help for a friend

[oldfart]

i have a friend who has decided to get into semi-auto's, he has been only a revolver guy. he wants a p95 but has been told by people he works with that the polymer rails won't last on the p95, and the metal ruger uses is soft. i have two p95's but only have a few hundred rounds thru them so i don't know. i know mine have been reliable and don't show any signs of wear, his coworkers have been trying to get him to go glock. he just wants a reliable gun to take to the range, and pull duty as a home defense weapon without hurting his wallet. thanks for any help.

[Autorim]

I have never owned a Ruger centerfire auto. The grips always felt too fat for me. I have owned Glocks, S&W MP's, M1911's and now the Springfield XDM9. The XDM9's are my favorites.

[irold]

I have a P-345 , really like it.  It certainly doesn't have the fat grips as some 45s do.  However its only a 7 shot mag also.  Double stacks are far wider.  As far as reliable....it had one malfunction on the first mag ...assume it was a burr or something ?  Its never missed a beat since.  I've only got maybe 7 or 8 hundred rounds through it...not much, but no signs of wear yet.  It will shoot 3-4 inch grps at 25 yds with bullseye and 200 gr XTPs.  OMO , but I think you'd have to shoot many ,many rounds through it to wear it out.  At  their price ,ifin ya do wear it out, buy another one.  I've never owned or shot a Glock. (I like hammers)Seems like there's a lot of hype about owning a Glock, kinda like the Model 29 thing after the Dirty Harry movies came out. From what I understand and read, the XD's are great pistols, no experience with them either.  Guess  I'll stick with my Rugers , To each his own........regards , irold

[BlkHawk73]

  Played the Ruger game for a loong time and while not active in a lot of semi-auto talk, I've yet to hear about the polymer rails wearing out.  Glock, HK, Sig, SA all use polymer rails for their stuff.
   Also never heard of Ruger using "soft metal" either.  Evidently these people he works with don't realize that Ruger owns Pine Tree Castings and is one of THE premiere castings facilities in the country.   I do NOT see them risking their long standing reputation of building overbuilt tough firearms.  I'm thinking these folks are more likely in the Glock, SA type clique where if it isn't a fancy "tactical" semi-auto, it's garbage.

[ohiobenito]

have your friend go to a range and shoot a few semi autos, or borrow a few from some friends for him to try.  Pretty much any modern pistol will handle a moderate amount of ammo in its lifetime.  the different grips/and action designs are just personal taste.  Being a revolver man, he may appreciate a bottom feeder that most may not.   I would recommend a CZ 75.  these are very nice and accurate.