XDm 40 compact review

[AndyWest]

I bought a Springfield XDm .40 S&W compact and thought I'd share my opinions. Sorry for lack of pictures; the Springfield site has plenty. First, the very nice kit. You get a lot:

• Attache case with tac rails. Yes, you can mount lasers to your carrying case.
• Pistol, thankfully.
• One 11-round flush and one 16-round magazine with grip extention (that's a lot of 40).
• Two extra extension sleeves (to encourage you to buy more magazines).
• Tension-adjustable waist holster.
• Three backstrap sizes.
• Mag loader which, oddly, fits the tac rails on the case.
• Double tension-adjustable mag pouch, also with two inexplicable tac rails.
• Frame-thru-slide safety padlock.
• Handy spent casing.

The ergonomics, visuals and controls are excellent. The positives:

• "Double trigger" (like a Glock) safety plus a grip safety.
• Grippy front and rear serrations.
• Chamber loaded indicator is very obvious.
• Firing pin extends to outside back of slide, clearly indicating when the pistol is cocked.

A few minor negatives:

• New mag springs are very strong. Break them in and buy an UpLULA.
• Mag insertion requires a strong slap when fully loaded.
• Mag release is extremely strong when mag is fully loaded. Not normally an issue as it easily releases when empty.

Shooting:

Sights are fixed white-dot but pusher adjustable. Mine shot true at around 8 yards. I had no failures of any kind shooting quality ammo. I found recoil and flip to be less than expected given the pistol's size, but the slide is somewhat heavy which is advantageous in this case. The trigger is short, smooth and crisp. The 11-round flush magazine is a bit short for my fat fingers and could benefit from an extended floorplate. The 16-round mag grips just fine.


Cleaning:

Takedown is easy when you remember to engage the grip safety. The frame lever flips UP with the slide back, but otherwise takedown is like a Beretta 92 or a Sig. Cleaning and oiling are easy as you'd expect from any modern poly striker pistol.

In summary, I like this pistol much more than I expected. I expected quality but IMO the features push this pistol into the premium category. I have limited range time with it but so far I give it a full thumbs up recommendation.

[TheRaskalKing]

I own the full size with 4.5 inch barrel. I've put about 700 rounds through it, no failures/malfunctions of any kind so far. I LOVE IT! I just bought 1000 rounds for it and look forward to shooting every last one of them.

Great review, good details on what the kit includes and your thoughts on the pros and cons!

[carp]

I almost bought one of these in a 9mm but thougt it eould be too big for iwb carry so I purchased a kahr cw9. I'm still looking for a good range gun to put thousands of round thru. Would you recomend this gun to someone for a range gun.

[AndyWest]

Agreed, it is a bit large and heavy for IWB carry, and I'm a big fella.

Yeah this gun with the extended mag/grip works well at the range tho my experience with it is limited. Off-topic but if you're looking to put a LOT of 9mm down-range you can't go wrong with a Glock 17 or 19.

[tahunua001]

congrats on the new pistol I'm glad you like it. I would like to point out a couple things though

Two extra extension sleeves (to encourage you to buy more magazines).

the grip extensions are actually in three different sizes so that you can match the size of the grip extension to the size of the backstrap you are currently using, it is not a ply to make you go out and buy more mags unless you plan on buying 2 more guns and having different backstraps on all of them.

Mag loader which, oddly, fits the tac rails on the case.

I believe the intended purpose is to mount it to your mag holster(which also has 1913 rails) so that it's readily available for reloads

Handy spent casing.

that's incase your gun is ever stolen you can provide that to law enforcement so that they can cross reference that to other casings that are found at crime scenes.

[AndyWest]

Tahunua001, excellent corrections and dead-on. Thanks.

1) The extension sleeves are indeed different widths as you said.
2) I suppose having a mag loader handy could be, well, handy but I still think the rails are a (admittedly funny) gimmick.
3) I never understood the spent brass thing. Honest question, what does it tell LE? This (and most) gun doesn't imprint serial # on the casing or primer, so a 40 casing is a 40 casing, no? Seems it would be smarter to submit the bullet to LE for bullet/rifling imprinting...

[tahunua001]

each gun makes unique makings on a casing just as much as the barrel does to the bullet. the mag lips, feed ramp, extractor, ejector, and firing pin all mark the casing.

I will agree that the 1913 rails on anything and everything is a bit of a gimmick.

[AndyWest]

Dangerously off-topic here but maybe others are interested...

I can see all the casing contact points adding up to a unique-ish "fingerprint". But wouldn't that vary widely by manufacturer and materials? I'd be genuinely interested to read about a case where such casing marks were relevant.

[AndyWest]

(Replying to myself)

On second thought, this whole line of reasoning is pointless One could replace the mag, pin, extractor, and barrel quite easily.

[tahunua001]

it is a bit more flimsy which is why ballistic samples are more concrete since changing out a $25 magazine would alter the markings and make casings unconclusive but not everyone has a clearing tank in their man cave to take samples just in case thier guns are stolen either.

[xanth]

Love mine, and i carry it IWB with a Crossbreed supertuck, no issues doing it with that or a G36

[Hairbag]

I just picked up a XDM 45 3.8 for a "house" gun and love it. I have the same issues= it's a little hard to slap a fully loaded mag in when there is one in the pipe and the mag release can be a little hard sometimes to eject a mag. I expect these issues will get better when she is broken in.

[jokester_143]

The XDM does get better when broken in..