P345 +P ammo: stiffer spring?

[Junkie]

I have a P345 that I picked up for almost nothing a while back.

I just picked up a case of Federal 230gr +P JHP LE ammo (P45HST1).

The manual for the gun says this:

The Ruger P-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 .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.

Is it ok to shoot the +P stuff? Searching shows that other people are doing so.

Since I have a fair amount of the ammo, I'm thinking of picking up a stiffer Wolff spring for it. They say standard is 13lb and they offer 15 and 17 as stiffer options. Should I just buy both and see which works better?

Looking at the box vs a box of WWB it indicates 29% more muzzle energy. If the spring stiffness should increase by the same amount, 17lb would be the way to go - but I don't know if that's how it works.

Thanks for any advise.

[deadcoyote]

Just send Ruger and Email rather than ask a bunch of random guys on the web-r-nets.

[003]

You answered your own question. The quote from the Ruger manual states it is ok to shoot all SAMMI spec ammunition, +P meets SAMMI spec.

"No .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."

Keep in mind that SAMMI spec +P and NATO spec ammunition is very close to the same chamber pressure.

No reason to start changing out springs, unless you want to create a malfunction.

[Junkie]

I just got this reply from Ruger

Although +P ammunition can be fired through the P Series pistols, a steady diet of it is not recommended for the firearm.

so it sounds like a lot of +P isn't a good idea.

[deadcoyote]

I'll tell you we used to be issued 3rd gen smith's in 9mm. They (Smith) gave us the same advisement, which we ignored and ran thousands of rounds of +p through them. They basically seemed to wear identically because we had three frames crack on the same day at range! This was after ~7000 rounds of +p through each pistol.

[Sutcliffe]

Great gun, BTW

I think Ruger should have tried a little harder to keep it around. The new SR45 is fugly.

[Junkie]

I suppose if I get at least 5k out of it with +P ammo this cheap it's stilll 5000*.4 = $2000... the price of the gun is pretty small compared to that.

[knucklehead0202]

it'll be fine. I've used the stuff in my p97, which is the older version of the 345 without all the safety crap on it. no worries.

[ASanDiego74]

Should be fine, I've shot only about 200 rounds of +P with my P345. I wouldn't give it a steady diet of 'em though. That reminds me, I gotta hunt down another one before it drops off the list!