by David Crane
david@defensereview.com
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. just introduced their new P345 .45ACP polymer-framed pistol. The Ruger P345 pistol is designed for comfortable concealed carry by police detectives. The polymer Ruger uses for the P345’s frame/grip is called Isoplast. The Ruger P345 pistol is double-action/single-action (DA/SA), features a brushed stainless steel slide, ambidextrous slide-mounted sweep-up safety, fixed sights (three white dot), loaded chamber indicator, magazine safety, and key lock. The P345 utilizes an 8-round single-stack magazine (it comes with two of these). There are two versions of the Ruger P345 pistol. The Ruger KP345PR pistol features a 1913 Picatinny rail/tactical light mount, while the Ruger KP345 doesn’t.
People who own and carry Ruger semi-auto pistols seem to swear by them, and we’ve only heard good things about them regarding their reliability. Reliability is the single most important aspect of any defensive/tactical firearm. So, if you have to…
go with a double-action (DA/SA) auto, and you’d like to go .45ACP, the new Ruger P345 would appear to be a viable option. Hopefully, Ruger will introduce a blackened-slide (black finish) and O.D. green slide versions of the Ruger P345 pistol, soon. We’ll try to get our hands on a KP345PR for T&E, soon.
Overall weight of the Ruger P345 .45ACP pistol is 29 oz. Barrel length is 4.2". Overal length is 7.5". DefRev doesn’t yet know the trigger-pull weight on the P345. Retail price on the KP345PR is $548. Retail price on the KP345 is $540.
If you’d like to inquire about purchasing one of the new Ruger P345 .45ACP pistols, you can contact Sturm Ruger & Company, Inc. at 928-541-8820.
Click here to read a press release on the Ruger P345 pistols.
It should be noted that DefenseReview doesn’t particularly like double-action/single action (DA/SA) autos, that much. First, we don’t like the heavy double-action (DA) first shot/light single-action (SA) subsequent-shot transition. We prefer the single-weight/(relatively) light trigger-pull of the single-action auto’s and Glocks. 1911’s (pistols) and Glocks both feature a very short trigger reset, which the author greatly appreciates. This allows for extremely fast follow-up shots. Secondly, we don’t appreciate slide-mounted sweep-up manual safeties that many double-action (DA/SA) autos utilize. We much prefer either the single-action auto’s frame-mounted sweep-down manual safety (featured on the 1911 pistol and Browning/FN Hi-Power), or Glock Safe-Action arrangement (no manual safety or decocking lever to worry about).
Finally, we don’t like the high bore axis of the double-action (DA/SA) autos. Single-action autos tend to feature lower bore axes than double-action autos. Glocks feature a lower bore axis than any single-action auto. The only two firearms with lower bore axes than the Glock autos are the Heckler & Koch (HK) P7 series (P7M13 and P7M8) squeeze-cockers, Steyr M/S series pistols, and now the M11 series semi-custom pistols by IC Technology. A lower bore axis usually translates into less muzzle flip, and thus faster indexing of the front sight during fast multiple-shot strings.