New Springfield Armory Prodigy 3.5″ Hybrid DS 1911 Gun Review

The Springfield Armory Prodigy. Double stack 1911, three and a half inch barrel, full length grip. Let’s check it out. (Available Here)

The 1911 is legendary status, serving the U.S. military from 1911 to 1985, and served extremely well with 45 ACP. Springfield Armory has been making 1911s for many years, very high quality, forged barrel, forged receivers, and there’s a lot of different configurations. In 2022, Springfield Armory introduced the Prodigy.

It was a double stack 1911, and one thing about double stack 1911s, it gives you all the controls of your 1911, but yet it has a high round capacity, up to 20 rounds. Now they have made a compact version as well, but today we’re taking a look at their new Prodigy 3.5 Hybrid. This has a 3.5 inch barrel, and then it has a full length slide, kind of the X Factor.

This gives you 18 rounds of nine millimeter in a very tried and true package, and the leverage of the longer grip, it makes it really a pleasure to shoot. Now they do make other models, compensated, their compact models, their FDE model, and so it’s just great to see Springfield adding to their Prodigy line. And a big thanks to Springfield Armory for sending the Prodigy and 3.5 Hybrid for this review.

All right guys, the Prodigy from Springfield Armory, and this is the 3.5 inch barrel. It’s what they’re actually calling the Hybrid. Full length grip, a three and a half inch barrel, so it’s really compact at the front, more like your G19X or G45.

It gets into that configuration. I personally like that. Of course, Springfield Armory has their full size, which is a five inch barrel, bull barrel, and then you have your full length grip.

So you have the same grip as the full size model. But then they offered their compact version, and this is in the 3.5 inch barrel, but they do make a 4.25 inch barrel, which is more of your commander length, so you have a couple of options. But this has a shortened grip, so we have 15 rounds with this.

But again, we have 18 rounds with the new Prodigy. Now this one has the Metgar mags, which I thought was really interesting. I knew Metgar was working on some double stack 1911 mags.

Metgar makes magazines for a number of different companies. They’re the OEM manufacturer, and they’re made in Italy, and you do get two mags with the handgun. And then, of course, we’ll check to make sure the gun’s empty, and it is.

Now one thing about your double stack 1911s or 2011 handguns is typically the slide is really easy to pull back. In fact, here on the full size Prodigy, very smooth, very easy to pull back. But when you get to these smaller, more compact double stack 1911s, you lose some of that because the recoil spring is a little bit tighter.

It’s a little bit different recoil spring. Still very smooth, but a little bit more force to pull it back. And, you know, we’ve seen that in a lot of them.

Now I’m a big fan of the 2011 or double stack 1911, because it really brings the 1911 to the 21st century. Because the standard 1911 was seven to eight rounds, and it was a single stack mag. And so this has really changed the game, and this polymer frame.

And it’s one of the things that we started seeing with the double stack 1911. So it really lessens the weight, and yet, like with this grip, I mean, it is textured all the way around, except where your finger goes under the trigger guard. And it does have an undercut, so this is just going to make it a little bit easier to shoot.

And it’s double undercut, so your natural point of aim is not affected. Now these have forged slides and forged barrels, and that’s just going to extend the life of the gun and the accuracy. It’s one of the things that Springfield Armor has been really big about.

Now this does have an aluminum frame, so it’s going to give it less weight. With the full size, it’s all steel, so it’s a fairly heavy handgun. But this gives us another option for concealed carry.

And to be honest, I really like the compact model. That little bit shorter grip, you’re still going with 15 rounds. But a lot of guys like the leverage of the full size grip, and especially if you have bigger hands.

And so this allows you to get a good solid grip. It does have the ambidextrous frame safeties, and the hammer has been re-contoured to make it smaller and re-contoured beavertail, or your grip safety, with a memory notch. We have slide serrations front and back.

We do have a Picatinny rail. Front sight is a tritium sight. And then here at the rear, we have serrated back sight.

And it does stand up pretty decently. And it is optics ready. And this has the agency optic system, or AOS.

And this is a really good secure system. In fact, we’ll look at some of the plates, and we’ll check this out. A lot of times, I like to shoot handguns as they come.

But red dots have become huge. In fact, very few gun companies are not making their handguns non-optics ready. But if you don’t like optics, you still can go with the standard sights.

And with the tritium sight at the front, with that white outline, this really lines up extremely well. And it makes that contrast of that black serrated sight very easy to pick up that front dot. Now, this has your standard ejector, which is fitted.

And while we’re at the range, just spoiler alert, this just performed extremely well. No malfunctions, no problems whatsoever. But typically with Springfield Armory, that’s what we expect.

And you see it does have a little bit of a cut here, but of course it is abbreviated. And the barrel is a bull barrel. And it fits right up to the slide.

It is stainless steel. And then it has, of course, a black nitride finish on it. And then the finishing on the gun itself is very well done.

It’s subdued, it’s satin, but it has a really nice look to it. And I’ll tell you, that grip is just solid. The magazine does stick out just a touch on the end.

And that’s with the Metgar. But it gives you those 18 rounds. And I believe the original Prodigy started out with 17 rounds.

And then you got a 20 round magazine as well. Now it is a nine millimeter, which has eclipsed in popularity over the .45 ACP, which was the traditional round. And two, that gives you a lot more round capacity.

Typically with a full size double stack 1911, you’ll have about a 13 round mag capacity. As far as the mag well, the mag’s tapered and it really goes in. There’s not a lot of beveling, but honestly you don’t really need it.

And you’ll see this small lip that comes out that just allows you to lock your hand in. Gives you just a better grip. And sometimes I like to put my thumb over the safety to really mitigate the recoil as well.

But guys, overall, this is a 1911 that has a polymer grip shell that just gives it more round capacity. And with a grip safety, it gives you an extra bonus of safety. Now, one of the things about it, it’s more redundant and a lot of people really don’t like a grip safety because they feel like it’s something that can fail.

But with this little bump, which is a memory notch, it allows it to even go in quicker. Now with it down, you can fire it. But when that is not depressed, you can’t fire the handgun, even with the safety on the off position.

But when we bring it down and we engage our frame safety, it’s a passive safety. And so that allows you to be able to fire. These are single action, so one in the tube and then your mag full is what we like to call cocked and locked.

And really the way that I recommend you carry. But with that grip safety, it just gives you an added measure of safety, especially when you’re putting your firearm in a holster. And here on your cover plate, you do have a dovetail option.

So this site can be removed for a different site if you don’t want to go with the serrations. Now there are a number of plates available in the AOS system. In fact, the RMR, RMSC, Delta Point Pro, Aimpoint, Acro, and your Holosun 509.

So it has a lot of options and the site is included on the back of the plate. Now with the agency arms plates, we do have this raised area right here that keys into the optic adapter plate. And then you’ll notice that there’s a angle cut here, so you bring it in and this just gives it a more secure fit and it’ll keep your optic really stable.

And so again, you can have different optics plates and agency arms does a great job. And they actually had these on a lot of their 1911s as well. All right guys, big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo.

All made in the USA, one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. Also a big help is the Lula loader, the Mag Lula. We use these on every range trip.

Springfield Armory Prodigy. This is the 3.5 inch hybrid. Now it has that really short barrel, full-length slot.

You don’t have your mag well, so the mags actually hang out just a touch, but you still have that full capacity of 18 plus one. I’ll tell you the Prodigy has been one of those that’s just solid. The texturing on here, it’s just really aggressive yet it’s not too aggressive.

It fits in your hand well. The slight serrations, easy to grab, front and rear serrations. And we have a picatinny rail at the front and the sights a little bit higher to be able to see those sites immediately.

And of course it is optics ready. Now they did come with two magazines and these are actually from Metgar. Metgar’s been making 2011 style magazines and it’s great because Metgar makes really great mags.

One thing about this handgun though is with that short barrel, I was concerned there may be a little bit of extra muzzle rise, but it’s a lot like the G19X where it has that full-length grip and then that short slide and the recoil system set up to where it’s very soft shooting. There’s very little muzzle rise with this thing. I love the way this shoots.

And with a red dot, it doesn’t matter about your line of sight. It doesn’t matter about the length. It just gives you really good accuracy.

And, but yet even without these sights show up extremely well. I like the nice undercut right here. So it just fits in.

You can actually rest your thumb on this extended safety. This is just a nice carry piece for 2011 style or double stack 1911. You can’t even hardly miss with this thing.

I’m telling you the Prodigy line has been really well received. And with this new model, I mean, they’re just giving you more options and that’s the beautiful thing. But again, if you’re going to carry a 2011 style or double stack 1911, this would be one to take a look at.

And now for disassembly, you want to drop your magazine, go ahead and check to make sure the gun’s unloaded. We’re going to bring our slide back and there’s a little notch in your slide and you want to bring it back to the end of your slide stop. Then here on the other side, we’re just going to push it through.

And because of the double stack 1911 slide and frame, it’s a little bit thicker. So sometimes I need a little help. We pull that right out.

Now let your slide move forward. Just put your thumb over your recoil spring and guide rod. It’s not going to come loose, but just for good measure.

Now we have a two piece guide rod and you have two separate springs. And so we’re going to want to push this up and then bring it out. It can be a little tricky to bring out.

There we go. And now we have this spring comes off. And of course, this is part of what makes this shoot as flat as it does.

And then we have a small bushing right here that’s in the dust cover. And then we bring our barrel link down and we bring our barrel right out. And again, bull barrel, cold hammer forged, it is stainless steel, has a really nice crown that’s going to preserve your accuracy.

And it’s those kinds of things that Springfield Armory does very well. And then we have our aluminum frame here, subframe, and then we have the polymer grip shell, but standard 1911 in design. Now for reassembly, we’re going to take our barrel, put it back in.

Next we’re going to take our little bushing, put it in, and then we bring in our spring and recoil spring. Now this short recoil spring can be a little bit of a bear to get back in as well. And you’ve got to get past those barrel lug.

There we go. Right in there. One thing you try to do is hold your barrel into place because if it moves up a little bit, it can be a little tricky.

Now we’re right in place. Bring your barrel link down, bring it back over your slide. Now go ahead and look for the barrel link and put my slide stop through.

And then I’m going to line up that second little notch. Then we lift it up, bring it into place. And there’s a small detent you got to defeat.

There we go. And it goes right in. Test for function.

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Now this comes with the traditional Springfield Armory box and you do get a really nice case. And we have our handgun. You have a little pouch here to put in a spare magazine.

You could actually put two in here. But I like when they’re offering the cases, it’s much better than just the box. And of course you get your owner’s manual and you get your lock.

Now when it comes to the adapter plates, you do get one free with the handgun. But again, there’s a lot of different options. MSRP, $15.82. And of course, market, when you go into a different shop, it could be less.

What are some pros and cons? Well, you’ve got your Metgar mags, which I think is a big pro. And you have 18 rounds, full length grip, short slide, short barrel, bull barrel, forged slide, forged barrel. And that’s going to give it extended life.

And I love the crown barrel as well. Excellent lockup. It is optics ready and it is with the AOS system, which has been proven and Agency Arms does a great job.

You get one adapter plate. Sights, very well done. You can change this rear sight out if you want, but has the serrations and then you have your tritium sight.

Re-contoured hammer and beaver tail, and then the full texturing on the grip. But one thing about this configuration is that you do have the leverage of that full length grip. And then you have that shorter slide and honestly, it shoots extremely well.

You have less mass coming back and you have a stronger recoil spring system. So while you’d think that maybe a shorter barrel may give you more muzzle flip, this actually shoots extremely well. And it’s really a good lineup with the existing prodigies that are out there.

Full size. And then you go with a compact, which has a little bit shorter grip, FD, you get ported, and I’m sure we’ll see others to come. And you have the Springfield Armory name behind it.

Now, what are some cons? One con is with disassembly is getting that recoil spring back in. It is a little tough and you have to get it just right to fit it, but it is very effective. Another con is your adapter plates.

If you want different ones, you’re going to have to switch those out, but that’s with a lot of different companies. But other than that, I mean, this is a solid performer. If you want a competition gun, you want to go more toward a full size, but if you want something to carry or something just a little bit lighter, this is going to be an excellent option.

And with the aluminum, it just brings the weight down with the polymer grip shell. And guys, the 2011 styles, I mean, really for the price point, this is really in line. There are some extremely expensive double stack 1911s out there, and then there are the budget lines.

And sometimes the budget lines, they just don’t have the refinements. So really, this could be an entry level double stack 1911. And yet you’ve got that Springfield Armory quality, which has had years of experience with your standard 1911 design.

So guys, if you’re looking for a more compact option and you love that double stack 1911, the Springfield Armory Prodigy, whether it’s their compact model or their new hybrid model with the longer grip, it just gives you more round capacity. And yet with that shorter barrel, it’s just easier to conceal. And guys, this is one setup that I really love.

I think that leverage of the grip really mates well with that shorter recoil system and shorter slide. And again, those Metgar mags, I mean, they’re very reliable and round capacity is a big deal. And yet you still have a fairly small package.

And a big thank you to Springfield Armory for sending the Prodigy double stack 1911 3.5 inch barrel hybrid. This is a really cool option.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don