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The Ruger American Pistol Compact is a 17+1 capacity, 9 mm, black polymer frame striker-fired semi-automatic.

This Ruger is almost snub-nosed and, of course, being striker-fired rather than a M1911-type, without an external hammer. The gun has a medium beavertail that’s very high up permitting excellent control to counter recoil along the thrust axis and muzzle flip for faster follow on shots.

The slide is stainless steel with a black nitride finish and is only 1.05” wide. The barrel is 3.55” long, has 6 grooves and a 1 to 10” RH twist. Other key metrics? Overall length is 6.65”, height is 4.48” and using a glass-filled nylon polymer frame pays off since weight is only 29.2 ounces.

This gun’s style is replete with diagonals, triangles and diamonds. There are diagonal rear serrations, diagonals of the wrap-around grip module, diagonal lines of the front of the trigger guard, and various facets cut into the slide’s top, front face, ejector port and rear. Finally, look carefully at the slide’s rear serrations to note a diamond pattern within them.

The front and back sight set is a Novak LoMount Carry 3-Dot. They are white dot: one in front and two in back. As you might guess from the “LoMount” rubric, they have low-cut combat profiles and dovetail very neatly into the wide slide. The rear sight is adjustable for windage.

Some controls, such as the thumb safety at back, slide stop and magazine release are ambidextrous. The takedown lever, mounted at center left, is not. Speaking of safety, the gun has a trigger safety and a view port hole atop the barrel that’s visible at the back of the deep cut ejection port.

Under the muzzle is a four-slot Picatinny accessory rail. Moving back some is the trigger guard. It’s oversized in its width and in the area it encloses, facilitating gloved operations.

The grip’s front strap and back strap serrations are diamonds. The back strap can be changed with the included #10 Torx wrench.

The Ruger American Pistol Compact ships with two nickel-Teflon plated steel magazines. The bigger one has a 17-round capacity and a front-heeled grip extension. The other is for 12 rounds. The gun also has small, medium and large grip modules, each bears the Ruger circular logo and Ruger name on each side. The Ruger name is also etched onto both sides of the slide.

The Ruger American Pistol Compact is made in Prescott, Arizona.

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