilting barrel design, in which the barrel and slide are locked together at the moment of firing. After firing, the barrel and slide recoil to the rear a short distance while still locked together. After this initial movement, the barrel tilts downward from its locked position, permitting full recoil of the slide and the extraction and ejection of the spent cartridge case.