Springfield 911 9mm Review
There's a new micro 1911 in town, and we will be going over it in this Springfield 911 9mm review. Springfield's new nine is a direct competitor to some established guns on the market, but offers the same format at a more competitive price.
That and it makes a decent carry gun in and of itself.
But is this slim, small single-action worth seeking? Let's talk about that a bit.
Springfield 911: Taking On Kimber And Sig
The Springfield 911 is a slightly up-scaled version of the Colt Mustang, a micro 1911 pistol that Colt devised more than a decade ago. They also make the 911 in .380, which is actually one of the better pocket pistols out there, but so much for that.
Anyhow, Kimber had the bright idea a few years ago to make a slightly bigger version of their micro 1911 pistol - the Kimber Micro - in 9mm. Beef up the frame a bit, get a bigger barrel and presto! And it was a success, too; Kimber Micro holsters are some of our best-sellers here at Alien Gear Holsters.
Sig Sauer, having released a micro .380 1911 of their own (the Sig P238) decided to follow suit and released the Sig Sauer P938, which also happens to be a quite popular gun with our customers judging by holster sales.
So, the Springfield 911 is just basically Springfield's version of that. We understand the format; small single-action pistol, but without the grip safety that a compact 1911 like an Officer frame would have, just like the Sig P938 or Kimber Micro 9.
Springfield 911 9mm Specifications
Now for the tale of the tape, with the Springfield 911 9mm specifications.
The barrel is 3 inches long, with a black nitride coating or in stainless steel depending on the model you choose, and a 1-in-16 twist rate. The pistol is 3.9 inches tall (with flush-fit magazine) by 5.9 inches in length by 1.1 inches wide at the controls. Unloaded weight is 15.3 ounces, and the pistol holds 6+1 rounds of 9mm with the flush-fit magazine or 7+1 with the extended magazine. You get one of each with purchase.
It's a lot smaller than most 9mm 1911 pistols
Sights are Pro-Glo tritium/luminescent on the front and white-outlined tritium night sight dots on the rear. The sights are basically micro combat sights, and are dovetailed into the slide.
All models feature a chevron slide cut and a black anodized aluminum frame. You have your choice of black nitride finish or stainless steel for the slide. Grips are either G10 or Hogue wraparound rubber grips, and the grip has checkering for a bit of traction. There are also two models with Viridian laser grips, one with a black slide and one with stainless.
MSRP starts at $639 for the basic black model, $659 for the models with G10 grips and $849 for the laser-equipped models.
Granted, Kimber's bottom dollar is right on the 911's heels and Sig Sauer isn't too far behind, so unless the in-store prices are lower because "Springfield" is on the slide rather than "Kimber" or "Sig Sauer" - and that is totally possible - this gun has some stiff competition.
Springfield 911 9mm Review
We got to shoot the Springfield 911 9mm at SHOT Show, so we will include both the shooting aspect and otherwise in this Springfield 911 9mm review. Overall, it's a good little pistol that has a lot to offer the person that's interested.
I found the extended grip to be better for me. This is just my preference, the dude writing this, but I like as much of a firing grip as I can get. At around 4.5 inches with the extended magazine, there isn't much real estate on the grip unlike your garden variety Officer frame. However, there's just enough with the extended mag that most people won't have an issue there.
Personally, I also preferred the model with the Hogue grips. They fill the hand a little better, though some may not care for the finger grooves. For me, I found they let me get a good tight grip on the pistol. The G10s are slimmer, to be sure; I don't dislike G10 grips but I preferred the rubber grips on THIS gun.
The beavertail is just long enough to let you get a good grip without having to worry about hammer or slide bite, a known drawback of micro guns. It's about equal to that on the Kimber Micro, but a bit more than that of the beavertail of the Sig P938.
The manual safety is ambidextrous and is just large enough to be usable. Not as big as I'd like (I prefer a 1911 thumb safety with a bit of substance for positive engagement, but that's just me) but more usable than plenty of other thumb safety switches I could mention.
Recoil is a tad snappy, as it's a very lightweight 9mm pistol. It's more than accurate enough for use as a CCW pistol, though - as with any subcompact or micro pistols - don't expect a 1-in group at 50 yards. The sights are definitely low-profile, but are plenty visible.
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