A little over three years back, I reviewed the then-new XDm in 10mm, and found it to be an excellent handgun. However, this review isn’t a rehash of that pistol. This review is an updated version of the XDm Elite, as well as the brand-new Black Hills Ammunition 10mm round that isn’t even yet on the market.
My original 10mm handgun was a full-sized Colt Delta Elite, in stainless steel, and I liked it a lot. However, in short order, the gun shot loose. We had also just moved back to Oregon in 1988, and I was in a recent (back then) auto accident and was recovering at home. My only source of income was a weekly disability check of $125 – ugh! We also needed some extra income, so I sold that Delta Elite. I still miss it – it could have been rebuilt.
Jeff Hoffman, who owns Black Hills Ammunition, along with his wife Kristi, were exchanging e-mails not long ago, and he told me that they just developed a new 10mm round, and he wanted to send me some for testing. So I contacted Springfield Armory. and requested the loan of one of their XDm Elite pistols. Jeff developed a new and hot 10mm round. It has a 115-gr HoneyBadger bullet and it is moving along at about 1,665-feet per second. We are talking a bullet that is screaming hot. In short order, I received a 500-round case of this new ammo. As a matter of fact, I got the ammo before I received the XDm Elite from Springfield Armory.
About The Pistol
I don’t usually do articles that test two products. In fact, I try to avoid that whenever possible. I don’t like comparing one product to another. However, this new 10mm round from Black Hills called for a new round of testing, and a new handgun to use with this ammunition. You can read my initial review of the XDm 10mm pistol in the archives on SurvivalBlog.com for a complete rundown. The improved version has several changes. For one, the trigger pull is much nicer. It broke a 4.5-lbs and it might just be the best trigger pull on any striker-fire handgun.
One major improvement is the widened magazine well that is also slightly extended. This allows use of 16-round magazines instead of only a 15 round magazines. You can remove that, and use the 15-round magazines – it comes with two – and replace the extended magazine floor plate – it comes with two, if you want the gun to be a little more concealable. However, no matter how you look at it, with the 4.5-inch barrel the gun is big! I prefer to use the 16-round magazines, since I don’t see myself concealing this gun – I have many other guns that fill that need. However, for an End Of The World pistol, it would be carried openly in a thigh holster or on my belt. I have holsters from several different makers that fit this bill.
This new XDm Elite version can be had with or without a HEX electronic red dot sight on the slide. I received a sample with the red dot already attached. If you don’t like it, you can always remove it – just two screws, and it is off. It also has a fiber optic red front sight, and a rear sight that has a (white) “U” instead of two white dots. With the Red Dot sight attached, you can’t co-witness the sights through the Hex red dot. This particular red dot from Springfield, has an on/off button. When you press it once, it turns on and will stay on for 16 hours. After that, it turns off automatically. Press the button three times in a row and it turns the sight off.
There is also an ambidextrous slide release/stop – I like that a lot. There is a full-time ambidextrous magazine release, too – very easy to use. The black frame is polymer, and has all the checkering in all the right places, so you can get a great hold on the gun.
About The Ammo
The brand-new 10mm HoneyBadger ammo from Black Hills is really something else. I was expecting a round a lot heavier. However, with that fluted all-copper HoneyBadger ammo, coming in at only 115-grs, the gun is really a pleasure to shoot. I was expecting some punishing recoil, but that didn’t happen. If you will look at the picture, with two HoneyBadger rounds, one is a 9mm and the other is the new 10mm – you will see that the 10mm round is a lot bigger than the 9mm round. Black Hills was producing two different 9mm rounds – one was a lighter +P round, and the other a lighter subsonic round. Both rounds were performing the same, so Black Hills did away with the heavier bullet and they are now only producing the subsonic round.
For those new to the HoneyBadger bullet, it is a completely solid bullet, machined out of all-copper. It has several advantages over JHP bullets. It actually outperforms the JHP a bit, it isn’t bothered by window glass or other obstructions – it just keeps on going and expends all its remaining energy on the target – and it produces a permanent round cavity – not just a temporary one, like JHP bullets do. It is a devastating round and sure to put the bad guys down, fast!
Another advantage is that the all-copper bullets don’t lead your barrel – so you will spend less time cleaning your gun. I certainly like less time spent on cleaning my guns in my old age. One other advantage is that, the tip of the bullet is flat, and it feeds in any guns I’ve used this ammo on – that is 9mm, .380 ACP, and even .45 ACP – the rounds feed just like FMJ bullets do.
The Covid virus is still raging all over the world – don’t believe what the “news” tells you, and we avoid being around people – period! I haven’t been in any stores in more than 2.5 years now. I’m at risk, because of my blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and being overweight. My wife does the shopping, while I sit in my truck. Also, we do a lot of shopping on-line – and have groceries delivered to our front door. And, with today’s gas prices, it sure saves us a lot of money at the pump, too. I’m a very private person, and don’t have many folks coming for a visit – they understand how I am. When I do get away from my property, it is for things like gun tests, away from population.
My Tests
For this article, I only tested the improved Springfield XDm Elite with the 4.5-inch barrel, and the Black Hills 115-gr HoneyBadger ammo. I’ve run a lot of other brands of ammo through my original XDm and no need to test those same rounds through this gun.
Now, as I recall the original XDm in 10mm was super-accurate, and I wasn’t expecting anything less from this current model. I believe that the original XDm was, at the time, probably the most accurate handgun I ever fired. Some things have changed over the years, and I’ve tested many other handguns, and some of them were even more accurate – they were 1911s of different types. Still, I expected big things from this new XDm and this brand-new Black Hills 10mm ammo.
I headed to my usual shooting spot, up in the Cascade Mountains – I don’t get up there as much as I’d like – I do a lot of shooting on my small home range. I sent up some targets at 25-yards, more than a fair distance I believe for most self-defense situations. I had a good supply of the 16-rd magazines from Springfield on-hand, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time loading up the mags. I will say that, these magazines have some really stiff springs, and I needed to use my Uplula mag loader. However, after doing a lot of shooting, the magazines were getting easier to load to capacity.
The HEX red dot that came on the XDm was already zeroed for 25-yards – excellent – no adjustments were needed for windage or elevation. My first shot was off by several inches – to the left. That was not the gun – it was all me. I was anticipating a lot of recoil – it wasn’t there. To be honest, it was like shooting a 1911 with some +P loads up the tube. A very pleasant surprise.
After I stopped flinching, all the rounds were dead-on on the target. I had the gun rested on a sleeping bag, over the hood of my Dodge Ram pick-up, so I could wring the most out of my range session – and I did several range sessions over several days. In all my shooting, I burned through 400+ rounds of the new HoneyBadger 10mm ammo – wish I hadn’t used up that much, but this gun is just plain fun to shoot. I only used the Black Hills 10mm HoneyBadger ammo. This was from the very first run that Black Hills produced.
Once I got used to the gun – all guns handle differently – I was getting groups well under 2-inches – some groups were actually down there at 1.75-inches – that is, if I was doing my part – and that wasn’t all the time. I can’t ask for better results than that.
I don’t usually make predictions, however in this case. I believe that this Springfield Armory XDm Elite stoked with the Black Hills 115-gr HoneyBadger ammo might just be the most effective self-defense round to be had. It is a man-stopper. Now, if I were in big bear country, then I’d have this gun loaded with some heavier 10mm rounds – something non-expanding, and that will provide some deep penetration – and will smash through heavy muscle and crush bones. That makes me want to move back up to Alaska.
One last word – a lot of ammo makers are back to producing 10mm ammo – and many of them have “light” loads, as well as hunting loads. The bad news is, 10mm ammo is hard to find – and very expensive – so, shop around. I phoned every gun shop and big and small box stores within 50 miles of where I live – no one had any type of 10mm ammo – so it was mailorder only – at least for now.
JWR Adds: I’ve found that Ammoseek.com is a good place to search for the best prices and availability.