Ruger RXM Review

The Ruger RXM, let’s check it out.

 

The Ruger RXM, let’s check it out. Guys, Ruger’s been making quality handguns for decades, and when I first saw the RXM, I was a little bit surprised.

I thought this looks very familiar. In fact, it’s compatible with the Gen 3 parts, but there are some really cool features about this handgun that differentiate itself. One of the big ones is it’s a collaboration with Magpul.

The polymer frame is Magpul. It has a chassis system, which is definitely different. It has that 17 degree grip angle that’s for the 1911, and it has a really sweet trigger.

There’s a lot of cool features about the RXM that go above that tried and true and proven design. We’re going to take a good look at the RXM, and we’ll see the pros and cons, see what this is all about. I want to give a big thank you to Ruger for sending the RXM for this review.

The Ruger RXM in collaboration with Magpul. That to me is a big deal. I mean, you have two really giants in the industry that have come together and produced a handgun, but let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room.

This is basically a Glock Gen 3, but it has some major upgrades, and really when I first saw this, I got it in a sale sheet, and I thought, well, that’s just a Glock, and I was a little bit disappointed. I thought, well, this is going to be something completely new, but we are going to go into some reasons why I do really like this, and I think there’s a great place for this in the market. So first thing let’s do is go ahead and drop our 15 round magazine.

It is, of course, a PMAG, one of the GL9s for the Glock pistols. Check the chamber, the gun is empty, and you get two Magpul PMAGs, but this is Glock compatible. So we have our standard Glock mag, Gen 5, works just perfectly.

Obviously, most of the parts compatibility with the RXM is Gen 3, which makes that a big plus, because there’s a lot of Gen 3 parts out there. One of the big things about this system is that it is simple, and you can do a lot of things to it, and one of the things that Ruger has talked about is this is made with a lot of great features, but it’s still very customizable, and with that, any kind of upgrades that you have with your Gen 3, you’re going to be able to use with this handgun. Now, another big plus is the grip.

This is just your 17 degree grip angle, so you have your 1911 grip. The texturing on here is actually fantastic. It’s Magpul’s TSP, which is a textured grip that’s soft to the touch and not aggressive on your clothes or your skin, and yet it’s very grippable.

We have panels on the back, on the front, and, of course, on the sides, and we have index pads for your thumb and your finger once you get it out of the trigger guard. I like to have that pad, and there is a small ledge to be able to mitigate some of the recoil if you want to grab hold of it with that high thumb forward grip. Here with the mag release, there is a cutout, just so you can get to it.

The slide stop has been extended out a little bit, not back, but just a little bit out. It’s not ambidextrous. We have our standard takedown levers, but I feel like that these are a little bit extended, makes it a little easier to be able to disassemble.

We have an undercut in the trigger guard. Now, that’s very important. A lot of people take their standard locks, and they’ll do this undercut.

This allows you to get your index finger really high up on the grip, and that way you can get a better grip toward the bore axis. It just gives you more grippability right here in this area. The mag well has been flared, and it’s a low-profile flare, so it’s just a little bit outside, and this just allows for the mags to get in a little bit easier.

Rounded-off trigger guard, so you don’t have that little hump on the Gen 3 glocks. We do have a one-slot Picatinny rail, which is standard. The grip overall, which is Magpul, has been really well-designed, and there is somewhat of a little bit extended beaver tail over your standard lock.

But buried inside this handgun is a chassis system, or a fire control insert. With Magpul, they’re going to develop different grip shells, and then you can just take and change it out, whether it’s in a different color, different size. This is actually considered the gun, and here is the serial number to the chassis inside.

This makes this extremely modular for the Glock pistol, which is pretty big. We’re going to get a better look at the chassis when we disassemble it, and we’ll take it out and we’ll take a look at it. Now the slide has a black nitride finish on it, very well done, front and rear cocking serrations.

But what I love is a lot of the styling and just the beveling on the slide, so that’s going to give you a little ease in putting in holsters. It just streamlines it a little bit. And then we have it here on the back as well, the corners are just cut off.

And then here at the front, you have your corners on the front of your slide. Here we have the RXM. We do have a Magpul logo on the grip right here, and then here on the other side, EHG for Enhanced Handgun Grip.

Now it’s also optics ready, and this is made for direct mount, so it means it’s a multi-footprint mount. You don’t need adapter plates. I love that they’re going to that more and more.

It just makes it much easier, it gives it a direct fit to the slide, it gets it lower, and it’s more stable. It’s less of a fail point. This will take the Trijicon RMR or Holosun footprint, but it also does the Delta Point Pro and the Shield RMSC, so your more prominent sights are going to fit on here directly.

And those are set with small little locator pins that correspond with the holes in the top of your slide. We’re guys removing the two screws, and now you have your multi-footprint here. I mean, there are a lot of options, and you have these smaller holes that allow you to put in these small little locator pins.

And they’re tiny, and we’re going to see if we can get it on camera. They just fit down like that, and for the RMR, it’s that outside little located pin. We’re here with the RMR, and again, you’ve got that co-witness with your sight.

It just comes up over the edge. It’s actually a direct co-witness, but it just fits really well on here. I love the multi-footprint design.

I mean, obviously, you’re going to do away with that spacer, which is going to lower the sight onto the slide and give it a direct mount. The plate is steel, and it does have the Ruger logo. The rear sight is a serrated blacked-out sight.

It is steel. It is windage adjustable, and we have a tritium front sight, and these are what they call one-third co-witness. And so it does co-witness with your sight, but even if you don’t put an optic on it, it’s still low enough to where it’s not suppressor height, and they’re very easy to see.

Now we do have a flat-face trigger, and we’ll look at the trigger pull, but we have a blade safety. We also have an internal striker block safety, and we have a loaded chamber indicator visually up through the top of the slide. So if you can see the brass in there, you know there’s a round in the chamber.

Of course, we had to bring out the Glock Gen 5, and this is the Glock 19. We do have an RMR on here, but we’re going to just see and get a good comparison to see size differences or any kind of dimensional differences. So first off, we see that the Glock, of course, it’s a little rounded off, but it looks thicker.

Here with the cuts, it gives it more of a narrow look to it, and these sights are Glock-compatible as well. The beaver tail on the Ruger does come out just a touch, and it gives you just a little more of a lip to get your hand up higher. And we see that grip angle with the Glock, which is a standard hump on the end, how it comes down with this.

Again, you just get a straight shot. And both have the four-inch barrels. You can see it’s more rounded off on the 19, but here on the RXM, it’s a little bit more chamfered and just gives it a different look.

While this is identifiable as a Glock clone, there’s definitely some styling differences that really kind of make this a lot more unique. Now, there’s a lot of different companies that are making Glock clones, and to me, with Ruger and Magpul coming together, I think it’s going to really give this some confidence. Sometimes you have some different parts or things that go on.

This is going to give you something with two legendary companies, honestly, that have brought this together. Guys, we have more of a flat-face type trigger. Of course, you have your standard trigger safety, and it really needs to have a full pad for it to disengage.

And so here, we’re going to check the trigger pull action. So we bring it up to the take-up. We start to hit a wall, and guys, it’s a nice break.

It’s tactile, obviously audible, not a bad trigger for a Glock-style pistol. Reset, right about there. That’s not a bad trigger, especially for a polymer frame striker fire pistol.

Trigger pull weight, with our Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells, three pounds, 11 ounces. Three pounds, 4.6 ounces. Guys, this is about a three and a half pound trigger.

With the Glock, typically, you’re getting five and a half pounds. And weight on the RXM, 23.14 ounces. Aside from all the Gen 3 parts, of course, your standard Glock magazines are compatible, but also your holsters are compatible.

And so that’s going to give you just a ready holster, obviously, if you already have a Glock 19, but Glock 19 holsters are at a lot of local gun shops. And of course, you can buy them online, and it gives you a lot of choices. And guys, we have just revamped our website at suitsgear.com. There’s a lot of different suit swag over there, patches, t-shirts.

But there’s also a lot of my favorite products are there. We also have the Suits Deals, where we find all kind of deals and offer those to you guys at some of the best prices. Another thing that we do is a lot of the videos that were taken down by YouTube, which we call our contraband or banned videos, and all that’s over on suitsgear.com, so check it out.

Big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring the ammo, all made right in the USA, one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. Also a big thank you to Lula Loaders for making mag loads fast and easy. Ruger RXM at the range.

First thing I’ve really noticed is the grip. The grip texturing, it’s just, it locks it in. It’s definitely very effective.

Love the straight grip angle, or the 1911 grip angle, and the undercut. So first off, as far as the frame goes, I mean, this just works. Works very well.

Slight serrations, easy to grab, and of course the front. Sights are excellent. They’re that one-third co-witness style, they’re a little bit higher than standard sights, and they’re very easy to see, especially with that little ring around the front.

It shoots similar to a Glock, except for the trigger, and the trigger’s definitely an improvement. But mag well open, easy to just get ready to shoot, I mean, it just nestles in your hand. Now this is still a Glock, even though it has some improvements, but again, that Glock has been just legendary in performance.

Flat recoil spring kind of helps also to keep that muzzle flatter, but overall guys, again, it’s a tried and proven design, very simple, and yet we have Ruger and Magpul bring it together. Tell you what guys, great shooting handgun, and you’re going to get it for a more reasonable price and yet you’re going to keep that quality. Disassembly.

You drop a magazine, check the chamber, empty. Go ahead and pull your trigger, pull back on the slide about a fourth of an inch, pull down on your takedown tabs, slide comes right off. Very typical for your Glock pistols.

And barrel and recoil spring out. The recoil spring guide rod is all metal. Barrel, very well done.

I love the black nitriding. I think it just gives it a really nice look. Machining is just excellent, which we were expecting.

And then here we have the frame. Now looking down at it, it looks pretty much like a Glock striker fire pistol, or a lot of other striker fires. But you can see the steel coming all the way around, and this is part of the chassis.

We have our locking block, and then of course, everything really is very Gen 3 looking. So again, parts compatibility, and that’s a big deal. And honestly, it’s so easy to take apart and put back together.

That’s one thing that’s beautiful about that system. So let’s take a look at the chassis. The first thing we need to take out is our takedown lever, and there is a spring that kind of holds that into place, so we want to depress it, and then we want to just shake it loose.

It takes three hands, but we can do it. And it’s not difficult to do, but under the camera it’s a little more difficult. So here we have our takedown lever.

Now when you’re taking out your trigger pin, moving the slide stop around a little bit helps to relieve some of the tension. That was a little tight, so we needed to pop that out. Make sure we retain it.

Then with the front chassis pin, we’re going to do the same. It was a little bit loose. I probably could have pushed it on out with my hand, and we’re just going to have to wiggle this little pin out.

As you can see, it’s retained here. There it goes. Now we’re going to lift up on our chassis just a touch, and once we get it raised up, actually it’ll fit down into the back of the receiver, so this comes right out.

Here we go, guys. Just the chassis system. We have a little bit of a modified housing here at the back.

A little bit different than your standard Glock pistol, but overall, again, all the parts are contained in this chassis, and again, this is considered the gun, and the serial number is right here. But the one thing this allows you to do, again, is to change out the grip shells without any problem. If you want a bigger one, different color.

If you want to stipple one, and you don’t like the way it turned out, you can just take it off, get another one, and put this in. Also, with your slide and barrel, all the different parts and configurations, you’re going to be able to use this chassis to do that, and this does not have to be taken out every time you clean, but it makes it really easy to be able to clean these parts rather than taking all the individual parts out. All right, to reinstall the chassis, make sure that your trigger goes into the trigger guard, and then lift up on the front, and then just push it toward the back of the frame, just like that, and then it’ll just shut right down.

Here we have our pin that holds in the front of the chassis, so we’re going to put it in, and there’s a little spring here to overcome, so we just keep turning it until it goes into place. You want to make sure that that chassis is seated correctly. So I’m pushing down on the front of the chassis, I’m just going to tap this in.

You want to make sure that this is lined up in the right position, and it’ll snap, just like that, into place. Next, we’re going to take our trigger pin, and we’re going to lift up on the slide stop just a little bit to relieve some tension, and we’re just going to go ahead and just tap that in. One thing you don’t want to do, guys, is to force it.

If it’s not kind of sliding in that direction, you want to make sure it’s on the other side, and we’re even on both sides. Now, we’re going to reinsert our takedown lever. Now, I like to get it started with that groove facing toward the back of the frame, just to press that spring and let it just go right over it.

Once it goes all the way in, it’ll just snap into place. Next, take your slide, drop in your barrel, recoil spring, and guide rod, and then we’re going to put it right back over our frame, test for function, and we’re back in business. Now, keeping your firearms maintained and cleaned is vital.

Otis makes some of the best cleaning equipment out there. They make a number of different kits that are dedicated for different rifles, pistols. They also have Shooter’s Choice, which makes excellent CLP and bore solvent and different cleaning materials.

The Ripcord is one of their signatures, and there’s a whole system based around it. They are suppliers to the U.S. military, and so here we have our tactical kit. It’s a very compact little pouch, and you have everything you need to keep your firearm cleaned in the field.

But then also, they have larger kits with the steel rods and with Ripcords, and they make a number, in fact, probably the most I’ve ever seen. And then, of course, they have tools as well. So check out Otis Technologies, highly recommended, and we want to thank Otis for being a sponsor of the channel.

It comes in a really nice hard case, and we have the Ruger Magpul logo on here. We have a molded section to hold everything in. We have our extra magazine, we have our lock.

You do have your adapter pins for, or locator pins, for your red dot sights, and of course, we have the handgun. One thing I do like that they’ve done, and this is a small thing, but with the owner’s manual, they have a little clip. So everything’s not falling around in here, and then when you close it, it falls out.

This is just a nice touch. But a great manual tells you all the different things you need to do to maintain the firearm. And of course, there’s other paperwork.

The Ruger RXM retail price, $499. Now how does that compare in price to your Glock? And this is the Glock 19 Gen 5 MOS, which means it will accept the red dot. And they retail for $639.

So really, just the retail price right up front is going to put this in a very good price range. And of course, market price is typically going to be less. So what are some pros and cons with the RXM? First off, it’s a Ruger Magpul collaboration.

That’s going to give us some confidence. Things are going to be done right. And number two is the chassis system, and that really differentiates this handgun from your Glock.

And that way, you can maintain this, it’s going to give you a lot of modularity with different grip frames, different barrel lengths, slide lengths, you name it, because this is the gun. I love the Magpul texturing. This is really well done, and the 17 degree or 1911 grip angle.

Has all the standard front and rear cocking serrations, your pick rail. I like the sights. They’re not too high, like suppressor height sights, but they will co-witness, and you do have a tritium sight at the front.

And these are Glock compatible, so you can change that out to whatever you want to. Direct mount optics plate. That in itself is a huge plus over the Glock.

And that’s one of the things that’s been a problem with the Glock pistols, is the adapter plates. And this allows you directly to the slide, which lowers it and gives it a stronger anchoring point. And you don’t have to deal with plates and all that, and adapter plates.

The design is Glock Gen 3, which has been extremely reliable, rugged, dependable, and it’s simple. So this just really takes that design that has proven itself over and over, and they’ve added additional features. Trigger, extremely nice.

No, it’s not a 1911 trigger, but a very nice three and a half pound, nice crisp break. Really like the trigger. So overall, a lot of big pluses, and yes, again, when I first looked at it, I was kind of like, oh, that’s a Glock.

But yet, it’s a Ruger and a Magpul, and there are a lot of cool features that are advancements over the Glock, and it comes in considerably less in price. So the Ruger RXM has its foundation in one of the most proven gun designs out on the market, and yet they’ve taken it up to another level. And then matching up with Magpul, I mean, it gives it just a lot of credibility.

The chassis system is excellent, and of course, a lot of the other features. And again, a big thank you to Ruger and Magpul for sending the RXM for this review.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America, long live the Republic.

 

-Don