It’s great to live in the modern era of precision manufacturing when even “budget” firearms can typically be counted on to function reliably. This was not always the case. Not even a decade ago. Rost Martin, a company that launched at SHOT Show 2024, proves with its RM1C pistol that not only can you get reliability from an inexpensive pistol ($459 MSRP) but you can get high-end features and great shootability, too.
That’s right, for just over four bills ($429 seems to be a popular dealer price) the Rost Martin RM1C 9mm comes optic-ready with a blanking plate installed and one optics mounting plate of your choice, including hardware and tools. It ships with two magazines, three backstraps, a patch, and an owner’s manual, all in a nice box with a custom-cut rubbery foam liner. Legit.
Speaking of being in the modern era of firearms, it’s fair to say that for most consumers this means new pistols ship ready to accept an optic. Once the realm of higher-end guns, a milled slide is now expected in more or less every pistol and the RM1C doesn’t disappoint.
But wait, there’s more. Machine time is money, but even on this budget-friendly handgun, Rost Martin has serrated the top of the slide to reduce glare and give it a nice look.
The flush-fitting magazine holds 15 rounds, and the spare mag with the +2 extension holds 17. Even with the flush-fitting magazine the frontstrap length allows for a full grip with my pinky finger on the gun, not on the magazine baseplate.
I found the magazine release button design to be spot-on. It’s protected at the rear by a raised area on the grip frame, rounded on the edges, serrated, and just sticks out far enough to be easy to activate intentionally, but hard to activate accidentally. Mags drop free.
And guess what? It’s mirrored on the right side of the gun, as is the slide stop. The RM1C is fully ambidextrous right out of the box, and not ambidextrous in the sense that you can switch the controls from one side to the other but ambi as in actually both-sides-function ambi.
Likewise, on both the right and left sides of the grip frame above the front of the trigger guard there’s a slightly indented, textured pad area. It’s perfectly placed on both sides of the gun for me (I wear men’s size L gloves, FWIW) for indexing my trigger finger on the right side…
…and my left thumb on the left side.
Continuing with the anti-glare serration theme is the rear sight and the slide plate. A black, serrated rear sight is my personal preference and the RM1C’s is quite nice with extra light-gathering width in the front and an appropriately-sized rear notch for quick acquisition of the front sight.
Up front is a white dot in another serrated steel sight. Good quality for a gun at this price point. We all know of more expensive pistols that have polymer sights.
That’s a decent little tapered magwell molded into the grip frame.
A striker cocked indicator peeks through the slide plate at the rear.
Or not, if the striker isn’t cocked.
Rost Martin struck a decent balance with the RM1C’s pebbled style grip texture. It’s grippy enough for most uses and provides decent control, but it won’t tear up your skin too badly when you’re concealed carrying.
To swap between S, M, and L backstraps you punch that pin out at the heel of the grip frame and then slide the backstrap down and off the frame. Reverse that to install. The medium backstrap is installed from the factory and is going to work just fine for the majority of shooters.
A pleasantly wide, flat-face trigger graces the RM1C, complete with a little flippy drop-safety dingus. Once the take-up in the trigger system is, well, taken up, the flat face of the trigger is vertical and you’re up against a firm wall followed by a pretty darn crisp break and very little overtravel.
The trigger reset is highly tactile and audible, just how we all like it. This makes it easy to “ride the reset” — not release the trigger any farther than necessary — for faster and/or generally improved shooting performance. When you do ride the reset you’ll find it very short with 95% of that initial trigger take-up not being required again; you’re starting right at the wall.
As striker-fired pistols go, this one is well above average. For a gun at the RM1C’s price point, the trigger is great. It’s short, crisp, and has a fantastic reset both in how very pronounced it is and how short it is.
Fit, finish, and machining on the Rost Martin is very good; well above what I’d expect at this price. Its ergonomics are comfortable and all the controls are in the right places. It even looks pretty decent (it’s available in FDE and gray frame models, too).
On the range the RM1C is a great shooter. I’d put rounds on target a little faster with a more aggressive grip texture, but as-is it still competes very favorably with any other polymer frame, striker-fired, compact pistol out there at any sort of typical price point. It’s well-tuned and I think it shoots a little softer than some similar pistols. The great trigger, good sights, and good ergos made it shoot like a more expensive gun.
I fired a sampling of mixed ammo from hollow points to subsonic rounds and the RM1C never missed a beat. Straight out of the box, magazine after magazine of random ammo, never a failure to smoothly feed, fire, or eject. In this category of pistol I rarely shoot rested accuracy groups, but can say that my groups on target while on the range, including transitioning between targets and doing a decent amount of rapid fire, were consistent with my personal abilities and what I’d expect from any similar pistol.
Ultimately, there is ONE area in which the RM1C let me down and I feel is ripe for improvement: the polymer blend they’ve used. Different plastics feel and sound different, have different hardnesses, different warmth in the hand, different weights . . . I don’t like the polymer Rost Martin is using for the grip frame. It feels cheap. Yes, I realize this is a particularly inexpensive pistol but it doesn’t have to feel like it.
From the aesthetics of the polymer blend to its “clicky” tone when you tap it to the hard, shiny feel and maybe just the overall “coldness” of it, it rubs me the wrong way. The rest of the RM1C looks, feels, and performs better than its price point would suggest, but the grip frame’s polymer blend misses in the opposite direction.
I realize plenty of y’all will see that as nitpicking, but I’ve held and shot enough polymer pistols and gun accessories (magazines, grips, etc) that I’ve come to make certain assumptions based on the plastic blend, and as soon as I picked up the RM1C I thought, “Oh boy, here’s a cheapy gat that’s going to shoot and run like I regret not spending an extra $150 for something decent.” Granted, I was not correct about that and the RM1C turns out to be a great pistol at a great price. But I still want nicer plastic!
Finally, let me also just say (in part because many of y’all are already aware of this) that some of the ownership of Rost Martin are not fans of mine — that’s another story for another day — and if I could knock the RM1C down, I’d be quite happy to. However, that’s not what we do. The goal of our reviews is no surprises — to cover anything noteworthy so if you purchase or test drive the gun, you’ll be like, “Yup, it’s exactly what SNW said it is.” In this case that means the Rost Martin RM1C is exceptional at its price point and the folks who made it should be proud for delivering such a solid pistol package at such an affordable price. Very nice work.
Specifications: Rost Martin RM1C
MSRP: $459
I see that company name and all I think of is Artemus Gordon from Wild, Wild West.
Maybe they should make a derringer that fits in a boot heel.
I have one, bought “on spec” a while back when I first heard about them, as I like supporting small companies when I can.
I am not impressed by the trigger. Rather “gritty” and on the heavy side.
Not a bad gun otherwise. As noted it has some nice features for the price point.
i’ve yet to be tempted by any polyframe thingy, but this is a very nice review.
For me: The two things that will automatically turn me of from any handgun are a trigger safety and a magazine safety.