Happiness is a new gun 2

[dao]

Thanks Guys. It's an odd duck gun, though in very nice shape, at least from what I can see. More on that below.

Something I do with any gun I buy is to measure the grips front to back (F2B), and side to side (S2S), My 1911's with standard grips are:

F2B 2.04"
S2S 1.31"

This Ruger is:

F2B 2.08"
S2S 1.17"

So it is indeed slim in hand. The slide is 1.01" and at the decocking levers it is 1.21". If it wasn't for the 7.6" length and 5.75" height it would be a slim compact. As it is I'm hoping that the size and it's commander-esque weight of 29.2oz with an empty mag will still allow it to be fun to shoot. It has a unique cam engagement between the guide rod and barrel that's supposed to help with recoil. It's just a single round wire recoil spring that's 22lbs from the factory. All in all an interesting gun. Sights could be better than the tiny 3-dot setup but we'll see how it shoots. The trigger is long and fairly heavy in DA but smooth, and nice and crisp in SA though there is a lot of takeup and a long reset in that latter mode.
Everything I've read about these guns though points to good dependability, with one caveat. On this model if you dry fire it without the magazine in you can damage the interface between the hammer and the firing pin plunger block and/or the safety plunger in as little as three pulls. That can result in either a stuck firing pin or one that is inconsistent in its ability to ignite the primer. I did mention they are complicated and yes this has two separate and distinct plungers, mounted under that long rear sight plate that you can see in the picture. It is held in place by a set screw, and I'm not sure how tightly the sight channel holds the dovetail.
For some reason Ruger had a tendency to build complexity into some of their designs (think MK's 1-3 of their .22lr pistols), that was seemingly unnecessary, and not used by most other manufacturers. The manual says dry-firing is fine, so long as the magazine is inserted. I was leary about buying this one used for that reason but it seems to have been treated as the factory detailed in the user guide, though I did go out and buy some spare parts in case it was damaged, from a place called MDSgunrepair.com. Parts are not easy to find, and Ruger does not recommend messing with the firing pin/safeties. I could not find another firing pin for it, so the my upcoming range trip with it will be interesting.

[JohnR]

Oh it's fun to shoot. I wish I still had mine. The trigger is pretty good. I never heard of the damage from three dry fires, my hunch is that's exaggeration or just internet fake news but who knows. Shoot it like you stole it.

[dao]

I've been scanning the web for info on this. Ruger apparently had a bunch of returns early on because they did not include the following caution, shown in red below and in the manual itself in the early editions of the user manual provided with the first batches of guns. I have actually seen a very early instructional field stripping video made by Ruger in which their smith dry fires his gun a few times for a function check after reassembly, without the magazine inserted.

The RUGER® P345® pistols can be dry-fired without damage to the firing pin or other components as long as the magazine is inserted.

CAUTION: Dry firing your RUGER® P345® with the magazine removed may result in damage or unnecessary wear to the firing pin blocking mechanism.

My hopes are that it is overblown and that mine has suffered no deforming of either of the blocks or firing pin. But I won't be dry firing it without the mag inserted. The reason there are two plunger blocks is because the one in front is the magazine disconnect safety, and by the time the firing pin reaches it there's enough momentum behind it to peen one or the other or both. And I believe the block is a cast part.
This gun also slams the hammer forward harder on a decock than any gun I've handled. And noticeably harder than a simple hammer release on a dry fire. There's nothing in the manual about having a mag inserted before decocking so I'm hoping that's a normal decock for this gun. Did I mention that Ruger made this more complex/complicated than may have been necessary?

[Bawanna]

I couldn't get a new gun right now so I decided to mess with an old one. One I didn't care for much at first but with a little time and a new trigger I've come to love and actually carry everyday.
My EAA Witness as it was born.


Browsing on Fakebook I ran across this Gunskin stuff. It's a vinyl wrap I suppose like the stuff they wrap cars and trucks with now days. Decided to give it a shot.
I kind of messed up some on the slide, first time and all and I'm still trying to improve on it, got a few wrinkles getting around the sights.


This is the bad side that still needs attention.

This is the good side which ended up pretty clean. The grips which are not removeable on the EAA worked well. Very little loss of texture, the stuff is pretty thin.


I'm not sure if I like it yet or not. I like a little slashy but this might be going a bit too far. They have a ton of different camo patterns, this was a precut pattern and the only one available for the 1911 so I just went with it. One of the other camo patterns might be a bit more palatable. Guess I'm trying to show I'm up to date, I'm a wood stock, blued or stainless steel guy born probably a 100 years too late, so trying to fit in.

[dao]

If I was going to do a flag on my 1911 it would look like that. Not really distressed, but muted enough to look good without being glaring. I like it.

[JohnR]

Murka!!

[JohnR]

I’ve been on the Ruger forum forever, had a lot of P series guns, and I don’t recall anyone reporting issues like that. So I’d say it’s overblown. You can improve the trigger pull by removing the mag safety, so they say. Maybe that will nullify the concern.

[Bawanna]

Murka!!

What's that, I don't speak Portugese. Or maybe that's Malaysian?

[dao]

America, sometimes shortened to 'murka Colonel.

I’ve been on the Ruger forum forever, had a lot of P series guns, and I don’t recall anyone reporting issues like that. So I’d say it’s overblown. You can improve the trigger pull by removing the mag safety, so they say. Maybe that will nullify the concern.

It's solely a P345 issue, the other P-Series guns are put together differently. I've seen it discussed in some of the reviews from back when the model was introduced, as well as on the Ruger forums. Might be overblown but I'm not going to take any chances, given that I can't locate a firing pin and I don't want to pay for a trip back to Ruger for it.

On another note I swapped out the 22lb factory standard hammerspring for a 19lb Wolff spring today. DA trigger pull averaged 9lbs, 13oz before and went to 7lbs, 8oz after. SA pull only went down a fraction. My wife was having trouble with the DA before but not afterwards. The DA trigger pull is smooth and doesn't stack at all, so other than being long it'll work for me. Long like a Kahr

I struggled to get the slide off today to break it down before swapping the hammer springs out before I remembered that on this model you have to push the ejector down into the magwell before the slide will come off. Another example of the complexity or "different" design of this model. I didn't necessary have to take the slide off but I just like to when working on a frame.

[jeepster09]

I have always liked Ruger's seem to be good guns that are made in the USA.