When Springfield Armory sent out their teaser about “A New Class Leader,” it had me wondering what could they be launching now. The ad and landing page just showed a skyline of a city with the words “It’s a jungle out there.”
I tried decrypting the message, looking at the clouds in the image to see if there were any clues to what it might be. I settled on three potential options.
- Some kind of small, concealable 10mm pistol. [WRONG]
- A pistol caliber carbine. [WRONG AGAIN]
- A new pistol that would compete with the Sig P365…
Well, my third guess was correct. I introduce to you the Springfield Armory Hellcat 3″ Micro-Compact. Unfortunately, I don’t win anything. I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed when I saw that it was a pistol competing with the Sig P365. I was hoping for something completely new. Something we haven’t seen before. Similar to what Sig did when they came out with the P365.
But then I saw some of the features of the Springfield Armory Hellcat and it seems to be quite interesting.
First off, it comes in two models. A regular Hellcat 3″ Micro-Compact and also a Hellcat 3″ Micro-Compact OSP. That’s right. The OSP version is an optics ready model that has a milled slide that will accept a Shield RMSc and a JP Enterprises JPoint. I run a Trijicon RMR on my Glock 19 and have been considering getting the slide of my Glock 43L milled to put a Shield RMSc on it. So I am very interested in this Hellcat OSP.
Before we get into some other features that stood out to me, here are the specifications of the new Springfield Armory Hellcat.
| Caliber | 9mm |
| Magazines | [1] 11-Round, [1] 13-Round Extended |
| Barrel | 3" Hammer Forged Steel, Melonite Finish, 1:10 |
| Sights | Tritium/Luminescent Front, Tactical Rack U-Notch Rear |
| Frame | Black Polymer w/ Adaptive Grip Texture |
| Slide | Billet Machines, Melonite Finish, Optics Ready (OPS Model) |
| Recoil System | Dual Captive Recoil Spring w/ Full Length Guide Rod |
| Length | 6" |
| Height | 4" w/ Flush Mag, 4.5" w/ Extended Mag |
| Grip Width | 1" |
| Weight w/ Empty Mag | 17.9 oz w/ Flush Mag, 18.3 oz w/ Extended Mag |
What Sig did with the P365 was come out with a compact pistol that held more rounds than any other pistol its size with a 10+1 capacity. Springfield Armory ups the ante with the Hellcat giving you an 11+1 capacity in a pistol roughly the same size.
But this isn’t just an XD or XDS. This is a completely new pistol that Springfield Armory has built. The biggest thing that stood out other than the OSP version is that there is no grip safety that all of the XDs have. I carried an XD for a few years and the grip safety never bothered me but it did bother some people. They decided to get rid of that.
The grip texture seems to be a departure from their usual style so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one to see how it feels. The slide serrations look different as well. They are spaced out but also have notched inside of the main serrations so gripping it should be easy, even with wet hands.
Here are some other features that make the Hellcat stand out:
- Hammer Forged Barrel
- Billet Machined Slide
- Loaded Chamber Indicator
- External Extractor
- Melonite Treated Internals
- High-Hand Ext. Beavertail
- Stand-off Device
- Standard Accessory Rail
- Textured Index Point
- Flat Trigger
- Undercut Trigger Guard
- Reversible Mag Release
And if you already know you plan on buying one, you’ll be happy to know that there are already some holsters on the market made specifically for the Hellcat. Crossbreed Holsters already have a few holsters ready to go for the Hellcat.
I haven’t shot the Sig P365 so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on both of these to do a full review and comparison. So be sure to keep an eye out for that very soon. If you aren’t already, subscribe to my YouTube channel which is where I’ll be posting the video reviews.
In the meantime, check out the review my friends over at Gun Talk published this morning.
