Although Springfield has a shaky record of supporting the 2nd Amendment, they do have some great, high-quality firearms. Their main competitors are Glock and Sig Sauer. Does Springfield Armory beat them with the XD-9?
The Springfield XD is a remarkably boxy-looking firearm. It rivals Glock in that aspect. I don’t find it that appealing. The slide is a little bit too tall for my taste. Overall the pistol just looks a little fat. The rear and front grips are alright, but there’s minimal grip on the sides. I prefer my guns with aggressive grip texturing. Slide serrations are present on the rear slide and little more than a fancy visual on the front side. The XD-9 comes with a noninvasive grip safety. I can usually take or leave safety features when it comes to pistols, but you’ll also have a loaded chamber indicator as well as a striker status indicator.
All told, the XD shoots pretty dang good. Everything feels smooth and recoil isn’t bad at all. I’d attribute that to the recoil system and larger slide. Despite my feelings about Springfield Armory, I can’t deny the XD’s excellent performance. It was just a lot of fun to shoot. The accuracy was on point too, although I really hate how to sights are set up. Instead of shooting directly where the sights line up, shots land a little above. Definitely one of my least favorite things about this gun. The trigger is okay at best. I don’t usually expect much from striker-fired guns and the XD-9 is just another pistol with a mediocre trigger.
I carried this 9mm around for a little and it wasn’t bad! Not nearly as comfortable as my subcompacts, but perfectly serviceable. Like I mentioned before, the XD-9 is a little fat which makes it bulge out a little bit, but otherwise, this pistol is ready to go for concealed carry.
This pistol also cycles ammo like nobody’s business. I ran through some of my reserved steel-cased as well as my top brass and the XD-9 had zero problems eating them up. I even dragged it through the dirt a little bit (with permission from my buddy) and it was a little gritty, but continued to cycle ammunition without a single hitch.
The XD-9 is a great pistol. That’s the bottom line. I don’t like Springfield Armory or their support of gun control and won’t be using my own money to buy this pistol, but this gun is solid all the way through. It’s great for concealed carry, shoots smoothly, and is accurate despite the out-of-the-box sights sucking. It’s also an extremely affordable pistol at only $399 for the compact model, but can definitely be found for cheaper.
Richard Douglas writes on firearms, defense, and security issues. He is the founder and editor of Scopes Field, and a columnist at the National Interest, 1945, Daily Caller, and other publications.