Any of you folks got any experience behind the Springfield Hellcat? I’m curious as to how it compares to others in it class with accuracy, follow up shots and reliability. Thank you.

I carry a Hellcat with a Shield (made by Trijicon) RMR. It works well, I've put several hundred rounds through it without failure. Springfield thoughtfully included a 20 percent discount on accessories when you register the warranty, so I was able to pick up half a dozen mags for about 120 bucks.

My experience with one is very limited. My local range had a Springfield Event Day shortly after it came out and a friend of mine and I went up to check the gun out.

Both of us shot it a bit, I didn't like anything about the gun. My friend didn't think it was that bad,but stated that he preferred the P365 that he had tried before to it.

I am not really a micro nine fan so take that for what it is worth. But I preferred the P365. Have not shot the new S&W Plus for comparison, but it appears to be a bit bigger too.

Hopefully there is a range near you that you can rent one to try out. Good luck on your decision.

I had a Hellcat and a 365 at the same time, on purpose, so I could spend significant time with both. I did not care for the Hellcat. Found it snappy, did not fit my hands well, and I had trouble getting right grip so always shot left (not gun, but me with that gun). Sold it and stayed with the 365. That’s just my experience. I am sure there are others out there who feel differently. You need to shoot it and decide.

My EDC is a P365 and I have a 43x as a backup. I rented a Hellcat the week my LGS got them. HATED it. Way too snappy, bad trigger, just that striker trigger pinch on my finger that some guns have. Hated it, will never own. YMMV. Love my P365.

quote:

Originally posted by TampaSIG:
I had a Hellcat and a 365 at the same time, on purpose, so I could spend significant time with both. I did not care for the Hellcat. Found it snappy, did not fit my hands well, and I had trouble getting right grip so always shot left (not gun, but me with that gun). Sold it and stayed with the 365. That’s just my experience. I am sure there are others out there who feel differently. You need to shoot it and decide.

This echos my experience. I owned the Hellcat & P365 and shot them side-by-side. The Hellcat is not a bad gun, it just doesn't work as well for me as the P365.

I never got as far as actually firing a Hellcat because I just didn't like the way it felt in my hand, especially compared to the P365. I did like that U rear sight, however.

My Hellcat has been reliable, comfortable, accurate, and the well made sights were dead-on right out of the box.
4 guys on my team tried it and then bought their own.

I put Talon grips on it, in my opinion the Hellcat is a home run.

I have one and I've tried all the micro 9s. It's reliable and accurate. It's a bit snappy but I like the built in standoff they put in where it's hard to knock it out of battery. Overall it's a good gun. I recently added a comp and threaded barrel and it takes the snap off of it.

Own the P365 and avoided the Hell(no)cat like the plague because of the Springfield political debacle in their home state a few years back.

When they first were released I noted the early production examples' trigger action binding up before reaching the striker release with any amount of side pressure on the shoe during the trigger pull (something that say might happen in a struggle for the gun, for example). Yes a Glock's trigger can also bind with the same sort of side pressure but one can actually get it to travel and still go bang whereas the Hellcat's trigger would stop dead. HS and SA subsequently addressed and fixed the binding and current production guns no longer reproduce this result as the first year guns would do.

Customers were consistently reporting when they shot the P365 and Hellcat back to back most preferred the SIG. However guys with big mitts gravitated to the Hellcat. After SIG released the XL and X versions of the P365, that particular pendulum has swung back more evenly; about 50/50 in terms of our P365 vs Hellcat sales.

I finally relented and shot a buddy's Hellcat OSP about 3 wks ago; using standard 115gr and 124gr ball, I felt it was noticeably snappier than my P365s and even my G43/G43X, but not excessively so. The trigger on his HC wasn't impressive but it was certainly a workable action for a SD gun. I did not like that Wasp RDO on his gun; a POS red dot if there ever was one, yet he claims he "loves" it so who am I to rain on his parade?

But in the end I still think of these new batches of micro compact 9s now on the market (that I've shot) the Shield+ is the best shooter of the bunch. If it had been a thing when I bought my pair of 365s, I'd have two Shield+s instead.

I have one and like it. Nice pistol and I bought it to take the place of my Kahr K9 Elite for Summer carry.
Larger capacity and carries pretty easily.
I've heard of trigger issues but I haven't had any problems personally.

The Hellcat RDP is a lot less snappy with the compensator. With the compensator, it shoot a little better than the P365.

Who wants a comp on a tiny CCW gun? Seriously.
Besides which, it ain’t that snappy. Every one of my blowback 380’s is snappier than my 365. Shoot my PPK/S and honestly tell me you wouldn’t rather shoot the 365. Lol

I own or have owned the P365, Shield/Shield Plus, and Hellcat and the Hellcat was my least favorite. For me it just didn't blow me away with how it shot vs the P365.

I can't put my finger on exactly why, I just know I prefer the P365 by a wide margin, and also prefer the Shield series guns over the Hellcat.

I currently have a Hellcat that I don't care for. I'll be getting rid of it when I get my Shield Plus this week. The recoil spring on the Hellcat is very stiff and the slide serrations are not great. They get less deep as they go from the top of the slide down toward the frame. That combined with the strong spring causes the slide to slip out of my hand sometimes. I do like the sights though. But I'll still be unloading it.

quote:

Originally posted by techguy:
Any of you folks got any experience behind the Springfield Hellcat? I’m curious as to how it compares to others in it class with accuracy, follow up shots and reliability. Thank you.

I bought one a few months ago from Open Range with a gift card. I have only ran 200 rounds through it and it shoots great and is pretty accurate for me. So far so good.

I had one and it was snappy, but it worked right out of box and the guy who has it now said never a problem .

I've tried all three of the latest small 9mms.

I wound up purchasing the Glock 43x and it doesn't even have the best trigger of the three.

The Sig is by far the best of them with the Glock a close second. I was not even remotely impressed with the Hellcat. I have an XDSC that the trigger is just amazing, but it's just such a brick that it makes a poor carry gun for me. I had too high of expectation for the Hellcat trigger for it to be that poor.

Took my new Hellcat to the range yesterday. I put 500 rounds through it with no issues. Fits my hand well and shot great. My previous carry gun is an XD Subcompact 40, compared to that I didn't feel that it was too "snappy" when shooting. I shot it strong and weak hand and didn't experience any of the trigger issues that have been mentioned. So far I am happy with it and will be carrying it from now on.

As I did when I got a G43, I shot all of the comparable options available, including the Springfields.

Knowing that I was going to get one or the other, maybe both, I shot the hellcat and the P365 extensively.

Although the Hellcat shot for me at least as well as the P365, I found it brick-like and blocky feeling in my hands.
This coming from a Glock owner.

The more I shot the two of these pistols, the more I knew that the P365 was coming home with me.

If the Hellcat shoots well for you and you like the feel of it, it is an entirely viable option.