POTD: Ruger PC4 – Carbine Everyone Forgot Ruger Already Made

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a gun that got famous twenty years after it died. This is the Ruger PC4, and if it looks familiar, that’s because Ruger’s wildly popular takedown PC Carbine of recent years is the second act. Almost nobody remembers there was a first one.

Ruger built the original Police Carbine from 1996 to about 2006 in two flavors, the 9mm PC9 and this .40 S&W PC4. The pitch was simple: an officer carries a Ruger P-series duty pistol and keeps a matching carbine in the patrol car that shares the same ammo and magazines. The PC4 fed from P-series .40 mags. A few departments bought in, Maryland State Police among them, but the idea never caught fire.

Under the skin it’s basically a scaled-up, beefed-up 10/22. A blowback action firing centerfire pistol rounds needs a heavy bolt, so Ruger split the bolt in two and hung part of the mass in a weight under the forend to keep the gun balanced. It was tough as an anvil but heavy, plain, and pricey next to a Hi-Point or Kel-Tec, so Ruger dropped it. Then pistol-caliber carbines came roaring back, Ruger revived the name, and the new one became the star. This is the forgotten ancestor.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Ruger Model PC4 Semi-Automatic Carbine.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/417/ruger-model-pc4-semiautomatic-carbine. Accessed 3 July 2026.

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