A Militarized XD: Springfield XD

Initially offered in 9mm and .40 S&W, Springfield Armory’s XD quickly gained a following for being the only striker-fired pistol with a grip safety. Unlike the significant minority of 1911 users who find that the grip safety doesn’t always “un-safe” when gripped, I’ve never heard a single complaint about the XD grip safety. If you grab the XD, the grip safety is out of the way. But any pistol or pistol series that aspires to be a bigbore defensive handgun has to offer .45 ACP as an option. Doing so is not always easy. Designers often have the unenviable choice of slim grips and low capacity (single-stack magazines being “low” capacity in the 21st century) or offering increased magazine capacity at the cost of bulk.

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But Springfield’s .45 XD grip is not much larger than that of a 1911. To make an eight-shot 1911 smaller than the XD you have to go to custom, slimline grips. For the normal, non-slimline grip size you get 13 rounds of 230-grain hardball medicine in your XD plus one in the launching tube. The second thing previously missing from many striker-fired pistols is one mentioned by police but greatly desired by the military a thumb safety.

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