Ruger is a tank company that makes revolvers. At least that’s how it can feel at times. Most Ruger revolvers wouldn’t be mistaken for light, lithe guns. Models like the GP100 are known to be beefy, robust, and tank-like. The GP100 evolved from Ruger’s famed Security Six family of revolvers and fell suitably into place as a modern, double-action revolver capable of duty use.
At this point, the GP100 isn’t a single gun but a family of revolvers. They range from .22 Long Rifle up to .44 Special. The most common chambering is .357 Magnum, with oddball variants in 10mm and .327 Federal Magnum.
You could get lost in the catalog of varying barrels, sights, and finish options. There’s a GP100 for everyone, and I found the one for me. I have this thing for revolvers with smooth, unfluted cylinders. They are my weakness; I think they should be more common.
I’m not sure if they offer any benefits. The trade-off is a little extra weight and less grip for certain reloading methods. The cylinder caught my eye, but the stainless finish, the wood grips, and the overall vibe of the gun captured my credit card.
The GP100: The Tank
My specific model is a seven-shot .357 Magnum. The barrel is three inches long and comes with a high-visibility front sight. The rear sight is adjustable, and I need a rear sight.
Most revolvers stick you with a trench-style rear sight, which doesn’t work well for me. I just can’t shoot a revolver accurately with that style of rear sight. This GP100, though, fits into a strange category. The barrel length fits it into the compact category, but everything else screams beefcake!
The revolver weighs 36 ounces, is 8.5 inches long, and quite tall, with big, full-sized grips. Revolvers tend to fall into the snub nose or duty category, and this one is somewhere in between.
It’s like the Glock 19 of revolvers, I guess. It can be carried easily enough with the right holster and a little pre-planning, but it won’t disappear like a Ruger LCR.
That beefy nature is there for a reason. Ruger wanted a revolver that could digest a lifetime’s worth of full-power .357 Magnum without complaint. The GP100 came to life in 1985, when people wanted that level of durability and strength.
This model also introduced Ruger’s peg grip system, allowing shooters to swap grips without being tied to a specific frame design. Square and round grips were both available, and the GP100 kept Ruger’s transfer bar safety system..
Shooting the Tank
I’m not a revolver expert, I’m not even a journeyman or a pure beginner, but I’m an enthusiast. From an enthusiast’s point of view, the GP100 handles very well with .357 Magnum. Wit 36 ounces of weight to help reduce recoil, shooting 150-grain JHPs at 1,200 feet per second feels almost soft.
Shooting .38 Specials through this gun feels super soft. It’s just a little punchy with a stock standard .38 Special load. It’s designed to shoot .357 Magnums, but .38 Specials are cheaper, and downright pleasant to shoot through this thing.
It would be downright friendly to a new revolver shooter and a new shooter in general. The recoil takes your front sight off target, but it’s so easy to see that you can track it until it’s back in place. If you’re using a stress sight picture, that bright yellow sight works perfectly.
It falls right back into place and allows you to shoot quickly and surely. The softish recoil impulse makes trying my hand at double taps fun. Even though I’m not great at it with a revolver, I can land two shots within a finger’s distance. The recoil, the noise, and concussion created by a .357 Magnum isn’t intense enough to be uncomfortable, but it’s intense enough to be fun!
Driving Tacks
The GP100’s sights are fantastic. The adjustable rear sight allows me to compensate for not being able to shoot revolvers very well. The bright front and adjustable rear sight make landing shots at 25 yards on gongs and steel easy. At 50 yards, I can reliably hit a man-sized target if I cock the hammer into single action.
I’m still learning to use the double-action trigger for long-range, accurate shots, and the GP100 gives you a crisp and smooth double-action pull. As long as I take my time, I can hit the man-sized steel with a double-action pull… most of the time at 50 yards.
With a double-action pull on paper, I can keep seven rounds inside an 8-inch circle at 15 yards. If I slow it down, I can keep those seven rounds inside a 3×5 card, which is about as good as a revolver amateur like me is going to get. When I increase speed, my personal accuracy falls apart, but not terribly.
The GP100 has a nice enough double-action trigger that I can rip off two rounds in about a second from the low ready. I’m putting those two rounds into the chest zone of an FBI Q Target at 15 yards.
A Modern Fighting Revolver
A seven-shot .357 Magnum isn’t anything to sneeze at, and the Ruger GP100 is a fighting gun through and through. It’d be at home for self-defense and even concealed carry with the right belt and holster. The GP100 could also be a solid woods gun for dealing with various pests and predators.
Ruger built a tank disguised as a revolver—and like a tank, it’s something you want on your side.
