itgoesboom
member
After looking for the past few weeks, deciding what my next carry pistol would be, I purchased a new Springfield Armory XD-9 Sub Compact on Friday. I got the two-tone, black slide on green frame, with fixed sights, and it cost $409 + background check fee from Keith's in Gresham.
I had looked seriously at other firearms, including the SA GI milspec, and the Glock 19 and 26, as well as the standard XD9 and the Steyr M9. While I was tempted by many of the other pistols, the XD9 subcompact offered exactly what I wanted. I wanted something more powerfull than my Bersa .380, something with only 1 type of trigger pull, something compact enough to carry, and I really wanted it to fit my hand and I was also on a budget. I also wanted a pistol that my favorite holster maker made a holster for, and I was informed that they are about to make holsters for the XD9 subcompact.
The XD9 Subcompact gave me the best of all of these worlds, and it actually fit my hand, something that most subcompacts don't do. As much as I love the Glocks, I can't get a good grip on the subcompact models.
So anyways, got the pistol home and field stripped it after reading through the manual. I am amazed at how easy it is to field strip. It literally just takes a few seconds to do, and is just as quick to put back together. The parts also seem well made and solid.
The sights are 3 dot, fixed, and are pretty nice, especially when you consider the size of the pistol.
The only thing that concerns me is the rear rails are made of polymer rather than metal, but since I haven't heard of any problems with this, I won't let it bother me.
I purchased 400 rounds of Winchester White box from Wally world and took the pistol out to the range on Sunday. After shooting a few rounds from my 22/45 to warm up, I started with the XD9.
As I have mentioned in other range reports, all of my shooting is done at self-defense distances, between 5-10 yards and always offhand in a two handed grip. All of the shooting of the XD9 was done at 5 yards, since it was my first time out with it. I shot 200 rounds of the Wally world white box without any failures at all. The rounds ejected forcefully, up and to the right. Some of the ejected shells did manage to make it back over to me and land on my arms or hit the brim of my hat.
I was expecting it to have a little more recoil than I am used to, because of its small size, light weight and high bore, and it did. While the recoil was snappy, it was by no means uncomfortable or uncontrollable.
The rounds were hitting low and to the left of where I was aiming, I would say a couple inches each way, although I figured that was probably due to a bad habit of mine rather than the pistol. After shooting a few magazines full, I started to let my stronghand pinky sit under the magazine, rather than try and keep it on the grip. When I did this, the POI moved considerably closer to my POA, to where I only had to aim at the upper right corner of the 10 ring in order to get hits in the center of the 10 ring.
My best 5 shot group of the day measured just under 2", although I know this pistol can do much better. I did have one group that had rounds 1&3 touching, and rounds 4&5 touching, and they were less than 1" apart, but I had a called flyer a couple inches away on round 2 which destroyed the group :banghead: . Both of these groups were fired fairly quickly, with just enough pause to get a good sight picture.
I also fired more rapidly, not as fast as I could pull the trigger, but with just a snap sight picture. Doing this I was able to keep most of the rounds in the 10 ring, although some did manage to sneak into the 9 ring aswell.
I will have to work on that a little more in the next few weeks.
All in all, I am pretty impressed with the pistol, and can't wait to take it out again soon, and try out some good HP rounds with it.
I.G.B.
I had looked seriously at other firearms, including the SA GI milspec, and the Glock 19 and 26, as well as the standard XD9 and the Steyr M9. While I was tempted by many of the other pistols, the XD9 subcompact offered exactly what I wanted. I wanted something more powerfull than my Bersa .380, something with only 1 type of trigger pull, something compact enough to carry, and I really wanted it to fit my hand and I was also on a budget. I also wanted a pistol that my favorite holster maker made a holster for, and I was informed that they are about to make holsters for the XD9 subcompact.
The XD9 Subcompact gave me the best of all of these worlds, and it actually fit my hand, something that most subcompacts don't do. As much as I love the Glocks, I can't get a good grip on the subcompact models.
So anyways, got the pistol home and field stripped it after reading through the manual. I am amazed at how easy it is to field strip. It literally just takes a few seconds to do, and is just as quick to put back together. The parts also seem well made and solid.
The sights are 3 dot, fixed, and are pretty nice, especially when you consider the size of the pistol.
The only thing that concerns me is the rear rails are made of polymer rather than metal, but since I haven't heard of any problems with this, I won't let it bother me.
I purchased 400 rounds of Winchester White box from Wally world and took the pistol out to the range on Sunday. After shooting a few rounds from my 22/45 to warm up, I started with the XD9.
As I have mentioned in other range reports, all of my shooting is done at self-defense distances, between 5-10 yards and always offhand in a two handed grip. All of the shooting of the XD9 was done at 5 yards, since it was my first time out with it. I shot 200 rounds of the Wally world white box without any failures at all. The rounds ejected forcefully, up and to the right. Some of the ejected shells did manage to make it back over to me and land on my arms or hit the brim of my hat.
I was expecting it to have a little more recoil than I am used to, because of its small size, light weight and high bore, and it did. While the recoil was snappy, it was by no means uncomfortable or uncontrollable.
The rounds were hitting low and to the left of where I was aiming, I would say a couple inches each way, although I figured that was probably due to a bad habit of mine rather than the pistol. After shooting a few magazines full, I started to let my stronghand pinky sit under the magazine, rather than try and keep it on the grip. When I did this, the POI moved considerably closer to my POA, to where I only had to aim at the upper right corner of the 10 ring in order to get hits in the center of the 10 ring.
My best 5 shot group of the day measured just under 2", although I know this pistol can do much better. I did have one group that had rounds 1&3 touching, and rounds 4&5 touching, and they were less than 1" apart, but I had a called flyer a couple inches away on round 2 which destroyed the group :banghead: . Both of these groups were fired fairly quickly, with just enough pause to get a good sight picture.
I also fired more rapidly, not as fast as I could pull the trigger, but with just a snap sight picture. Doing this I was able to keep most of the rounds in the 10 ring, although some did manage to sneak into the 9 ring aswell.
I will have to work on that a little more in the next few weeks.
All in all, I am pretty impressed with the pistol, and can't wait to take it out again soon, and try out some good HP rounds with it.
I.G.B.
