maxis500
05-12-2003, 12:41 PM
Glock 19 vs. Springfield XD-9
During this summer while visiting the U.S on business I took time to go to a couple of pistol ranges in West Houston. One was the American Shooters Center in George Bush Park while the other was the Texas Shooters Range off the I-10 on Witte.
At the ASC I put a couple of hundred rounds through a Springfield XD-9 and at TSR I did similar with a Glock 19. Both are 9mm Polymer framed striker fired pistols, very similar at first glance in operation and as such a comparison review is appropriate. Indeed the XD-9 was designed and marketed as a direct competitor to the Glock which an extremely popular pistol. The Glock is Austrian, the XD-9 is actually Croatian. I believe before distribution by Springfield it was called the HS-2000.
Ammuntion - For both tests I put about 200 rounds of 115 grain FMJ practice ammunition through the guns, Magtech for the XD-9 and Sellier and Belliot for the Glock. Both ate the ammunition flawlessly in the 10 round Clinton mags I had. Of course this is not really a difficult test for the guns as it is often JHPs that show up the differences in ammo acceptability in pistols but that what the ranges had so that’s what I used.
Operation – Both are striker fired pistols, meaning there is no external trigger. The guns are fired by the operation of an internal striker which is partially “cocked” once the gun is in battery. Pulling the trigger fully cocks and releases the striker to fire the round. In this sense they are analogous to a double action pistol but with a fairly light but long trigger pull, around 5 pounds for both guns. There is no single action or transition from double to single action after the first shot is fired. For both guns the trigger pull is the same for every shot. There is a transition from first stage to second stage on the trigger pull on both pistols and a short reset transition upon trigger release, here the XD-9 felt shorter and lighter than the Glock to me and maybe this gun would be better for double taps.
Neither gun has a manual safety, to paraphrase “Hoot” in Blackhawk Down, the trigger is the safety. There are a number of built in safety devices however. Both guns have a trigger safety as an inner lever blade on the trigger. This means that sideways pressure on the trigger should not fire the gun. The XD-9 augments this with a grip safety on the back of the grip which must be depressed for the gun to fire, like a Colt 1911. Both guns also have internal drop safeties to block striker movement until the trigger is pulled. The grip safety on the XD-9 did not present any difficulties and it is light and comfortable so its presence is neither here nor there in my opinion. Both guns should be properly holstered when not in the hand to fully shroud the trigger as they are constantly in “condition zero” once loaded and racked. I definitely wouldn’t like to carry either “Mexican” but if I had to I guess the XD-9 would be safer due to the additional grip safety.
As for other external controls the XD-9 has the magazine release as ambidextrous buttons behind the bottom of the trigger guard on the grip while the Glock has a flush button on the left hand side of the grip for use by the thumb. Here the XD-9 wins hands down for me because I’m a lefty and can easily hit the mag release with my left hand thumb or trigger finger. With the Glock a lefty has to use the trigger finger and it is a bit of a stretch and a little awkward. I’m sure one can get use to it but the XD-9 is definitely better to the novice lefthander. Both pistols feature drop free mags incidentally.
As for the slide release on both the guns it was quite small. However the best way to rack the slide is to forget the slide release (so I guess it is only a slide “lock”) and slingshot the slide with the weak hand by pulling it back and simply letting it go to chamber the first round. Both guns had good grips on the rear of the slide and an overhand grip with little finger foremost worked well. However a couple of times with the XD-9, instead of releasing the slide at the rear of movement and simply letting it spring forward I accidentally pushed it slightly forward and the gun did not go fully into battery but hung up about a quarter of an inch short and would not fire. This was solved by a sharp tap to the back of the slide to drop it fully into battery. Strictly speaking this is operator error on my part. It never happened with the Glock but then again I shot the Glock once I was aware of my initial mistake so whether the Glock is inherently more tolerant of an imperfect slingshot is impossible to say.
Sights – both guns had factory three dot sights as I recall. No real differences here to separate them. Neither were great and would be much improved by tritium night sights which are readily available.
Firing – both guns fired the FMJ rounds accurately and sweetly with a little recoil but nothing to wearing. Indeed 200 or so rounds with both guns not at all wearing. The only wear and tear to me was on the pad of my thumb from loading all that ammo into the magazine on each gun – in either case the tenth round was a tough fit - damn Clinton! I went out to 25 yards with both guns where I was still getting 90% or so of my rounds into the “head” of the target shooting Weaver stance. I shot both guns low and right a touch to start off with but once I got the trigger finger right both came right to target. No gun won here, both were fine with no discernable differences in accuracy or comfort through the firing cycle. If I had to separate one from the other it would be on how both guns acted at the end of the mag. After the tenth round both slides locked back on the empty mag but as anyone who has ever shot a pistol knows, when you are looking at the front sight it is often difficult to tell immediately when the slide is locked back and you need to reload. Here the Glock helps because as you release the trigger it stays right back and it is an obvious clue that you are at slide lock. The XD-9 is a bit more subtle. The trigger comes forward but you don’t feel a reset.
Anyway, to summarise, both guns were simple to use, accurate and pretty reliable. The only reliability issue was definitely operator induced. To me the XD-9 was more ergonomic in operation with the ambi-mag catch but to the majority of shooters it is probably not an issue. The Glock trigger set back at slidelock was a definite but slight advantage though. Now I’ve heard the XD-9 is about $100 or so less than the Glock so if money is tight then it is worth a look. However I’ve also heard the finish on the XD-9 slide isn’t as tough as the Glock’s. As for long term use the Glock has an excellent reputation for reliability and availability of aftermarket goodies and obviously the XD-9 as a newbie will have to build it’s own record but the result is…
SCORE DRAW
(mind you in Colorado last month I handled, but didn’t fire, a Walther P99 and it blew both guns away on ergonomics….!)
During this summer while visiting the U.S on business I took time to go to a couple of pistol ranges in West Houston. One was the American Shooters Center in George Bush Park while the other was the Texas Shooters Range off the I-10 on Witte.
At the ASC I put a couple of hundred rounds through a Springfield XD-9 and at TSR I did similar with a Glock 19. Both are 9mm Polymer framed striker fired pistols, very similar at first glance in operation and as such a comparison review is appropriate. Indeed the XD-9 was designed and marketed as a direct competitor to the Glock which an extremely popular pistol. The Glock is Austrian, the XD-9 is actually Croatian. I believe before distribution by Springfield it was called the HS-2000.
Ammuntion - For both tests I put about 200 rounds of 115 grain FMJ practice ammunition through the guns, Magtech for the XD-9 and Sellier and Belliot for the Glock. Both ate the ammunition flawlessly in the 10 round Clinton mags I had. Of course this is not really a difficult test for the guns as it is often JHPs that show up the differences in ammo acceptability in pistols but that what the ranges had so that’s what I used.
Operation – Both are striker fired pistols, meaning there is no external trigger. The guns are fired by the operation of an internal striker which is partially “cocked” once the gun is in battery. Pulling the trigger fully cocks and releases the striker to fire the round. In this sense they are analogous to a double action pistol but with a fairly light but long trigger pull, around 5 pounds for both guns. There is no single action or transition from double to single action after the first shot is fired. For both guns the trigger pull is the same for every shot. There is a transition from first stage to second stage on the trigger pull on both pistols and a short reset transition upon trigger release, here the XD-9 felt shorter and lighter than the Glock to me and maybe this gun would be better for double taps.
Neither gun has a manual safety, to paraphrase “Hoot” in Blackhawk Down, the trigger is the safety. There are a number of built in safety devices however. Both guns have a trigger safety as an inner lever blade on the trigger. This means that sideways pressure on the trigger should not fire the gun. The XD-9 augments this with a grip safety on the back of the grip which must be depressed for the gun to fire, like a Colt 1911. Both guns also have internal drop safeties to block striker movement until the trigger is pulled. The grip safety on the XD-9 did not present any difficulties and it is light and comfortable so its presence is neither here nor there in my opinion. Both guns should be properly holstered when not in the hand to fully shroud the trigger as they are constantly in “condition zero” once loaded and racked. I definitely wouldn’t like to carry either “Mexican” but if I had to I guess the XD-9 would be safer due to the additional grip safety.
As for other external controls the XD-9 has the magazine release as ambidextrous buttons behind the bottom of the trigger guard on the grip while the Glock has a flush button on the left hand side of the grip for use by the thumb. Here the XD-9 wins hands down for me because I’m a lefty and can easily hit the mag release with my left hand thumb or trigger finger. With the Glock a lefty has to use the trigger finger and it is a bit of a stretch and a little awkward. I’m sure one can get use to it but the XD-9 is definitely better to the novice lefthander. Both pistols feature drop free mags incidentally.
As for the slide release on both the guns it was quite small. However the best way to rack the slide is to forget the slide release (so I guess it is only a slide “lock”) and slingshot the slide with the weak hand by pulling it back and simply letting it go to chamber the first round. Both guns had good grips on the rear of the slide and an overhand grip with little finger foremost worked well. However a couple of times with the XD-9, instead of releasing the slide at the rear of movement and simply letting it spring forward I accidentally pushed it slightly forward and the gun did not go fully into battery but hung up about a quarter of an inch short and would not fire. This was solved by a sharp tap to the back of the slide to drop it fully into battery. Strictly speaking this is operator error on my part. It never happened with the Glock but then again I shot the Glock once I was aware of my initial mistake so whether the Glock is inherently more tolerant of an imperfect slingshot is impossible to say.
Sights – both guns had factory three dot sights as I recall. No real differences here to separate them. Neither were great and would be much improved by tritium night sights which are readily available.
Firing – both guns fired the FMJ rounds accurately and sweetly with a little recoil but nothing to wearing. Indeed 200 or so rounds with both guns not at all wearing. The only wear and tear to me was on the pad of my thumb from loading all that ammo into the magazine on each gun – in either case the tenth round was a tough fit - damn Clinton! I went out to 25 yards with both guns where I was still getting 90% or so of my rounds into the “head” of the target shooting Weaver stance. I shot both guns low and right a touch to start off with but once I got the trigger finger right both came right to target. No gun won here, both were fine with no discernable differences in accuracy or comfort through the firing cycle. If I had to separate one from the other it would be on how both guns acted at the end of the mag. After the tenth round both slides locked back on the empty mag but as anyone who has ever shot a pistol knows, when you are looking at the front sight it is often difficult to tell immediately when the slide is locked back and you need to reload. Here the Glock helps because as you release the trigger it stays right back and it is an obvious clue that you are at slide lock. The XD-9 is a bit more subtle. The trigger comes forward but you don’t feel a reset.
Anyway, to summarise, both guns were simple to use, accurate and pretty reliable. The only reliability issue was definitely operator induced. To me the XD-9 was more ergonomic in operation with the ambi-mag catch but to the majority of shooters it is probably not an issue. The Glock trigger set back at slidelock was a definite but slight advantage though. Now I’ve heard the XD-9 is about $100 or so less than the Glock so if money is tight then it is worth a look. However I’ve also heard the finish on the XD-9 slide isn’t as tough as the Glock’s. As for long term use the Glock has an excellent reputation for reliability and availability of aftermarket goodies and obviously the XD-9 as a newbie will have to build it’s own record but the result is…
SCORE DRAW
(mind you in Colorado last month I handled, but didn’t fire, a Walther P99 and it blew both guns away on ergonomics….!)