We got a chance to shoot the new Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition series 9mm on Saturday. Legendary Team Springfield Armory shooter Rob Leatham and his wife, Kippi Leatham, a fellow Team Springfield shooter, invited people out to shoot the new XDm Competition series pistol at Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club.

The short review

It is an excellent gun for competition!

The longer review
The Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition is based on a wishlist Rob Leatham gave to Springfield Armory a few years ago. The 9mm XDm Competition series starts with the current XDm lower, complete with a match trigger and interchangable backstraps which allow you to adjust the grip size to fit your hand.

The upper part of the new XDm is where the real changes have been made. This pistol features a 5.25″ match grade barrel, extending the sight radius to 7 1/4″ for a more precise sight alignment, while reducing the recoil. The extended barrel and slide gives the pistol an 8.3″ overall length.

The extended slide features a lightening slot to keep the weight the same as the shorter, non-competition XDm at 29 ounces. The Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition also has a low profile adjustable rear site and a fiber optic front sight.

The gun is built to be legal for competition in USPSA and IDPA shooting. Production Division approval is expected after at least 2,000 guns are built (hopefully in the next month), in time for the USPSA Nationals.

The Trigger

Mr. Leatham brought out two stock XDm 5.25 Competition pistols, and one with a Springfield factory trigger job. While the trigger job resulted in a much lighter trigger pull, the stock triggers were fine and had a medium pull, a clean break, and a consistent reset. The pull and reset are excellent compared to other polymer guns (I’m spoiled by a nice 1911), and was a noticable improvement over the standard XD trigger.

Shooting the XDm 5.25 Competition

TGO (The Great One, Rob Leatham’s nickname) brought the ammo and let us shoot as many 19 round mags as we wanted to, with only one restriction. He doesn’t load magazines for anyone else. That seemed reasonable, so we stuck around to shoot the steel plates that made up the Springfield Challenge stage.

The stage had steel plate targets, so while group measurements weren’t possible, the accuracy of the pistol was apparent. Shooting quickly at a 6″ swinging Hostage Target Head plate at about 10 yards demonstrated the improved recoil control and sight radius that make this a formidable pistol for competition.

Just in case there was any question on the new pistol’s accuracy, Rob Leatham’s Mother placed a dead center hit on each of the plates.

Conclusion

It is safe to say that I liked the Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition. The gun sights easily, the trigger is good, and the accuracy is great. In fact, I’ll be contacting Arizona Firearms and Pawn this week to order a two-tone XDm 5.25 Competition and see if they’ll accept a partial trade for an XD-9.

Out with the old, in with the new

UPDATE: A distributor has relayed that the XDm 5.25 Competition in black has an MSRP of $799 and the bi-tone model has an MSRP of $869, with gun store prices around $100 lower.

UPDATE 9/17/2012: XDm Reliability report for my XDm 5.25 – I now have over 5,862 rounds through the gun without any mechanical failures. One failure to eject (FTE) occurred at around 3,410 rounds when using beatup reloads. A failure to feed happened after about 4,490 rounds due to a bulged case, and at 5,282 due to a short cartridge.