I've got one in the SS "anti-corrosion" finish.  Seems unbelievably well built.  Very heavy.  But in all the threads on the P-series, the P89's, 93's, etc seem to get mentioned and the P85's aren't.   Were these sub-par, less desirable, or just harder to find?

Can't tell you much other than they seemed to work and were built like bricks. My brother's Marine unit in Iraq had one they confiscated from a civilian and it was passed down through the unit while stationed there. He said they would beat the shit out of it and it kept working.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Return-of-the-comprehensive-magazine-compatibility-thread/4-202843/

Ruger P Series - Ruger P-series in 9x19mm & .40 S&W, Ruger PC9/4 Carbines - saw one PC9 carbine this weekend for over $1k.

Nothing wrong with the P85 or any of the P-series. I still have my P95. Reliable, accurate enough and able to take a lot of neglect and abuse. However, they have all the ergonomics of a brick with some grips screwed on.

I’m not selling mine

I still have one. It was my first purchased handgun.   It is a multipurpose tool.  Handgun, hammer, hang onto it and not get swept away if a tornado passes over you...it has lots of function.

Surprisingly it doesn't shoot that badly either.

It was the first in the series.  It was somewhat late getting into production and was succeeded by the P89 is fairly short order.  They had a reputation for less than stellar accuracy.  The P89 was brought out to address that issue. They're not real common, they were only in production for two or three years as I recall.  Something of the red headed step child of the P series.

It was my first auto pistol.

I don't carry it now, for obvious reasons. But it does serve a great purpose as a gun to stash in the house with good ammo capacity. I won't sell mine either.

I don't think they had the bugs worked out on the early P85.  I don't remember what the early problems were.
The manual safety is different, and the 9mm magazines are also different IIRC, having a different shaped mag latch hole in the
front, (tombstone shaped rather than the later square shape I think).
Ruger has always listed different mags for the P85/early P89 pistols.  The later magazines are much easier to find, for the late P89, P93/P94/P95 pistols.

Here's mine...

The mag release, while ambi, is definitely not great.

Thank you very much for that.  Updated the mag compatibility thread.

My dad still has his. The biggest issue was it would throw the brass straight back into your face. Even nailed my dad in the tooth once. Plus the guide rod is fixed and exposed when the slide is to the rear. If you dropped it or fell with the slide to the rear, you could bend it and it wouldn't go back into battery completely.

Like a 1911?  Improper use of lanyard, user error.

Arguably the single most durable alloy-framed pistols ever made.
Bought my P-89 (the P-85's successor) in 1993, and if the apocalypse ever comes it's the one that I'll grab first.

That should have been Ruger's primary marketing slogan:
Ruger P-89. Apocalypse ready!

I'm always amazed at people complaining about how heavy these pistols are.
Empty weight is 32 ounces... 3 ounces less than a Browning Hi Power, and about 2 ounces more than a 1911 Lightweight Commander.
The very two pistols that the same people describe as being "light and handy".
Go figure!

You have a P85 MK II which is essentially a P89 after Ruger reworked the gun. The original P85 had some teething problems out the gate.

I believe drop safety improvements were one of them.

The P93 was a metal frame P95. I've only seen 3 in the wild. the P94 were more popular.

I seem to remember ads in gun magazines the P93 was offered with a built in laser with buttons on the frame for Law Enforcement?

The P94 definitely had the laser option.

I had a paper Ruger sent me in the mid 1990's that showed the differences between the two magazines, and what serial numbers were involved.
If I find it, I'll post it.  Can't find it right now on Ruger's website, but I think I saw it there before also.

Ruger lists their magazines as suitable for P89s after a certain serial # range:  https://shopruger.com/P-Series-9mm-15-Round-Magazine/productinfo/90233/

Anyone have any leads on factory Ruger P85 9mm mags (not 10-rounders)?

I had  one  back in the day   cause  I was too cheap  to pay for a  Beretta.  Thing  ate  all  ammo  and  had  good capacity,  Came  with 15's  and  I had a flush  17-Ram Line  that  worked good.

Wouldv'e  taken it to the Gulf  if I had had a couple more  Mags.


Shouldve  waited  another payday  and  got the 92--   The Ruger  was  decent  but  for  me  no where  accurate  as  I am  with a 1911 or revolver..

Decent  enough  for  a full size..

https://www.gunbroker.com/Pistol-Magazines-Pistol-Clips/search?Keywords=P85&Condition=3&Sort=13&PageSize=96

Thanks.  The ProMag stuff I stay away from.  There are a lot of them on the list that say "factory OEM", but don't look at all like the one I have, which is stainless finish and a polymer baseplate with a ruger logo on the bottom and holds 14 rounds.  Like this one, but mine is a stainless body:  https://www.gunbroker.com/item/938356250

Did Ruger only use that style for a short period and went to the more generic looking type mags at some point?

I have a bit of experience with the P85.

The good points:  feels good in the hand, points naturally, balances nicely in a manner that inspires confidence, most guns are really reliable and durable, gun was designed around modern defensive ammo and generally won't have problems with hollowpoints

The bad points:  safety is tiny and has sharp corners and is very awkward to manipulate in a hurry, so is magazine catch, slide has lots of sharp corners and edges too, factory sights are tiny and changing them out is non-trivial, slide has no grasping serrations and you're apparently supposed to grab it by the safety levers to yank it back, slide is loose and rattly on the frame, trigger isn't great, factory grips are slick slippery plastic with no texture except for some horizontal grooves that might as well be just decorative, there isn't much in the way of an aftermarket except for magazines. and the only aftermarket mags for the P85 that aren't a dumpster fire are the ones from Mec-Gar, also Ruger had some serious QC problems in the 80s and 90s and most P-series guns are unstoppable tanks but some are just lemons, they are not easy to work on, disassembling one past the point of basic fieldstrip is an onerous task and getting it back together is worse

When I took one apart I saw burrs, toolmarks, and casting marks everywhere.  The extractor looked like--well, imagine a metal part cast in a sand mold, with the mold flashing removed with an angle grinder held in an unsteady hand.  It may or may not have been a coincidence that that particular gun couldn't get through a magazine without multiple double-feed stoppages--and have you looked around for replacement extractors for a P85?  Oh, and extractors apparently require fitting on these, too.  Speaking of toolmarks, the feedramps on these usually have some.

People say that most P85s are capable of 4" at best at 25 yards. I have never shot one from the bench, so I can't speak from experience on that.  Shooting that one and others left me with the impression that it was my own limitations that were primarily slowing me down and holding me back, then the trigger and the sights, not mechanical accuracy.  I was able to do fast (ish) strings of six on IDPA targets at ten yards, starting with the safety on, and get all hits in the -0 circle (though some of them were just barely cutting the line) almost as fast as I could pick up the front sight, so it's not horrible.  The single action trigger has the most takeup and the most overtravel I've ever felt on an SA trigger, plus a false reset.  Trigger control habits you may have gotten into with other platforms will not serve you well with a P85.  If you try to ride the reset like you can with a Glock or a 1911, you're going to have a frustrating day at the range until you learn to work around it.

The safety on a these tends to require a great deal of force to move in either direction and tends to feel very gritty and crunchy when you move it, much more than the norm for slide-mounted safeties.  Disassembling the slide on these will generally reveal lots and lots of burrs, casting flaws, and chatter marks on pretty much every surface you can't see when the gun is assembled, particularly the hole going side to side through the slide where the safety parts sit.  The lug on top of the sear that the camming surface in the safety presses down to decock the hammer when you put it on safe also is sometimes a very rough cast surface.  You can slick these parts up a bit with very careful and judicious polishing, but the safety parts are still going to require a lot more force to move than, say, the safety lever on a M9, or a S&W 39.  I think it is inherent in the design.  Maybe Bill Ruger wanted the safety to be really positive and not prone to getting accidentally bumped from one position to the other--and if that's what he wanted, the design certainly succeeds on that count.  Multiple parts with big heavy springs are pressing on the safety parts from multiple directions at all times.  The firing pin spring, which is a monster, pushes rearward against it and when you put the safety on it cams the firing pin forward slightly and compresses the firing pin spring further.  The mainspring pushes the hammer forward against it from the rear.  The sear spring presses the sear up against it from beneath.  The trigger bar plunger spring pushes the trigger bar upward to press against the bottom and putting the safety on compresses that spring.  The safety plunger detent spring, which is a beast, must be compressed to move the safety in either direction.  I suspect that even if all those surfaces were glassy smooth with perfect mirror finishes it'd still require a lot of force to move the safety lever, just because of the design.  I don't know how much you could lighten any of those springs and still get safe and reliable function, and I think that you'd have to lighten all of them to make much of a difference.

I've also always wondered why Ruger designed and marketed the P85 as suitable for hard use and sold it with a top half made of carbon steel with a blued finish.  Parkerizing, powdercoating, and molycoat type finishes existed back then and any of them would have been more durable and corrosion-resistant, and more suitable for a firearm marketed as a duty sidearm, than hot dip bluing.  A lot of the internals were stainless and some of the guns had stainless slides.  I wonder why they didn't make all the guns all stainless in the first place.

I had a P85. Bought it in 1988 brand new. It was my first handgun and it took some breaking in... 200 rounds worth.

The slide was rubbing on the recoil rod. I remember having to reach into the ejection port to flip a lever to take it apart.  I had a few mags for it, including a higher capacity Ramline mag.

I bought a Sig P226 later that year and never shot my P85 again and sold it a few years later.

The factory OEM thing is a bit of a con job.  The company is actually called OEM.  They're not Ruger original equipment manufactured.  I have a few of their Mini 14 mags.  They're a tight fit but seem to work.

The P85 magazine factory part (model) numbers are:

P-15 is a 15 shot blued mag.  I think most had just metal bottom plates iirc.

P-15E which I think is basically the same thing.

P-15/10  the blued 10 rounder

KP-15/10 stainless 10 rounder. Don't remember if they (after 2004), made a stainless 15 rounder.

Says these are for the P85, P85MKII, and P89 with serial # 304-69999 and below.

The wife bought me one not long after they came out.  I sent it back for a recall and Ruger sent me a couple of mags for my trouble.  When I got hired as a LEO I took it to the academy.  It was good enough that I graduated as "Top Gun".  I carried it for awhile as my duty weapon and was always confident it would do the job.

I sold it when I moved on to something else.  Kinda wish I still had it.

I was stationed at Fort Richardson, in Alaska back in 1988 when the PX was selling them for around $225-ish. With my yearly re-enlistment bonus payment, I bought a new Beretta Model 92FS back in late 1987 before these showed up on the market.  Being a broke-ass Army SGT/E-5, I was looking at another “wonder 9” to my humble collection.  This was the case until one day at the off-duty range on the weekend, some poor  “Joe” had a brand new Ruger P85 and I remember that it jammed several times and on his last trigger pull, the casing came back and hit him in the tooth, which broke half of it off…  That basically cured me of wanting to add a P85 back in 1988.

Fast forward to 2022, I finally bought a used P85 to add to the collection.  I haven’t shot it yet, but I will be wearing a mouth piece when I do take it to the range!!

My Dad and I bought a pair back in the day. Of, course dumb me sold for a Glock. Dad passed and I have his P-series. I need magazines. Any place to buy mags, that is a good source? Ever use ProMag( I know, I know)? P-90 needs 2 mags as well.

Check greg coat llc for mags

Or cdnn

https://www.cdnnsports.com/p90-97-345-45-8rd-sts-rug.html

https://shopruger.com/P-Series-9mm-15-Round-Magazine/productinfo/90233/

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100624920?pid=913553

For P89 and later

The P85 is an outlier in the P series

Thank you for the links.

Mine was the first pistol I ever bought, back when I was a very poor lance corporal.  Kept it in the barracks...

Could barely afford to buy more than a hundred rounds of cheap ammo for it; definitely couldn't afford spare magazines.

It would spit brass directly backwards, and hit me in the face.  Also, one of the included magazines was defective, and would only load maybe eleven rounds before the follower jammed up.

Due to my young age, poverty, and lack of motor transportation (wasn't even of legal age to buy the thing; had my barracks roommate get it for me), I was not prepared to deal with either of these things.  Ended up selling it to a different roommate, who would literally shoot it inside the barracks.  Would turn up his Puerto Rican music really loud, and then time the shots with the beat.

It was a different Corps pre-Tailhook/MADD/etc....

this.

Not factory, but new Mec-Gar magazines.

RUGER P85 / P89 / P93 / P94 / P95 9MM 15-ROUND

RUGER P85 / P89 / P93 / P94 / P95 9MM 17-ROUND

Now how is that possible?

I don't know about Ruger, but MecGar IS the OEM manufacturer of pistol magazines for several firearms companies: Sig, Beretta, Browning to name a few.




Are the old PC9s actually collector's items now or was the seller delusional?

In addition to anything out of production being collectible, they have value as pre-bans in Massachusetts and Connecticut.