Springfield Armory XD sub-compact 9mm.
This is my EDC. It was purchased used in 2007.
It is available in Bi-tone as seen here, all black, dark earth, and OD Green. It can be had with trijicon night sights and heinie tritium slant pro night sights. This one has stock sights. It has an accessory rail and I hope to find a little light to put on there soon. Capacity is 10+1 for the standard mags and 16+1 for the manufacturers extended mags. It has a 3" barrel and total dimensions are approximately 5" long, 4.5" high (with extended mag) and 1-1.25" wide. The weapon has a grip safety and a trigger safety.
Out of the box: it came with a plastic owb holster, a 2 mag carrier, mag loader, a 10 round mag, manual, cleaning brush, a hard carrying case and a lock. I purchased 2 extended mags, also shown. The holster isn't anything special and I do not like it, it rides too high, isn't adjustable at all and the gun constantly feels as though it's about to tip over. I do find the mag loader useful and use that all the time. The mag holder is a mag holder.
Performance:
It takes a beating and keeps on going. I've fired some really crappy rounds with it and have only had issues with it twice. It double fed once and then stovepiped the next two rounds. I dropped the mag and banged it and the gun on the counter at the lane I was on and it fired fine after some crud fell out. The other time it stovepiped was while I was practicing just before taking my CWP and it fired clear after I banged it on my hand although I did have a slight issue with getting the mags seated and had to slap them in pretty hard after that. Both times I was using some really cruddy ammo that my husband scrounged up somewhere. A good cleaning fixed the issue until I fired the craptastic ammo again. Boy I'm glad that's gone!
Likes:
it's very comfortable, light weight and easily concealed. With the 16 round mags it fits my hand to a T, and the finish is quite durable. It does not have a heavy recoil but I wouldn't expect one from a 9mm even with a light sub-compact such as this. It has a nice, light, crisp trigger but in my opinion the trigger safety makes the beginning of the pull feel a little mushy.
One of the things I like about the XD is that there is a little pin that protrudes out the back when the action has been worked but the trigger has not been pulled, and there is a small black piece just behind the ejection port that lifts when there is a round in the chamber. While every weapon is always loaded, it's helpful to be able to look at it and have an idea of what to expect when you clear it.
the pin
the metal piece
(sorry about the picture quality, my cell phone is my camera.)
The Drawbacks:
The spring on mine is a bit stiff. When I bought it we thought it had barely been used because the spring was stiff, but I've personally sent close to three thousand rounds down range and it hasn't loosened up noticeably. I do not know if this is an issue with all the XD's or if mine is a special case, or even had a super sturdy spring installed (I believe it was a range rental prior to my purchasing it) but I'd make sure that the shooter can rack the weapon they're looking at purchasing and perhaps try a few to see if there's a difference. It's not difficult to work the action, but you have to get a good grip and push with both hands.
The slide lock is very thin and almost flush with the frame which makes it difficult to manipulate at times. This is something many XD owners complain about and there is an after market slide lock that can be purchased, however the people who manufacture it are so overwhelmed with the demand that it's difficult to get so I haven't tried to order one yet. I'm thinking of modifying it myself with a bit of epoxy putty or something.
I have wide hands with short fingers so when it has the 10 round mag in the grip is just a hair too short for my hand, with the 16 round mags it's perfect. There is an aftermarket little doodad that you can add which is basically a triangular pinky rest for use with the 10 round mags, you can use the extended round mags with it if you take the plastic spacer off of the end. I think I'll stick with the extra mag capacity and the plastic spacer, it feels more solid to me. There are third party extended mags that will carry even more rounds, but to my mind that defeats the purpose of having a compact weapon.
