New Springfield Armory Echelon Gun Review

Transcript:

00:00 the Springfield Armory Echelon let’s check it out [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you

01:05 foreign Armory Echelon this is a brand new handgun from Springfield Armory for years they have offered the XD XDM series polymer frame Striker fire pistol now they’re going to be going to the echelon this is a completely different design I’m going to tell you first off this slide configuration is over the top I am a huge fan of what they’re doing chassis system 17 plus one and you get a 20 plus one magazine as well one of the things about the XD is that it’s made by sh product in Croatia and so is the echelon this is not an

01:47 upgrade over the XD or the XDM this is a totally different design there are some features on the echelon that I’ve never seen anywhere else and so we’re going to check out all the details we’re going to take it out to the range and put it through its Paces but I’m telling you guys this is really changing the game for Springfield Armory the Springfield Armory Echelon and this is a polymer frame Striker fire pistol one of the big surprises for me is that this is actually made by the same company that makes the XD and XDM

02:26 pistols this Springfield Armory Imports they also make the Hellcat and a number of other firearms and this is actually from sh product out of Croatia so this is honestly an upgrade pistol over the XD and XDM so I’m not really sure if this is replacing the XD and XDM line I know we’ve had some pretty new XDM Pistols that have come out like in 10 millimeter so this may be an addition but one of the things about the XD line is it has been extremely popular for a number of years and still continues to be very

03:05 popular but this has some state of the art changes that really put this pistol in a whole different League now let’s go ahead and make sure that the gun is unloaded we’re going to drop our 17 plus one magazine check the chamber and it’s empty and you also get a 20 rounder with an extended base plate and there’s actually an extended base plate if you want to make your 17 round a 20 rounder and one thing they’ve also changed is the stainless steel that they’ve typically used this is a kind of a

03:36 nitride finish that’s made to be very wear resistant scratch resistant corrosion resistant we do have our witness holes and of course the base plate itself it has some little texturing right here to be able to pull this out if you have any kind of malfunctions there’s a little bit of a bevel around the magazine but then there’s also a bevel at the magazine so it makes it really easy to load these mags in and out of the grip the texturing is really excellent and it’s soft to the touch and yet when you grab

04:09 it and you hold on to it it’s really solid I mean you feel like you’ve got a solid grip on it now this is their adaptive grip texture it goes all the way around the handgun there’s no spaces in between and then right here at your thumb rest and actually right here on the slide stop and an indexing pad and then it’s also mirrored on the other side one of the things about the takedown lever is that when I’m got that two-handed high grip gives me a natural gas pedal to be able to maintain a solid

04:43 grip on it and to reduce recoil you have a four slot picatinny rail a very ample trigger guard to allow for gloved hands there’s also texturing at the front of the trigger guard and underneath at this double undercut so we have a high undercut here and then you have that double undercut the grip is definitely thinner and More in line one of the things about the XD is that it had more of a hump and so you have more of an aggressive area right here with this this is going to give you a little bit better or more natural point of aim but

05:17 there are also different size grip modules and there are back strap options so you can replace your back straps or you can go ahead and get a smaller or larger grip to be able to suit your hand size and that’s something I’ve never seen so this really gives you the advantage to be able just to install a whole other grip if you have smaller hands this is going to be a great option if you have just standard hands or if you have large hands it’s going to give you three different options now obviously they couldn’t do that if it

05:48 wasn’t for the chassis system that’s inside and there is a stainless steel chassis we’ll look at that when we break it down but that really makes this extremely modular and we’ve seen a number of different handgun companies that are bringing in those modular handgun systems this is Optics ready and you mount it directly to the slide which I love there’s no adapter plates needed and it is adaptive it will fit up to 30 different Red Dot sights so about any site that you have you’re going to be

06:17 able to attach it directly to the slide and there’s a pin system where you can move them around and we’ll look at that now Springfield sent the Trijicon RMR with this handgun it was already mounted uh and so we really appreciate uh definitely appreciate the Trijicon RMR these are built like tanks and I’ll tell you what guys there’s a lot of Red Dot sights out there and the whole assign is one it’s an excellent Red Dot but one of the things I love about the Trijicon is that it is so sturdy and these are used

06:49 by US Socom and other special forces units and the way that this housing is made it resists any kind of impacts to crack your lens it’s really solid protection and very easy to manipulate and this particular one is a type 2 and it’s a 3.25 MOA big fan of the Trijicon RMR sights but speaking of sites we have a half circle at the back and then we have a tritium bead at the front and this one-third co-witnesses with your site because you’re setting it so low so you don’t have to have suppressor height

07:24 sights to be able to co-witness with your red dot but you can get pressure height sights to go with it and especially if you’re running a suppressor now the slide itself is very unique first off you have these cocking ears at the back which we’ve seen that but not this aggressive and so it makes it really easy to be able to grab that slide but you have deep serrations into the slide and these do not stick out we’re seeing a lot of that where the serrations are actually making the slide kind of beefy but this kind of brings it

07:58 into the slide and it makes it just closer fit so to me this is going to be less snag also they have a what they call the trench and it’s right here this is great for press checks just allows you to be able to check it and this trench right here is excellent and then you’ve got these deep serrations here so they’re compartmentalized into the slide really makes that come back really easy matte nitride finish on it which gives it a different look it’s not shiny at all it’s going to hold up well to wear and

08:29 corrosion the barrel is 4.5 inches in length it is a cold Hammer forged barrel and guys that gives you extended life and your rifling and the barrel itself now with the XD and XDM you have a fairly High bore axis it’s one of the things that they’ve been known for uh and so does the Sig P226 you know it’s just according to what you’re used to for me personally I like the lower boraxes it gets that slide down closer to the hand here you can see it’s a considerable difference and so the slide mass as it’s

09:02 coming back is going to be more actuated I mean you’re going to feel it more it’s going to be a little more exaggerated in fact here we have a Glock model 47 you can see that it’s really maybe even a little lower than the Glock which is pretty impressive and I’m a huge Glock fan I love it because of that low bore axis but I think that the echelon is coming in at least as low if not maybe a touch lower and to give you a size comparison it’s pretty much the same silhouette as far as size now there are some safety

09:34 features added to the handgun and not only your trigger safety there is a second sear design that actually makes this very safe in case it drops so you don’t have to worry about this being drop safe one thing I like too is the slide stop it is just a flat bar but it gives you a platform to be able to drop your slide so when you have it in the fully rear position spring it down and it’s a little more positive than a lot of the slide locks I’ve seen a lot of times with the slide stops they have it folded over and it’s

10:07 rounded off this is a definite shelf and so it gives you that positive feel to it and it is on the other side and with the magazine release it kind of is guarded as it comes down but it’s really easy to get to and it jettisons the Mags out and it is ambidextrous so if I want to I can actually use my index finger on my shooting hand to be able to drop those mags out they will be offering a 5.

10:35 28 inch threaded barrel so you can run suppressors on it you have your serial number coming through the chassis system it’s also matched on the barrel and on the slide they’re right here on the frame sh product made in Croatia now it is a flat face trigger design you do have your blade safety and of course if you don’t have a full pad on the trigger itself it’s not going to release the firing pan so let’s take a look at the Trigger action so we have a little bit of take up I mean it is really short you hit a

11:09 definite wall and a nice break it’s not like incredibly crisp but it is a really nice trigger reset very fast reset take the trigger pull weight with our lineman trigger gauge and brown ales five pounds point one four pounds 14.7 ounces we appreciate fioki for sponsoring the ammo all made in the USA one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country and also we appreciate our Lula loaders the mag Lula these are excellent keep your mags loaded fast and save your thumbs and we got the red white and blue

12:00 the echelon is really the Pinnacle of the XD XDM series but yet it’s a totally different handgun the modular system in here I mean makes it so easy to be able to just change out a lot of things but the grip I mean it’s it is it’s so soft but you know once you clamp down on it you can feel that texturing biting in the slide serrations that little trench at the front at the back I mean this is made to be able to manipulate this slide in the worst conditions possible and then the Deep slide cuts of course we’ve got the

12:34 Surefire X300 ultra on here Trijicon RMR 20 round mag I mean this is really just a battle pistol I mean it is ready for you know whatever life throws at you the site you’re co-witnessing there’s just so many things about this honestly that just really surprised me because you know that XD Series has been around so long and when they came out with this it was like it’s not an upgrade to the XD it’s really just a totally different handgun thank you excellent trigger the trigger is I mean it’s short take up it’s very close reset

13:17 nice definite trigger pull trigger break I like the controls on the side because it does give you a little bit of texturing to grip and those sites co-witness with that red dot foreign magazine yeah you load on Monday and shoot till Sunday and then you can adapt that 17 round magazine to the same thing with the light I mean it’s this is a package all right now because this is a brand new gun again Springfield not only sent the

14:20 handgun they also sent the RMR and they sent a Surefire X300 ultra which this is a thousand Lumen light this has the Locking System on it I have a couple of these but they have the standard paddles this you lock into place and then it is solid in fact you have to pull the tabs back and the bar out and it really takes a little bit of strength to get this off so it’s on there solid Safariland makes phenomenal holsters but they also sent one of their 6000 series holsters and this is a level three retention holster

14:55 you can get it in level one it does have belt loops here and then you have a removable system where you can take this and just bring it off and I’m sure there’s a number of different adapters but this is definitely something that’s not necessarily your concealed carry option but for tactical classes for cert teams for SWAT teams and it comes in a number of different colors and I’ll tell you what guys we were testing this out at the range and this is a great system now it’s large but it has to be large to

15:28 fit all the different accoutrements of this handgun but right here is your lever and as you just pull it out it comes right out and I’m sure Springfield Armory just really wanted for me to show you all these different things with this pistol because this does come as a fighting pistol when it comes to disassembly drop your magazine check to make sure the gun is unloaded go ahead and bring your gun back into slide lock and now we’re going to drop this lever and the takedown lever comes all the way down and then we

15:58 release our slide and it comes right off there’s no pull of the trigger here we have our recoil spring and guide rod it is a flat recoil spring but it is a polymer guide rod pull out our barrel and again cold Hammer forged Barrel slides very well done which is typical for Springfield Armory or sh product for that matter very nice polish you have your Striker safety right here definitely different than a lot of your Striker fire polymer frame pistols in this area and yet you know you have a lot of the same features now the one

16:35 thing about this is is the whole piece comes out and so we just push our takedown lever and we can just pull it out and you’ve got to find that right spot it’s almost like a puzzle next you want to lift up on your slide stops right here and we’re going to pull the trigger to disengage our Striker assembly back here when we bring this up and you’ll notice there’s a little Notch that’s holding in your plate and so we’re going to want to try to lift it up and just push it Forward once you get it up the back will

17:09 come out to the rear hope I got that on camera because it is a little difficult now you have your chassis system it is all blacked out this is your firearm and it is serialized again this is just a Grip Shell now with these two tabs in the frame and you have two tabs here at the front of your chassis so your trigger guard will go down into your trigger and you want to go ahead and find those tabs and then just place it down into it just like that now you want to take your trigger and you want to depress it just to take

17:45 pressure off your Striker put it back in and it snaps in just like that and so now we’re back in business next we’re going to put back in our takedown lever and you’ll notice that little angle right there and that’s going to get past this little lever that’s on the inside so it takes a little bit of finagling to get it kind of move and you just want to get it pushed until you can get it through just like that once we get it in again it just takes a little bit of back and forth to get it into the other side

18:20 just like that and so now we have it into place now notice this little lever that’s coming up and down that is for your ambidextrous safety and there is a small pin that you remove and if you remove this this safety will come out so I would not recommend doing that I did it and I had to fit it back in and it’s a little tricky but you can do it but this just allows for that magazine release to function so now we’re going to reinstall our Barrel our recoil spring and guide rod one thing you’ll notice it does go into

18:58 this sleeve right here and then we’ll bring it back over our frame making sure our slide stop is in the down position put it in slide lock bring your lever up and we’re back in business and function check and it’s good to go now since the red Dot’s already attached we’re going to remove it because I want to show you how this system works so here there are multiple holes you have different pins you do the insert for whatever fits your optic and that’s the reason why that you can put up to 30

19:34 different Optics on this handgun now this one came with the RMR pins already installed but here we have the Delta Point Pro and EFX sights and then we have the shield RMS type sites and so you’ve got these different pins and of course there’s full instructions but that gives you a lot of Versatility with this mounting system and here it is with the optic removed and of course you can see the plate it is all metal and it aligns with the serrations on the rear of the slide and it does include the two screws to set these in so again guys I

20:08 mean this really is a very modular handgun now the manufacturer suggested retail is 679 MSRP and of course it’ll be less wherever you get it from as far as pros and cons uh you know 17 rounds 20 round magazine complete modular system with a chassis inside a different grips available that are different sizes that’s a big plus I love the slide the cocking ears in the back the trench in the front the Deep serrations of course just Optics ready being able to mount an optic directly to the slide and up to 30 variations I mean that is

20:49 impressive sights are some of the best I love the u-notch with that tritium bead in the front you can get tritium sights that are just the three dot those are available I love the texturing and right here with this slide stop gives you a little bit of a gas pedal and then you have texturing all throughout that’s again soft to the touch and yet once you lock the that in it it’s just a really great feel to it trigger is exceptional guys there’s just a lot of cool things about this and it’s just great to see

21:22 Springfield Armory bringing these to Market of course again made in Croatia by sh product who is the parent company to the XD and XDM Hellcat all the different XD line and this company’s been in business for a long time to me without the grip safety the high bore axis this is going to be just a totally different experience and honestly just a totally different gun so hopefully we’ll be seeing more in this line guys honestly we do live in the Golden Age of firearms well guys the Springfield Armory Echelon I really feel like it’s a

21:58 game changer for Springfield Armory you know the XD and the XDM has a huge following but I think that what they’ve done with the echelon far surpasses it super modular handgun the slide configuration is over the top up to 30 different red dots will go on this slide and a lot of the other features and then of course with the grip shells that’s completely different with different sizes so you can go to that small or you go to the large and it gives you just a lot more options and a big thank you to Springfield Armory for sending the

22:31 echelon and also to Trijicon for the RMR Surefire for the X300 ultra and Safariland with their 6000 series holster I mean this was a total package and guys my next training class will be with the echelon be strong be of good courage God Bless America long live the republic [Music] foreign [Music]
23:38 ergonomic this the grip is super ergonomic I mean I was resting it on the take I said slide stop today we’re going to take a look at the new Springfield Armory Echelon this is not even that this is the XD and I’m going let’s check it out we’ve checked this out with all the features that this has and of course the way we’ve decked it out this is a full on let’s talk about that