My bro-in-law copped and XD.40 subcompact. Got 5 mags of rangetime out of it and I was extremely impressed. I know there are a lot of Glock worshippers out there that wont swear by anything less. But the springfield pistol seemed to be a little more thought out.
First thing that struck me. The grip. There are two grips in this world to me that set the standard for extreme ergonomics and ultra-fast target acquisition. IMHO opinion, these guns are the CZ-75 and the 1911.
The springfield contour reminds me strongly of the 1911. It fits in the hand like a glove, I have large hands and found the XD to be perfectly thick. The short mag didn't appeal to my hand for optimum grip but grip still felt sure. the extended 10 shot mag was optimum. In my hands, with the extender, the grip fit in my hand like a glove. It was pure perfection. The 1911 style backstrap safety in addition to the glock style trigger safety was an excellent touch. Plus one for Springfield.
I prefer steel guns over polymer because striker fired triggers basically suck. My fingers are long and the length of pull is not only too short and strange feeling for my long fingers, but often cumbersome for rapid fire. Most strikers need good range time to get comfortable with. For me, the sloppy break of the trigger is another minus...
For a short time i owned a taurus 24/7 SA/DA pistol hoping that the trigger would break better than glock... It was 10x worse.
Sold it fast. the springfield, you can feel, springfield took the time to make a clean break, fast, shooting striker trigger from the first shot to the last.
Letting off downrange.
Surprised the short barrel didn't kick hard and the 40 was very managable. I would guess it's springfields beautifully sculpted heavy slide and polymers natural ability to absorb and disperse shock probably contributed to the managability.
I wasn't expecting too much out of a 3" barrel from 165gr 40 cal from 25 yards. but all 10 rounds made in a steel plate, the average size of the broad side of a playstation 3. Those were one shot per second shots.
Mag 2. Let off in two shot bursts, half second apart. same distance. Still hit them all in.
Mag 3 10 round rapid fire mag dump. 8 in the plate missed the last two rounds.
The last two mags i shot off doing draw and shoots firing from cover. The springfield proved accurate no matter the angle.
The glock has some advantages.
It can be anywhere from 3 to 9 oz lighter. Depending on gun and cal. It has a larger capacity mag. Parts are everywhere. And the biggie is that it's a proven reliable design for nearly 30 years now.
In spite of this, it seems the springfield XD series addresses, everything that was or is wrong with the glock. If the XD can shed more weight while retaining the current high quality and increase the amount of quality accessories and higher capacity mags? I think this would be a better alternative to glock under those circumstances. It's the better gun to shoot right from the start. The flipside to that is, with some effort in getting rangetime with a glock and becoming proficient with one. You have more tactical advantages with Glock. so Glock isn't going anywhere just yet.
But for a guy that hates striker fire polymers in general. The Springfield XD40, changed my opinion. I'm a fan of this gun.
My dream springfield is the EMP. Hopefully, one day, i will get some range time behind it.
