The Internet is truly an amazing place.
Nearly all the knowledge known to man kind can be found on the
web in one shape or form. Most of us today have a smart phone,
and can access these endless bounds of information at any given
moment. It is a great learning tool, and can be a great source
of entertainment, Unfortunately for every good bit of internet,
there is an equal amount of dimwits that really have no business
talking about anything. Thus is especially true in the gun world
and if you spend enough time online reading supposed "Gun
writers" or watching YouTube videos of supposed "Guns
guys", its enough to drive anyone with a lick of common
sense or knowledge up the wall, and make them want to toss their
iPhone out the window of a moving car, or for the older
generation, throw their 40 pound computer monitor out of a
second story window.
Unfortunately one of the subjects that has
been making the rounds by gun guys who shouldn't be allowed to
butter their own bread, especially here in Alaska, is the 10mm
auto. I couldn't tell you how many times I've overheard at the
gun counter that the 10mm is every bit as powerful as the 44
magnum, but holds more ammo, or how it penetrates better then a
45/70, and my personal favorite, "you can fire 16 rounds on
target in 3 seconds with this Glock 20 bro". Most of it is
a giant steaming pile of buffalo chips, but people who trust the
"experts" eat this up like a fat kid gobbling candy
canes off the Christmas tree.
Hearing and reading over and over again about
how the 10mm will smoke the 44 mag ballistically has left a
bitter taste in my mouth towards the 10mm, because I know for a
fact it can't even compare to heavy 44 mag loads. Add the fact
that the 44 magnum is my favorite handgun cartridge, and one
might even go as far as saying I was butt hurt over the whole
ordeal, and steered clear of anything 10mm for quite some time.
As fate would have it though, I recently
broke my abstinence from the 10mm while on the hunt for a new
carry gun. For going on 4 years now I have carried a Ruger
LWC 45 ACP when I was home from working, and could carry a
gun. This gun is outfitted with a set of gorgeous elk stag grips
from my late friend David Alsup, and has ridden comfortably on
my hip in a DEFCON3 holster from Simply
Rugged Holsters. However I recently switched jobs, and new
job does not have a Zero-tolerance firearm policy like my old
job. I always feel bad dragging my beautiful and beloved 1911
through the mud and dirt at work, so I decided it was time to go
on the hunt for a new carry gun. I wasn't necessarily looking
for another 45 ACP, but I did know I didn't want a 9mm.
When I was a younger man I knew an old
Vietnam vet that had served in the Marines. "Harb" was
a tough old bird, and as mean as they come, but he enjoyed
talking guns, so every once in awhile he would get over his
intolerance for people and venture out to find someone to BS
with. I had just gotten a Glock G26 9mm
and pulled it out to show Harb. I can't use the language from
the explosion of rage that came from his man when he saw me pull
that 9mm from its holster, but I can say the words he used would
have made the toughest sailor blush. After aggressively asking
me if it was a 9mm, Harb slammed that Glock down on the table
with enough force to dent the solid wood table, stood up and
ripped his shirt open to reveal several scars on his chest, and
proceeded to tell me with the same level of color and aggression
that those scars were from a 9mm and he had still kicked the
guy's butt. Turns out Harb had been caught sleeping with the
mans wife, and the poor fellow had decided to empty a single
stack Smith and Wesson 9mm into Harb's chest.
That demonstration and story has stuck with
me, and every time I pick up a 9mm I just can't shake the
through of an angry and naked Harb charging me down while I have
this wimpy pea shooter in my hands. Sure, I know better. Modern
loads and bullets have come a long way since old Harb absorbed
those rounds of ball ammo, but I still can't help but shake it,
and have just never been able to bring myself to carry a 9mm.
Plus being in Alaska, I have to deal with much bigger critters
who want to eat me, or stomp on me. So that limited my hunt for
a new carry gun down to another 45 ACP, or a snobby revolver.
I was actually in the gun shop for something
else the day the Springfield caught my eye. Naturally I couldn't
help but wonder past the gun counter and check out its contents.
I handled a few things, and then the shop owner just handed me
the pistol and wondered off to help another customer. It was
love at first sight. I've never cared for compact guns, but the
Springfield XDm Elite fit my hand like a glove. I turned it over
and noticed stamped into the side of the slide "10mm".
I cycled it, tried the trigger, and continued to fondle it until
the shop owner got back to me. "When did you get these
in" I asked. He replied that he had gotten 20 of them in 3
days before, and I was holding the last one. He didn't have to
tell me twice. I gave him enough cash to hold it for me till
payday, and impatiently awaited being able to bring the new toy
home.
So, let's talk some facts about the 10mm. A
common misconception I hear is that that 10mm Auto was developed
following the chaos of the 1986 Miami FBI shootout, and that is
not correct information. Jeff Cooper actually invented the 10mm
by cutting down 30 Remington cases. Norma developed the
first factory ammo that was actually a bit hotter then the
Colonel's original concept, and the 10mm automatic was born in
1983. In 1989 the FBI adopted the 10mm Automatic, but then
decided that the recoil was too much for their agents, and this
lead to the development of the FBI loading, which was a
lightened 10mm load, NOT a hotter load like is often conveyed by
the dweebs behind the gun counter. Smith and Wesson realized
they could meet the lowered power level in a shorter case that
would fit in a 9mm sized guns and the 40 S&W was born.
Original 10mm loadings pushed a 200gn bullet around 1260 FPS
from a 5" barrel. This put the power level between the 357
magnum, and the 41 magnum, NOT above the 44 magnum. Chambered
first in the Bren Ten pistols, the 10mm probably would have died
an early death after the company making the Bren Ten went
bankrupt, had it not been for Colt
and their 1911-based Delta Elite pistols. Smith and Wesson
followed suit with 10mm pistols in the late 80s, and in 1991 Glock
brought out their Model 20 which has developed a bit of a
cult like following. I don't remember the 10mm Auto being very
popular for most of my life, but it seems to have gained a lot
of popularity in recent years.
Now, let's talk about the new Springfield XDM
Elite 10mm compact. Manufactured in Croatia, Springfield brought
the XD series pistols to the US market in 2002, followed by the
XDM variant in 2008. In 2018 Springfield released the first XDM
10mm. The Springfield XD series won American rifleman
"Pistol of the year" in 2003 and 2006, and the XDM won
that title in 2009. In late September of 2021 Springfield
released the new XDM Elite compact 10mm. This pistol comes from
the factory optics ready, and can also be had with the HEX
Dragonfly red dot sight from the factory. I opted for the plain
iron sighted version since I doubt I would ever carry the gun
with the dot anyway.
Speaking about optics ready, let's talk about
the pistol's features. It comes in a plain cardboard box with
the usual lock and papers. I'm not one to keep gun boxes, so it
promptly went in the trash. The pistol does come with a nylon
carrying case that's actually pretty nice, as well as 2 mags, 3
back straps, and 2 extra magazine base pads. Out of the box my
pistol was fit with a magwell and the small back strap. I took
the mag well off since I won't be doing any speed reloads when
the bottom of my hand hangs well past the bottom of the grip and
into the magwell anyway, and it's more comfortable in the hand
without it. The mags came with the +1 base pads installed so
that they would work with the magwell, however there are 2 flush
fit base pads in the box, but they don't work with the magwell
without excessive force. I have large hands, and usually prefer
a hand filling grip, but found that the medium and small back
straps were the only ones that were really comfortable, and
settled on the medium one for myself. The biggest one seems to
change the grip angle a bit, and my friends who shoot Glocks all
preferred the largest back strap.
The pistol has interesting sights, with a
white outlined U sight on the back and a red fiber optic on the
front. I usually prefer just plain flat black sights on pistols,
but actually kind of like these sights for the intended purposes
and find them very easy to shoot both fast and accurately. The
trigger on my pistol is quite good for an out of the box striker
fired pistol, breaking as a very consistent 4 lb. The trigger
has a bit of take up, and then a nice wall with a clean even
break, unlike the progressively heavier and squishy triggers
found on many other striker fired pistols. Reset is fairly
short, with a solid reset click. Although the trigger pull is
still a bit longer then what I would like it does have a built
in over travel stop. One thing I will say, is that I often have
trouble with short stroking triggers on Glocks, or pistols like
the Smith & Wesson VD series pistols, I have not had a
single issue with short stroking the trigger on this gun. I hate
long, squishy, heavy triggers, but I find Springfield META
trigger in this pistol very usable. I'm not really familiar with
flat face triggers, but actually really like the way this
trigger feels on my finger.
The pistol also has a loaded chamber
indicator and a cocked striker indicator. Why the cocked striker
indicator? Heck if I know, but it's there. The loaded chamber
indicator is pretty standard hardware on most guns now, although
I personally prefer a witness notch and press check anyway, but
the indicator on this gun is not overly large and obnoxious like
it is on some guns. I suppose the indicator could be useful in
the dark if you wanted to feel for it, and I suppose you could
probably also feel it while the gun is holstered if the holster
was cut out in the front like many are these days.
One thing I did like about this pistol is
that it has ambidextrous slide stop and magazine release. Now,
before we go any further let's clear something up. You will get
your tactical Timmys and Jeff Cooper wannabes that will tell you
that the slide "Stop" is not made to release the
slide, and to that I would argue that if that was the case,
there would be no reason to make the slide stop/release
ambidextrous. People have been using the slide release function
since the dawn of semiautomatic handguns, and I don't predict
that everyone will stop anytime soon. Now, that being said,
let's talk about the slide stop on the XDM elite. The slide stop
only catches on the left side of the slide, and then for a lack
of a better term has a wishbone shape that goes forward, pivots
on the trigger pivot pin, and then back down the other side.
This design has too much flex, and with a empty mag in the gun
you can not release the slide from the right hand side, since it
flexes and does not drop the other side of the mechanism where
it latches onto the slide. Without a mag in the gun, or with a
fresh loaded magazine in the gun, the slide release does
function, but still has noticeable flex if operated from the
right side.
Now let's talk about the mags. The mag bodies
are 10 round bodies, but with the extended base pad they hold 11
rounds. The springs on these magazines are the stiffest magazine
springs I have ever dealt with by a long shot. Too stiff in my
opinion. It appears as if they shoved standard size XD springs
into the compact mags, and even in full size magazines I would
argue that the springs are nearly twice as heavy as they need to
be. This makes loading the magazines more difficult, although
not impossible, but some people do struggle with loading pistol
magazines. It also makes changing the base pads kind of a pain,
and also adds to the issue of the slide release since trying to
compress that heavy spring is what causes flex in the slide
release.
One other thing I noticed about this gun is
the length of the slide rails in the frame. Most polymer pistols
I've messed with all have very short rails on the frame for the
slide to ride on. This is not the case with the XDM Elite. The
front frame rail is 1.3" of steel that is held into the
frame with 2 pins, and also serves as the recoil block and feed
ramp. The rear rails are 1.2" in length and part of the
molded Polymer frame. I actually like this design much better
then that standard little still tabs found on many polymer
pistols. I did test the strength of this system by leaving the
gun outside at 40 below for several hours and then shooting full
bore "bear loads" through it figuring if anything was
gonna crack the frame, that would do it, and it shows no signs
of failure and performed flawlessly.
Let's talk about this gun's only real
competition for a minute, the Glock 29. For a long time if you
wanted a polymer pistol in 10mm, Glock was your only option. The
Glock 29 is Glock's compact/subcompact size 10mm. I am not a
Glock fan at all, but for sake of comparison I got my hands on a
Glock 29 Gen 4. These two guns are very similarly sized, with
the XDM being 7.04" long at the longest point and
5.04" tall at the tallest point, and the Glock 6.81"
long and 4.37" long, both guns without magazines. This
difference in height is noticeable since has a shorter grip,
making for a very uncomfortable grip in my hand. I hate the
finger grooves on Glocks, and have promptly sanded them off of
every Glock I've personally owned. Unfortunately with the short
grip on the 29, the middle of my ring finger hits right
on top of the lowest finger groove, causing a uncomfortable and
awkward grip. The XDM grim is big enough to get two full fingers
on the grip, and once my pinky is wrapped around the bottom of
the magazine, it makes for a comfortable and firm grip. The
slide and grip on the XDM are both slightly thinner then the
Glock, and the grip more rounded out instead of the 2x4 grip on
the Glock making for a much more comfortable feeling gun. Fully
loaded with 12 rounds of 180gn rounds the XDM weights in at 2lb
4.2oz, compared to the Glock loaded with 11 rounds which weights
2lb 3.1oz. Of course the glock has a much more aftermarket
support, and you can get +1 or 2 base pads for the 29 pretty
easy. One more note while we are talking about the Glock. The
Gen 4 does have a reversible magazine release, but not truly
ambidextrous. The slide stop on the Glock is practically useless
since it sits so close to the slide its very hard to actually
apply pressure to it with a thumb, or for us left handed guys,
forefinger.
Since we are comparing to other guns real
quick, let's compare a couple other things. I'm not gonna go
over the height and length of the other guns since they are all
full size guns, but we will compare weight. The first is a
Springfield XDM 10mm full size with threaded barrel. Fully
loaded with 16 rounds, without a optic on it it weights in at
2lb 8.9oz. The second is a Colt Delta Elite. It's fully loaded
weight with 9 rounds is 2lb 12.2oz. The last gun is the gun that
has faithfully rode on my hip for several years, my beloved
Ruger Light Weight commander in 45. I carry this gun with 9
rounds in it, and using 230gn ball ammo it weighs in at 2lb 5.3
oz, so just about 1 ounce heavier than the XDM. This is not a
big deal, however the 1911, even in the commander sized gun, is
significantly bigger than the XDM compact. Although the 1911 is
known for being thin, The XDM compact is actually thinner in the
grip then my Ruger 1911 with its thick hand filling grips, and
the same width as the Delta Elite with its thin rubber grips.
Now, let's get down to the meat of the
subject. The part everyone's been waiting for. How does it
shoot? Townsend Whelen once said that "Only accurate guns
are interesting" and I tend to hold true to that
assessment. Guns that don't shoot well don't stay around here
long, and that includes pistols. The good news is that this
little pistol shoots well all the way around. For starters, it
was much easier to control then I thought it would be. I have a
Glock G22 and I find the XDM 10mm to be less snappy and easier
to get back on target then the 40 S&W in the full size gun.
I'm not going to say that this is a beginner friendly gun. It
still has significant recoil compared to a similar sized gun in
9mm or even 45 ACP. But as someone with experience with hard
recoiling guns, I found the 10mm easy to manage, similar to a
357 magnum in a 4" gun loaded with standard 158gn loads. I
had no problems getting all hits on a 10" target as fast as
I could shoot the gun at 10 yards.
As far as accuracy goes, this pistol was
nothing short of impressive. I did most of my accuracy testing
from a rest at 15 yards in temperatures of 42 below 0. As hard
as I tried, it's hard to keep a gun steady in temps that cold
while wearing gloves thick enough to keep hands warm in that
weather. Regardless, I was able to do some very impressive
shooting from the gun. I tested 10 loads off of the bench firing
5 round groups. The best group was fired with 180gn Sig V Crown
ammo and measured just .22" center to center. I actually
thought that had to be a fluke, but I had a second group with
that same ammo that measured .27" center to center, which
is pretty impressive. The average group size across all loads
came to 1.27" center to center, which is more then
acceptable to me for this gun and considering the fact that it
was 40 below out which really takes the fun out of shooting. I
also burned some rounds off at 50 yards off hand, and although
nothing to write home about I had no issue keeping all rounds on
target.
I did test 2 heavy "bear" loads and
was impressed by the accuracy of the 220gn Grizzly Hard cast
lead load, which gave me a average group size of 1.00".
Unfortunately one issue with testing guns and ammo in the winter
in Alaska is the lack of sunshine, meaning I can't chronograph
loads. Ive been meaning to build a light box to put the
chronograph in, but haven't gotten around to it. Either way,
Grizzly claims 1200 FPS from a full size gun with that load
which is a pretty stiff load. The gun handled the load fine, and
shot it very well.
While on the subject of velocity, out of all
the 180gn loads I have, the fastest one advertised shows a
velocity of 1,117, which is quite a bit of a down play from the
original 200 grain at 1260 FPS.
Overall
I give the gun 9 out of 10. There are a couple small things I
would change, like the slide release and the magazine springs,
but over all I think they did a great job on the pistol, and it's
worlds better then its closest competitor, in my opinion. During
my testing I fired a little over 400 rounds through the gun. No
cleaning, no nothing, just took it out of the box and started
shooting it, and I have had zero issues with it. I've had lots
of other guns not work 100% or even at all in the cold, and the
XDM compact didn't even hiccup which is a big deal to me. The
gun has performed absolutely flawlessly and I couldn't be
happier with it. In fact, it might be the first plastic gun I've
owned that I actually like.
Daniel Congiolosi
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