P345 fail to fire

[soloman02]

I was shooting my Ruger P345 yesterday and I experienced two fail to fires. These were different in that the firing pin never hit the primer (I cleared the gun and looked at the round after waiting 30 secs first).

The gun had had about 60 rounds of federal champion followed by 40 ish rounds of WWB and about 25 Magtech blueline. All were 230grain. The WWB made the gun really dirty, worse than the wolf I shot through it awhile back. The gun was cleaned before this session. I had several fail to feed's while shooting the WWB and during the magtech.

I have never cleaned the firing pin because there is no obvious way to clean it or disassemble the assembly.

Could the firing pin have some gunk in their that is causing it to not move forward?

I was holding the magazine in place with my left hand so the magazine safety should not have been engaged.

 

[matt]

Yes, gunk can get in the firing pin area. Try detail stripping it.

Not sure what you mean by:

I was holding the magazine in place with my left hand so the magazine safety should not have been engaged.

Why were you holding the magazine in place?

 

[soloman02]

Yes, gunk can get in the firing pin area. Try detail stripping it.

Not sure what you mean by:


Why were you holding the magazine in place?

Its how I normally hold the gun. My left hand supports my right and covers the magazine, thus keeping it securely in place.

I'm not the greatest when it comes to mechanical things. I can field strip a gun well enough, but I need directions until I have done it enough to remember it. I also saw nothing in the Ruger manual on how to detail strip it.

I talked to Ruger today and they sent me a prepaid label to ship it back to AZ. So now I wait for a week or two.

 

[Jose]

If you are using the old "cup and saucer" grip like this:

STOP

Learn to do this:

Your accuracy and speed will skyrocket.

 

[matt]

+1 to what Jose said.

and remove/disable the magazine "safety" if you can when you detail strip it.

 

[soloman02]

I wasn't using the cup and saucer grip. But I wasn't exactly using the other method. At least with regard to thumb placement. My grip was much closer to the second pic though, as that is the most comfortable grip when holding the gun in the retention ready position (that's what they called it at NRA PPITH). Part of my left hand is in contact with the magazine though.

Everyone else has gone to bed. When I can solicit their help for some picture taking I'll post what my grip was tomorrow.

 

[drgrant]

The next time you get a fire failure, eject the round and see if there is a mark/dimple on the primer. If you're getting a light strike, something ain't right there, that could be a slow firing pin. If you're getting no strike, then something is causing the FP safety to not get deactivated during firing. That gun might need a trip to the factory.

Also, was the gun fully in battery when you pulled the trigger? If it was jamming, and it loaded the round ever so slightly out of battery, it will create a condition that the hammer might drop but the gun still will not fire- this is to keep the gun from going off when not fully in battery, to keep the user from blowing it up.

FWIW some of these guns have come with defective magazines. It may be worth a call to ruger to ask them about it. (A friend of mine who had the P345 had mags that didn't work right, ruger sent him 2 new ones in the mail for nothing, and those two mags work fine. )


-Mike

 

[soloman02]

The next time you get a fire failure, eject the round and see if there is a mark/dimple on the primer. If you're getting a light strike, something ain't right there, that could be a slow firing pin. If you're getting no strike, then something is causing the FP safety to not get deactivated during firing. That gun might need a trip to the factory.

Also, was the gun fully in battery when you pulled the trigger? If it was jamming, and it loaded the round ever so slightly out of battery, it will create a condition that the hammer might drop but the gun still will not fire- this is to keep the gun from going off when not fully in battery, to keep the user from blowing it up.

FWIW some of these guns have come with defective magazines. It may be worth a call to ruger to ask them about it. (A friend of mine who had the P345 had mags that didn't work right, ruger sent him 2 new ones in the mail for nothing, and those two mags work fine. )


-Mike

I did check the primers, there were no marks of any kind.

On the fail to fires, I checked to see if the gun was in full battery and it was (for the times where there were no strikes on the primers).

I have three mags, two came with the gun and one that was just purchased recently. I experienced these problems regardless of mags. Also, I had put about 400 rounds through the gun with no issue before this.

I have already sent the gun back to Ruger.

 

[Lone Wolf McQuade]

A friend of mine had his new P345 fail to fire just after 50 rounds. No strike on the primer. Tried it several times again same result. Ruger sent him a shipping label and off it went for repair. Firing pin was broken. It was repaied and returned in a very short time.

I also have A P345 with over 1K rounds down the tube. Flawless operation.

 

[matt]

I have already sent the gun back to Ruger.

Be sure to let us know what it was.

 

[soloman02]

Ruger never notified me that they were sending the gun back so the UPS guy left a note yesterday. I picked it up today.

According to the packing slip, they replaced the blocking lever, firing pin, and firing pin spring. They then test fired the gun with twenty rounds.

I haven't had a chance to fire it yet. Not sure when I will be able to as I am low on 45 ammo .

 

[hillman]

It sucks to lose your confidence in a firearm. If it helps any, I've had two P345s, one is my daily carry, and I've put over 4000 rounds through both of them, and never once had a feed or failure to fire problem. It's a good gun.