Ruger P345

Some time ago, Maria from CCM HQ emails me and asks if I would like to review Ruger's new P345 pistol. Sure. No problem. Being a fully trained and certified New Gun Test Pilot, I'll take on anything that rolls out of the hanger. I'm no chicken. But I am also cautious. I remember an associate of mine some years ago crashed and burned flying a new Ruger pistol...

It was back in the late 90's and three of us were shooting at the Dominion Shooting Range in Richmond, Virginia when it was still called the “D&P Shooting Range”. I was firing away with my SIG P220 loaded up with night sights and Federal Hydra Shoks. Associate #1 was doing the same with his Glock in .40 caliber with a Lasermax sight installed. Associate #2 wanted to buy a new pistol and he selected the Ruger P90. I know in relating the following, I'm going to get a lot of emails from folks saying that they have all had a whole flock of Ruger P90's and they've all been gloriously wonderful... I'm not harshing on the Ruger, I'm just relating what happened.

He picked up a couple boxes of rounds, some targets, safety glasses and ear protection. He proudly walked up to his shooting lane, set his wares before him, loaded a magazine, and then he pulled the slide back. When he did so, the gun made a funny sound. Not funny as in Steve Martin funny, but funny as in making a sound that pistols really shouldn't ever make. It was something like a “Sproink” sort of sound. The slide would not go forward after that odd noise. Turns out that the recoil spring and guide rod broke in two. Seriously, on the first time he pulled the slide back... busted. He left all his stuff on the table, trusting that we would watch it of course... and he went back up to the store part of the range. A few minutes later he came back down with a different Ruger P90.

The store swapped him pistols right then and there. “Here you go, Sir. New gun. Sorry about that.” Great store, D&P was... and Dominion still is. Well, Associate #2 takes his new gun up to his shooting lane, checks it out, jacks the slide... no “sproinks” this time. Satisfied, he loads his magazine, chambers a round, and begins his shooting session. I was watching him shoot, and with his first three shots he did rather well for the first time out with a new pistol. Meaning he hit the paper his target his printed on. Not champion level shooting, but for a first go, it's just fine. Now, I mention these being his first four shots for a reason... because after the fourth shot was fired, I noticed something very odd. A glint of some silvery bit of metal flies off the gun and for some reason goes down range. I yelled “Stop!” Just before he pulled the trigger for a fifth time. Something was wrong. Associate #2 looks at me like I just said the craziest thing ever and then looks at his gun. I look at his gun. It looks different some how... kind like it lost weight or shaved off it's mustache. Then suddenly it dawned on me... “What happened to the safety lever?” Associate #2 then let out with a string of such high quality expletives and new curse words that the old salts on the range were taking notes. He cussed and cursed the whole time he carefully unloaded the gun, the magazine, boxed the gun back up, walked up stairs and back into the store. Associate #1 and I just looked at each other, shrugged, and kept shooting. From time to time we could still hear colorful language wafting down from the store... but after some time it stopped. Associate #2 didn't come back down to the range. Being the good friends that we were, Associate #1 and I carefully divided up the abandoned ammo and targets and we kept shooting.

The next day we found Associate #2. In his holster was a new revolver. No, it wasn't a Ruger.

Now, I give you this story as background to my caution about Ruger automatic pistols. Since that time, I've never looked twice at them. Well, to be fair and balanced a good fellow did have me shoot his Ruger automatic and it was a fine shooter with a good trigger... it did very well and served this fellow perfectly. I just didn't take to it. Half expected the safety lever to pop off at any moment. I know that's unfair to say... I know that no mass manufacturer can ever put out 100% perfection. Small unseen flaws or defects could pop up that no amount of quality control is going to catch and that will lead to a customer some where out there with a problem. I know this. But I still have never trusted any center fire Ruger pistol since then. I'm only human. We develop our own biases by little things like these. This new Ruger pistol starts out behind the 8-ball with me. I'll try to give it as fair a shake as I can. So let's do this thing.

The gun arrived at my local dealer in a simple gray plastic box with the Ruger name and logo on it. The orange sticker on the side of the box identifies this pistol as Ruger's catalog number “KP345PR”. But we will just call it the P345 for short. This version of the P345 comes with a stainless steel slide, and a decocker/safety lever. I was tempted to try out the DAO (Double Action Only) version, but to be honest I don't think I'd ever buy a DAO so I didn't. The gun is rather handsome as far as polymer framed automatics go. People have come to expect Ruger guns to at least have a sense of being rugged and this new gun doesn't disappoint. It feels beefy without feeling heavy. I like the contouring Ruger did the muzzle end of the slide. Not only does it give the weapon a sculpted look, but it facilitates easier reholstering and makes it more comfortable to carry. The shape reminds me of late 1940's futurama. The slide is finished with a bead blasted finish on the tops and the front of the sides, while the flat portions of the slide sport a smoother brushed finish. It looks good, but it could look better. There are areas on the slide and hammer where the surface looks like an orange peel. This is because of the casting process and these areas are left rough. I think this detracts from the overall quality of the gun cosmetically, but it has no effect on function which is more important.

On the top of the slide is of course the sights, which are the standard “3-dot” affair. The rear sight is a modernized Novak style that looks to be higher speed and lower drag for the Fast and Furious crowd. Just in front of the rear sight and all the way to the ejection port is a loaded chamber indicator. You can tell this because it says “LOADED CHAMBER INDICATOR” across it in all caps. When this little gizmo is working, it will raise up when there is a round in the chamber. Then you can read along the sides of the “Loaded Chamber Indicator” behind the red dot, the word “LOADED”. In case you might have missed it, that means the gun is loaded. Ruger has a way of stating the obvious there.

They also seem to be very proud of their name. On one side of the slide the markings say “RUGER P345”. Okay, that's fine. And on the frame it also says RUGER and in the grip is inset the nifty little logo birdy thing. But then it also says, “BEFORE USING GUN – READ WARNING IN THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL AVAILABLE FREE FROM STURM RUGER & CO., INC. SOUTHPORT, CONN. USA”. On the other side of the gun it says RUGER on the frame, has the logo and the gun's serial number... and in case you missed it, the slide is printed with “ STURM RUGER & CO., INC. SOUTHPORT, CONN. USA”. In case you miss that, small elves from Mirkwood Forest will come out of hiding and throw cinderblocks at your head with “ STURM RUGER & CO., INC. SOUTHPORT, CONN. USA” written on them with sharpies. The only folks I know of that are more proud of their brand name than Ruger are the Harley Davidson folks, but that's a whole other subject.

The top of the slide mates and locks with the barrel's breach block, much like a SIG or Glock or most other modern automatics. The lock up is rock solid. As you pull the slide back you can feel the slide disengage from the barrel with no hangups. It seems to be well engineered.

The underside of the dust cover sports a frame rail so you can mount a light to the gun, but you can order this gun without the rail if you so choose. While we are here at the frame, it is important to note that Ruger has finally done an outstanding job at molding a proper grip frame. It has molded in checkering on the grip sides, and on both the front and rear straps. But they leave the area where your thumb rests smooth. This gives you an excellent shooting grip that wont cause any abrasions while shooting long range sessions. Ruger also contoured the sides of the grip near the front strap to make the grip frame narrower there. This allows for a very firm, yet comfortable grip that will most likely accommodate a wide variety of hand sizes. I was actually surprised at how good the grip felt. The reach to the trigger isn't that much of a stretch either. I think a lot of folks will be able to handle this piece with no problem.

At first I really didn't like how they made all the control levers so flat. They wanted to narrow the profile down as much as possible and make it as CCW friendly as possible... but they have also made the controls a touch difficult to use at first. Truthfully, my fingers slipped on them often. They can sometimes be like opening a tight jar lid with wet hands. But after awhile you do get the hang of it and it becomes less of a complaint. However, the safety lever doesn't give you any distinct “click” feel to let you know that the gun is fully off safe. If the lever is not fully in the fire position, the gun is still in safe mode. This could be a problem in a combat situation if you are less the fully familiar and trained with the gun, but that could be said of any gun.

Another thing that kind of bothered me is the hammer spring. Good grief that thing is heavy! When I am testing a gun for accuracy I like to shoot it from single action mode, and if I decock the hammer, that means I will have to thumbcock it when I am ready to shoot again. I'm not sure what the weight is on that spring, but I'd have to put it somewhere in the neighborhood of “Volvo”. It was unpleasant to say the least. This excessively heavy trigger spring also makes the double action trigger pull that much more difficult. There is a considerable amount of stacking. This means as you pull the trigger back, it seems to get heavier and heavier. Thankfully the trigger is fairly smooth. You can still shoot a heavy trigger just fine as long as the trigger is smooth. The single action trigger break is light enough, and not too bad for a pistol as over-lawyered as this one is. It is certainly serviceable enough. It will do. Hopefully as we shoot this thing the trigger will smooth up some more. The trigger its self is a solid chunk of stainless, wide with a smooth surface so you have good trigger control while pulling on it. I like that a lot.

Firing the P345 I found it to be very reliable with all the loads I fired. Not a single malfunction. I also noticed that the felt recoil was very mild when compared to some other .45 caliber automatics. But there is something odd about that. Normally when you fire an automatic, you feel the recoil and not much else. With this P345 I could feel the slide cycling back and forth, even when firing brisk Hornady ammunition. Ruger has evidently made the slide slow down as part of the measure to reduce felt recoil. At least that is my impression. Whatever it is, it works. Shooting an extended range session in the heat of a Utah summer was actually pleasant this time around. Sometimes shooting out in the heat of an angry sun can feel a lot like work, but today I had fun. Even with the most powerful .45ACP loads I could find. Even Cor-Bon 185 grain +P loads were a breeze.

Accuracy was even pretty good. I was shooting two to three inch shot groups depending on the ammunition and the heat waves. Not spectacular accuracy, but not bad at all. It will do fine. Today the favorite load seemed to be the Hornady stuff, shooting the best groups consistently. I noticed that all the groups seemed to have been hitting a little to the left. A slight adjustment to the rear sight should fix that right up, but I was able to easily adjust my point of aim to compensate. I don't know how many concealed handgun reviews mention a kill, but this one will. While shooting at a steel ram target a large jackrabbit was flushed out of hiding. The P345 can easily be said to be at least Minute of Jackrabbit accurate. Before you call PETA, don't worry... the rabbit went to good use. My dog Ranger loved it. I've never put meat on the table with a CCW gun before. Or meat in the dog bowl as the case may be. That's a first.

Another first is that I actually like this pistol... a semi automatic center fire Ruger. I really do. I never would have guessed this day would arrive. However, while I do like the P345, I can't recommend this pistol for everyday ordinary CCW duty. Hold on Ruger fans, hear me out on this. Other Ruger autos seem a lot bulkier... The P345's don't feel nearly so bulky. That could be just because of the grip frame's liposuction and the shaving of the control levers.... I'm not sure. Regardless of how thin and trim it is compared to other Ruger autos, the P345 is still a large handgun. Not overly large like say a Desert Eagle or SOCOM HK, but certainly in the realm of “full sized handgun”. I'd put it on par size wise with a SIG P220, a handgun that can do concealed carry duty, but is more at home out in the open in a duty belt rig. I think this piece would be well suited for serious concealed carry tasks where a full sized weapon is desired... such as VIP protection, Security, or plain clothes law enforcement. I think it is a bit much for more casual carry unless you are the type of person that likes to roll large. I'm not knocking the P345 here. I'm just giving you my opinion straight up based on my impressions of this weapon. I would really like to see Ruger come out with a version of this gun with a shorter barrel and grip frame. Such a piece would be outstanding for every day CCW work.