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The rearview on 18 months with the Rost Martin RM1C

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We weren’t sure what to expect when the Rost Martin RM1C was first announced at SHOT ’24. Was it going to be a made-in-Turkey import with someone else’s name on it? A “game-changing” G19 Gen 3 clone but without its muse’s reliability? A vaporware gun that ever left the drawing board?

No, after 18 months and 1,500 rounds, we found it to be a solid American-made (from the land of Whataburger and Buc-ee’s, no less) double-stack 9 with lots of backend support and a lineage drawn from a proven design. Affordable, we found it dependable, accurate, and intuitive in use.

Plus, it is optics-ready.

That big ole Trijicon RCR actually costs about twice what the gun does, but both work.

About the only rocks we could toss its way were in the safety tab in the trigger shoe, which we have talked about and is easily overcome with a bit of training, and the very stout recoil spring, which is common in a lot of striker-fired pistols of its size.

Full review in my column over at Guns.com.

A Rost What?

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If you have followed this blog for more than five minutes, you’ll get that I like new guns, which come around almost every day.

Something rarer are new gun companies, and I always take an interest in those and they can sometimes prove a bigger and more complex story.

The first new gun company of the year this year appears to be Texas-based Rost Martin, who has what at first appears to be a G19-sized vanilla striker-fired polymer-framed 9mm pistol, but at closer look seems to be a little better (and for a better price).

Their flagship RM1C pistol is a compact-sized double-stack 9mm, that sports a 4-inch hammer-forged barrel, 7.1-inch overall length, and a 21.1-ounce unloaded weight with a 15+1 round magazine. This puts it a hair smaller than the Glock 19 Gen 5. It is optics-ready on all models, shipping with an RMR footprint, while plates for “all other popular optic footprints” will be available.

Other features include aggressive front and rear slide serrations, ambidextrous surface controls including slide catch and mag release, and what is described as “a smooth, light 5-pound trigger pull with a clean break and a short reset.” Added to this are non-glare top slide serrations similar to what is seen on S&W and Walther pistols, an inherent low bore axis, and a Tenifer-treated nitrocarburized slide. It has interchangeable rear grip inserts.

The Texas-made RM1C will be offered in black, gray, and FDE, and has a very AREX Delta Gen 2 vibe.

Don’t worry about support, as it uses CZ P10 pattern mags that are free, and accept XD pattern sights.

Of note, it has a Glock-style takedown albeit with arguably better ergos.

All right, so enough of the windup – how about the pitch? The MSRP on the new Rost Martin RM1C is set at $459 across all models, a price that will probably be a little lower at retail. That puts it on par price-wise with an optics-ready Turkish-made Stoeger STR-9C or Canik TP9SF but about a hundo more than a PSA Dagger, but then again it has a feature set better than the basic Dagger.

The folks at Rost Martin are sending me one to test and I am meeting with them at SHOT next week to get some more background info, so watch this space.