Let me start off by saying that I am not a “gun geek”. For me, my firearms are just another tool I use to help feed and protect my family. For that reason this article will not be full of the stuff you normally find in your typical gun article. Most of that stuff means nothing to the average person. What I hope to do with this article is to give you useful information that you can use. I plan on doing this by telling you why I bought this firearm, what I intend to do with it and what I have found, both the good and the bad, about it.
I have never been a big fan of sidearms. Don’t get me wrong, they do have their place, but until recently I never felt the need to own one. While some people do hunt with pistols, I never have. The main purpose of my firearms is hunting, which means rifles and shotguns, not handguns. I hunt pigs here in New Hampshire and some of my friends that hunt pigs in other parts of the country asked me what I was using as a sidearm? When I told them “nothing”, they highly recommended that I get one. When I stopped and thought about it, a long gun would do me no good when trailing a wounded boar, or bear, into thick brush. Now the search was on. What would give me the knockdown power I needed, but at the same time, would be light enough to carry all day?
I visited gun shops and asked a lot of questions. I looked at .44 Magnums and .357 Magnums. I looked at revolvers and semi-automatics. After a great deal of searching I found the Springfield XD-S 3.3 in .45ACP. I liked its feel and it is just the firearm I was looking for.
Why This Gun?:
There are plenty of really good handguns on the market today, in every style and caliber that you can think of, so the choice on which one I needed was hard to make. When looking for this gun there were certain things that I was looking for. First, it had to be light enough to carry all day in the field on hunting trips. Second, it needed to have enough punch to stop a wild boar or a bear in an emergency situation. The XD-S fit the bill.
During my search I asked a lot of questions. I spoke to friends who hunt wild boar in Florida and Mississippi. I spoke to bear hunters and I spoke to the people at the gun stores. I got all different answers. Some preferred semi-automatics while others liked revolvers. One thing that they all agreed on is that I wanted something with a lot of knockdown power and nothing smaller than a .357 magnum.
I spent 12 year in the Army where my issued sidearm was a 1911 .45ACP and my personal sidearm was a Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 magnum. Both of these guns have the power to do what I want, but they are heavy and weight and size are an issue. I looked at .38s, .38 Specials, .380s, 9mms and .40s, and while they came small enough to meet most of my needs, and they are great people stopping rounds, they would do little on a wounded boar or an enraged bear.
The Springfield XD-S, 3.3 was the perfect gun to meet my needs. It weighs 21.5 ounces (without fully loaded magazine), measures only 4.4 inches high when fitted with the compact magazine that holds five rounds, and has an overall length of just 6.3 inches. The polymer frame design, single stack magazines and 3.3 inch barrel all work together to reduce weight and overall size. Due to the fact that Springfield produces this sidearm in .45ACP I was able to get the knockdown power I was looking for. The only drawback I found, and it is one that can easily be fixed, is that the small five round magazine makes the firearm hard to handle if you have larger hands. Thankfully, the XD-S also comes with a six round magazine that works perfectly and I already ordered a few more of those from Springfield.
Safety:
I am a firm believer in gun safety. Nothing upsets me more than hearing about someone being shot and the excuse given is that someone was cleaning the gun and it went off. First, guns don’t just “go off” and second, why were they cleaning a loaded gun? With that being said I liked the XD-S because of its safety features. While no gun is truly safe unless it is unloaded, the XD-S is about as idiot proof as you can make a gun.
One of the reasons I bought this firearm was as a backup gun while I am hunting. That means carrying it loaded in the field, a place where a stick or anything else could possibly hit the trigger and discharges the firearm. The XD-S has a couple safety features on it that help prevent that from happening. First, there is the grip safety. This safety needs to be depressed at the same time as the trigger is pulled in order for the gun to go off. The second safety feature is the Ultra Safety Assurance (USA) trigger system. This is depressed by your trigger finger and works in conjunction with the grip safety. As good as these safety features are, they are not fool proof, so common sense needs to be used as well.
Shooting:
With new gun in tow I headed up north to Lancaster, New Hampshire where my friend Mark lives. Mark belongs to the Groveton Fish & Game Club and it was at their pistol range that I would put the XD-S through its paces. I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting a great deal, as the 1911 .45 that I had in the Army was nothing to write home about. It was loose and probably would have only been good in a crowded elevator. I was proven wrong with the Springfield XD-S.
I found the XD-s light and tight. Right “out of the box” it performed perfectly. This gun is really fun to shoot. At 25 yards the rounds were going under the target. At 20 yards the rounds were hitting the target but were low. At 15 yards I was hitting perfect kill shots with the American Eagle 230 grain FMJ rounds. These rounds are the perfect match to the Federal 230 grain HST HP rounds that I will use in the field.
Even though I had fun firing the Springfield XD-S, at the end of the day it is still a tool that has a specific job to do. To be honest with you, I hope that I never have to fire this gun anywhere except on the shooting range. With that being said I feel a bit more comfortable having this firearm available, and the skill to use it, if the need every arises.
By Dana Benner