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
Springfield XD9 Subcompact Full Review
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.
Survival Sherpa 