The often-overlooked P345 Ruger hardballer
One of the pinnacles of Bill Ruger’s firearm design legacy was his P-series pistols that came just a few months too late to win a huge military contract. One of the last of that series to hit the market was a rugged and beefy Commander-sized .45ACP single stack that just didn’t get enough love.
The P-series
In 1985 Ruger debuted their P-85 pistol, an investment cast aluminum framed pistol with a carbon steel slide and stainless internals. Made in a traditional double-action/single-action (DA/SA) semi-auto with a SIG-style lockup and M1911-style titling barrel (but without the bushing) the guns were modern, high-capacity (15+1 rounds of 9mm) used ambi surface controls, and, due to the manufacturing process, fairly inexpensive.
Designed to compete against S&W, Sig, Beretta and others in the 1981-83 Joint Service Small Arms Program, which was looking for a 9mm to replace the military’s legacy WWII-era stocks of M1911A1 pistols, the gun was not ready in time and the Beretta 92 was in turn adopted in 1984.
Nevertheless, Ruger went public with its P-85 and it was soon a hit with those seeking a reliable modern handgun as well as a good number of police agencies. It was soon expanded into other calibers such as the .45ACP-chambered P90 (in 1990) and the .40S&W caliber P91 the next year.
The very chunky P90
However, with guns such as the Glock series and S&Ws follow-on Sigma series, polymer was the new thing, this led to the P95 (9mm) and P97 (.45ACP) respectively. The thing is, the 97 was took bulky and didn’t prove as popular on the market as Ruger hoped. It really needed to be slimmed down….
Enter the P345
Read the rest in my column at Ruger Talk
