Truck Gun – Ruger PC 9
Back in February of 2019 Miguel posted I made the decision on a Truck Gun & Travel Combo..
His post got me to thinking about the elusive truck gun.
What are the characteristics of a good truck gun for me?
- It has to fit in the truck
- It has to be unobtrusive when in the truck and going to and from the truck
- The weight of the ammunition can’t exceed the my limits
- It can’t be another exotic caliber
- It has to be easy to handle
- It has to be low maintenance
- It has to be accurate at urban ranges
- It has to pack enough punch

Well the PC 9 was mentioned. It meets most of these criteria. It lives in a gun bag that doesn’t look like a gun bag. It looks like an oversized briefcase. It is gray. It doesn’t have any tacticool stuff on the outside. Inside it holds the PC 9 broken down, a pistol an a boat load of magazines. The ammo and mags weigh more than the pistol and rifle combined.
Nobody ever left a fire fight saying “I wish I had less ammo.”
Right now it has just iron sights. I did have a red dot on it, but that got moved to another rifle. It is light, carbine length rifle. It is easy to put round after round in the 10 ring from urban distances. It is ambidextrous.
It has been very reliable. And it fires 9×19.
So the cons. It is a Ruger which to me means that it is overly complex to break down and clean. It is simple blowback so it gets dirty, fast. If you take it down far enough to clean the receiver properly you have springs that want to go that away.
The magazine release is on the left side instead of the right side.
Still it is fun to shoot and it is my truck gun. Being able to sling the bag over my shoulder and walk out of the parking lot and nobody give you a second glance is wonderful. The nosy neighbors know every time I go to the range because it is pretty damn obvious what’s being loaded into the truck. But this? nobody notices.
I’ve had conversations with cops with the bag hanging off my shoulder without them twigging. Of course it does make for a sort of weird dynamic…
I’ve got my EDC on my person. I’ve got the EDC bag which happens to have IFAK and another firearm (and spare mags and boxed ammo), and then I’ve got a bag slung over my shoulder with another pistol plus a rifle. And all I’m doing is driving to work…
The reality is that the EDC bag is also my computer bag. People see me pull my laptop out of it all the time. People have seen me pull my first aid kit out from time to time. At no time has anybody seen the rest of what is in that bag. You can take the laptop in and out without even opening the main compartment where the IFAK+ is stored.
When things are not overly stressful, i.e. before “mostly peaceful protests” became a thing, I didn’t feel the need for a truck gun. So it was just the EDC bag and the EDC on me.
One of the selling points of the PC 9 is that it uses a compatible magazine. Since it takes Glock mags it means that a single magazine can be used in both a side arm or the rifle. The ads talk about taking the mag from your pistol and putting it in your rifle. I don’t see that as happening. But being able to carry spare magazines that fit both is a big win.
So that bag also holds a holster. If it is time to bogie and I have gone to “needing a rifle” mode, I’m going to switch out the .45 on my belt for the Glock in the bag. Yes, I know they shot differently. I practice with both so I hit where I want with both.
It isn’t my go to rifle. Depending on what is going bump in the night determines what I pick up. A LBV with IFAK, 180 rounds of ammo and my ready rifle if it seems to be two legged bumper. Or a 30-30 lever action for something with four legs. This is a rifle with a particular niche and in that niche it does very well.

