Talk:Ruger PC carbine

Civilians?

"The Carbine is intended as a backup gun for police use, although it is available for sale to civilians as well."

I think that only hunting rifles are available for sale to civilians, which would exclude this carabine, at least here in Scotland. This might not be the case in England, Ireland etc. but this statement looks like it needs to be qualified as firearms laws vary throughout the UK.

It's semiautomatic, which means it's completely prohibited in the UK. What the article means is that Ruger will sell it to civilians, assuming local laws allow it. For example, in California you could purchase it, but could not purchase the 11 round .40 caliber or 15 round 9mm magazines, as only 10 round magazines are allowed in that state. I was talking a few years back with a friend in Middlesex who was looking into rifle options for friend of his, and I think he was leaning towards a lever action rifle, as that was the closest thing to a semiautomatic rifle allowed by UK law. scot 15:10, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Not a Rifle!

The latest category applied is Rifles, which this is definitely not. But I don't think this is a carbine; I do think it is a Pistol. How should it be categorized? RPellessier | (Talk) 09:12, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Techically it is a rifle. While it is fairly short and low powered, those same traits apply to most .22 rimfire rifles as well. It is definatly not a pistol, since it is not designed to be fired one handed. Carbine is probably the best term for it, but as carbines are just a subset of rifles so the term rifle applies as well. The origins of carbine go back to the term "carabine" used for light French cavalry. The term was then extended to the shortened muskets that cavalry carried. While the carbine versions often used a lighter loading (the .45-70 was loaded down to 55 grains for the carbines) that was because black powder burned slow enough that there was still unburned powder at the muzzle in short barrels, which was then wasted. Modern powders burn much faster; even in the short SMG sized variants of the AK-47 and M-16 with barrels 10" or shorter, full power loads are used because any reduction in powder would reduce the velocity. This is not to say the velocity is on par with the full length barrels; it isn't, but that's due to less room for the powder to expand, not insufficient space for it to burn.

In the sense of a carbine as a cavalry weapon, the PC is truly a carbine since it was designed specifically to be carried by police in their vehicles, that's about as close to cavalry as you get these days. Ditto for the M1 Carbine, which is nearly identical in size; it was designed for use by axuilliary personell whow wouldn't carry a full sized rifle, but needed more power and accuracy than a pistol provided. The .30 Carbine round is halfway between a magnum pistol round and an intermediate round used in an assault rifle; the .357 Mag pushes a 125 grain bullet at 1500 fps, the .30 Carbine pushes 110 grains at 1970 fps, and the 7.62x39 pushes 125 grains at 2250 fps. While the PC uses a pistol round, the 9mm in particular is much more impressive out of the 16" barrel, getting an extra 150 fps. and rivaling the velocity of the .357 Mag (out of a pistol).

Actually, now that I think about it, compared to the military rifles that were being used before WWI, with 24" or longer barrels, every military rifle these days is a really a carbine. And with the media calling the 5.56 NATO a "high powered rifle" cartridge, it shows that size and power are relative, and that they are shifting downwards. scot 15:46, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Well I love the analogy between a vehicle gun and a mounted cavalry gun, it's almost lyrical. But the Wikipedia entry for carbine says that firearms chambered for pistol rounds are just shoulder-fired pistols, or something like that. Do we need to change that entry, or this one, to make the two consistent? RPellessier | (Talk) 07:33, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'm moving this discussion to the Carbine talk page, since I have been considering changing the entry for carbine to better reflect the current useage of the term. scot 17:51, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A "pistol"? Did you look at the f'ing thing? It's "pistol caliber carbine". Carbines belong in then rifle class. - ^theWOLFchild 06:19, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

PC Carbine and Police Carbine are not the same

The older and discontinued Ruger Police Carbine is not the same as the newer PC carbine. These firearms should be in separate articles. 199.184.122.7 (talk) 12:54, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Agree!!!

In fact according to Ruger`s site, the product name is "PC Carbine" and the "PC" stands for "Pistol Caliber".

Take a look in the video here: https://ruger.com/products/pcCarbine/models.html Will make a Portuguese version of this article and will call it pt:Ruger PC Carbine and explain the "PC" meaning. --MarcRic::Ruby (talk) 20:46, 9 July 2020 (UTC)