The Ruger P series are interesting guns. It was Ruger’s first attempt at a duty-style semi-auto pistol. The series began with the Ruger P85, released in 1985, and evolved into a number of different models and calibers. Production lasted until 2013 when the Ruger P89 variant became one of the most popular models. One rarely discussed model is the Ruger P89M, which might be the rarest of the P series.
The P series has a cult following. That cult humorously calls themselves P-Nuts. They are big fans of the pistol, and Ruger made enough that it’s easy to collect. Well, most are easy. Good luck getting your hands on a Ruger P89M. This ultra-rare gun variant has a production run of less than 800 guns. The Chicago PD adopted the vast majority.
The P-Series was quite a success for Ruger. They produced a ton of these guns, and their low price, high reliability, and good all-around performance made them great guns for police forces. It premiered at the right time, during the great transition from revolvers to semi-auto pistols. Departments, both large and small, were adopting semi-auto handguns.
The P89M was specifically made for the Chicago Police Department, and it’s both an interesting and humorous story.
The P89M- What’s In A Name
The Ruger P89M features a 3.9-inch barrel compared to the Ruger P89’s standard 4.5-inch barrel. The gun uses the same frame and the same 15-round magazine. The P89M Ruger’s take on an X series style gun. It’s still a 9mm, and the gun weighs 31 ounces. Unlike the standard P89, the P89M features a double-action-only design and lacks any form of manual safety.
The P89M models came with Trijicon night sights; some came with Hogue wrap-around grips with the finger grooves everyone loved in the 1990s. From the pictures I’ve found online, it seems like some came with the Hogue grips, and some did not. There also seems to be a mix of finish options. We have both stainless and black nitride on stainless available.
P-Nuts will be stopping me with a whoa, whoa, whoa, that sounds like a Ruger P93DAO. Those guys are right. That’s exactly what it is. The Ruger P89M exists because of bureaucracy. The Chicago Police Department had already done all the testing and approval for the P89, but Ruger released the P93DAO, and the Chicago Police Department really wanted that gun.
However, they didn’t want to redo the entire test process, refile paperwork, do all the necessary meetings, and get all the signatures to get the P93DAO. They asked Ruger to make a run of P93DAOs with the Hogue grips and Trijicon sights but mark them P89. Thus, the P89M was born. That’s the legend, according to those P-Nuts I’ve referenced.
Getting The P89M
Ultimately, the P89M was a compact DAO 9mm pistol. Police forces hated the idea of having light and easy-to-use triggers, and DAO guns were all the rage. The Ruger series was cheap but super reliable and easy to shoot. For the money, they were a gun that was tough to beat.
Ruger reportedly made 700 for the Chicago Police Department. There were also 55 released to the civilian market. It’s unlikely Chicago PD would ever surplus and sell the P89Ms with their anti-gun stance. They’re more likely to be destroyed, which is a sad fate for an odd and rare firearm.
With that said, we do know that at least one was stolen from a CPD officer, mostly because the suspension report is public and one of the first things to pop up on Google when you search for the P89M. So that makes 55 in civilian hands, 699 in police hands, and 1 in criminal hands. Sadly, none are in my hand!
