Pistol Review: Springfield Armory XD-S Mod.2 3.3 9mm

First Things First

The 7-round mag arrived with a pinkie-extension floor plate installed, and I promptly swapped it out for the flat floor plate. This was both to answer a reader request for photos of the flat floor plate and to make the gun a little more carry-friendly.

The flat floor plate means the pistol ‘prints’ less when carried concealed.

Shots Fired

After confirming with Springfield Armory that the XD-S Mod.2 9 is rated to handle +P 9mm ammo, I had no qualms whatsoever in using any factory-loaded personal defense ammo.

Naturally, I was itching to make the new popper go bang, so I stepped outside and did just that. I stoked up the 7-round mag and fired two groups of 8 rounds (7 in mag plus 1 in chamber) at 7 yards.

The first group was Winchester white box 115-grain hardball (full metal jacket/FMJ), and the second was Winchester SXZ9 115-grain jacketed hollowpoint (JHP).

Both groups were about the same size, roughly two inches centered about 1.5″ below the bullseye.

XD-S Mod.2 Sights

My XD-S Mod.2 came with the Pro-Glo™ Tritium/luminescent front sight and Tactical Rack serrated rear sight. The front sight is nice and bright and is always easily visible.

The caveat is the front sight does have sharp corners, which doesn’t help its “carry-ability.”

The Tactical Rack rear sight is of course designed with some sharp edges to help, well, “tactically rack” the slide. The forward part of the sight has a slight hook so you can shove it against the bottom edge of a desk or table or even some clothing in order to cycle the action one-handed.

The bummer is that the top rear of the rear sight is pretty sharp, and does interfere with drawing the pistol from the Clinger Comfort Cling holster I’ve been using with it. I’ve had to modify my draw to compensate for that. I also miss having dots on the rear sight — especially in the dark, when the front sight glows and the rear sight is essentially invisible. Even in full daylight I had a tendency to allow the large bright front sight to ride up a bit high in my sight picture. A three-dot setup would help with that… and oddly enough, the less-expensive fiber optic model does come with a two-dot rear sight.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.