Is the new Ruger RXM 9mm the next “Everyman” 9mm? Given the performance, price, and a familiar, just-right design, our evaluator seems to think so.
by Bob Campbell
Sturm, Ruger & Co. is a solid, reliable firearms manufacturer. Many of their firearms, like the 10/22, Blackhawk, Single Six, and GP 100, have reached icon status. Ruger’s watchwords have been reliability, durability, and affordability. Ruger has sometimes cloned various firearms or been influenced by their design. The Ruger 77 has a forerunner in the Mauser 98. If you wish to shake hands with John Moses Browning, the SR 1911 is a good choice.
Now, Ruger and MagPul have collaborated to introduce the RXM — a polymer-frame striker-fired handgun with a strong resemblance to that Austrian pistol we all know so well. But there are solid reasons you should choose the Ruger.
I won’t apologize for buying American, given equal quality. That is a good enough reason for me to lean toward the RXM. The pistol is available for $399 at most outlets.
The price point is important. We all have financial responsibilities, but going cheap is poor economy. The Rugers are economical, not cheaply made. That is another incentive to buy Ruger. Ruger’s innovations are also attractive.
The RXM resembles a Gen 3 Glock 19 9mm. The Glock 19 has often been hailed as a perfectly sized carry gun. Smaller guns are more difficult to fire while larger guns are more difficult to carry. The Glock 19 hits that sweet spot. The Glock’s performance makes it a favorite of peace officers and soldiers, with many carrying the Glock 19 in preference to the larger Glock 17. If you purchase the new Ruger RXM, you have access to Glock magazines, holsters, and various upgrades developed for this familiar handgun platform.
A huge difference between them, though, is that the Ruger features an internal chassis. In common with the SIG P320, the Ruger features an FCI, or removable fire control insert. Sig calls theirs the FCU (fire control unit). This serialized unit may be removed and placed into another frame, offering the shooter a range of handguns with a single FCI. MagPul innovation is producing different frame sizes for the Ruger in the very near future. At present, a compact frame on the MagPul website lists for $39.99. That’s affordable.
A question might be how close a copy of the Glock 19 is the Ruger RXM?
It isn’t an exact clone. I confirmed that the Glock 19 slide will not fit the Ruger. The barrel, though, will fit in the Ruger slide and lock up tight. Aftermarket barrels such as the Faxon will be a good fit for the Ruger — a wise decision.
The Ruger features a flat trigger with a safety bar insert. The action is the same double-action-only as the Glock. The safety lever helps prevent an accidental discharge from lateral pressure, and there is a striker block. Pull back the slide and the action is prepped, the striker partially cocked. The trigger is pressed to finish cocking the striker and the striker breaks against spring pressure.
The Ruger action is lighter than the Glocks in the house (an M49, 19, 40, and 48), breaking at a clean 4.5 pounds. Reset is sharp. A sharp reset helps in speed shooting. The pistol features a single slide lock lever. The magazine release is a good design, protected by a wall in the grip frame. The frame features a universal rail for mounting combat lights.
The frame treatment is different than a Glock. It feels somehow softer. The balance of adhesion and abrasion in the grip is good. MagPul calls this the Trapezoidal Surface Projection (TSP) treatment. The front strap is a little rougher than the rest of the treatment on the grip circumference, aiding in control. A slight indention under the trigger guard just where the front strap meets the trigger guard makes for a minor lowering of the bore axis. These things are difficult to measure exactly, but the Ruger frame doesn’t have the same curve as the Glock. Instead, the Ruger is angled at perhaps twenty degrees while the Glock is more like twenty-two degrees.
The Ruger feels good in the hand. The magazine well is nicely funneled. Speed loads aren’t going to be a problem with this pistol.
The slide is finished in a dark nitride. The frame is a subtle Stealth Gray. The slide features a nice bevel over the flats. The barrel locks in tight and features a cutout to indicate if the chamber is loaded. The slide boasts a nicely styled slash running from the muzzle to just past the ejection port. The muzzle end of the slide is nicely contoured, making holstering a little easier. The steel sights are well designed. The rear sight features a wide notch and serrated rear face. The front sight includes a single tritium dot. This self-luminous sight is a good touch on an affordable handgun. The sights will co-witness with some optics and not with others.
The grip frame doesn’t feature grip inserts. The contour is subtly different from the Glock in a good way and fits most hands well. Only the largest hand sizes will be challenged by the Ruger RXM.
The Ruger fits Glock 19 holsters, so there seems to be no dimensional differences to influence holster fit. We confirmed this assessment by wearing Kydex and leather holsters with the Ruger.
The pistol is optics-ready with a direct mount for popular red dot sights.
What more could we ask? While R&D may have been shortened by cloning a proven design, there is much more to the equation. Consider the cheaply made 1911s that just won’t run (cloning a design isn’t an answer if the clone isn’t done correctly). Ruger got it right. We have an affordable, reliable, and accurate piece that I feel will eventually become an Everyman’s 9mm.
Making Brass
The big question is, how does it run, and does it run with everything we may feed it?
I’ve found that only a few 9mm handguns are completely reliable with the wide variety of 9mm loads. Differences in case rim dimension and overall length still exist. The Glock, Beretta 92, and an original Browning Hi-Power will feed, fire, and eject with most any variation. The Hi-Power does so at the expense of a heavy hammer spring while the Glock features what some refer to as an unsupported feed ramp.
A surprising number of guns run just fine with loads they like yet choke on others. I collected no small amount of ammunition for myself and my helpers — some of whom supplied their own ammunition. In deference to the Ruger/MagPul collaboration, I used MagPul magazines for the majority of the test. I have long employed MagPul 15- and 17-round magazines and have added a 21-round Glock-type magazine. This magazine offers a good reserve of ammunition without being too bulky. I can carry it on the belt in a carrier without the magazine digging into my ribs. These magazines proved reliable, with no problems during the test. It is asking a lot for a magazine to feed from full compression to almost no compression. Just as they have with their ultra-reliable PMAG AR-15 magazine, MagPul got it right.
Steel-cased ammunition is hard on extractors — quality pistols or not. It is also dirty because of blow-by (the case doesn’t expand and grip the chamber as brass does) and powder technology seldom equals domestic production. But it is cheap. Recently, one of the box stores offered steel case ammo on sale at $9.55 for a box of fifty and I have a credit card. It was dirty, made a lot of sparks, and isn’t as accurate as most loads, but this ammunition ran through the Ruger without a single failure to feed, chamber, fire, or eject. More than 300 cartridges were fired.
The Ruger is fast on target and the sights and trigger add up to superior performance. I ate the center out of man-sized targets at 7, 10, and 15 yards. Results were excellent. I was able to slow down and get good results with cranio ocular hits at a long 25 yards.
This dog will run.
Moving from the bottom tier to the top-shelf ammo, I fired a couple of boxes of Fiocchi 147-grain Range Dynamics loads. There really is a difference in ammunition, my friends. Muzzle flash is less, and I began to get an idea of how accurate the Ruger RXM really is. I was able to make head shots on demand at 25 yards. Not all on the brow but in the “bottle.” Moving to a solid benchrest firing position, I settled into accuracy testing. I added a couple of loads in wide use by law enforcement. The Speer 124-grain Gold Dot +P and Federal 147-grain HST Tactical are excellent loads intended for the worst-case scenario, with a good balance of expansion and penetration. I needed to confirm the pistol’s reliability with +P ammunition. I fired a box of the Gold Dot loads off-hand in addition to the bench rest accuracy work. Function is good.
Five-shot groups, two-group average, 25 yards:
- Federal 115-grain Syntech – 2.4 in.
- Speer 124-grain +P Gold Dot – 1.8 in.
- Federal 147-grain Hydra Shock – 2.1 in.
The Ruger RXM is good to ride with. In that vein, I obtained a functional holster for the piece that will serve for many years.
The Safariland IncogX is molded from Bolatron and covered in suede. This combination makes for a rigid holster, offering a sharp draw. The holster accommodates both an optic and a combat light (be certain to specify the light when ordering). These features are important for the high-speed, low-drag class. Safariland is a favorite among institutional users and the new inside-the-waistband holster offers the same service-grade build quality. The Ruger is a good fit for this adjustable retention holster. Holstering is easy enough. This holster is useful in the behind-the-hip or appendix position. A few dozen draws to a hit on a man-sized target passed the standard response drill time.
I also checked for fit in a custom holster from Jeffrey Custom Leather. The Shadow is a thin but secure holster with superb fit, molding, and stitching. The Ruger fit tightly, just as a Glock does, and the draw was very sharp. When a covering garment may be worn, the Shadow is an excellent option. The Shadow features a sweat guard and reinforced holstering welt. In this case, the welt is of sharkskin. Polymer in custom leather? You bet…a great combination.
Ruger RXM Specifications
- Caliber: 9mm
- Action: DAO striker fired
- Capacity: supplied with two MagPul 15-round magazines
- Overall Length: 7.15 in.
- Barrel: 4 in.
- Height: 5.3 in.
- MSRP: $499
What I Like
The pistol is reliable, easy to shoot well, and uncomplicated. The tactical doctrine of simplicity is inherent in the design. The pistol has no manual safety but includes safety features. The grip is ideal for most hands. It is the type of grip attempted and sometimes achieved by custom gunsmiths — and the hobbyist with a heat gun.
What I Don’t Like
Anything I could come up with would be nitpicking. Within the striker-fired, polymer-frame genre, there is nothing not to like about the pistol. The optics mounting system is simpler than the Glock, and while some will like the Glock MOS better, the Ruger works.
What I Would Change
I didn’t care for the flared magazine well as much as some of my compatriots, but I was in the minority. If you don’t like it, get out the heat gun.
Compare To
This pistol beats the bargain basement polymer crowd hands down. Nothing at a lesser price may be compared. Relative to a Glock 19, the Ruger RXM costs less and, at the least, performance has parity. The Glock has an ambidextrous slide lock, the Ruger is standard with a tritium front sight.
As we start to see pistols with genuinely better features and performance — the Springfield Echelon and Shadow Systems, as examples — we are spending a lot more money. The Ruger RXM runs great and shoots great. It is an Everyman’s gun, and you can spend more without getting much more in real performance.
