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Some time ago I wrote here my first impressions and first few shots review of the Springfield Prodigy and I'm back here today to give you guys some more information.
A quick disclaimer before you go through this, we are talking about a sample of 1 pistol here and my serial number is in the 22XXX range.
From a quick research I did, there is no correlation between serial number and issues because I have seen lower serial numbers than mine having issues as well as higher serial numbers having issues, which tells me it is just a lack of QA/QC from Springfield Armory. Now that this is said, let's start.
Why did I buy this pistol?
As a "new-ish" gun owner, my initial idea was to have a big collection, so, I started from the bottom, buying the "cheap" stuff. Glocks, P-series Sigs, Taurus, etc… After a few years I realized that I like shooting more than collecting and decided to invest in more "quality" firearms or just something that is above the $500-$600 that I was used to pay for my stuff and I was set on getting a Staccato P that could be used for competition (side note, I just got into it, having participated on my second match yesterday.) and could also be carried once in a while if I wanted. That's when I heard about Springfield releasing the Prodigy and saw the MSRP on them which looked better than the $2500+ for a Staccato so now I only had to wait for the reviews on it to make my final decision.
I don't think I need to get into the details on the overall reviews throughout the whole internet but if I needed to summarize I could say that
With all that in mind, I decided to take the risk. I have always worked on all my guns and had success with that so I knew that in case my Prodigy was a complete failure, I could make it better or just send it back to Springfield and have them fix the issues.
With that mentality, I still can't figure the people that after seeing all reviews and knowing the kind of issues they can have, still buy the gun expecting it to run flawlessly and when it doesn't they bubblegum about it on the internet saying that a $1500 gun should be perfect out of the box. It's like buying a Charles Daly M4 clone and hoping it runs like a Benelli… People like that forget that this is not a $1500 Glock. This is $1500 for a gun on a platform that kind of started at the $2000+ range until September last year and that no company dared to try to make it "affordable" until now.
Anyways, enough of that. Now you know why I decided to get this so here goes my experience with it through 750+ rounds.
First few days:
So, I got the gun for significantly less than retail, but brand new. I have a post explaining how to do that. You can search it on the forum. Upon getting the gun, I got home and couldn't leave it alone. I spent hours "playing" with it. Racking the slide, dry firing, cleaning, lubing, etc…
-The grip texture is fantastic, in my opinion. If you have a Hellcat, I believe it is very similar to that.
-The finish on the gun is nice. Granted, it is cerakote and not DLC, hence the price point, but I find it ok. So far, 750+ rounds in, holstering and unholstering, I can't see any bad scratches or wear on it.
-The sights are great. I'm suspicious to talk about them because I love the blacked out rear/fiber optic front. I have it in most of my guns.
-All controls work just fine. The only thing that is not optimal is the slide release. I have average sized hands and can't get to it to send the slide home on reloads.
Ok, ok, not everything was great, so…
Below are the "issues" encountered:
So those are issues I identified before firing the gun, and decided to "fix" them before heading to the range and my fixes were:
RANGE TIME!
Took the gun to the range along with 300 rounds of ammo to see how it would run. Ammo was mostly 115gr with some 124gr as well. Gun went through the 200 rounds without any issues whatsoever (or that's why I thought… more to this later)
For the mags, I'm using the Springfield 17/20/26 round mags as well as a couple of 17 round Staccato mags. Didn't notice any difference between them. Glad I only payed $55 for each staccato mag…
Got back home and went to clean the gun, and that is when I noticed the only issue I had during this range trip. Once I started field stripping it, I noticed my sight plate was loose. The screws backed out about 1/3 and I'm sure that if I continued shooting they would fall off and so would the plate. I did notice some loss of accuracy on my last few rounds but thought it could be just me. As I was already planning on adding a dot to the gun, I just removed the plate and proceeded to install the Optic plate and the dot that in this case was a Viridian RFX25 (I can give my opinion on this one as well on a separate post if requested.)
This was one of the dots that fit the plate that comes with the gun and I decided to give it a try.
Gun ran fine but It could be upgraded. I usually film myself shooting so I can see the gun from a "third person" perspective. I noticed it nose diving when returning to battery and decided to install a lighter recoil spring. Stock is a 12lbs if I'm not wrong. I went with 10lbs.
I also decided to put a 17lbs hammer spring. I believe stock is 19lbs.
When changing the recoil spring and after many times field stripping it several times I was also done with the 2-piece guide rod so I replaced it with an Atlas Toolless guide rod. What a difference!
RANGE TIME - SECOND TURN
I signed up for a pistol match at DRRC and decided it would be a good idea to test the gun before going to the match with the new parts installed. I packed 200 rounds and off to the range. Sighted in the dot and did a few mag dumps to get the gun hot and make sure the optics plate was not coming off as well as springs were making the gun function fine, and it was all good.
MATCH TIME!
Went for Practical Pistol at DRRC last Saturday. Second match ever and first with the Prodigy. Gun ram flawlessly and I think it shot amazing. First match I shot my Glock 34 with aftermarket everything, other than frame, and 3lbs Timney Trigger and I can tell for sure that I like the prodigy way more.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Would I recommend this gun to everybody? The short answer is: NO!
If you are not moderately into guns, this is not a gun for you. It can run well but it can be bubblegumty and need work. If you are an average gun enthusiast that buys a gun expecting it to run flawlessly out of the box , this is NOT the gun for you. If you don't like to adventure into a little gunsmithing once in a while, this is NOT the gun for you.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a double stack 1911 or "2011", this is a SOLID choice. One important thing in this platform is the fitment between all parts and you find that on the Prodigy. In case it does not run well, you can on 90% of the time, fix it yourself with easy to find tools and if nothing works, Springfield will work on it for free. If you decide to take it a step further, it accepts the same parts as a Staccato P for example and that are many Prodigies out there running better than Staccatos for much less money. Check the DSX conversion from DSC Gunworks for example…
Anyways, this is a long review but I have not seen many here on NW Firearms about the Prodigy and I'm contributing with my experience. If you make it to the end, kudos to you! I'm open to your feedback and perhaps your experience with it and would be more than happy to even meet up and tinker with another one if it's running rough.
A quick disclaimer before you go through this, we are talking about a sample of 1 pistol here and my serial number is in the 22XXX range.
From a quick research I did, there is no correlation between serial number and issues because I have seen lower serial numbers than mine having issues as well as higher serial numbers having issues, which tells me it is just a lack of QA/QC from Springfield Armory. Now that this is said, let's start.
Why did I buy this pistol?
As a "new-ish" gun owner, my initial idea was to have a big collection, so, I started from the bottom, buying the "cheap" stuff. Glocks, P-series Sigs, Taurus, etc… After a few years I realized that I like shooting more than collecting and decided to invest in more "quality" firearms or just something that is above the $500-$600 that I was used to pay for my stuff and I was set on getting a Staccato P that could be used for competition (side note, I just got into it, having participated on my second match yesterday.) and could also be carried once in a while if I wanted. That's when I heard about Springfield releasing the Prodigy and saw the MSRP on them which looked better than the $2500+ for a Staccato so now I only had to wait for the reviews on it to make my final decision.
I don't think I need to get into the details on the overall reviews throughout the whole internet but if I needed to summarize I could say that
- Everybody agreed that fitment was very good on the Prodigy, be it slide to frame or barrel to slide.
- MIM Internal parts were a downside
- They were having issues but it didn't have a pattern. You could either be lucky or the gun would suck.
With all that in mind, I decided to take the risk. I have always worked on all my guns and had success with that so I knew that in case my Prodigy was a complete failure, I could make it better or just send it back to Springfield and have them fix the issues.
With that mentality, I still can't figure the people that after seeing all reviews and knowing the kind of issues they can have, still buy the gun expecting it to run flawlessly and when it doesn't they bubblegum about it on the internet saying that a $1500 gun should be perfect out of the box. It's like buying a Charles Daly M4 clone and hoping it runs like a Benelli… People like that forget that this is not a $1500 Glock. This is $1500 for a gun on a platform that kind of started at the $2000+ range until September last year and that no company dared to try to make it "affordable" until now.
Anyways, enough of that. Now you know why I decided to get this so here goes my experience with it through 750+ rounds.
First few days:
So, I got the gun for significantly less than retail, but brand new. I have a post explaining how to do that. You can search it on the forum. Upon getting the gun, I got home and couldn't leave it alone. I spent hours "playing" with it. Racking the slide, dry firing, cleaning, lubing, etc…
-The grip texture is fantastic, in my opinion. If you have a Hellcat, I believe it is very similar to that.
-The finish on the gun is nice. Granted, it is cerakote and not DLC, hence the price point, but I find it ok. So far, 750+ rounds in, holstering and unholstering, I can't see any bad scratches or wear on it.
-The sights are great. I'm suspicious to talk about them because I love the blacked out rear/fiber optic front. I have it in most of my guns.
-All controls work just fine. The only thing that is not optimal is the slide release. I have average sized hands and can't get to it to send the slide home on reloads.
Ok, ok, not everything was great, so…
Below are the "issues" encountered:
- The rails have a thick layer of cerakote that makes it a little rough at the beginning.
- The disconnector drags on the slide (or vice versa) really bad, to the point that many times it would cause the slide to be held in the "locked" position even without the slide lock/release engaged.
- The trigger was HEAVY and didn't feel good. It was close to 6lbs and the reset was quite long.
So those are issues I identified before firing the gun, and decided to "fix" them before heading to the range and my fixes were:
- The cerakote wears off as you play with the gun, dry firing and racking the slide and I could notice it getting smoother and smoother every time I cleaned the gunk from cerakote and lubed it again.
- I disassembled the gun and dragged the disconnector on a 800-1000 grit sand paper, following the shape of the disconnector head, testing it every few passes until the slide hang was almost gone. After that I oiled the disconnector head and racked the slide a few more times and done. Smooth AF
- I tuned the sear spring. Took me 30 minutes and a few tries that caused some hammer follow or dead trigger until I achieved a clean, crisp and consistent 2.85lbs pull. As for the reset, I tightened the set screw on the trigger until I couldn't fire the gun, then I backed it out about 1/4 of a turn or a bit more and now the reset is short enough for my liking.
RANGE TIME!
Took the gun to the range along with 300 rounds of ammo to see how it would run. Ammo was mostly 115gr with some 124gr as well. Gun went through the 200 rounds without any issues whatsoever (or that's why I thought… more to this later)
For the mags, I'm using the Springfield 17/20/26 round mags as well as a couple of 17 round Staccato mags. Didn't notice any difference between them. Glad I only payed $55 for each staccato mag…
Got back home and went to clean the gun, and that is when I noticed the only issue I had during this range trip. Once I started field stripping it, I noticed my sight plate was loose. The screws backed out about 1/3 and I'm sure that if I continued shooting they would fall off and so would the plate. I did notice some loss of accuracy on my last few rounds but thought it could be just me. As I was already planning on adding a dot to the gun, I just removed the plate and proceeded to install the Optic plate and the dot that in this case was a Viridian RFX25 (I can give my opinion on this one as well on a separate post if requested.)
This was one of the dots that fit the plate that comes with the gun and I decided to give it a try.
Gun ran fine but It could be upgraded. I usually film myself shooting so I can see the gun from a "third person" perspective. I noticed it nose diving when returning to battery and decided to install a lighter recoil spring. Stock is a 12lbs if I'm not wrong. I went with 10lbs.
I also decided to put a 17lbs hammer spring. I believe stock is 19lbs.
When changing the recoil spring and after many times field stripping it several times I was also done with the 2-piece guide rod so I replaced it with an Atlas Toolless guide rod. What a difference!
RANGE TIME - SECOND TURN
I signed up for a pistol match at DRRC and decided it would be a good idea to test the gun before going to the match with the new parts installed. I packed 200 rounds and off to the range. Sighted in the dot and did a few mag dumps to get the gun hot and make sure the optics plate was not coming off as well as springs were making the gun function fine, and it was all good.
MATCH TIME!
Went for Practical Pistol at DRRC last Saturday. Second match ever and first with the Prodigy. Gun ram flawlessly and I think it shot amazing. First match I shot my Glock 34 with aftermarket everything, other than frame, and 3lbs Timney Trigger and I can tell for sure that I like the prodigy way more.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Would I recommend this gun to everybody? The short answer is: NO!
If you are not moderately into guns, this is not a gun for you. It can run well but it can be bubblegumty and need work. If you are an average gun enthusiast that buys a gun expecting it to run flawlessly out of the box , this is NOT the gun for you. If you don't like to adventure into a little gunsmithing once in a while, this is NOT the gun for you.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a double stack 1911 or "2011", this is a SOLID choice. One important thing in this platform is the fitment between all parts and you find that on the Prodigy. In case it does not run well, you can on 90% of the time, fix it yourself with easy to find tools and if nothing works, Springfield will work on it for free. If you decide to take it a step further, it accepts the same parts as a Staccato P for example and that are many Prodigies out there running better than Staccatos for much less money. Check the DSX conversion from DSC Gunworks for example…
Anyways, this is a long review but I have not seen many here on NW Firearms about the Prodigy and I'm contributing with my experience. If you make it to the end, kudos to you! I'm open to your feedback and perhaps your experience with it and would be more than happy to even meet up and tinker with another one if it's running rough.
