The Springfield XD thumb safety is unobtrusive, yet positive.

The safety lever is held in each position by a ball and spring clicking into recesses in the interior of the safety paddle. The paddles themselves are stopped in their up and down locations by the shoulders of the frame recess they ride in. Thus there is no need to worry about an overexerted safety lever being forced past its proper position and bringing things to a quick halt. If you can force a steel lever past a sturdy polymer shoulder, you have hand strength enough that you probably don't need a pistol.

Since the safety locks the slide in place when up, in reassembly you have to keep the levers down when you put the slide back on or it won't go past the safety. A simple-enough thing to learn, and you aren't going to break anything while you learn.

Up top, per all XDs, is an easy-to-see loaded-chamber indicator.

Good engineering is fine, and an added feature certainly is attractive, but they are for naught if you can't make your handgun function when you need to. So I had to do a bunch of drawing and dry-firing to see how well the new safety fits me. I was aided in this by Springfield's practice of shipping each XD with a holster, dual-mag pouch and magazine loader. For the dry-fire I simply had to put the holster on, set up the dry-fire targets and have at it. What I found was that after the usual initial learning curve of "what handgun am I grabbing?" my right hand had no problem pushing the safety off and establishing a firm firing grip. The XD grip shape is an exemplar of comfort and ergonomics, and while the sights seemed to come up a bit high at first, that, too, was something quickly learned and adjusted for.

CHRONOGRAPH RESULTS
LOAD	BULLET WEIGHT (gr.)	AVERAGE VELOCITY (fps)
Michigan Ammo JHP	185	759
Michigan Ammo FMJ	230	682
Magtech JHP+P	230	865
Wolf FMJ	230	619
Cor-Bon FMJ	230	649
Hornady XTP JHP	200	799
Velocity readings taken in 12 degrees.

The XD Service holds 13 rounds of .45 ACP in a comfortable, non-slip grip.

Twelve degrees, 25 yards, five shots into 2.5 inches. That'll do to ride the river with, even when the river's frozen.

At the range, the grip shape made even hot +P .45 ACP loads a breeze to shoot. No XD I've shot has been a slouch in the accuracy department, and while the XD trigger is never going to make friends at a Bullseye match, it's very nice for defensive work. After shooting over a rest, and per my usual custom, I plinked at the 100-yard gongs at the club and produced an entirely satisfactory seven hits of 10 shots offhand.

My particular XD was quite forgiving, shooting pretty much every ammo type I had along into 2 1⁄2 to three inches or so at 25 yards. I might have done better if the range trip hadn't been on a bitterly cold 12-degree day. Still, groups like that with icicles hanging off my goatee? With full-power hardball? I'll take that any day.

So, what do we have here? We've got a high-capacity .45 that can shoot accurately and handle +P ammo without a problem. The handling features include an ambidextrous external thumb safety, ambi mag-catch buttons, grip safety and a simple takedown procedure. Up top there's a loaded-chamber indicator. The frame is a durable polymer, impervious to all known solvents, with a light/accessory rail on the front of the frame. The four-inch barrel is short enough to make concealed carry easy but long enough to give both reliable function and all the velocity a .45 needs. (On a warmer day my chrono results would probably be easily 75 to 80 fps higher per load.) The magazines are durable, inexpensive, reliable and easy to locate. With their gentle taper on top, they are also fast on the reload.

If a police department wants .45s (or has officers who want .45s), the XD is very attractive anyway, and the new thumb safety makes it even more so. Competition shooters might not be as happy, but that is only because practical shooting doesn't have a niche for .45-caliber, Major-scoring polymer pistols. Those who carry for defense do. And for the military, if they ever get back to considering the general issue of handguns in manly calibers, the XD would be a definite contender. One aspect of the military specifications that they seem hung up on is the requirement of a new sidearm to still be serviceable after 30,000 rounds of +P ammo.

I'd bet the XD would pass that test. (And as soon as I can score 30,000 rounds of +P .45 ACP, I'll let you know the results.)