I can well recall the first time I saw a plastic service pistol. The introduction of the Glock series was quite an event. Those looking for an excuse to ban any and all handguns, immediately set up a howl about how it was a "terrorist gun", invisible to X-ray machines. You would have thought the guns were capable of terrorist acts, of their own accord. This sounds ridiculous, but keep in mind that there are people who actually believe such nonsense. Don't expect to reason with them on this subject, either.
I had some concerns with the design, one of which was durability. I was pretty far off the mark with that one, since the original Glock 9mm just may be the most durable combat pistol on the planet. I also thought they would be a passing fad- missed by a mile there too, didn't I? My third concern was the potential for accidental/negligent discharge; I am not so quick to concede on that point. A significant number of news stories have described trained Po-leesemen, shooting themselves with these guns. These Glock-armed gendarmes have also managed to "accidentally" shoot more than a couple of subjects held at gunpoint. Some of these are training issues, and some of them have to do with trigger-finger discipline. But the Glock is definitely easy to shoot. You have to decide for yourself if that is an asset, or a liability.
Then, there are the incidents of "explosive disassembly", known as "KaBooms". Kool-aid drinkers will tell you that this never happens, and that when it does happen it was "bad ammo". I happen to know better. The .40+ Glocks are establishing a track record for this problem, due in large part to the feed-ramp's intrusion into the chamber area- that makes them so reliable. In my opinion, reliability also means that the gun isn't going to explode.
My last complaint with the Glock is entirely subjective- its rakish grip angle makes it all but impossible for me to point it instinctively. Those of us "raised" on Smiths, Sigs, Berettas, SAA's and 1911's often have the same problem with other pistols cursed with this grip angle. We ain't all dead just yet, so you might do well to accommodate us.
So what did the Glock accomplish? It proved that entirely serviceable handguns can be built using polymer as the frame material. It proved that guns so manufactured can function well- and stand the stresses of tens of thousands of firings. It proved that having plenty of .40+ caliber rounds "on board" can be a comforting thing, when everything else is going wrong. And it also proved that "point-shoot" designs can be lifesavers during split-second, car-length gunfights.
There was room for improvement - and one such effort is the subject of this article. It hails from Croatia instead of Austria, but such is life. The result is pretty darn good, particularly in the 9mm version. The .40 had a quirk or two, which may have been resolved by the importer by the time you read this. You'll have to read on to find out about that- and the reason I am giving a THUMBS DOWN on these guns.
The Croatian firm of IM Metals had been working on various modern service pistol designs since about 1998. Prototypes of the "HS-2000" first saw the light of day in 1998. It borrowed from the best and most proven designs of the last 100 years, which are listed below:
1. Its frame was of polymer and used a very heavy steel locking-block, and some of the most substantial slide rails ever seen on a service pistol.
2. It also employed a single-action sear mechanism not unlike those of the 1903 Springfield, and the 1898 Mauser. This trigger has a long take-up common to the aforementioned military rifle triggers, while keeping the overall trigger reach dimension within limits that accommodate smaller hands. This was a radical departure from the conventional wisdom of handgun design, which held that in order to be safe in operation, a service pistol trigger should cock the action for at least the first shot.
3. The HS-2000 borrowed the grip safety from the 1911, to help prevent unintentional discharges. The new design took this safety feature a step further, and uses it to block slide movement along with the sear. I personally see this as a liability instead of an asset.
4. All but the earliest versions of the HS-2000 incorporate a safety lever within the face of the trigger, not unlike the Glock. Add to these a firing pin safety and an "out-of-battery" disconnect, and you have a pistol that is not going to "fire itself"- but is quite easy for the operator to use, when held in a proper firing grip.
5. The HS-2000 also borrowed the 1911's grip-to-bore angle, resulting in a handgun which points as naturally as the operator's index finger.
6. It is devoid of unnecessary switches or levers, having only the slide stop and takedown lever on the upper frame. The magazine release buttons (yes- two of them) are ambidextrous in operation. The ergonomics of this pistol are excellent by any standard.
The American firm of Springfield Armory currently imports these pistols, and markets it as the "Extreme Duty" Model, or XD for short. Springfield has done an admirable job of offering many variations on this theme, while maintaining excellent quality control throughout. The four-inch "Duty" version is the subject of this review; plain black with standard three-dot sights.
I am pretty new to XD's, and had handled a few but never fired one. My son Erik had bought one in 9mm a couple of months ago, and when the Little Missus handled that 9mm, she liked the trigger reach and grip better than anything she has tried since my 1911's. SO, she got her first one (a .40) a few days later, and we all got together on Father's Day, 2004 for a shooting session. We also shot a Ruger "Old Model" .357 Blackhawk and my Sig P220 .45 ACP, that same afternoon.
It was quite an eye-opener for me. I had quit the 1911's for a awhile, after having tinkered with the things for close to 25 years; they're good pistols, but I wanted to try something else. The SIG has been a fine sidearm, reliable to a fault and very accurate. I could never shoot it quite as well on steel plates as the 1911, though. The XD was a different story. What amazed me most was how much they handled and pointed like my old 1911's. We just had two plates, but at 7-10 yards they were falling like dominoes as fast as I could trigger the shots. Nearly as fast as I can hit them with a 1911 - and within two hours of my first shots with the XD! I also managed a 5 shot group at 25 yards with Peggi's .40, from an unstable sitting position, that put 4 in 2 1/2 inches... but I managed to pull one out to make the total 5 shots, in 5 inches. I repeated this mistake for the group fired below, but I'm sure it is me and not her gun. This time my "best four" went into two inches, with the offending stray opening up the group to four.
