Needing a little help from my friends... (P345)

Howdy Gents!

I've just acquired a nearly new P345 (KP345PR) with Ser.No. 664-941xx. I was told that the gun only has about 200 rounds through it. This morning I shot 25 rounds of Blazer Brass, followed by 100 rounds of Winchester white box. Somewhere in the neighborhood of the 70th round of the Winchester ammo, I had one incident where the weapon didn't quite go into battery. A slight nudge on the back of the slide seated it and it then fired as it should have. I'm not terribly concerned at that. I may have been tiring and might have limp-wristed that round...

Here's what I'm wondering about. When I flip the lever to be on "Safe" (with the white dot showing), when I then pull the trigger, should the hammer move to the rear? I have several other guns where, when on Safe, the trigger travels to the rear, but nothing else moves. In the case of this P345, I can put it on Safe and pull the trigger numerous times, and at some random point, the hammer will suddenly come forward as though it were firing. (It doesn't fire, however.) So my question is -- is this normal and expected behavior on the part of the trigger and hammer? Your wisdom and insight is appreciated!

Amistad

mine does the same thing, I don't do that because i dont know whats happening inside weapon, it did not fire at range when it happened

Thanks for the reply, Mike. I see that you have experienced the same behavior with your P345. It just seems a bit "odd" to me for the cocked hammer to suddenly go flying forward at a random time when the weapon is ostensibly in "Safe" condition. That's a little disconcerting to me, but I have satisfactorily affirmed that the weapon doesn't fire in this instance. So maybe I'm making a mountain out of the proverbial mole hill... And I think you're right -- there's really no need to even be pulling on the trigger when the white dot is showing. Just curiosity on my part as to how the gun's components are working together...

Amistad

Never noticed that the hammer moves when on safe, it does not move on my P89, P90 or P944 but on my P345 it moves and on the 9 th. pull it drops. I don't know if it would fire because i have never tried it before and i don't think that it would ever be an issue in the real world. I will try it on a primed case sometime, just out of curiosity.

Many thanks for checking that out, cjs1945. The number of times of trigger pull before the hammer falls on my gun seems to be entirely random. One time it did so on the 2nd pull, another time it was on the 21st pull. But by looking down into the gun from the top, with the Safety on, the hammer can't come far enough forward to strike the back end of the firing pin plunger. So it looks like this is not the dangerous problem that I initially thought... Thanks again!

Amistad

Something is not right, on a P345, if your hammer is cocked, the hammer should fall forward when you select Safe. You shouldn't be able to pull the trigger after the Safety is ingaged.
On a P90, the hammer will fall when you select Safe and you can cycle the trigger and the Hammer will not move................................................

Amistad, i tried firing the P345 again tonight with safety on and primed cast in chamber. Tried it 8 times and on last try it took 21 pulls to make hammer fall, but it never fired the primed case.

send it in. Detail the 'random' hammer drop on paper. There's no shame in a factory once-over, especially if your confidence is an issue.

I'm not sure why Ruger designed the P345 to operate like it does. But I'm now convinced that Safe is indeed safe. Many thanks for the help that I've received here!

Later Edit: Thanks, mojavesam. I think I'll send a note to Ruger's online support and see what they have to offer on this issue... will report back if I get a reply.

Amistad

Update: Well, surprisingly, I got a reply back this afternoon. From the folks at Ruger --

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"Response:
The hammer can drop with the safety on if the trigger is pulled repeatedly. The gun will not fire because there is a firing pin block (item 8 on the exploded view of the firearm in the instruction manual) that prevents the firing pin from moving when the safety is on even if the hammer falls.

If an instruction manual did not come with your firearm one can be downloaded from our website http://www.ruger.com by following the following prompts: Customer Service, Instruction Manuals and Product History, Pistol Instruction Manuals and Product History (click "show all".) The icon for downloading your manual is in the upper right-hand corner."
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So there ya have it folks.

Amistad