I had great difficulty loading past five rounds. The 14-round magazines are difficult to load, something not uncommon in smaller semiautos. The sights are easy to pick up and fast to put into action. A conventional sight picture putting the flat top of the front sight level with the top of the rear gave me the best accuracy. The sights consist of a fiber-optic light pipe in the front and a U-notch rear with a white outline. Lift it off, pull the barrel out from the bottom and you’re ready to clean. The recoil spring is captured on its rod. Hold the slide securely, trip the slide lock lever and ease the slide off the frame to the front. Withdraw the magazine, lock back the slide and raise the takedown lever on the left side of the frame just above the trigger guard. Speaking of safety, the modern XD-M pistols, including this Elite, can be disassembled without pulling the trigger. A cocking indicator protrudes from the center of the slide. The U-notch rear sight has a wide, white outline for a fast, accurate sight picture. The center-mounted extractor rises above the slide as a visual and tactile indicator of a loaded chamber, although I wouldn’t bet my life on either of these features. Above the grip safety in the middle of the slide is a cocking indicator that protrudes enough to be felt with the thumb or seen. The 3.8 Compact’s safeties include an internal firing-pin block, trigger lever and an unobtrusive grip safety. It helped keep my pinky from being pinched by the floorplate when running home fresh mags. The mag well funnel is removable, but I’d leave it alone. Interchangeable backstraps help adjust trigger reach. Press straight down and the slide flies home. The slide-lock lever is equally easy to reach and works great as a release. The slide-lock lever and mag release are ambidextrous. The XD-M Elite 3.8 Compact’s takedown lever doesn’t require pulling the trigger, and the flat-faced META trigger was excellent. When pressed, empty mags rocket out for fast, fumble-free mag changes. The mag release is easy to reach its button is shielded and stiff to prevent inadvertent mag drops. Other key features include a hammer-forged match barrel, forged-steel slide, and left- and right-side magazine and slide releases. The ergonomics were carefully laid out way back then and have only gotten better in feel with upgrades in grip texture and slide serration design. The Elite-series slides are sculpted along the top, reducing the annoying boxiness many polymer pistols exhibit, and generously sized slide serrations on either side of the ejection port give good purchase for charging and clearing.Īfter some 20 years on the market, testing an XD is like shaking hands with an old friend. Yet this bigger 27-ounce pistol is perfectly sized and balanced for home defense, will still fit under a jacket for concealed carry and fits even large hands comfortably.
The new belt-size Elite 3.8 Compact offers 14+1 rounds in a dependable, easy-shooting, short-frame platform not to be confused with ultra-concealable, high-capacity pistols like Springfield’s 11+1 Hellcat. Springfield Armory’s XD-M Elite 3.8 Compact offers a smaller, handier pistol with the styling and ergonomics exemplified in the full-size Elite series pistols that include the Precision, OSP, 4.5 and the 3.8, the Compact’s long-grip 20-shot cousin.
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