CARRY PRO
This custom pistol
isn’t a budget-buster.
Story By Dave Anderson
Photos By Ichiro Nagata
The first time I ever hefted a Colt .45 1911, I knew I had to own one. It would have been the first centerfire handgun I owned, except when I went to buy it the dealer also had a Smith & Wesson Combat Magnum on display. The revolver’s handsome lines, deep, blue finish, gorgeous Goncalo Alves stocks and perfect balance made me forget .45 automatics for a while. (A Colt .45 was my second centerfire handgun.) There have been others.
Sometimes it takes a while before you realize something is special, especially these days when we have so many good handguns. It can take a while to determine if one is just another reliable, durable, undistinguished handgun or a potential superstar.
When the Springfield Armory XD first came out I considered it one of the former. I arranged to borrow a sample in .40 S&W, shot it for a time, found it reliable and quite accurate. I was impressed with the obvious quality of parts and workmanship. For the most part, though, it seemed like just another good duty/defense gun on the long list with which we have been blessed. It didn’t break my heart when other staff writers got the assignment to test the XD for GUNS and American Handgunner, and I returned the pistol to Springfield.
As time went by I heard more about the XD. A couple of acquaintances who bought them for home and personal defense raved about how reliable they were. IPSC competitors began speculating the XD, with its excellent, short trigger pull, might be the hot setup for Production division, maybe even Limited division. What interested me most was I never heard a bad word said about the XD.
Our XD has the “Carry Pro” package from the Springfield Custom Shop. It is a full-size 9mm model with 5"-barrel. Inevitably, it is called the “Tactical” model, a word I have come to hate and which I will therefore use but once. Two comments: yes, I am burned out with the constant use of the T-word. And the T-word label on the XD is the first, last, and only criticism I can make about this great pistol. It took a while, it wasn’t love at first sight, but the Springfield XD is now on my “special” list.
I’m not sure just when it struck me the XD was one of the good ones. Maybe it was after yet another 2", 25-yard group. Maybe it was after mowing down rows of Bianchi plates faster than I ever imagined possible with any but a full-house race gun. Maybe it was when I dug around for another box of ammunition and realized I had just fired 500 rounds in an afternoon without cleaning or lubing the gun, and without a single malfunction.
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The fiber-optic sight set is all the rage these days in competition.
Very bright in the sun, they are easy to see and easy to shoot with. |
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Why It’s Great
I guess this is a bit of an Alice in Wonderland review (“sentence first, verdict later”). Yes, I think the XD is a truly superb auto pistol. Now let’s talk about why, beginning with the trigger. The XD trigger is sometimes called a copy of the Glock Safe Action. It is not, though there are similarities.
With the Glock, manually operating the slide to chamber a round partially compresses the mainspring which powers the striker. Pressing the trigger further retracts the striker, fully compressing the mainspring, then releases the striker to hit the primer and fire the cartridge.
With the XD, when the slide is manually cycled to chamber the first cartridge, the mainspring is fully compressed. Pressing the trigger does not compress the mainspring further, it only releases the striker to fire the gun. What this means to the shooter is trigger movement to fire the gun and to reset after the shot is very short, and for “short” you can sub “fast.
the striker is cocked. Below the slight beavertail is the grip safety.
Safe
The fact the mainspring is fully compressed does not mean it is dangerous. The XD has three passive safety devices to prevent any but intentional fire. A tab in the trigger piece itself prevents inertial trigger movement should the gun be dropped from a considerable height. A grip safety on the back of the grip must be fully depressed before the trigger can be moved. And a mechanical block positively locks the striker against movement unless the trigger is deliberately pressed.
The XD Carry Pro Package includes a superb trigger job. Weight of pull is adjusted between 4 to 4.5 pounds and overtravel reduced to shorten trigger movement. On the test gun, 15 trials with my electronic Lyman trigger gauge gave an average of 4.25 pounds, with a variation of only a couple of ounces. Trigger quality was equally good. There is 1/32" of light takeup, then a short, creep-free press to trigger break with minimal overtravel. Total trigger movement is 1/4", and reset is just as short and quick.
This is perfect for duty or defense. For competition, the Springfield Custom Shop can do even better, bringing the pull down to 3 to 3.5 pounds. Admitting I’m a bit of a fanatic on the topic of trigger quality, the XD trigger alone is enough to make me like it.
A second feature is the grip frame. This is about the most comfortable grip I’ve ever felt in a high-capacity frame capable of wrapping around 15-shot magazines. So many high-cap frames feel like gripping a section of lumber. The XD grip is, for a high-cap, slender, easy to grasp and natural to point.
I should say, it is natural for one who has fired hundreds (many hundreds) of thousands of rounds through 1911 auto pistols, and whose wrist is more or less permanently fixed at the correct angle to align 1911 sights. For me, some of my favorite pistols such as the Colt Woodsman, Ruger .22 auto, and Glocks, all point high unless I consciously cant my wrist down. Probably this is just a matter of conditioning.
I know Glock shooters who say their favorite points naturally, while 1911s point low for them. But for this old 1911 shooter, the XD comes up with its front sight just a little high, easy to pick up at speed.
The XD magazine release is ideally located in the “1911” position, on the frame at the root of the triggerguard. It is ambidextrous and can be operated with either the thumb or the trigger finger by both left- and right-handed shooters. The Carry Pro package includes an extended release on the left side. XD magazines are excellent, made of stainless steel, very tough and reliable. They locked in place, fed and functioned perfectly, and dropped free of the gun when the button was depressed.
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Another Custom Shop feature is an extended mag release (for the left side only), which is still ambidextrous.
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A full-length captured recoil spring rides under the bushingless barrel.
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The Custom Shop offers various sight options, including tritium night sights, Dawson Precision fiber optic adjustable sights, Heinie fixed and Bo-Mar adjustable sights. The Carry Pro package includes Springfield’s own fiber optic sights. The optical fiber in the front sight is red, very bright and easy to see. The nicely shaped, snag-free rear sight has green fiber optics, one on each side of the sight notch. My middle-age eyes are finding it harder and harder to focus on regular black sights and these bright fiber-optics are a blessing. However young eyes can benefit from them as well. I was astonished at the number of top shooters using fiber-optic sights at the 2005 USPSA nationals.
The quality of workmanship of the XD is impressive. The steel slide is beautifully machined, built extra heavy in critical areas, with nice lines and a smooth, handsome finish.
Accuracy testing was at 25 yards over a sandbag rest. Five-shot groups were consistently in the 2" to 2.5" range. Actually only a few were 2.5", the 2" groups came with surprising regularity. It didn’t seem to matter what ammunition was used, though most shooting was with Black Hills “blue box” ammunition loaded with 115-grain Jacketed Hollowpoints.
Several groups had three shots touching, which led me to hope I might get an impressive five-shot, one-hole group. I ended up shooting more groups than I normally would, around 20 or 25. Never did get five shots touching, but I got a lot of nice 2" groups, which is above average accuracy for a service auto pistol.
The real fun came in shooting the XD in IPSC-style drills and on Bianchi plates. My regular shooting buddy Steve Kukowski, who holds a Grand Master rating in PPC and A/Master ratings in IPSC divisions, was able to finish his police duties and join me in the plate shooting. Naturally it developed into a competition, with both of us dumping the six plates in the high two- to low three-second range at 10 yards. Such times won’t cause top IPSC shooters to lose any sleep, but for the time I’ve been away from competition it was better than expected.
with Black Hills remanufactured ammo. It never failed to feed or fire.
Reliability as mentioned previously was perfect. The 9mm cartridge is ideal for functioning in auto pistols. It was a pleasure to see how well the XD worked, and with no fussing or cleaning except the initial out-of-the-box cleaning and lubrication.
I wasn’t the only one who realized the Springfield XD was something special. After mowing down yet another row of plates, Steve asked, “Are you fixing to buy this gun from Springfield?” I replied, regretfully, I wasn’t. After cleaning it had to go to Ichiro Nagata for photographs, and from there back to Springfield.
“Too bad,” he commented, “I was thinking of buying it off you if you did. You know, this would make one helluva duty gun.” Yes it would. Not to mention one heckuva competition, carry, home-defense, and just-plain-shooting gun. The Carry Pro package on your Springfield XD is $215 from the Custom Shop. Other packages are available, or you can order only the specific features you want.
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| Many house their XD in common, functional Kydex. But for this Custom Shop piece, a nice set of Mitch Rosen leather and premium-grade Hornady TAP ammo befits its enhanced role. |
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Handgun: XD Tactical Carry Pro
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Springfield Armory
420 West Main Street, Geneseo, IL 61254 (309) 944-5631, www.springfield-armory.com |
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Action type:
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Locked breech semiauto | |
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Caliber:
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9mm (tested), .357 SIG, .40 S&W, .45 GAP | |
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Capacity:
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15+1 (9 mm) | |
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Overall length:
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8" | |
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Barrel length:
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5" | |
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Weight:
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31 ounces | |
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Finish
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Brunial slide and polymer frame | |
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Sights:
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Fixed with fiber optic inserts | |
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Grips:
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Polymer, integral with frame | |
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Price:
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$542+$215 (Custom Shop addition) | |
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