Springfield XD9 Subcompact Full Review

For anyone considering concealed carry, Docwatmo wrote a review on the Springfield XD9 Subcompact over at his site, Average Guy Reviews. I’m a fan of XD’s and highly recommend owning one or several. NOTE: I don’t own stock in the company or receive any compensation from Springfield Armory or from any other product I recommend on this site. If that ever changes, and join the ranks of the big boys and girls, I’ll let you know. I intentionally don’t advertise on my site. If I promote a product, it’s because I found it useful.

Doing the stuff,

Todd

By Docwatmo

OK, I’ve had this baby at the range and am pretty darn happy with it.  I’m going to give it a thorough rundown.   First of all let’s talk about price.  You can get this guy from $300 to $500 (Don’t pay more than $500 for it; you can get it just about anywhere for less than $500).   It comes in two kits, The standard kit (Reviewed below) and the “Essentials” kit which drops the Holster, the reloading tool and the magazine belt pouch.  (See further down on the review for those components).  I’d recommend getting the essentials kit at a much lower price and getting your own personal preference in magazine and holsters.

Full Kit, 13 and 16 round mags, reloading tool, dual belt pouch, holster, gun lock and bore brush.

Let’s start with the magazines, this kit came with one 13 round mag (Flush) and one 16 round with grip extension.  I have large hands and the 13 round mag turns this into a 2 finger gun for me.  My wife has small hands and all 3 of her grip fingers are on the grip with the 13 round mag.  So I did pick up a Pierce Magazine extension.  This adds the length to the forward part of the grip to equal a full size mag, but still tapers back down to reduce the butt signature of the weapon to a point about ½ way between flush and full mag extensions.   This is a great compromise for me, still keeps the weapon small enough to carry easily while providing a full size grip for control.   Pierce grips are about $10 on Amazon.  See the two pics below for the visual difference with and without the pierce grip extension.  The magazines are stainless and slide like butter into the mag well of the XD.  Also the mag well is beveled very nicely and makes magazine swaps very quick and easy.  I did notice that the mag with the pierce grip extension was a bit harder to seat at first, but after a couple dozen mag exchanges it’s straightened out and works as well as the others.

Read the rest here

Cold Hard Facts On Gun Bans: “The Cost Of Liberty Can Be Measured In the Loss of Life”

By Mac Slavo
August 3rd, 2012
SHTFplan.com

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.”

Thomas Jefferson

While anti-gun advocates put forth every argument under the sun for why you should not be able to own a “high capacity” magazine that holds more than 10 rounds, or that you shouldn’t be able to buy ammunition online, or that police should stop going to work until guns have been completely banned, the evidence for disarmament of law abiding citizens as a failed policy is overwhelming.

In Chicago, where guns have essentially been banned for personal defense, the murder of innocents has risen so sharply in recent months that Mayor Rahm Emanual has been left with no other option but to call on criminals to look to their morals and values to stop the carnage. Washington D.C., which bans the carrying of concealed weapons, has maintained one of the highest gun crime murder rates in the country for over three decades – since the legislation was passed in 1975. As the Washington Post notes, the disarming of local residents has been wholly ineffective noting that the “guns kept coming, and bodies kept falling.”

Read the rest here