I haven't done one of these in a minute but once again I will give you the observations of a firearm of a talentless hack who's greatest firearm skill achievement is knowing that the pointy end faces down range.

Just to level set. I am not in any way a skilled shooter, gunfighter, cop, operator, secret squirrel if I told you I'd have to kill you kind of dude. I am low speed, high drag gun geek who has been blessed to shoot a great many guns in my life. I see my guns primarily as a hobby, as toys if you will (responsibly) and frankly one of my greatest desires is that is how it will always be.

So in my best "Jerry" Here we go.

I have around 250 rounds or so down the pipe on this Hellcat Pro at this point. I have done a little carrying with it in a mock manner.

This was an impulse purchase simply because I am gun guy and didn't have one of this "smaller" stack and half guns. I also kind of wanted something to slot in roughly where my Walther PPS sat in use.

Now I knew from the start I didn't want a smaller Micro 9. For me I don't pocket carry semi autos as I feel they both scream GUN in shape and tend to be harder to draw then a revolver in this regard. I also have no real issue carrying something in the "Glock 19" realm so what I really wanted was thin more then tiny.

These are of course just my own personal views about one specific gun, so a data point but nothing to take to the bank so to speak.

SIZE
This thing is tiny. I mean people who haven't handled something like this Hellcat Pro or a SIG X Macro like to throw around that they are just Glock 19 or 17 sized now. They are not. They are thin, they are light and they feel NOTHING like standard compact of 10 years ago. This Hellcat Pro is actually within the margins of error of my Walther PPS with an 8 round magazine. It is actually closer to the seven round magazine size, yet holds 15 rounds. Its pretty damn amazing actually. All in the Hellcat is around 2 oz or so heavier. IWB its like carrying the Walther PPS. Its almost like not having a gun. YMMV of course since I am used to larger guns.

Walther PPS on the left.








RELIABILITY
This gun has not missed a beat. It's been 100% reliable with all ball and hollow point ammo I have fed it. The ejection pattern is extremely uniform. My current sample size of three magazines have all worked without issue. Something I want to point out that was a pleasant surprise is loading fully loaded magazines is a breeze. They seat easily on a closed slide without undue force needed at all. Functioning is smooth and there is no hint of cartridge drag due to too much upward pressure on the feed rail. I am extremely pleased with how this thing runs.

TRIGGER
The trigger is a common bitch point with the HellCat. Now I am an HK guy so obviously my thoughts on triggers are horribly flawed and shouldn't be taken seriously at all. That said is a decent mediocre Glock esque striker fired trigger. I've shot better, I've shot worse. The break, while a bit creepy, has a nice break once it gets there. Reset is super positive, tactile and audible. Overall I, personally, think its a great defensive trigger. Not too light or with too short of travel but certainly not a hindrance to decent shooting. Again I am HK guy at heart and the vast amount of my shooting is DA/SA etc. so where most folks complain about triggers all I can think is suck it up buttercup, shoot more. :P The point is I kind of like the trigger and with just a few rounds down range and fair bit of dry fire its already "cleaning up" a bit. Now this is, of course, no Walther PPQ/PDP trigger.....but what is?

RECOIL
Sigh, I made my thoughts known in the other thread. The gun is a 21 oz. thin 9mm. It shoots........like a 21 oz thin 9mm. Yes it has some muzzle flip. Yes it has more recoil then comparable Glock 19 or true double stack, no it is not some bucking bronco that will throw you to the range floor. With a modicum of shooting technique it shoots about like all the others in this class. Now as I have said I probably don't have the skill or talent to notice the nuances here and probably just can't eke out the benefits of some of the less "snappy" guns but the gun shoots fine for me.

MAGAZINES
I have found the magazines to be very nice. They have that Springfield/HS Produckt slick stainless finish that both ejects and loads so very smoothly. Loading them is fairly easy up to round 13. 14 and 15 are bit like the last round or two in a new Glock sub compact mag. I was able to hand load the mags but truth be told I did start using a mag loader for the last couple rounds because I think I am getting some arthritis in my loading thumb. Yeah yeah....get of my lawn. :P One thing I very much like is these are true 15 round mags. No extended floor plates, no gimmicks, just a nice flat floor plate mag that is easy to carry and easy to load into the pistol.

ACCURACY
First and foremost I am always hesitant to discuss accuracy as I have very little skill or natural talent. So anything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. That said I am generally happy with the accuracy of the gun with one caveat. It doesn't seem to like Speer Gold Dot. It runs them 100% reliably but doesn't seem to want to shoot them accurately. It does however run HST very accurately. I've never had a gun that would run one well but not the other. So That is a little strange to me.

Some examples of shooting below.




Here is an example of the Gold Dots. I figured I was just getting a little to aggressive or tired or something but even then I usually shoot a little better then this, however I certainly cannot say this isn't a more normal occurrence for me than I would like.


So I went out again today with some more Gold Dot and a box of HST. The Gold Dots absolutely shot less accurately then the HST's. All super reliable just the HST shoot better.



Also don't crucify me if I got my ring counts wrong. I always look at them as an approximate count as sometimes I miss one or miss mark one here or there. I am not shooting these for score or competition.

SIGHTS
The sights are good. They are a solid steel set with a tritium insert up front and a U in the rear. I thought I would like them more as I typically like U dot setups but something about these I don't like as much. They are fast on target and work well enough but lack in precision and I think I would prefer a brighter orange front sight. That said the front is likely muted a bit because lots of folks will run an optic. All in all the sights are good and work just fine and make a good defensive setup but they are not my favorite on this gun. One thing I hadn’t seen mentioned is the ring is a glow in the dark affair. The center is tritium but the surround can be hit with light and will glow.

CONTROLS
All the controls work very well. The mag release is damn near perfect for me.....well perfect in the best of the imperfect buttons. PADDLE MAG LIFE FOR EVER!!! Seriously though its good mag release works well, but fairly protected from accidental activation. The slide lock/release has a small fence around the bottom of it so you are not going knock it into slide lock on recoil, that does make it a little more tricky to manually lock the slide back. As a slide release it works really well for such an abbreviated piece.

SLIDE SERRATIONS
I have heard many folks complain they are too shallow but honestly have had no issues at all. They are cut in certain pattern (big then small then big so to speak) that they grab my fingers/hands just fine.

GRIP TEXTURE
Lots of folks rave about this new Springfield/HS Produckt grip texture. I don't see it. I mean its not useless and it doesn't suck by any means but its not some magical hand velcro that some folks have made it out to be. On a carry gun it works very well as it doesn't grab clothing nor is abrasive on on the skin. That said don't go into it thinking it will be some kind of magical magnet for shooting grip.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS
-The gun "feels" robust and well made.
-The feed ramp out of the box was one of the best I've ever seen on a gun. Like dremel and Flitz shiny.
-Slide rails are beefy
-The RSA is beefy affair too.
-Slide on my example is very smooth in operation
-I wish the mags or grip had more of a cut out to rip a mag out if necessary (double feed etc.) There is a SLIGHT bevel to grab on but I would like something more.
-It came with a test target. I geek out over stuff like this.

-The grip is absolutely a bit squared off and that may bother some folks. It was noticeable to me in dry fire but went away after having a few round down range.
-The gun is super easy to conceal IWB.
-While the gun is cut for optics and I like having that capability, I will likely not run an optic on this gun.

So there you have my completely professional unprofessional opinion of my new Angry Kitty.....errr Fire Pussy.....errr HellCat Pro. All in all I like it and I will probably carry it now and then but its not going to unseat my HK's as my primary.

As always take care, shoot safe and I do hope my long winded bloviating provides at least a grain of useful data for those looking for it.

Chris

It looks like a nice gun. I went all in on the 365 platform or I certainly would have given the HC a shot. Not being first definitely has its benefits. Skipping the whole “let’s combine optics plate with rear sight” phase is outstanding. I have a couple of those slides and HATE them. I purposely treat them rough hoping I ding them up enough that I actually have a reason to buy the newer replacement (sorta kidding).

I always have been drawn to those factory sights. I love big U rear notches. Not sure about the white outline but I bet I would like that fine. The Sig suffers from the muted front sight as well. The X Rays are way better than plain night sights but I want the front blade outline to POP. I almost routinely have to swap sights to get this.

I love how they seemed to get the extra 2 rounds that I had to pay MagGuts to get on my Sig.

Very nice gun. I’m sure I would be happy with it. (I do love that I can and do add manual safeties on the 365 though, makes me happier carrying appendix)

quote:

I do love that I can and do add manual safeties on the 365 though, makes me happier carrying appendix)

As I said not an appendix guy but one of the reasons I shied away from the SIG was lack of a trigger “dingus”. (It’s a ME thing not a P365 thing). I just FEEL better having that trigger safety in place. That and the fact that the P365XL was just a bit to small for me in terms of getting my support grip planted were my biggest practical detractors for me.

Now the X Macro……..I have to say I love that gun. Again want a “dingus” on the trigger but the X Macro is a pretty amazing evolution of the platform.

That whole early optics cover integrated sights thing was stupid. Both from a you lose your rear sight with an optic point of view and a (at least perceived) that plate can shake loose screwing up your POA/POI kind of way. Was very happy when they fixed that.

I just got a nice surprise. I filed for the rebate on 9/24/2023. I just got my range bag and mags today. 4 days.....cannot complain about that.

I also received 2 15 round mags and 1 17. Not sure if that is what they are doing now or if it was an oversight or whatever but it was a pleasant surprise as I expected 3 15 rounders.

All in all my product and service experience has been very good.

I'll give Springfield a little credit for a change.
They did a great job with the Hellcat. I have a Hellcat OSP and I'm impressed so far. It is a well made, well designed and reliable little pistol.
I had a chance to handle the Hellcat Pro at Sportsman's Warehouse a month or so back and really liked it. I was there to purchase a Glock 43x but I must say I was tempted after handling it.

That's a great review. Thank you for all of the detail, especially on the recoil.

My old standard Hellcat beat me to death. That's about the only knock on the series that anybody every offers. Otherwise, it has proven to be a solid pistol.

I've heard that the Pro's recoil is much less than the regular Hellcat, and I've been back and forth between this and a Shield Plus.

T too have the Hellcat OSP. Beware, the RomeoZero optic does not fit well with the standard screws. I had to shorten the "short" screws by about 45 thousands to make the optic fit tightly on the pistol.

The only iffy thing I've heard about it is
First time go buyers / shooters
Should learn and get somewhat proficient on another gun first,
Then move to a hellcat.

That came from a phone answerer at springfield.

A kid in my c.w.p.
Class had one.

He was a beginner and was
disenchanted with his abilities

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

In my opinion everybody should learn the fundamentals on a more forgiving platform in general before moving to any of the smaller concealed carry centric firearms whether they be a J frame, hellcat, P365 or Glock 26. The simple physics at play is smaller gun, lighter weight, faster slide velocity and truncated sight radius all require a solid understanding of shooting fundamentals or they will likely be an exercise in frustration to the uninitiated.

I think far too many folks decide one day to buy a gun and then buy an itty bitty gun and just assume they will pick it up be John Wick.

Now I sure as hell am not saying folks shouldn’t buy and shoot what they want and I of all people certainly don’t have the skill or knowledge to tell folks what to do but I do think one should learn to walk before running

As for another quick update. I am really happy with this little guy. I have done a little daily carry with it and it carry’s wonderfully and is amazingly comfortable in a Vedder light tuck while still having enough real estate to grab for a positive draw stroke.

As I have said, it’s a 21 oz super thin smallish 9mm and shoots like one no more no less. The trigger is really cleaning up from shooting and dry fire and my biggest “issue” right now is sometimes I seem to point a little low on a draw, could be me grabbing as high as I can and driving it down a tad.

All in all I think it a solid carry gun that really could flex into other roles. I wouldn’t recommend it to somebody as an “ONLY GUN” but one could do a lot worse in this sense.

Great review. Thank. Glad you are happy with it.

PADDLE MAG LIFE FOREVER! Couldn’t agree more.

IMO you are doing just fine in the Accuracy department, those groups will do the job quite well. Fact is that we all get old sooner or later and to a near 70 year old that group looks just fine to me.

Very nice review sir. Thank you.

Another quick update.

I now have around 400-450 rounds through it.

-Absolutely no issues. No false lock backs, no failures to lock back, no slide sluggishness or FTRB’s due to any hand or finger placement, no failures of any kind with any ammo I have tried through both 15 and 17 round mags.

-The gun is accurate. It does however require more support grip than I am typically used to. When I have my grip down I will put 40 or more rounds of a box of ammo through a fist or smaller hole at 10-12 yards.

-The gun carry’s AMAZINGLY well in a Vedder light tuck. It really is like carrying a Walther PPS.

-Draw from the holster the sights come right up for me. The sights themselves definitely lend themselves more towards close in SD than precision at least for me.

-The trigger gets better with use but absolutely has some creep before the break. It’s not a target trigger, but I don’t want a target trigger on my defensive guns. I want a little weight and travel so I like the trigger for my use case.

-Gun is showing very little wear. Very little barrel and barrel hood wear and no finish wear from coming in and out of kydex. Obviously we are only talking under 500 rounds but I’ve certainly had very good guns show more wear early on. Mags show almost no wear at all beyond the typical follower wear most plastic followers exhibit.

All in all I am really happy with this little guy. I could do with a more rounded grip, I would probably prefer different sights but really beyond nitpicking this is a really good little gun that may be one of best guns I’ve ever owned in terms of versatility as while it carry’s phenomenally it also has a full grip, great capacity, an optics cut and can mount most popular lights so it could easily flex into a bedside / “repel boarders” role as well.

I THINK HS Produkt has made a pretty darn good durable little pistol IMO.

Take care, shoot safe
Chris