Springfield Armory XD-9 Subcompact 9mm

Performance: 10

Haven't had a malfunction yet, even during the "break-in" period.

Features: 8

This gun comes with an ambidextrious magazine release, although it is pretty difficult to depress.

Appeal: 10

It's like a Glock, only more comfortable to shoot. The grip safety, while not a good idea in my opinion, will draw more people to it for the perception of improved safety over its Austrian competitor.

Overall:

Performance: 

Haven't had a malfunction yet, even during the "break-in" period.

Performance Rating: 

10

Features: 

This gun comes with an ambidextrious magazine release, although it is pretty difficult to depress.

Features Rating: 

8

Appeal: 

It's like a Glock, only more comfortable to shoot. The grip safety, while not a good idea in my opinion, will draw more people to it for the perception of improved safety over its Austrian competitor.

Appeal Rating: 

10

There has been much discussion and debate over the XD-series vs the Glock series. That this gun can even be compared to the Glock speaks highly of it. The gun I am reviewing is the subcompact 9mm version, and the actual gun used was my wife's gun and it has the OD green frame. She has a thing for green guns, her Glock 23 was green, her Beretta 92 is green, and her Remington 700 is green. Whatever. This gun shoots like a dream. At 21 long paces, I was ringing the steel humanoid target consistently in rapid fire strings, even with the flush 10 round magazine. Although I am not a fan of three-dot sights now that I have discovered the straight eight system, the factory sights on this little gun are very good and the rear sights's groove allows enough light for rapid sight aquisition, yet is narrow enough to aloow for a good sight picture. I do not like the grip safety, as it doesn't add any practical measure of safety or protect against bad gunhandling and adds parts that can malfunction. I fired using many different hand positions and never failed to activate the grip safety, which means it will reliably allow you to get that shot off in the event you can't adopt a picture perfect Gunsite-trained Weaver stance, but it also shows ther's really no need for it. This, of course, is my opinion, but this is also my review. The magazine release is ambidextrious which is good, but the buttons are small and difficult to depress. This is not a good feature, because if you are changing magazines in a fight, your fine motor skills are pretty well crap and you don't need anything mechanical making it more difficult for you to get back in the game. While firing with a "stacked thumbs" grip, the slide failed to lock back evey time because my shooting hand thumb was riding the lever. This can be fixed with training, but it is specific to this gun, as the grips are narrower than most and the lever protrudes from the frame just enough for my thumb to activate it. I have this issue with the Glock extended slide stop lever occasionally, but I only have that lever on my competition gun, so it's not a life or death issue with that. I am curious as to why Springfield bothered to put a light rail on the subcompact, as there are very few models that will fit on the gun. I understand this may be a carry and home defense gun for some, and a light on a home defense gun is an important item, but this gun doesn't allow a very wide range of brands. Overall, if I wasn't a Glock fanatic with three of them already, the XD-series would be my life, and the subcompact model is a very capable gun for everyday carry.