

Often, the gun has gone through more than the usual channels of factory to distributor to gun store. Most dealers in small shops are not price gouging. On the other hand, we paid more than MSRP for our test gun. When we found the first Ruger MAX-9 had arrived in our area, we counted ourselves lucky. Here’s what we thought of them after extensive handling and range testing. In this matchup we fired, field stripped and carried the three similar pistols and found good performance. They take the small 9mm from single-digit to double-digit capacity. We don’t think we missed anything in testing these pistols and in the end, there is little reason to choose the slim-line nine over these handguns. These new-breed pistols are among the more-innovative handguns we have tested in some time.
RUGER 9MM AMMO PLUS
3500, Smith & Wesson M&P9 Shield Plus 13246, and the Taurus GX4 1-GX4M931. Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and Taurus have introduced pistols that are not quite slim-line nines but are a tiny bit larger. But despite those pistols’ popularity, companies continue to innovate, seemingly defying conventional engineering by make smaller pistols reliable and easier to shoot, while not losing a lot in round counts. While there are other choices, the slim-line 9mms, such as the Smith & Wesson Shield and Ruger LC9s and others, are the most-popular concealed-carry handguns in America. Gradually, the small self-loading pistol has replaced the snubnose 38 Special revolver as the default carry gun for most Americans. The fiber-optic tube is easily visible, even from the side. The Ruger MAX-9’s fiber optic and tritium front sight combination was the best of the test, we thought.
