HK makes a great pistol. I had a USP .45 and it was very accurate, and never failed to fire. It shot everything. That being said it is a big large for concealed carry, but a great range gun. I never needed to strip it down any more than a simple cleaning. Keep shooting and don't worry about a field strip, it doesn't need it.

Originally Posted by swampcrawler

Hi guys. this is my first post on this forum, so a little about who i am. 18 years old, just out of highschool, love weapons, from self bows to flint locks to H&Ks. a while back i bought a sigma because it was cheap, and i hated it. so after workin a little in a chem plant and gettin a little scratch, i headed to town after a Glock 10 mm.

came home with the hk 45. just fell in love with the way it fit my hand, the way it looked, and some of the unique asspects of it. for a kid my age, its amazing to own a firearm of this quality. i couldnt realy ask for much better. ok, maby one or two things.

sights, why, on a gun i payed an arm and a leg for, do i get glow in the dark sights instead of tritiums?!

trigger pull, double action sucks, and single action is a little off, but not bad.

other than that i love this thing, i think H&k has my buisness for a long time to come.

P.S. anyone detail stripped this thing yet? is it something you can do at home or do you need a gunsmith to do it? im scared to try it, dont wanna not be able to get it back togeather.

I have done a partial detail strip, everything but the trigger and I'll be doing that soon as I'm upgrading the trigger return spring. There's detailed instructions on the USP line which is very similar to the Hk45. I found a couple videos on Youtube to be quite helpful.

This is the series that helped me out a lot.
HK USP Disassembly and Reassembly Part 1 of 6 - YouTube

Some tips:

Take out the trigger bar detent pin and spring on your own as soon as you can, and go ahead and order spares from either Numrich or HKParts.net, you will need them eventually if you plan on taking your gun apart more than once.

Stripping your gun voids your warranty. Proceed at your own risk.

You may want to work on the gun in a plastic tub with arm holes cut out, it will save your some grief if you ignore the first tip.


As for the sights, tritium is a prohibited substance in Germany, check out Heinie sights, Trijicon has some as well and 10-8 is going to start doing some HK45 products as well, not sure exactly what they are going to add, maybe just a rear or might be complete sets.

I've got close to 3k through mine since this Spring and the gun runs like a champ, don't be discouraged when the slide stop levers / hammer start to discolor, it's normal.

Originally Posted by postmaster

HK makes a great pistol. I had a USP .45 and it was very accurate, and never failed to fire. It shot everything. That being said it is a big large for concealed carry, but a great range gun. I never needed to strip it down any more than a simple cleaning. Keep shooting and don't worry about a field strip, it doesn't need it.

Unless your trigger return spring breaks and you want to do it yourself instead of sending it to HK, or if you want to change it from Variant "X" to Variant "Y" and want to do it your self instead of sending it to HK, or if you want to add an ambi safety and you want to do it....well I think you get the picture.

thanks guys. a set of tritiums are high on my things to get list. as for stripping it, i ask because i spend some time in swamps, sandy river banks, boats (which i have sank twice in the past year or two) and just about any other unpleasantly wet, gritty, dirty sittuation u can come up with. i just seem to find myself in these sittuations fairly often, and if dirt or grit finds its way into my gun, i wanna get it out. if i mannage to get grime and water deep in the thing, how do i get it out?

Yes, I have had every part offof the gun. I had a book in front of me with pictures, and a second gun sitting there for spatial reference. Don't do it. It's like a Chinese Rubix cube in there, and there is no reason to detail strip it.

HK Dan is correct. If you plan to swim in mud frequently you need a different gun. S&W M&P series comes to mind. A couple of friends have HK45's and we found the great accuracy is matched by S&W M&P45's FS or Compact at half the cost. M&P's are very easy to break down for in depth cleaning and parts are readily available in case the grit damages one. The parts are rugged so you most likely wouldn't need any though. Lest I forget the M&P grip fits more hands than HK 45's do.

I should add that I own a full size and compact M&P45 and have first hand knowledge of the HK as noted above.

Good luck.

LOL--The nice part about HKs, TOF? You can swim with them in mud and NOT NEED to detail strip them. They still shoot fine. I had a USP break a trigger bar--something that would have any other gun on the planet in the dead cockroach position. It fired another 150 rounds before I realized there was a problem and stopped.

Damned bulldozers, that's what they are. Nothing stops 'em.

lol. nice

Those wacky Germans know how to build a gun don't they?

They really do. I took it to a 1911 smith to get fixed (he didn't have a clue and didn't want one). He said to me--and I quote: "Why with a small bag of parts I could keep a 1911 running for 50,000 rounds.I don't know why the military likes THESE pieces of crap!" To wit I replied "Because they don't wanna carry the small bag of parts?"

It was the last time we did business...LOL

nice. if you had worded that a bit differently and made it a little shorter id use it as my signature.

Originally Posted by swampcrawler

as for stripping it, i ask because i spend some time in swamps, sandy river banks, boats (which i have sank twice in the past year or two) and just about any other unpleasantly wet, gritty, dirty sittuation u can come up with. i just seem to find myself in these sittuations fairly often, and if dirt or grit finds its way into my gun, i wanna get it out. if i mannage to get grime and water deep in the thing, how do i get it out?

Detail stripping a USP or HK45 is not that big of a deal, but I can understand how it might be intimidating to the uninitiated. As HKDan stated, the guns are among the most hardy out there. Still, fine river silt, etc., is bad juju for guns. You are correct in being concerned about how to get it out.

NON-chlorinated brake cleaner is your friend. Be CERTAIN the can says NON-chlorinated... and do not confuse brake cleaner with carburetor cleaner, because most carb cleaners are chlorinated. Said chlorine will "turn" your plastic parts... nothing like a splotchy gray/white frame to kill the aesthetics of a fine combat pistol.

I have no qualms about getting inside any of my HKs except for the P7. But I avoid it if possible. The brake cleaner works, and costs a couple of bucks a can versus "gun scrubber" that costs seven/eight bucks a can and is the same stuff. You can get to every nook and cranny with the little plastic hose.

Just understand this... either product will remove every trace of lubricant along with the crud and firing residue and water that it displaces/blasts out. You MUST go back and re-lube the rotating/sliding parts after douching the frame and/or slide. One of those little needle oilers that Brownell's sells is ideal for this.

Some folks gasp in horror at the idea of using an automotive product on their weapons. Whatever. If this is you, get a Glock. Any mid-level cretin can learn to detail-strip The Volkspistole fairly quickly, with little fuss.

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nice gun