In June, I mentioned I was going on a media trip hosted by Ruger, but it was for a yet-to-be-released product, and I couldn’t share much. I’ve patiently waited for the better part of the year, and I can finally share.

This week, Ruger, in partnership with Magpul, released the RXM pistol!

RXM. Get it? Ruger x Magpul.

SPECS + FEATURES

This striker-fired 9mm pistol may look like others, but unlike most, it features a modular chassis system. The RXM has a serialized Fire Control Insert set inside an interchangeable Modular Enhanced Handgun Grip.

In lay terms?

You can take the gun part thingie out and put it inside a different grip frame to customize the fit. 😬

The grips are made by Magpul, and new sizes, styles, and colors are being worked on.

The RXM comes optics-ready with a tritium front sight. And it works with 15-round Glock 19-pattern mags.

Best part?

The MSRP is $499, which means the street price is around $399 at the time of writing.

That’s a hell of a lot of features for a $400 gun. Did I mention it’s made in the USA?

CALIBER: 9MM
CAPACITY: 15+1
BARREL LENGTH: 4”
WIDTH: 1.0”
WEIGHT: 23.2 OZ

MY THOUGHTS + EXPERIENCE

I usually don’t “review” guns until I’ve had months and several range trips to get acquainted. As of writing, I’m still waiting for my RXM to arrive, but I have enough experience with it to write a first look of sorts.

In June, I spent two days with my test RXM and put over 1000 rounds through it. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the red marks on my palm!

The event was held at Gun Talk Media, and our instructor was the famous Top Shot competitor, Chris Cerino. I’m a very average shooter, so this class was a challenge for me, in a good way.

GRIP

With small hands, this size of pistol is not something I normally gravitate toward. It’s roughly the size of the G19, which is what I learned to shoot on. Being slightly thinner than the G19 helped with my grip.

I liked the texture, but I could have used some grip tape on the hot, sweaty Louisiana range for sure.

TRIGGER

The RXM has a flat-faced trigger, and I found it to be nice and smooth. It's better than most stock triggers, I would say. The takeup was smooth to the wall, and the break felt about 5-6 pounds to me. The reset was short, giving both tactile and audible cues. I ran the heck out of my test gun, and the trigger felt the same throughout the two-day period.

ACCURACY

I found the RXM to be decently accurate. There were several competition shooters in our class, and they had no trouble with accuracy or speed at all. I would say my issues were the same as I have with shooting any pistol, which is a discussion for another day.

The sights are nice on this pistol and I had no trouble acquiring them at all.

IS IT A BUY?

The RXM is a feature-rich pistol at a very attractive price point. I think it would be great for beginners and those with a strict budget.

For roughly $400, you will be hard-pressed to find something with so many pros. Since it’s based on the Glock Gen 3 model, there’s also a ton of after-market support readily available, which is a huge plus.

I can’t speak to long-term reliability, but I will update you when I’ve had some appreciable time with my RXM.

Ruger RXM: A First Look