I had the opportunity to run the recently released Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro on a law enforcement qualification range. It was the last blast for the year for retirees to get the needed firearms certification for coverage under the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act. In this case, I was already “on paper,” but saw an opportunity to run this non-standard, New Age auto on someone else’s range under the supervision of a range officer.
How to prepare? First, I loaded fifteen rounds into three Hellcat Pro magazines a few days before the qual date. I also field stripped the pistol, very easy with the Springfield Armory line, and put some lube into strategic locations. Being fair to the gun – and trying to maintain it – is a good idea.
My previous take on the new gun is reported here. All-in-all, it’s a very interesting handgun.
The ammo used for the annual C-POST course of fire was Winchester “White Box Target” 115 grain full metal jacket ammo. The holster, supplied by Springfield Armory on the cusp of the new gun’s announcement was the Covert IWB from Crucial Concealment. A kydex rig, it has a ridge over the base of the trigger guard to press against the waistband/belt, pushing the grip area back into the body. It’s bilateral, meaning you just remove the clip from the right side and move it to the left for left-handed use – potentially very handy for me these days. It’s optics compatible and the cant can be adjusted.
The Crucial Concealment Covert Mag pouch, likewise “ambi,” was also supplied. The package was marked for the Hellcat magazine and the similar-size P365 magazines.
What about the gun?
First, it’s loading those magazines. Don’t whine, you wanted large amounts of ammo and that requires a strong spring. If you want smaller and smaller pistols to hold all that ammo, “spring” is what you need and it has to be strong. As mentioned above, I cheated, loading the mags a few days before the event. As expected, this made subsequent magazine loading a bit easier.
Next are those sights. The gun arrived with a micro red dot sight – due to circumstances beyond our control, it had to come off. I’m glad it did as I took the chance to try the gun with what could be right up in the top tier of factory supplied sights available today.
The gun is bigger than the Hellcat, more closely fitting the length and height of a modern service-compact pistol. Barrel length is the same, height of the grip frame is close. What makes it a “service micro compact” is the width – and that’s a big difference causing two issues: one is the reduction of mass in the slide/barrel component group. Back in the day, I dallied with a Colt Combat Commander. Unlike the light weight of the Colt Commander, the Combat Commander approached the longer Colt Government in weight, differing mostly in the slide/barrel length and what it took to fit those components to the full-size frame. With less slide mass, you got nearly all the “bang” of the 45 ACP with less felt “whip” from the reciprocating slide/barrel.
Less mass, less flopping around. In addition to pointing better and having superior balance, it was a little quicker out of the holster, the slide offered less for an opponent to grab onto and it had less “kick” – sort of.
Usher in the micro compact lines of today: except for the standard S&W M&P Shield/Shield Pro, they all tend to wear shooters out due to their snappiness.
Not so the Pro. It is more in the “whip” department than, say, the G19 – but less than other MCPs.
The next issue is the vast difference in that subjective ‘feel’ of the vastly thinner grip area.
How did that relate to shooting the annual retirees’ qualification under provisions of the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act? Well, there were really no surprises.
It was slightly quicker than with micro-compact autos and subcompact revolvers. Likewise, I was slightly quicker with a standard service compact auto just a few weeks before.
While there was a predominant cluster in the center of the target, I suffered a few outriders – still in the ‘maximum scoring value’ area, but I would count them down if I were scoring it. Under state rules it was 50/50 100%.
There’s less friction surface area due to the grip frame dimensions and I can feel it. The texturing is fine, but there’s less space side-to-side and fore-and-aft. I’m not sure if anything can be done with that … perhaps Talon Grips?
I figured it’d be fatiguing to shoot, like the current line of micro compacts. It was less like those and more like the Shield – the frame dimensions of which seem slightly better suited to my hands. The role the Hellcat Pro fits is “compromise.”
It has service-compact capacity, plenty of accuracy and you can shoot it accurately as fast as it’s reasonable to shoot operationally. This 1/3-1/2 second split tempo – assessment time, not ‘full-tilt, on the range, don’t miss the backstop’ speed – is well suited to the Pro … hence, the name.
Like the Hellcat which spawned it, it’s a hell of a pistol. I like it.
-- Rich Grassi