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5 Reasons Why a Springfield Hellcat Should Be Your First Handgun

I own a Hellcat OSP in FDE. It was my second handgun (the first one I purchased...the husband bought me a Walther PPK for my first). I do love the way the little thing feels in my little hand, but she is a snappy little beast. I don't carry it often anymore, but I do still get her to the range. I moved on to the S&W M&P 2.0...bigger gun, less snap, and a great trigger. Since joining this forum I have expanded my herd to include a VP9 and its cousin the SK. They, so far, feel the best..Since I have been shooting bigger guns, I have to agree with the comments about micro 9s. Even with my little hands I shoot the bigger guns much better. :)
 
belladonna said:
I own a Hellcat OSP in FDE. It was my second handgun (the first one I purchased...the husband bought me a Walther PPK for my first). I do love the way the little thing feels in my little hand, but she is a snappy little beast. I don't carry it often anymore, but I do still get her to the range. I moved on to the S&W M&P 2.0...bigger gun, less snap, and a great trigger. Since joining this forum I have expanded my herd to include a VP9 and its cousin the SK. They, so far, feel the best..Since I have been shooting bigger guns, I have to agree with the comments about micro 9s. Even with my little hands I shoot the bigger guns much better. :)
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okay okay, between you and @Bassbob I am going to buy a VP9 of some sort! Tell the wife it's not my fault, I can quit anytime...
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “5 Reasons Why a Springfield Hellcat Should Be Your First Handgun” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/5-reasons-why-a-springfield-hellcat-should-be-your-first-handgun/.

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I think I qualify as a Springfield fanboy, with three in my collection and a desire to add the Echelon and Saint Victor to the stable. I sold the Hellcat. Wanted to like it but it was like shooting a porcupine and was significantly more uncomfortable to shoot that any other handgun I've tried, save the S&W Shield 2.0 (we sold that one, too).

Either I don't have an affinity for micro compacts, or they just didn't make the Hellcat as useful as they thought they did.
 
Mr. Untactical said:
I think I qualify as a Springfield fanboy, with three in my collection and a desire to add the Echelon and Saint Victor to the stable. I sold the Hellcat. Wanted to like it but it was like shooting a porcupine and was significantly more uncomfortable to shoot that any other handgun I've tried, save the S&W Shield 2.0 (we sold that one, too).

Either I don't have an affinity for micro compacts, or they just didn't make the Hellcat as useful as they thought they did.
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shooting a porcupine < accurate
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “5 Reasons Why a Springfield Hellcat Should Be Your First Handgun” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/5-reasons-why-a-springfield-hellcat-should-be-your-first-handgun/.

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Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “5 Reasons Why a Springfield Hellcat Should Be Your First Handgun” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/5-reasons-why-a-springfield-hellcat-should-be-your-first-handgun/.
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Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “5 Reasons Why a Springfield Hellcat Should Be Your First Handgun” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/5-reasons-why-a-springfield-hellcat-should-be-your-first-handgun/.

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I purchased my Hellcat RDP a few years ago, shortly after it was released in the wild, and immediately liked (almost) everything about it…it cycled smoothly and shot accurately right out of the box, recoil and muzzle rise is negligible, thanks to the proprietary compensator (shoot it without the compensator and it’s a little bucking horse! So the compensator really does make a difference.), the U-dot sights are intuitively quick to acquire, particularly if your near vision is getting a little weak, and it pairs up very nicely with the HEX WASP red dot. I’m not sure why SA discontinued the HEX WASP red dot??? It’s light weight, isn’t bulky like many others, has a perfectly adequate field of view, and has operated flawlessly on my Hellcat for several thousand rounds…mystery as to why they discontinued it. The overall size, weight and quality of the pistol make it shoot much like a full frame, like my 1911s, but it’s small enough to comfortably (and covertly) pants pocket or jacket pocket carry, even with the StreamLight TLR-6 laser/light combo I have under it. So here’s the ‘I liked (almost) everything’ part…the factory magazine release AND slide lock/release lever were so ridiculously stiff and so close to the frame that they were nearly impossible to find or manipulate without pressing my offhand thumb over the top of my shooting hand thumb to depress them. They were so bad that I though they were maybe defective and was tempted to send the pistol back to Springfield for evaluation. Before going through that hassle, I began reading reviews of others having similar complaints. Loe and behold, within a few months of the Hellcat’s debut, there were several companies (Apex Tactical, and others) who came to the rescue with extended mag releases and slide lock levers with greatly improved indexing, which make it comfortably and repeatably easy to release mags and slide without getting blood blisters on your thumb! Problem solved. I absolutely love shooting the Hellcat now and find that I gravitate to it at the range even more often than my 1911s…it’s just a lot of fun to shoot! Just a side note for comparison, though…in the middle of working out those bugs in my Hellcat, my daughter was wanting to graduate to a “big girl” pistol after shooting her Walther P-22 for many years. Wanting to find something with familiar ergonomics for her, I ended up buying the Walther PDP-F. I have to say, the PDP-F is everything the Hellcat should have been right out of the box. Size, weight and “footprint” are nearly identical to the Hellcat, but the PDP-F comes with more prominent magazine and slide release, as well as safety, and a much lighter recoil spring than the Hellcat, so racking the slide is effortless, compared to the Hellcat’s rather stiff rack. Honestly, if I’d discovered the PDP-F before I bought the Hellcat, I may have bought two…one for my daughter and one for myself. All that said, they are both fabulous EDC pistols for those of us with small mittens, but in my opinion the Hellcat needs a little modification to make it what the Walther already is from the factory.
 
Mr. Untactical said:
I think I qualify as a Springfield fanboy, with three in my collection and a desire to add the Echelon and Saint Victor to the stable. I sold the Hellcat. Wanted to like it but it was like shooting a porcupine and was significantly more uncomfortable to shoot that any other handgun I've tried, save the S&W Shield 2.0 (we sold that one, too).

Either I don't have an affinity for micro compacts, or they just didn't make the Hellcat as useful as they thought they did.
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I have three Shields, not sure how my Shield+ Performance Center relates to a porcupine or uncomfortable, but can relate to the Hellcat as being tiny, square and unwieldly.
 
bangnburp said:
I have three Shields, not sure how my Shield+ Performance Center relates to a porcupine or uncomfortable, but can relate to the Hellcat as being tiny, square and unwieldly.
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The performance center model might be amenable ;)

My wife and I were still fairly new to handguns when we had the shield, so that may have had something to do with it. Which to me is a good reason NOT to recommend a micro compact to a new shooter as their first firearm. Our first was a Ruger 9E and my wife still shoots it better than any other firearm we have (or had).
 
marmasu said:
Have the Hellcat as my CCW and like it except for one reason. It is fussy on what type of defensive ammunition to use. The wrong type causes it to jamb. Ball ammunition it will shoot flawlessly. Anyone else have similar experience?
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I never have any problems with my HC as related to ammo. It shoots great with all I have used. Purchased the extended threaded barrel with compensater. Shoots even better.
 
marmasu said:
Have the Hellcat as my CCW and like it except for one reason. It is fussy on what type of defensive ammunition to use. The wrong type causes it to jamb. Ball ammunition it will shoot flawlessly. Anyone else have similar experience?
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What have you found that it doesn’t eat? So far, everything I’ve fed mine it has gobbled up and asked for more.
 
Mr. Untactical said:
I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I'll give you a thumbs up for using a Duran Duran video!
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20231010_170718.jpg
 
marmasu said:
Have the Hellcat as my CCW and like it except for one reason. It is fussy on what type of defensive ammunition to use. The wrong type causes it to jamb. Ball ammunition it will shoot flawlessly. Anyone else have similar experience?
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for practice, i shoot either Fiocchi, any Federal, S&B, Winchester white box, Remington UMC...either 115 gr, or 124 gr,.

i NEVER run any reloads thru it

when i want to dump the hollow points and put in fresh ones, i carry with Federal HST 147 grains, and dump them maybe once per year.
 
I don't own a Hellcat, but this is my opinion only.
When I started shooting 40 plus years ago I started with a six inch S&W 357 before I bought a snub.
When I bought my first plastic I bought a Springfield MOD-2 Tactical before I bought a compact.
What I am saying is buy a full size before buying something smaller.
Learn with a longer sight picture and you can transfer those skills to a smaller firearm.
Good Luck with your choices...
 
I wanted to buy a Hellcat but for whatever reason Springfield/HS Product chose not to have ambidextrous mad release.
If Springfield reads these I wish they would get Holosun to make a model that fits both the Hellcat and the XDs without a plate. Or modify their OSP cut like the sig 365. I have plates on other guns and wish I didn't have to. Or Wish everyone would use the idea of Echelon with the ability to fit most dot sights.
 
bandaidman said:
I wanted to buy a Hellcat but for whatever reason Springfield/HS Product chose not to have ambidextrous mad release.
If Springfield reads these I wish they would get Holosun to make a model that fits both the Hellcat and the XDs without a plate. Or modify their OSP cut like the sig 365. I have plates on other guns and wish I didn't have to. Or Wish everyone would use the idea of Echelon with the ability to fit most dot sights.
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It's obviously going to be demand based, but no doubt Holosun can/will produce the SCS for nearly any gun.

I wish manufacturers would get together and standardize the footprint for RDS. The reason they don't is simple though. If every red dot had to compete against every other red dot in every single situation, soon there would emerge one or two "Victors" and the rest would fall by the wayside. As it is you may have a handful of possible candidates and would choose based on quality, features and your budget.
 
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