Shane Tuttle
Staff
Took out the XD9(m) for the first time today. It was quite the experience. I compared it to my XD40, 45, 1911 Loaded, and HK P30. Most shots were from 7 yards. About 300 rounds were fired through the M.
The good:
Bringing the M's sights up to the picture was dead on from the get-go. I didn't have this luck with any handgun I've ever owned off the bat. Granted, all the handguns mentioned will do this for me, but it was always a minor adjustment to achieve at the first outing. It handled every experimental handload I fed it. 9mm obviously isn't a hard recoiling cartridge, but it was still absorbing its recoil very nicely. 7 yards isn't exactly the best distance to judge accuracy, but it shredded out a nice small hole in our targets. Fast acquisition provided fast followup shots. Sights settled right back down where I wanted them. I thought my regular XDs fit my hand well. The new M made the others feel like I was holding a (shriek!) Glock! It spoiled me, that's for sure.
The bad:
This is a tough pill to swallow. The so called "minimal reset" trigger doesn't live up to its name. The trigger is an improvement from the originals by having shorter takeup, overtravel, and reset. But the trigger break was a bit high...higher than normal even for Springfield. Also, it wasn't the smoothest. It wasn't gritty at all, but it just didn't exactly have the smoothest transition. It's hard to describe due to its subtle feel. However, if Springfield is going to advertise so much about an improved trigger, they should have done a better job on it. If one is to buy the M and have no plans to do any tweaking, I'd have to say this is a disappointment. Don't get me wrong. For a striker fired gun, I still think it has the best trigger in its class. They just should have gone the extra mile. It would have put the argument to rest and they dropped the ball. I'm going to get a trigger job done anyway after firing a few hundred more rounds so it's no sweat off my back.
I prefer to put at least 1000 rounds through a gun before I give an official thumbs up. I don't think I'll be changing my mind, though...
How did it compare to the HK? Well....that's for another thread.
The good:
Bringing the M's sights up to the picture was dead on from the get-go. I didn't have this luck with any handgun I've ever owned off the bat. Granted, all the handguns mentioned will do this for me, but it was always a minor adjustment to achieve at the first outing. It handled every experimental handload I fed it. 9mm obviously isn't a hard recoiling cartridge, but it was still absorbing its recoil very nicely. 7 yards isn't exactly the best distance to judge accuracy, but it shredded out a nice small hole in our targets. Fast acquisition provided fast followup shots. Sights settled right back down where I wanted them. I thought my regular XDs fit my hand well. The new M made the others feel like I was holding a (shriek!) Glock! It spoiled me, that's for sure.
The bad:
This is a tough pill to swallow. The so called "minimal reset" trigger doesn't live up to its name. The trigger is an improvement from the originals by having shorter takeup, overtravel, and reset. But the trigger break was a bit high...higher than normal even for Springfield. Also, it wasn't the smoothest. It wasn't gritty at all, but it just didn't exactly have the smoothest transition. It's hard to describe due to its subtle feel. However, if Springfield is going to advertise so much about an improved trigger, they should have done a better job on it. If one is to buy the M and have no plans to do any tweaking, I'd have to say this is a disappointment. Don't get me wrong. For a striker fired gun, I still think it has the best trigger in its class. They just should have gone the extra mile. It would have put the argument to rest and they dropped the ball. I'm going to get a trigger job done anyway after firing a few hundred more rounds so it's no sweat off my back.
I prefer to put at least 1000 rounds through a gun before I give an official thumbs up. I don't think I'll be changing my mind, though...
How did it compare to the HK? Well....that's for another thread.
Last edited: