Handled one for the first time last week while on vacation.  I'll be interested to see if the price comes down some after the new-gun-hype wears off.

I would think in a few months you should be able to pick one up for south of $500. I would think around $479, give or take within  the next few months. I think guys looking for the micro-sub compact 9's will be taking these home.  I may add one later but for now I am in no hurry as the P365 scratched the micro 9 itch for me.

Won a revolver I didn't want, small shop gave me credit so I stopped today. The hellcat kinda cought my eye so I'm out 100bux. Havent shot it yet but feels decent

^^^^We demand a range report. These really have me intrigued.

I have an OSP on order. $493 shipped. Also have the RMSc on backorder for $393 shipped. Still expensive for what it is but Im not paying the super high price for the influencer pistols.

Well bow hunting ends today so I may go shoot tomorrow

They have been under $500 from day 1 from a dozen online retailers. You can get one for $467 + shipping (no tax) today. Been as low as ~$455 already (out of stock quickly at those prices).

You will not get these reasonable prices at you local Cabela's of course, but who buys guns at overpriced shops still?

"gotta have it now" guys...

I don't understand either, but some people have more money than brains...

Yeah GB is full of completed listings of people paying $700 for the OSP. I'll wait to get it below $500. Pre-ordered mine from SWFA for $493 shipped. They were running 10% off everything last week.

I just ordered the OSP from RK guns. Price matched Sportsman’s Warehouse. $570 OTD. That includes tax and shipping..... not a bad deal since I don’t have to pay a transfer fee

i only ran six mags through it but i like it a lot. trigger, sights are good, fits my hands well with both mags and is very grippy. accuracy was very good at 10-12yds, my buddy and i were both able to keep all rounds in a 4-5" group. the slide is a little stiff to rack but will probably break in. my only real complaint is the mags are kinda weird and tough to load

I have only run about 100 rounds of ball and 147g hollow points, but I am very impressed with this little gun. It shoots like a bigger pistol, a little snappy with the flat floor plate, but smooth as butter with the 13 round mag. The mags are still very tight but should loosen with use. These are my favorite sights so far, very quick on target, and I have always preferred the Lime front. At 10-12 yds it was easy to put a decent group up. I am so glad that I chose this instead of the P365, I just do not trust Cohen and his MIM parts. The company in Croatia employees 2000+ people and has been producing some nice pistols, the VHS according to Larry Vickers is a nice weapon system. They Cold Hammer Forge in house and this pistols fit and finish is impressive.

Edit: My Bianchi "Remedy 57" holster and my Winthrop Leather holster for my Shield v2.0 fits the Hellcat fine. I also had a Fist #1AK that I took a heat gun to and remolded to fit the Hellcat. With the extra capacity and the sights, my Shield is going to see a lot of safe time. I did order a second 13 round mag from GAG.

Glock will respond to the Hellcat by changing the stippling pattern on the 43 & 43X, and name the new models the 43 Super & 43 Super X.

According to Glock something revolutionary is coming 12/10.

I’m sure we will all be disappointed.

I need to look at a hellcat because I don’t think I’ll ever trust the p365.

Man SA really fumbled the supply chain on this release. The Shield RMSC is out of stock everywhere and Shield is estimating a four month lead time on new orders, and I still have yet to see a non-influencer OSP model for sale. This thing has supposedly been out for months but Ive yet to see one in the wild...

I just picked one up today, the first I've seen in this area.   $535.00 out the door, maybe a litttle too much, but what the heck

I’m off this week and may go on a mission to find a hellcat.

I have about 1000 rounds through my Hellcat. It hasn’t had an issue, and I don’t expect I will. Solid little gun.  I shoot mainly Blazer brass or Winchester white box with it.

The first range trip , my trigger finger was getting pinched when the trigger reset, and it caused a small blister. Weird..  I had just completed a home improvement project and my hands were chewed up so maybe that caused it??  It hasn’t happened since.

Accuracy is what I would expect from a small gun. It is amazing to me that they can fit so many rounds in this little magazine. The sights are really nice.

Of course finding a holster locally wasn’t possible yet, so I ordered a DeSantis Osprey. I paid $475 for the Hellcat at my lgs, which I thought was fine. Overall, it’s a good gun that I’ll hold on to.

I finally got to handle one today and I think it feels a lot better than the p365. I think I’m going to get one pretty soon.

I have been very happy with my purchase, I did not trust the "MIM" parts in the P365. This little pistol is solid and enough rounds to make me feel good about my on hand rounds. 11 in the pistol, and two 13 round spares in a small footprint.

Fired 100 rounds through a rental Hellcat at the range yesterday.  Very, very impressed.  It'll be mine shortly.

I really like the Hellcat....

what holster is that? are you carrying aiwb? been thinking of giving it a try. ive been carrying mine in a crossbreed mini tuck for the past week

I built the kydex holster and I carry aiwb.  I will be making a mag holder that attaches to the holster body via bungee.  Try aiwb and see if you like it.  I have been carrying aiwb for over 10 years and I will never go back to carrying any other way.

I had an opportunity to shoot a brand-new Hellcat last weekend as the owner was shooting a wide to-the-left group and wanted someone else's opinion as to whether it was the sights....or the operator. I was only too happy to oblige.

This was the standard sights model.

Using the 13 round extended magazine I shot a centered group of about 4" at approx. 10 yards. Nothing wrong with the sights.

AAR:

Pistol appears to be very well made. Grip texture is good.
Magazine was difficult to load (like a Shield mag) and ended up borrowing a LULA to load it with no further issues.
Like pretty much all single stack 9mm pistols it's a handful. Snappy....and "twisty".
The trigger was unremarkable. Nothing special but then again I only shot 10 rounds.
Even on an overcast day standing underneath an overhead the front sight was very easy to pick up but lining it up with the rear sight was somewhat difficult; I have aging eyes and wear progressive bifocals.

Overall I thought it was pretty decent. Would I buy one? It doesn't do anything that my present single stack nines do.

Was looking for a pair of very small, easily concealable (AZ) and stumbled across the Hellcat.  Quite a few years ago I picked up a Glock17 and at that time my wife could operate it, but as of today, that is not the case, at least for practicing (Glock Gen3 LNIB probably going up for sale in the near future).  I am sure if her life were to be on the line she could get it to work but it is just too big, and I wouldn't want her to be 'learning on the job' when the consequences are so extremet.  Of course we will do our due diligence and go to the LGS and fingerb*ng all of the firearms very close in size to the Hellcat, but from everything I have read, it looks like if I were to put everything down on a piece of paper for what I wanted in an extremely concealable firearm, the Hellcat would be what I would come up with.  If the Hellcat does in fact win the choice of firearms (basically up to my wife), we would opt for the OSP model, unless there is a reason not to - I would change the battery every year regardless of what Shield recommends.

Couple of issues - my wife has Rheumatoid arthritis, no deformity yet but it is just a matter of time. I believe I had read that the Hellcat was +P rated, but the problem is that we would not be able to train w/ +P ammo due to my wife's Rheumatoid arthritis.  Can I ask what ammo (not +P, if that is what the hive feels is the way to go) you would recommend for carry ammo?  Something that would be pretty close to ball ammo as far as accuracy, recoil, etc. so if the weapon ever needed to be used in a life or death situation, we would feel comfortable with the ammo we were using (and of course we would practice with some of the 'carry' ammo just to make sure things line up)?  I have either 500 or 1000rnds of Winchester white box that I feel would be good 'break in' ammo.  Also with the barrel being just 3" (I believe this to be approximately the lenght of barrel in this size firearm), what ammo is designed to do its job going as slow as it would be out of a 3" barrel?  Does one go with some type of hollow point in the 135-147gr or 95-115gr?  FWIW, I had looked into one of the .38SPL revolvers for my wife, but I would like for us to both carry the same firearm so there is no magazine issue, my wife needing a speedloader (which by that time whatever happened is done) and we could basically double ammo capacity without one bearing all the load.

Next comes a holster - since I live in AZ, I can carry concealed in a lot of places without a permit, so carrying concealed would be a given, although we would more than likely get the permits to allow us in the places a non permit holder cannot get into.  I recently stumbled across the Urban Carry line of deep concealed holsters (G2/G3 - what is the difference, is it just a generation thing w/ any issues w/ the G2 being address in the G3?), and if they are as good as their advertising claims, can anybody who has one recommend one or a better option for a firearm that is so small?  Even if the Urban Carry option is not the bees knees as they are touted, I do not really feel that I will have any trouble finding a holster that I  like and can wear all day.  Finding a deep conceal, no print holster for my wife is another issue.  Anybody have a suggestion for a holster for my wife?

If we went w/ the Hellcat I cannot see any reason for at least me to go with the 13rnd magazines (let me know if there is a reason), unless there is a print, but IMHO that could be easily remedied with the correct holster and if necessary a print on the outer shirt, to confuse the eye into not even seeing the firearm print.

It looks like the Hellcat has been out long enough that if there were any issues they would have already been noted and addressed.

I look forward to your responses,
Bob

Bob, Id go with Speer Gold Dots. They come in +P as well as standard loads. For the wife Id go either 124 or 147 standard. They will work fine out of the shorter barrel. They do make a version specifically for short barrels but they are only in the +P variant.

I'd also at least have her handle the 9mm Shield EZ. I'm a Springfield fan but I shot a friend's 380 EZ and it was incredible how easy it was to operate. He bought it for his mother with arthritis and was just breaking it in and function testing ammo.

-Obsessed-
Thanks for the response. I will have her give the Shield a look. My goal is to use as many of the same parts as possible, whether that be firearm, ammo, magazines or anything that could be swapped between the 2 easily.

Our LGS, ( and others around the area, ) has yet to see their first Hellcat.

S&W's EZ Shield 9s have been flowing through our shop.  How did S&W beat SA to the stores?

Exactly. What a joke. I’ve literally had my hand stretched out three months trying to give them my money...

No not yet and even if you could it wouldn't work out well because the slide is 1 in and the RMR is 1.18 in wide so you'd have about 0.1 sticking out on either side.

The one dimension not mentioned in any of those pictures is the width which is the only dimension that really matters when comparing single vs double stack and this new hybrid category that the Hellcat and P365 operate in.

Walther PPS M2	1.0
Springfield XDs	0.9
Kahr CW9/P9	0.9
Glock 43	1.06
Glock 43x/48	1.1
Springfield Hellcat	1.0
Sig P365	1.06
Sig P365 SAS	1.0
Glock 26	1.18
Springfield XDm 3.8	1.18

Units are in inches and from this you can see that the P365 are at most 0.1 wider than the smallest of the single stack 9mms (the Kahr CW9/P9 & Springfield XDs) and both Sig P365 and Hellcat are 0.1 slimmer than the Glock 43/43x/48. I included the P365 SAS model to show that the 0.06" measurement on the P365 probably includes the takedown and slide release levers so they really shouldn't be included in that measure.

Both P365 and Hellcat are 0.18 more narrow than the Glock 26 or XDm Compact while still having 10 rounds (or 11 in the case of the Hellcat) which really asks the question why bother with either of those?

I personally have a P365 and it's been reliable, comfortable and has a great trigger; I got the Sig because I was carrying a Walther PPS M2 and having a gun with a better trigger, a grip I found more comfortable with more bullets in the same size while being 3oz lighter was a very easy to justify upgrade to me. Had the Hellcat been out I'd have looked at that too but as it stands, for me the Hellcat isn't worth the upgrade from my P365 for me personally.

One thing is certain; regardless of where it's made as long as the Hellcat is as reliable as the P365 there is zero reason to get a Glock 26, XDm Compact, S&W Shield, Glock 43, Kahr, etc as a carry gun instead of the P365 or Hellcat; they win hands down in size:round count ratio of every pistol on the market currently. If you have giant bear paw hands or for some reason just can't shoot either well I guess you could look at the alternatives but based on pure numbers they win.

The other thing that stands out is based on the numbers Glock really fucked up with the 43x/48 line. They really seem to have missed the boat on this whole size/round count game. The 43 is not only wider but it's longer than either P365 or Hellcat; for the same grip length you get 12 rounds in the P365 and 13 rounds in the Hellcat and still the 43x/48 is a bit longer. The 48 is the same size as the Glock 19 only 0.08 thinner at the expense of 5 rounds. I suspect this is in part because Glock insists on coating all of their magazines with plastic; a measure that helps with durability but is largely not needed for most people and considering there is an aftermarket solution that is all steel and does get 15 rounds I think I'm right on this one. Still disappointing that Glock can't figure this out from the factory.

A friend has a Hellcat and I think its great for its size, but you can carry a Kahr PM9/CM9 a lot deeper than a Hellcat due to the Kahrs' size.

I owned a PM9, no comparison, the Hellcat is a pistol that I trust my life to, I did not trust the PM9. Kahr says to put 250-500 rounds through the PM9 to break it in before carry. It was a little over 250 before mine would even cycle properly. YMMV.

My FIL had The PM9. The DAO was enough to get me to forget it existed. He sold an XDs to get it, and regrets it because he hates shooting it, and therefore doesn't regularly train with it.

As I said I like the Hellcat.

And I've never had any break-in issues with my PM-9, nor had the DAO been an impediment in carrying one for self-defense.  No pistols have the exact same trigger pull so one has to get used to their individual characteristics.  I can switch back and forth between my striker-fired pistols and the Kahr DAO without any issues. Mine functioned fine well before 200 rds.

But the fact remains you can carry the PM/CM-9s deeper than the Hellcat and its counter-parts because the Kahr PM/CM-9s are smaller, albeit with their single stack capacity.

I just saw that extra mags were $49.00.  I don't remember where that wa , but holy crap.

So, from a function, material, build quality and design point, what's wrong with Springfield Armory's pistols?

Hate on them for any reason you want, but I don't see much of an objective reason to hate on their products. Now I see back stabbing reasons, but that's got nothing to do with the actual pistols and everything to do with the company's politics.

Seems like there has minimal Hellcat chatter on arfcom. After shooting a sig p365xl I wanted a micro gun that wasn’t a sig, so I was excited when springfield released this.

Found one two days ago at academy for $535 otd.
Yesterday I shot 50 rounds hst, and another 300 rounds of plinking Ammo.

Pros:
Accurate, shot some very tight groups out to 15 yards.
Sights are awesome. The contrast with the front sight and the white u picks up quickly.
Grip texture is good. Aggressive without being overly aggressive like S&W M&P 2.0
No malfunctions using flush and extended mags.
Trigger is a touch heavy compared to new strikers but mine has a consistent, heavy wall right before the break.

Cons:
Comes with the size, but it requires a strong grip as it is a little snappy.

Overall I am thoroughly pleased with this little pistol. I have ordered a holster and it will be in my carry lineup when I don’t feel like carrying my bigger ones.

The mags are listed at multiple sites for $30-39 but $49 is MSRP. There are/were some listed in the EE for a great price too.

I registered my hellcat warranty on springfield's website and it redirected me to the shop were I could purchase the 13 round mags for $29 a piece. Picked up two extra. A couple websites show mags in the
$30-$35 range.

Hellcat Mags

I've thrown a spare mag in my pocket the past few days but need to get an actual holder of sorts. I have a Snagmag for my Glock and liked it, simple and unobtrusive unlike typical kydex carriers. Any similar inside the pocket options that will work with a Hellcat mag?

LGS just called and they are holding an OSP for me to look at on Saturday. $519.00 is the price. I’ll get a better opportunity to look at one this time. I’ve handled one in the past but RK was so busy I didn’t want to waste the guys time, It wasn’t an OSP either.

I was able to pick-up a Hellcat OSP from my LGS today, they just happened to get a few in when I called.  I ordered a AIWB with a claw from Keyhole Holsters, should be a pretty sweet set-up.

Still looking to buy a Shield RMSc for it but looks like they are hard to come by.  Anyone have a line on where I can grab one?

Holster pic only, not my Hellcat.
Attached File

Ended up passing on the Hellcat. . I wanted to like it but it just didn’t fit my hand as well as the Shield does or EMP. They had a line waiting behind me so I’m sure it sold 5 minutes after I handed it back.

Attached File
Attached File


Got my holster from Keyhole today, less than a week from order to delivery.

I'm really happy with my new set up, 14 rounds with 11 more in a spare mag in a really compact package.  I have put 400 rounds thru the Hellcat so far, FMJ and Hollow-points with zero malfunctions.  I'm looking forward to making this my new EDC

I was all in on the P365 as I hadnt even heard of the Hellcat till a buddy told me to check it out before I bought a P365.

We ended up getting together and calling/driving to 8 different local stores till we found one that even had a Hellcat in stock, and too our luck they had the standard Hellcat, OSP, and P365 instock.

Didnt have a rental of both so I had to go with just feel.  The Hellcats slightly thicker grip and texture felt so much better than the Sig. So I ended up going with the OSP version. It was $550 before tax.

Heading to the range tomorrow so I can update with first thoughts post boom.

Ill be shooting a VERY wide range of ammo. For JHPs ill be shooting Crit def, Crit Duty, HST, Speer Gold, Winchest PDX1, a few others I picked up boxes for on sale that I cant remember, all in various weights.

As far as FMJ I have 115grain Winch White box, and Blazer 124grain. Likely will pickup some 147g FMJ on the way tomorrow.

....

Brings me to my only question for the OSP version for you experts.  I've never had a pistol with a red dot, still dont know how these plates work etc. Why is only the Sig RMRc and JPoint the options for this pistol? What is holding me back from using a Trijicon or Vortex? Is is a plate?

The gun can only run x red dot because? I am at a loss as I have never researched red dots and apologize for my ignorance.

Anywho. Ill update after my first range test tomorrow.

Currently a lot of the restriction on optic options is due to the width. Pretty much all of the optics are wider than the slide, and the two that you mentioned I believe are currently the only options that are flush / a hair narrower than the slide to be an optimal fit.

I am sure that like most other things, manufacturers will note the popularity of the Hellcat and begin offering some additional micro-optic options and plate adapters as needed (similar to options in the Glock MOS and others, just a smaller footprint). I think I read Holosun may have a micro model coming out but not sure if it is intended to fit the Hellcat width.

The issue is the width. You can mount a standard red dot but it will sit over the edge of the slide on both sides.

I've had my Hellcat for a few weeks and can't find a red dot that fits in stock anywhere.

My research shows these 3 options-

Shield RMSc - Aluminum body
Shield SMSc- Polymer body
JPoint- Polymer body

So far that's all I can find that fits the narrow slide on the Hellcat.

So far I love mine, about 800 rounds of varying ammo through it with zero malfunctions.