A river ran through it

Almost five years ago, a good friend of mine was out canoeing in the river when the water was up pretty high from two weeks of rain. The trip ended in disaster as he and a friend almost lost their lives, destroyed the canoe, and lost all of their gear except for the cooler. Among some of the gear lost was a Ruger P9, which my friend promptly reported to the local Sheriff's office. Well, some good ol' local yokel found that pistol and turned it in to the Sheriff, who called my buddy and returned it to him.

The finish may not impress you, but it still seems to function just fine:



He hasn't fired it yet, and has said that he has no desire to, but he did give it a thorough cleaning. I didn't get a pic of the internals, but they seemed fine as well. The blued magazine was pretty rusted, but didn't look as bad as I would have thought after spending four and a half years submerged in the mud on the bottom of the Rappahanock.

I have had a good experience in the past with Ruger's customer service, so I suggested that he send it to them for some OEM TLC, and just maybe that gun might be something again. It definitely needs a new slide, but after handling it I have no doubts that if I stuck a loaded magazine in it it would fire as you see it. That's after a bunch of WD-40; nothing more.

Over all, I'd say that this was a serious torture test that speaks to the quality of Ruger. I have no dog in that fight, as I do not own any Ruger products, although I've had good luck with them in the past.

Ruger tuff!!!