Though I have been lucky to handle untold quantities of pistols over the years, I’d never consider myself an expert on the subject. I am a gun nut though, and that is the only qualification I can claim expertise in. I love a good pistol the same as the next guy, and today I’d like to present another new-to-me pistol: The Ruger EC9.

The EC9
I owned a Ruger pistol once, back in the nineties, the P89 was the first pistol I ever owned. It worked great for what I needed at the time, and it met my skill level which was none. Ruger has changed quite a bit since then, as have pistols in general. Entry level pistols akin to my old P89 are everywhere and many of them nowadays are polymer framed, as are many CCW pistols. The EC9 is one of those, a striker-fired compact CCW type pistol that uses a single-stack magazine to keep it thin and easy to conceal. It utilizes a slender steel slide with rounded edges to avoid snagging on clothing. It features both a manual safety and a trigger safety, the blade type that deactivates the trigger safety when the trigger is properly pressed. The gun uses a seven round magazine, but Ruger also offers a ten round extended magazine with additional grip area added to the bottom as well.

Un-boxing
Upon receiving the EC9, I promptly opened the box eager to see what lay inside. There I found the Cobalt slate blue framed EC9, with a magazine, chamber-flag, a standard throwaway lock, and a strange orange magazine that appeared to be for training or something. More on that later.
Straight into the palm of my hand went the little pistol, to see how it felt. My initial concern about the gun was it’s size; would it fit in my hand properly? It did feel a bit small, which was no surprise, but it was certainly serviceable. I gave the pistol a vigorous course of draw and point exercises, which quickly began to give me the feel for this gun. Drawing the slide back I familiarized myself with the controls of the EC9. I found it to be a pretty stiff little pistol, the recoil spring is quite stout in my opinion. The slide release is located in the typical location for the thumb to operate, and behind that there is a safety. Initial inspection of the gun made it quite apparent that Ruger was aiming for the CCW crowd with this model, the trim control surfaces were very subtle to avoid snags. The magazine release sits at the front edge of the left grip area, and again it is fairly diminutive to avoid inadvertent release of the magazine. The sights are machined into the slide, making them both robust and un-adjustable. I purchased the extra ten round magazine to utilize in this pistol review, mainly because I figured it would help me hold onto it better. Continue Reading Here…