First look - Ruger American .45 (more pictures)

[CJB]

There is so much hooey, so much hyperbole, so much crap... about this gun, its amazing.

Just picked up mine today, have not shot it yet, so... its a dry run review.

First of all, for the most part, it feels extremely solid. The poly they use is extremely firm. There is a certain heft, a certain feel of solidity, of quality even, in the American .45

Mine came bone dry. I mean BONE dry. Not a luby thing on it anywhere. It did have the "new Ruger smell" that only Ruger seems to have.

The dingus at the trigger, a la Glock, is shaped weirdly. It needs a more rounded profile at the front. Even though its spring is comparatively light, the shape makes it feel weird on my finger.

Trigger pull is very controllable. It has a small bit of free travel, then a gradual stack to a plateau, and a bit more, and it breaks. The plateau feels like its 5 to 6 pounds, and I don't have weights handy to check. It feels about the same as the single action release on the FNX-45. Its not bad really. Complaints about the huge reset. Its not bad either. Maybe if you got that certain grippy grip, and wanna rock the pistol as you let recoil semi bump fire it at just the right point that makes recovering from a shot automatically go into a perfect double tap... for any sort of normal condition, its fine. Certainly a BG would not feel emboldened knowing it was a Ruger pointed at his chest, rather than a Walther PPQ. Just sayin!

Folks online complained about the rear of the frame being squarish. It is. I don't envision the biting the knuckle sort of issue some shooters had, but then again, I looked at the "grip" some shooters had, and it was a more or less "competition" grip. I basically just hold the gun and shoot it. Time will tell.

Of the two grip sizes with the .45, both felt pretty nice, but, I like the smaller one better - so far.

Novak sights are ok, but they could use a bit more angle at the edges so they're not so squarish in back.

I had one problem, putting an empty mag into the gun, and the slide didn't lock back. I tried it a few times and I noticed that the slide stop could be pushed up a bit more into its notch, but after trying a few more times, it was working fine. I'll blame "new" on that.

The magazines are nicely finished, in a grey nickle teflon, and feel good. Are easy loaders too.

Overall "heft" of the gun, and size really, is pretty much the same as the huge FNX-45. The FNX uses a wider magazine, which is only a wee bit longer, and it gets 15 shots in there. Ruger's is slimmer, just a hair shorter, and holds 10 rounds. The front of the floor plate on the Ruger was really rough, on both mags.

Weight is 2 ounces shot of the FNX-45, but I'll be damned if it feels anything but the same weight. Just shy of two pounds.

Width, about the same, length about the same, and the bulbous mag base on the FNX makes it a little taller. The Ruger American is essentially the same size, but feels so much better because its more rounded (except maybe those square parts at the back of the frame.

The bad -
Ruger fails to mention in their instruction manual... that once you have the take down lever swung down, and the slide assembly is off the frame, don't touch that take down lever! If you inadvertently swing it back to normal position, its highly likely to fall out in the process. It took me a good 20 minutes of further disassembly to discover what part to push ever so gently, in order to get the lever back in its place. DON'T TOUCH THE F'n LEVER! <--- what the manual for the American .45 should say!

And my barrel came pre-peened! Dunno how many shots it had at the factory, but there's a decent amount of fore/aft slop in mine, and the front of the barrel hood is all mashed up, and has a nice ridge of metal stickin' up nice n' proud of the rest of the adjoining surface. I'll call Ruger on this tomorrow.

My serial number is in the 5300 range, so they've made a few of these, had 'em ready to ship no doubt, before the release date.

[gb6491]

Nice review CJB, thanks for the time and effort involved with that!
I fired the 9mm version when they had the shoot it for free promotion. Still, you don't to get much feel for a gun in 5 rounds, so I look forward to reading more as you move ahead with the 45.
Regards,
Greg

[Longitude Zero]

Excellent review w/o shooting it yet. When My son got a sneak review weeks ago the rep said they had a "truckload" ready to go at a moments notice. SIG could sure take a lesson here and not make customers wait months/years for a product after its introduction.

[CJB]

I emailed Ruger, about the not touching the slide release lever once the slide was off the frame. I basically got a "Doh!" & "I'll forward this to the appropriate department immediately" (paraphrased, of course).

The peening on the front of the barrel, at the locking surface. Hmm. Gonna shoot it. A BUNCH of Ruger SR9 series had the same issue.

Pictures to follow!

[CJB]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/Firearms/IMG_0909_zpshgoq2c98.jpg

Its a PITA to get home as its getting dark. But, there's a comparison as I could do without dragging out flash equipment and such.

FNX-45 vs Ruger American .45

You can see size... overall... not to different. Both are full size. The FN feels huge, its grip is huge, and that's how they get those 15 rounds in the mag. Ruger has a much slimmer grip. I'll get some pics of that maybe Friday.

The Ruger "feels" like an aluminum frame pistol. There's just a certain balance that goes with its weight... that part they got right.

Forget the "lighter slide" thing. Kahr can do a light slide, Ruger can do one too, if they wanted to. The American should only weigh 2 ounces, _max_, more than the TP45, which weighs just over 25 ounces with magazine. They ought to be able to make one that is double stack, and not much more than 27 ounces.

Another missing item from Ruger's manual... if you happen to put the slide on, and there's no barrel, and you swing the takedown lever up to its normal position... you can get into trouble if you push the slide forward. Why? No barrel there to arrest forward action, and the slide was not made to go forward with the take down in the normal position.

You see, the take down lever is integral with the "fire control" and also has a block for the magazine. Its not your simple lever. Ruger just lost its direction totally here. They used to be so dedicated and precise. Now they're reminding me of a bunch of prissy absurdists. They need to add about two more pages to the instruction manual, which already stops just shy of "Do not eat this pistol" in warnings.

And don't get me wrong, I like it. I'll shoot it and use it. The direction of Ruger without a Ruger at the helm saddens me... it shows.

Lets see... the recoil spring assembly is a bolted on affair, not too dissimilar to Kahr's. There is a nice keyway in the back portion so you can unscrew the nut at the front portion. Nice. Would make spring changing easy.

And.... I spend about 45 minutes going through the fire control. Maybe its me. Maybe I'm not following the thread of the mechanics. Sure looks to me, like they made the reset longer on purpose. The one part I noticed that deviated considerably from the patent drawings, is also the one that control the reset. Makes ya go hmm. Lawyers got involved!

Not settled yet with the stylistic texture of the backstrap. Its ok, but I'd prefer something that didn't look like it came from the art department at Macy's.

Machine work on the slide is faultless. Very nice. Same for most parts that I was able to view under 7x loup.

The Novak sights... are ok, but I'd prefer a wider front sight. Too much white around the sight. It needs to be about 25 percent wider. But... then again, lots of folks gripe about sights.

I hope to get some shooting in Saturday. Weather permitting. I'd like to give this a better workout than the backyard here will provide.

(edit in)

I also wanted to say, I played with the trigger on the FNX and RAP a whole lot. I'll be damned if I can tell the difference between the SA on the FN and the striker release on the Ruger. They feel damned near identical. IOW, the trigger on the Ruger is... not DA like a Kahr, not like a Glock, but more like a single action, but a bit squishy and long, although it breaks very cleanly and is smooth. You just apply pressure and... it breaks. Certainly not a 1911 trigger by any means, but also I suspect its going to be workable.

[CJB]

Some comparisons with the (well worn) PM45.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/Firearms/IMG_0914_zpsu64bk5ro.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/Firearms/IMG_0918_zpsfnomciho.jpg

For those interested, that PM45 is K-Kote, after... what... two years of literally every day carry. Been in sand and salt water at Daytona. Been in my pocket when I was laying a cement slab. Been there driving, doing yard work, just about any old sweaty chore you can imagine. No holster, just in the pocket. Can't really complain too much for that sort of abuse. Regularly gets cleaned of sand, crap, debris - not too much of any of that really. Every few months I recycle the lead and copper into mother earth, and refill the magazine after cleaning. Never a hitch!

And... range report (hopefully) Saturday!

[berettabone]

No holster???????? You must be very trusting..................:o

[CJB]

Nah... its not a Glock. Much better, its a KAHR!!!

[b4uqzme]

The "patina" on that Kahr makes me smile. A good gun should be put to good use. :)

[CJB]

Yeah... some days, I come in from work, walk right to the backyard and unload the PM45, just to see how it goes from pocket to shootin'. Its never had an issue.

[CJB]

I had the opportunity to do an "almost everything" detail strip of the RAP-45.

Thought some might like to know a bit about the innards.

The extractor is pinned in place, a fairly normal arrangement, maybe the same part as older Ruger's use.

The rear cover of the slide is held in place by a striker spring guide, similar to Kahr. There are no other pins holding things. The cover itself is co-molded, with a stainless insert that contacts the guide, and the slide, and a polymer covering for looks.

The striker guide, spring, and its rear retaining piece are pinned to the striker at the front. You'll have to drive out a roll pin to change the striker spring.

Now for the fun stuff. The trigger bar manipulates the slide block and the sear. The slide block, itself, sticks UP from the frame and fits into a recess in the slide, right at the front of the striker's travel. If that block is there, the striker cannot move fully forward to hit the primer. When the trigger bar is pulled, two things happen. First, the striker block is unlocked from its up position (but it doesn't drop). Then the sear releases the fully cocked striker. The striker moves forward over the rounded tip of the striker block, pushing it down, resetting things. The disconnector is built into the trigger bar, and you barely have to move the slide backward to disconnect the trigger. This seems really complex, but its not. Its not elegant, like a Redhawk is elegant inside, but its workable. Boarders on Rube Goldberg in a way, but... workable. Along with that, is a bar that runs up to the takedown lever. As the lever is rotated, the bar moves forward releasing the sear. Since you cannot rotate the lever until the slide is to the rear, the sear never cocks the striker, and you needn't "uncock it" to get the slide off. A fix for a non existing problem.

Trigger reset is controlled by a cutout in the trigger bar that rides on a pin. I can see aftermarket trigger bars reshaping that cutout opening for a better reset!

So, the several "safety" mechanisms are actually sort of simple, as long as you know their tricks. You've got trigger, striker and takedown safeties, all which work automatically. The only user controls are the trigger, slide stop and magazine release - same as a Kahr. Just that Kahr did it with a combination function cam.

No doubt, John Browning, JD Pederson and Bill Ruger are probably praising Justin Moon, once again, for his simplicity and elegance of design, in the face of the new Ruger pistol.