Springfield Armory - 2016 Tour Sponsor Overview

It's great to have Springfield Armory back for the 2016 training tour. Now, Springfield Armory makes a great gun. For years I've loved their guns as training guns even going all the way back to the Valhalla era in the mid 2000s. They were the last gun that we purchased a big block of before we shut down, and for about the last two years we had these as the guns we handed out to people. Now, if you go back even before as Springfield Armory had the XD, the same gun as the HS2000 is a gun that I was very familiar with also.

One of the coolest things about the gun was how well it fit a large variety of hands. Of course, it's gotta be reliable we like a good double stack 9 millimeter gun for personal defense. So for the last decade it's been a really easy gun to recommend to people because the gun fit a lot of people. Last year, though it got even better. With the mod two design of the XD guns the grip got much better, and of course it says grip zone on it.

So if you don't know what I'm talking about it's right there, it's the grip zone. That's where you hold the gun and it feels even better than the original XDS or the HS2000 did. Now a lot of people wonder why we end up with Springfield as the Tour sponsor. Well, the reason we have Springfield as a Tour sponsor is because, A, they make a great gun, B, I'm really familiar with the gun, and it had been for a long time and I've seen it work in a lot of different students' hands. Conveniently about the same time that we started talking with Springfield about coming on to the Tour for the first year, they released the XD-S 4-inch.

Now the XD-S 4-inch is my everyday carry gun. That's got a short grip and a relatively long barrel for a subcompact gun. And what that means is I get the extra weight. Of course, people will talk about extra sight radius, a little bit extra power behind the bullet, but I'm really interested in the extra weight that that slide gives me for recoil management over a typical sub-compact gun. Even the XD-S 3.3 inch.

Of course I've still got a short grip which means that even for somebody my size it's very easy to conceal in the appendix position, or if I were going to carry it back here in the four or the five o'clock position, where I happen to have the mic transmitter right now. So with this gun and appendix carry it's very easy for me to carry this magazine in the flush style or in the extended version, some people prefer that. Talk about an extended version of this gun, something a little bit bigger. One of the surprising guns that some students are going to find out on the tour this year probably, is the EMP 4-inch. Now, obviously this is a 1911-style gun but it's an evolved version of the 1911 built around the 9 millimeter cartridge.

Now Springfield and I have had a great relationship around the XD for a number of years. I happen to love the new 5-inch tactical Mod.2 just as much as I like the small ones and that one's going to make a great home defense gun now that it's available as well. But one thing I've always shied away from is coming out with their 1911s, because as most people know who follow Personal Defense Network I'm not a fan of the 1911 platform for personal defense. Now nothing's changed about that, but that doesn't mean that I don't have students that come out to the range with 1911s that have dedicated themselves to learning how to use this safety properly learning how to use the gun properly, and their hand just fits really well around a 1911, emotionally they may be attached to it but unfortunately, a lot of the guns that come out to the range simply don't work. Well, in the past what I've done as the instructor who recommends the modern striker fired gun has said, well here's a modern striker fired gun for you.

And we've had a lot of students change their mind right there on the range, and say, yeah, I get it now. I don't want to have to mess with this safety, I don't wanna have to worry about it. This year, If I have someone who truly knows how to operate this gun, they've invested the time, effort and energy. They're stuck with it so to speak, they put so many years in it's not worth untraining and moving to a more modern platform. I'm going to be able to hand them this EMP 4-inch 9 millimeter gun to let them see what a great reliable slim carryable defensive 1911 style gun in the 9 millimeter can be in their hands.

And maybe they are carrying a .45, Maybe they're already carrying a 9 millimeter. One thing I can say is as much as I have criticized people who choose the 1911, and particularly compact 1911s in the .45 caliber, We've had several subcompact EMPs the smaller original version of this gun, make it through class. So the 9 millimeter EMP 4-inch is a relatively new gun. I've got several hundred rounds through this one. I've got several hundred rounds through other examples of the EMP 4.

And if you're going to choose the 1911 this is one of the ways to go. And I know that's going to surprise a lot of people that I'm even entertaining that idea, but if you're going to do it, you may as well have a good one. And Springfield with the EMP line makes a great gun that from what I've seen in the classes, you can rely on, if you can use that safety well Now Springfield obviously makes a lot of different guns. We focus on the XD's because the modern striker fired gun is what we recommend primarily for personal defense. Whether you go with the Mod.2, you go with the standard XD, or you go with the XD-M you now have a large variety of sizes, you can get the guns in black, in green, in tan.

You've got the .40, .45, and 9 millimeter in the XD-S line. Again, you've got the 4-inch barrel and you've got the 3.3. There's a lot of variety here. There's a lot of options for you across a wide platform of defensive firearms options. Springfield is a great company.

I've really enjoyed working with them. We've got a series of videos that has been released recently which you can check out at personaldefensenetwork.com or through Springfield Armory's website featuring me and their pro shooter Rob Leatham, talking about the differences and the overlaps when it comes to technical shooting, the competition shooting training, and personal defense training. They've been great to have on the Tour we're really glad to have them back for 2016.