Springfield 911 review

[ms6852]

A while back I had posted about buying a Walther PPK and finally after shooting a bersa thunder, a sig 238, and a ruger lcp I chose the Springfield 911 in 380 acp.

My reasons was simply this gun felt right. The closest to the feel was the sig 238 but at almost $100 more I could not fathom the cost. The gun weighs in a little over 12 ounces with the bersa and sig weighing 15 ounces and the ruger lcp being the lightest at 10 ounces.

The main selling point of the Springfield was the ambidextrous safety which as a southpaw I truly appreciate as I always like to carry condition one, or one in the chamber for you that are novice shooters. In addition this comes with a little range bag and a pocket holster. The big bonus is that this gun came with 5 magazines , one extended mag that holds 7 rounds and the other 4 hold six. I bought the package that is called "geared up" thus the 5 magazines. The regular package come with two magazines a 7 rounder and a six. As I understand the other guns like the sig 238 and the Kimber micro come with one magazine.

Here is a bonus for some of you that may own the sig 238 or the Kimber micro .380 the magazine for the Springfield 911 is $24 and the magazines for the other 2 guns are $45 each but the Springfield 911 is interchangeable with the sig 238 or the Kimber micro. So if you need extra magazines I would buy the Springfield mags for $24, price is the same for the 7 round extended magazine or the 6 rounder.

The Springfield comes with night sights and are very bright in the dark. During the day even though the sight radius is small the night sights make it easy to achieve a fast and accurate sight picture.

The G-10 grips are textured and even though I can barely get two fingers on the grip, the grip is comfortable and the recoil is not snappy at all compared to the above that I shot which helps in maintaining a good sight picture. The other shooters that loaned me their .380's to shoot, shot my 911 and all 3 preferred how this shot over their own personal guns.

Disclaimer: I shot my first 18 rounds at 15 yards and my first magazine I was all over the target and missed my first shot. So I would shoot once and than walk to the target to check impact, once I knew where to aim everything fell into place. I have been recovering from 2 eye surgeries on the right eye for the last six months and my left eye which is my dominant eye has severe cataract to the point that if I close the right eye the target and sights disappear. Also due to recovery from surgery I had not shot in 6 months.

[shooter1911]

Nice gun, and thanks for the review. You didn't mention reliability, but I assume all went well in that department. I'm curious if you considered the 911 9mm in your choice, and if not would you consider one now that you know they will be hitting the stores shortly? Thanks

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by shooter1911

Nice gun, and thanks for the review. You didn't mention reliability, but I assume all went well in that department. I'm curious if you considered the 911 9mm in your choice, and if not would you consider one now that you know they will be hitting the stores shortly? Thanks

I shot a total of 113 rounds without a failure to feed and or a failure to fire. One hundred rounds were the 95 grain fmj, and the 13 rounds were the hornady 95 grains xtp hollow points. The Winchester were the value pack of 100 rounds.

[OhioGuy]

It definitely looks and feels like a very quality firearm, at least up there with Kimber and Sig in the "diminutive 1911 style" category

I've never had a gun with a safety and I'm sure I'd have to train to get used to it. Now, I've shot 1911s and others and not found the safeties hard to operate by any means (I'm just not used to that step), but on the little pocket guns it seems hard to reliably hit the lever with my thumb, and I don't have large hands. Everything is just so small. But anyways yeah, it looks like a solid gun. I have a Beretta Pico as a pocket/backup/dress clothes companion, and it's pretty well executed, but if I were going to spend more time carrying a pocket sized gun I'd strongly consider spending the extra bucks to get the extra quality (and coolness) of the 911.

[ms6852]

I had considered the Bersa Thunder because it had a decocker and it was a great shooter as well but ultimately after handling the 911 it was just the feel that sold me. For years I carried a 1911 because of the feel and than about 9 months ago I got the bug to carry a revolver so I purchased the 686 plus. I guess I just got a little nostalgic for that feel when I tried the 911.

The main reason for the .380 is simply to carry it in my pants pocket when I take the wife out walking. She has severe spinal stenosis and walking helps her a lot. Since I wear warmups with the elastic waist and no belt I needed something that would not drag my pants down due to weight, the 911 fits the bill at 12 oz.

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by reddotlight

I also purchased the 911 and I also had failures to feed. The first few mags were a frustrating disaster which made me reconsider buying this pistol. The slide would sometimes fail to go fully forward into battery. Failures to feed were plentiful and frustrating.

After an extensive cleaning/lubrication I’ve found the gun runs better after a break in period (for me it was around 350-500 rounds). Also the gun runs better after a little carbon gets the gun running dirty. However even after the break in period, the Fiocchi .380 rounds still will not feed. The etched circle around the cartridge seems to get caught on the top of the barrel. I could not get the rounds to feed by letting the slide come forward as intended, slamming the slide forward manually, or even manually letting the slide slowly come forward. (My wallet is ok with the fact that those rounds won’t feed.) Not buying those rounds I suppose is the only solution?

Carry holster options are slim currently from what I’ve seen because the gun is so new still. However Talon Holsters makes a leather wallet holster for the Sig 238 which they’ve rebranded to be for both the Sig and the 911. Very nicely made holster which I currently carry the 911 with in my front pocket in sweat pants or shorts when I don’t feel like putting on a belt and carrying my XD Mod 2.

Overall minus the early malfunctions, the pistol is a great small carry gun. I haven’t had a whole ton of rounds down range, but from what I can see it is accurate as all get out. The trigger is hands down AMAZING. I prefer the loaded chamber indicator. And it is very slim and light. With a gun so small you will have to change up your grip and excellent trigger control is a must, but that is mitigated by the 1911 single action style trigger. Overall pretty happy with the purchase for what I wanted the gun to achieve. With such a new product there are going to be bugs and malfunctions, however it seems like they’ve taken the Sig 238 and added some nice features.

I bought the value pack 95 grain from Winchester, shot the hold box without a single hiccup, also shot 13 rounds of the Hornady XTP hollow points without a problem as well.
This is the ammo I used.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/WINC...3.uts?slotId=2

My 911 was the Gear Up package that came with 5 magazines and did not have any issues with all 5 of them. I guess I got lucky.

[stinkeypete]

Considering the small size and short sight radius, that’s darned fair shooting for not being “tuned in” to the pistol and darned near right out of the box.

Good tips about the magazines, too.

Maybe if we start calling.380 “9mm -p” people will come around?

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by stinkeypete

Considering the small size and short sight radius, that’s darned fair shooting for not being “tuned in” to the pistol and darned near right out of the box.

Good tips about the magazines, too.

Maybe if we start calling.380 “9mm -p” people will come around?

Thank you, that is not a bad idea. It could also be called a 9mm browning, 9 mm short, 9mm corto, and 9mm Kurtz.

I am going to shoot again tomorrow another brand of ammo see how it functions as well. Surprisingly now I am hearing that others have had difficulty with feeding issues so ill be checking what brands it likes or not. I might even try to limp wrist it to see if it acts up. It will be difficult for me to limp wrist since I am used to carrying a 1911.

[OhioGuy]

Originally Posted by ms6852

Thank you, that is not a bad idea. It could also be called a 9mm browning, 9 mm short, 9mm corto, and 9mm Kurtz.

More like "9mm I don't value my life and would be better armed with a toothpick."

Just kidding. But that's how a lot of Internet Commandos see .380. Of course it's also how a lot of them see anything smaller than 10mm!

[ms6852]

So today I shot 150 rounds one box each of Fiochhi hollow points, a box of blazers, and a box of sellier bellots. I purposely limp wristed two shots each of the different brands and had one jam on the Fiocchi hollow points. Otherwise they all shot and cycled well in my gun. Next trip I'll shoot something different, hoping to get some Aguilla, Remington, and Wolf.

[stinkeypete]

Internet Ninjas don’t post their targets like the OP did!

[kenny53]

Congratulations on the new gun and the shooting looks pretty good too. My buddy is going to buy the 911 in 9mm. We did put fingerprints on the .380 and like what we saw. The trigger felt good and the gun just fit well in my big old mitt of a hand. If I was looking for a CCW I would look hard at the 911.

["JJ"]

Sweet! Congrats on the new purchase!
I love mine!
It is a great pistol and really points well.
The sights are REALLY bright! I almost want to look for the switch to turn them off!
I did right the opposite on the mags.
Back when I got mine no one had a Springfield mag and they were more expensive online. So I picked up an aftermarket P-238 mag for about $25 at Academy.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by "JJ"

Sweet! Congrats on the new purchase!
I love mine!
It is a great pistol and really points well.
The sights are REALLY bright! I almost want to look for the switch to turn them off!
I did right the opposite on the mags.
Back when I got mine no one had a Springfield mag and they were more expensive online. So I picked up an aftermarket P-238 mag for about $25 at Academy.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

So have you had any issues with jams on yours. Cause I have yet even when I tried to create one with limpwristing.

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by kenny53

Congratulations on the new gun and the shooting looks pretty good too. My buddy is going to buy the 911 in 9mm. We did put fingerprints on the .380 and like what we saw. The trigger felt good and the gun just fit well in my big old mitt of a hand. If I was looking for a CCW I would look hard at the 911.

I've been carry 1911's for years I love big calibers so my experience has been mainly with 45 acp and .357 magnum. But I feel pretty good doing walks late in the evening with the wife, and me carrying the 911. I feel very confident with this caliber and the best part is that my pants stay in place and I won't get arrested for indecent exposure.

["JJ"]

Originally Posted by ms6852

So have you had any issues with jams on yours. Cause I have yet even when I tried to create one with limpwristing.

No sir I haven't.
But I probably don't have 100 rounds through it. I've planned outings here and there but life got real busy since I got it. If I haven't worked the weekend or had a family event it has rained!
But I didn't have any issues with what I did shoot.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

[XDforever]

Great review. I must admit, I am interested in getting one!

Joe

[ms6852]

This is just a follow up review of my 911. I bought different brands to try out again from those that I had not and today I had failures to fire, failures to feed, and failures to eject.
Now to make things clear this only happened with one brand of bullets. The culprits were the Monarch 94 grain fmj with a steel casing. I normally do not shoot bullets in steel cases but I wanted to test this little handgun.

Everything shot well the first 50 rounds and after that I had my first failure to fire. The primer had not been struck and finally I figured out what happened. On the picture below you will see that the slide did not go into full battery.

You can see the guide rod sticking out about an 1/8th of an inch. The guide rod should be flushed with the slide, like the following pictures shows.



After racking the slide I would shoot again and than have issues with FTF's and FTE's with each magazine. After about 100 rounds I had my first light strike as there was a small dent on the primer but not enough to set the round off.


Once I squirted some hoppes #9 on the firing pin housing I got it to fire again but continued to have malfunctions until I depleted the box of 200 rounds. To ensure that it was the Monarch bullets in steel casing causing the issue I did what I normally never ever do and that is shoot bullets in brass casings.

This paragraph is mainly directed at the novice shooters entering the fantastic world of shooting. When ever you shoot a mixture of bullets in brass casings and steel casing you should always remember to shoot the bullets in brass first since the brass case expands inside the chamber thereby living little chance for powder residue to surround the case and have failures to extract. Once you shoot all the brass rounds it is okay to shoot the steel cases as they do not expand in the chamber, thereby living little chance to get stuck due to powder residue .

Well I did the opposite on purpose to see if my extractor would be able to extract the spent cartridge and I shot a box of browning 95 grain bullets in brass casings and a couple of magazines of winchesters semiwad cutters and also some Hornady XTP hollow points without a single malfunction. So I can honestly say that I will never buy bullets in steel casings especially for my 911.

In summary the monarch steel casings caused the following malfunctions to occur in my 911: failure to fire, failure to feed, failure to eject, this was caused by the powder residue interfering with the slide hindering it in such a manner that it would not go into full battery. I believe that the 4 light strikes I had was the cause of the slide not going forward enough but just enough to allow the firing pin to gently touch the primer as I had no issues at all with the 3 brands of bullets in a brass casing which were all shot after 200 rounds of monarch bullets had been shot.

[SATRP]

Good Morning ms6852,

Excellent choice.

I'm not a fan of pocket pistols, but were I to add one, I'm of gone the same route.

The 911 comes in 9MM. But at less than a pound, a 9MM 911 I'd guess it'd be hard to manage.

I went the EMP 3 9MM route. It is heavier by 10 ounces, has a 3" barrel (same as 911), holds 10 rounds, is beyond incredibly accurate, it's totally reliable, and with the right clothes it could be a pocket pistol. What I really love about the EMP 3 is with 147 grain Fed HST Tactical LE rounds, the gun is completely controllable. Recoil does not cause me to lose sight picture.

We all have varying opinions. Bottom line is you gotta go with what's right for you, not what's right for a shooter who has a different take. My take is you've done well.

I hope your 911 brings you a lifetime of concealed comfort.

[ms6852]

Originally Posted by SATRP

Good Morning ms6852,

Excellent choice.

I'm not a fan of pocket pistols, but were I to add one, I'm of gone the same route.

The 911 comes in 9MM. But at less than a pound, a 9MM 911 I'd guess it'd be hard to manage.

I went the EMP 3 9MM route. It is heavier by 10 ounces, has a 3" barrel (same as 911), holds 10 rounds, is beyond incredibly accurate, it's totally reliable, and with the right clothes it could be a pocket pistol. What I really love about the EMP 3 is with 147 grain Fed HST Tactical LE rounds, the gun is completely controllable. Recoil does not cause me to lose sight picture.

We all have varying opinions. Bottom line is you gotta go with what's right for you, not what's right for a shooter who has a different take. My take is you've done well.

I hope your 911 brings you a lifetime of concealed comfort.

Thanks for your comments and am in total agreement with you. I really am not into pocket pistols and as noted before I normally carry a .357 revolver or a 1911. I have a couple of 9mm pistols as well but have never carried them no particular reason other than I carry what I practice with all the time. But I am one of a very few rare shooters that feel comfortable carrying a 22lr or heavier hitter, for me it does not matter.

As a medical imaging specialist I have seen what bullets of various calibers do to the body and the fact that many you-tubers warn you not to use hollow points on a 380 because they do not penetrate the accepted parameters of the FBI of 16'' inches but only 10 or 12 inches that is more than enough penetration for vital organs and arteries.