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The folks at Ruger don’t introduce a lot of new firearms each year, but when they do release a new model, it is almost always a winner. And as usual with Ruger firearms, they are almost always in demand by the gun-buying public. I think a lot of people were caught off-guard with the release of the new Ruger Max-9, 9mm pistol. But we shouldn’t have been.

The trend for the few years has been sub-compact or micro-sized 9mm pistols, especially designed for concealed carry with two-column magazines–providing a lot of ammo. Anyone who knows Ruger handguns  knows that when Ruger calls something “compact” it is really a smaller, but not by much, version of a full-sized handgun. I own a Ruger American full-sized 9mm handgun, and the same in their compact version – and the compact really isn’t nearly as small or compact as you think it is – still, it’s a stellar 9mm handgun, that holds either 10 or 12 rounds of 9mm Parabellum in the magazine.

I’ve liked the Ruger LC9 sub-compact pistol since first seeing one, nice little concealed carry pistol, chambered in 9mm. The only thing was that it only held 7+1 rounds. Sure, it sounds like a lot of ammo, and of course, everyone should carry at least one spare magazine these days. Still, the way things are going when it comes to crime statistics, many attacks are being carried out by multiple attackers, and you might wish you had more ammo. I’ve near heard anyone who has been in a real-life gunfight complain that they had too much ammo. Keep that in mind.

At first glance, the new Ruger Max-9, appears to be a kissing cousin, to the LC9, and it many respects it is, just a little bit “different” than the LC9. The good news is that the Max-9 is only slightly larger – not by much, than the LC9. But the Max-9 is a double-stack 9mm pistol. It comes with two magazines, one is a flush fit 10-round version, and the other is a 12-round version. The latter really isn’t all that much longer than the 10-round mag, with the included “pinky catcher” floor plate on it. One nice thing that I am happy to report is that  the Max-9 magazines, either capacity model, are a lot easier to load than some of the other micro-sized 9mm magazines. That’s a good thing in my old age, with arthritic hands/fingers. I used to breeze through loading any type of magazines. However these days, I mostly use a magazine loader of some type to aid me in loading magazines, especially if I’m going to do a lot of shooting.

The Max-9 is a striker-fired pistol, with no exposed hammer. There is no second strike capability – if you pull the trigger and nothing happens, you need to pull the slide back and chamber another round. Not a deal breaker, as I’ve trained that way most of my life – if there is a “click” instead of a “bang” I just chamber another round. It is noteworthy that many other striker-fired pistols also don’t have a second strike capability.Continue reading“Ruger 9mm MAX-9 Pistol, by Pat Cascio”