Here we check out the RXM, Ruger and Magpul’s new striker-fired, poly-framed, high-capacity and customizable pistol.
Glock introduced their first pistol in 1982, and it’s done more to influence pistol design than any single firearm since the Browning Hi Power in 1935. The Glock features most often copied include the striker firing mechanism, polymer grip frame, passive trigger safety and field-stripping process. The list of pistols that emulate the Glock is long, and now with their brand-new RXM, Ruger has added another to the list. The RXM is very Glockish in looks, feel and operation, but it’s also some things that Glocks are not.
The RXM isn’t just another Ruger pistol. It’s the result of a collaboration between two well-respected brands in the firearms industry, and it’s made in America. Ruger partnered with Magpul to offer a Glock G-19 Gen 3- like, striker-fired, polymer-framed, high-capacity and customizable pistol that’s affordable and comes out of the box optics ready. As a comparison, an optics-ready Glock G19 is going to cost you upward of $600. The Ruger RXM has a suggested retail price of only $499.
For those not familiar with Magpul, they gained their fame and built their excellent reputation with their AR-15 magazines and stocks. Since then, they’ve added a wider variety of magazines to include Glock magazines, and more stocks and accessories, even for shotguns and lever-action rifles.
The grip frame on the Ruger RXM is manufactured by Magpul, and it’s called the Enhanced Grip Frame (EHG). The grip frame is stealth gray in color and features a generously beveled but low-profile magwell, a comfortable and grippy stippling that Magpul calls their ¾-scale TSP texture, a universal pattern accessory rail, an extended magazine release and a much more comfortable interface for the middle finger on the shooting hand.
Ruger says more grip frame colors and sizes are on the way.
Ruger makes the RXM’s slide of through-hardened alloy steel. It’s squarish just like a Glock slide, and it’s finished in black FNC nitride. The barrel has the same finish and is 4 inches long with six grooves and a 1:10 twist rate. The pistol comes with a high profile set of sights—not suppressor-height sights, but sights high enough to co-witness with a miniature reflex sight. The rear sight is all steel and all black, serrated, drift adjustable and has a large notch. The front sight is a square post with a Tritium insert. The slide has the now usual removable plate for reflex sight installation. It’s unusual in that, without any plates or special tools, but with the help of movable studs included with the pistol, the cut is compatible with RMR, DPP and RMSc mounting patterns.
The RXM ships with two Magpul Glock 19 PMAG 15-round magazines and, given that its size and shape are so similar to a Glock 19, Ruger says the pistol should fit in many off-the-shelf Gen-3 G-19 holsters. I didn’t have a holster for a G19, but the RXM worked well enough for range training out of a Galco G-19 Avenger holster for the S&W M&P. According to Glock, the G-19 has an unloaded weight of 23.63 ounces and the RXM weighed in at 23.2 ounces.
The two pistols may look and feel very similar, but they’re not. It’s what’s on the inside—what you can’t see—on the RXM that really sets this pistol apart.
The Ruger RXM has a removable, serialized stainless-steel Fire Control Insert (FCI). After field stripping the RXM—just as you would a Glock—you can remove the locking block pin and the takedown pin, and simply pull the entire fire control unit out of the Magpul EHG frame. Though it’s unclear at this time what type of interchangeable grip frames Ruger or Magpul will offer for the RXM, you’ll be able to easily transition between them at home or on the range, all by your lonesome.
So far, I’ve got about 500 rounds through the RXM. I’ve shot it with a variety of carry ammunition and a good selection of practice ammo, with bullet weights ranging between 115 and 147 grains. I have yet to experience a single stoppage; the pistol has digested everything I’ve fed it like a hungry hippo. I’ve also yet to embark on any serious accuracy testing, mostly because I haven’t seen the need to. The first day I had the RXM on the range—with the Trijicon RMR Type 2 installed—my son and I were routinely hitting an 8-inch steel plate at 50 yards, offhand.
I carried Glock pistols for almost the entire 13 years I worked in law enforcement. I trusted them and shot them well but was never in love with them … mostly because that damned indentation behind the trigger guard was murder on the first knuckle joint of my middle finger. The Magpul EHG grip frame on the Ruger RXM has less of a notch and more of a taper—and it solves this problem. It fits my hand much better.
In fact, compared to a Glock, the EHG grip is a better fit to my hand in every way. I expect I’ll be writing Ruger a check for this pistol, because it fits my wife’s hand pretty darn well, too.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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