Ruger LC Carbine 10mm: Highly Adaptable Rifle

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When you’ve got a hot product, you run with it, and that’s exactly what Ruger is doing with its LC Carbine line. The latest addition is a 10mm model, and if you’ve been looking for a handy and powerful self-defense carbine, this might be the one.

The LC Carbine is highly adaptable. The charging handle and magazine release can be relatively easily changed from the left side to the right. The gun ships with these controls on the left side, which is how most right-handers would shoot it.

A thumb safety is located on both sides of the aluminum-alloy receiver. The bolt hold-back lever is on the left only. You can use it as a release or, simpler for righties, activate the right-side bolt release button just above the trigger guard with your trigger finger. You can also pull back on the charging handle to chamber a round.

The folding stock can be converted to fold to the left or right; it comes set up to fold to the left. To fold the stock, press the locking button and swing the stock closed. To unfold it, pull up on the stock slightly to compress the hinge and unfold until it locks in place. When folded, the hinge acts as a detent and doesn’t fully lock it closed.

Ergonomics

The stock is adjustable for length of pull by compressing the buttstock lever and sliding it in or out. The comfortable cheek rest is fixed. The entire buttstock is easily removed by turning out a hex-head screw, and if you do that you’ll find a through-hole that allows the carbine to be cleaned with a cleaning rod—once you disassemble the action, which is easily done.

The 7.5-inch handguard is CNC-machined, Type III hard-coat anodized aluminum and features rows of M-Lok slots at two, three, four, six, eight, nine and 10 o’clock. Ruger supplies an M-Lok QD sling socket, and there are QD sockets on either side of the buttstock as well.

The LC Carbine features a full-length Picatinny optics rail, attached to which are Ruger’s excellent Rapid Deploy flip-up aperture sights. The rear is adjustable for windage by turning a thumb wheel on the right side. Elevation adjustments are accomplished by rotating the front sight, and Ruger supplies a four-pronged sight adjustment tool for this.

The LC Carbine employs a bolt-over-barrel design. The barrel is 16.25 inches long and has a 1:16 twist. The muzzle is threaded .578x28 for adding a muzzle device, and the supplied thread protector is knurled for easy removal and installation; an O-ring helps keep it secure.

Trigger and Magazines

The Secure Action trigger has a safety blade in its face. While it has a rather hefty pull of six pounds, five ounces on average with a good bit of overtravel, it’s perfectly serviceable for a defensive arm.

The LC accepts standard Glock magazines—in this case, full-size mags designed for the Glock 20 and 40. One 30-round polymer SGM Tactical magazine is supplied. Because of where I live, I picked up a 15-round Glock 20 mag at the local gun store for testing.

I mounted an Aimpoint Micro H2 on the rail for formal accuracy testing. Yes, you’ll have to add a riser block to a red dot in order to be able to get your eye behind the sight. The flip-up iron sights co-witnessed with the red dot, but just barely.

The grip and control layout will be familiar to any pistol shooter. I could reach the safety with my thumb from a firing grip, but not the magazine release. The bolt release on the right side is in just the right spot for easy operation with the trigger finger. I also experimented with working all the controls with my support hand, leaving my gun hand in place on the grip. This worked fairly well, especially for operating the mag release and then hitting the bolt-lock lever on a fresh mag to chamber a round.

Accuracy

Accuracy results are shown in the accompanying chart. That’s solid bench accuracy for a gun of its kind when paired with a red dot. I also shot rapid fire at 25 yards with the iron sights. While I do wish the rear aperture was large enough to be able to see the entire front sight—wings and all—the Rapid Deploy irons are fast and easy to use. The LC Carbine is really controllable. Wrapping my hand around the fore-end and placing my thumb against the non-reciprocating charging handle as a hand stop kept muzzle rise to a minimum.

This new LC Carbine represents an excellent balance of power, accuracy and handling, and the folding stock makes it convenient for transport and storage. If I didn’t already have a Ruger PC Carbine, I’d buy the LC Carbine 10mm in a heartbeat.

Ruger LC Carbine Specs

• Type: pistol-caliber carbine
• Caliber: 5.7x28, 10mm Auto (tested), .45 ACP
• Capacity: 30-round magazine supplied; takes full-size Glock-pattern mags
• Barrel: 16.25 in. alloy steel, 1:16 twist; threaded .5/8x28
• Overall Length: 30.6 in., 22 in. folded
• Weight: 7.4 lb.
• Construction: aluminum alloy receiver, hard-coat anodized aluminum handguard, polymer pistol grip, adjustable folding buttstock
• Trigger: Ruger Secure Action; 6 lb., 5 oz. pull (measured)
• Sights: Ruger Rapid Deploy flip-up adjustable; full-length optics rail
• Safety: ambidextrous thumb, trigger lever
• MSRP: $1,049
• Manufacturer: Ruger, ruger.com

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