Ruger SR45 Review
Part 3 - External & Operational Features
September 2, 2013

Ruger SR45 Review

In this part of my SR45 Pistol review, I take a close look at the external and operational features of the SR45 Pistol which is chambered in the 45 Auto caliber.  Not counting the magazines and magazine loading tools, the Instruction Manual identifies 60 parts that make up the SR45.  Of these 60 parts, only 14 parts are different from the SR9 and 11 parts are different from the SR40.  This gives you a good idea on the commonality of these three pistols.  At a quick glance, you can see that the SR 45 has a polymer frame, stainless steel barrel and black finished slide.

 

Figure 1
Ruger SR45 Review

By taking a slightly closer look, you will also see that this pistol is striker fired, has an ambidextrous safety and magazine release, and 3-dot white sights.

Figure 2
Ruger SR45 Review

The slide is made of an alloy steel with a black nitride finish and the polymer grip frame is made of black glass-filled nylon.  Overall I feel Ruger has done a nice job integrating this large bore caliber into their SR line of pistols.

Figure 3
Ruger SR45 Review

Figure 4
Ruger SR45 Review

The width of the SR45 measured 1.26" which is basically the same as the SR9 and SR40.  This is a little deceiving because this measurement is across the manual safety which represents the widest point.  I feel the more important dimension is the width across the slide because this width has an impact on which holsters will fit the SR45.  The width across the slide measured 1.07" on my SR45 and 0.99" on my SR9.  This difference in width was enough to prevent the SR45 from fitting in my Blackhawk Serpa holster.  This may or may not be an issue, but it is something you should understand if you already own a SR pistol and you were thinking about using the same holster.  Since the Blackhawk holster is a rigid polymer holster, this style holster is not forgiving of larger width and other types of SR9/SR40 holsters may work for the SR45.

Figure 5
Ruger SR45 Pistol RevieRuger SR45 Revieww

This pistol measured 5.74" in height, has an overall length of 8.0" and a barrel length of 4.50".  At the front of the slide, you can see scalloped areas on each side where the slide transitions to the thicker dimension to accommodate the .45 Auto barrel.  One of the features I like about the SR series centerfire pistols is the grip's deep recess for the web of your hand which gives a beaver tail-ish feel when gripping the pistol.  This allows you to keep a high grip without the fear of getting slide rash.  The high grip helps to give you a low bore axis which reduces muzzle flip.

Figure 6
Ruger SR45 Pistol Review

Figure 7
Ruger SR45 Pistol Review

Ruger uses colored dots to indicate some type of inspection step.  This pistol came with a red dot which I removed after taking these photos.

Figure 8
Ruger SR45 Pistol Review

The SR45 weighed it at 30.7 ounces empty and 37.80 ounces with 11 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense 185 grain FTX ammunition.

Figure 9                                                              Figure 10
Ruger SR45 Review   Ruger SR45 Review

Just like Ruger's other SR centerfire pistols, the SR45 comes with adjustable white 3-dot sights.

Figure 11
Ruger SR45 Review

The front sight is dovetailed to the slide and the sight has a ramp to reduce the chances of snagging the sight when drawing your pistol.

Figure 12
Ruger SR45 Review

The rear sight is a Novak style sight and is adjustable for both elevation and windage.  The large screws in the top center of the rear sight is used to adjust elevation and the Allen head set screws just forward of the large screw can be loosened to allow windage adjustments.

Figure 13
Ruger SR45 Review

At arms length, the sight picture is similar to that shown below with the front post having gaps between it and the sides of the notch in the rear sight.  After taking these photos, I noticed the brown looking color at the interface of the rear sight and slide.  This material wiped off easily and since Ruger tends to thoroughly lubricate their firearms prior to shipping from the factory, and because the surface did not show any signs of corrosion in these areas, I think it may be some type of anti-seize compound applied during sight installation.

Figure 14
Ruger SR45 Review

As stated earlier, the SR45 comes with a 4.50" stainless steel barrel.  The polymer frame below the barrel has Ruger's typical warning "BEFORE USING GUN - READ WARNINGS IN INSTRUCTION MANUAL - AVAILABLE FREE - WWW.RUGER.COM".  The side of the barrel is marked with the caliber "45 AUTO".  Ruger states the following about the use of various types of ammunition in their SR pistols:

The SR-SERIES pistols are compatible with all factory ammunition of the correct caliber loaded to U.S. Industry Standards, including high-velocity and hollow-point loads, loaded in brass, aluminum, or steel cartridge cases. No 9mm Parabellum, 40 S&W or 45 Auto ammunition manufactured in accordance with NATO, U.S., SAAMI, or CIP standards is known to be beyond the design limits or known not to function in these pistols.

Although not specifically stated, I interpret all this to mean that the SR45 is capable of +P ammunition.

Figure 15
Ruger SR45 Review

 The polymer frame has a short rail section below the barrel.  This rail is approximately 1.4" in length and has a single slot.

Figure 16
Ruger SR45 Review

The right side of the slide is marked with Ruger's logo and "RUGER PRESCOTT, AZ USA".  On the right side, you can also see the the SR45 has an ambidextrous manual safety and magazine release button.

Figure 17
Ruger SR45 Review

The trigger pull on this pistol averaged 6.4 pounds based on ten pulls from a Lyman digital trigger pull gage.  This compared very closely to the trigger pull on my SR9 which measured 6.3 pounds.  The trigger includes a trigger safety (external) that prevents the trigger from being pulled unless your finger is pressing on the front of the trigger and a firing pin block (internal) which blocks the firing pin preventing it from moving forward to contact a primer unless the trigger is pulled.

Figure 18
Ruger SR45 Review

The trigger guard is advertised as an oversized trigger guard.  I compared the guard against some of my other pistols and the guard may be slightly longer forward of the trigger than the average pistol, but not by much.  These next two photos show the trigger in the fully forward and fully rearward position.  This difference measures as about 0.30" of trigger travel at the tip of the trigger.

Figure 19                                                           Figure 20
Ruger SR45 Review   Ruger SR45 Review

In these next two photos you can see the ambidextrous manual safety in the up "safe" position and in the down "fire" position which is indicated by the red dot on the slide.  Although I can easily manipulate the manual safety with the side of my thumb, I would consider the safety to be small in size.  Also notice that the first photo below shows the firing pin (striker) cocked and the second photo is with the firing pin released.

Figure 21
Ruger SR45 Review

Figure 22
Ruger SR45 Review

The SR45 comes with a reversible rubber backstrap.  In the photos shown, the backstrap is shown in its bulging configuration.  With the backstrap reversed, it has no bulge and only produces a flat rubber textured ribbed area.

Figure 23                            Figure 24                             Figure 25
Ruger SR45 Review  Ruger SR45 Review  Ruger SR45 Review

The backstrap can be removed by pressing out the pin with a paper clip or small punch.  The backstrap is removed by pushing it towards the bottom of the grip.  The backstrap is all rubber and has s steel bushing (not visible) in the lower slotted area.  If you have smaller hands, I would expect the low profile configuration to be the one for you.

Figure 26                                                             Figure 27
Ruger SR45 Review   Ruger SR45 Review

The grip on the SR45 has checkering on both sides and the front of the polymer frame.  Just below the trigger guard, the girth of the grip measured 5 1/2".  This is about 1/8" larger than that of my SR9.  It seems that the grip length (front to back) is slightly longer on the SR45.

Figure 28
Ruger SR45 Review

The controls located on the left side of the pistol are the manual safety, slide stop, magazine latch and the takedown pin.  The left side of the slide is boldly etched with the model name "SR45".  The left side of the frame has the RUGER name and logo molded into the grip.   The left side of the pistol has colored markings that help indicate the state of the manual safety with the white being visible indicating "Safe" and red visible indicating "Fire".

Figure 29
Ruger SR45 Review

When the slide stop is engaged with the slide open, you cannot easily press down on the slide stop to release the slide.  The thought is that you take your other hand and pull the slide back to release the slide during a magazine swap.  Over time, this will most likely break in just like it has done on my other SR pistols. Yet, you should still train yourself to release the slide with the opposite hand because under stress your fine motor skills will reduce the ability to drop the slide with your shooting hand.

Figure 30
Ruger SR45 Review

This next photo shows a round in the magazine ready to be loaded into the chamber.  This photo gives you a good idea on how the loaded chamber indicator "LOADED WHEN UP" will be pushed up by the rear of the cartridge case.

Figure 31
Ruger SR45 Review

When the chamber is not loaded, the upper surface of the indicator is flush with the upper surface of the slide.

Figure 32
Ruger SR45 Review

When a round is in the chamber, the front of the indicator pivots up as shown below.  This provides both a visual and tactile indication that the chamber is loaded.

Figure 33
Ruger SR45 Review

Each person has their preferences on loaded chamber indicators and I am in favor of this style on the Ruger SR pistols.  I take new shooters to the range on a regular basis and this clear method of indicating a loaded chamber is good for them and great for me while I'm trying to keep an eye on them.

Figure 34
Ruger SR45 Review

Even though there is no barrel bushing like you would have on a 1911 style pistol, there was still no freeplay between the barrel and slide while the slide was fully forward with the barrel against the breech face.  The only area of looseness I found was between the slide and the frame and you can see this in the photo below at the front of the slide.  The recoil spring pushes this looseness up so that the slide sits high in the frame, but if I grab the front of the frame and slide, the two parts can be pushed closer together by about 0.034".

Figure 35
Ruger SR45 Review

When the slide is pulled back, you see the stainless steel barrel cams down at the rear and the front tilts up.

Figure 36
Ruger SR45 Review

This next photo gives you a look at the breech face and you can also see the extractor, ejector and how the loaded chamber indicator which is pushed up when a round is in the chamber.

Figure 37
Ruger SR45 Review

It is hard to tell in the photo below, but there is a very slight taper on the front of the magazine well.  Other than this front surface, all other sides of the magazine well were straight with no taper.  When a magazine is removed, the firing pin is blocked from impacting the primer when the trigger is pulled.

Figure 38
Ruger SR45 Review

The Ruger SR45 comes with two 10-round steel magazines .  As you load rounds in the magazine, the rounds will cover holes drilled in the sides of the magazine to indicate the number of rounds in the magazine. 

Figure 39
Ruger SR45 Review

If you want extra magazines, they don't come cheap.  Ruger sells them at their ShopRuger.com website for $44.95 each.  I did find some listed on the internet for around $37-ish, but the less expensive retailers were showing out of stock at the time of this review.

Figure 40
Ruger SR45 Review

Figure 41
Ruger SR45 Review

Figure 42
Ruger SR45 Review

Figure 43                                                            Figure 44           
Ruger SR45 Review   Ruger SR45 Review

When the magazine is loaded, the first few couple of rounds are in a single stack.  The magazine then starts to taper so that eventually the rounds at the bottom of the magazine become slightly double stacked.

Figure 45
Ruger SR45 Review

 

Thoughts

My thoughts on the SR45 are similar to that of the SR9.  When you consider the manual safety, trigger safety, striker blocker, magazine disconnect and loaded chamber indicator, clearly Ruger puts a lot of effort into producing a safe product.  Each person will have their own opinion on what safety option is needed for their own particular preference and situation.  For me, I generally like these added features.  Since I own a SR9, I can speak firsthand that SR45 lives up to the same level of quality and has the same feel and functions as the other SR pistols.

For more detailed photos and commentary, make sure you check out the other parts of this review and feel free to leave comments on my Reader's Comments page.  The following links are provided to help you see other parts of this review. 


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