The Springfield Hellcat is the world’s highest capacity 9mm micro compact handgun, 11+1 in the flush fit magazine, 13+1 in the extended mag. It can accept 20 round magazines, and in fact, they even make a 50 round drum for it, which is crazy. This is for a pistol that is 6″ long and only 4″ tall w/ in the flush fit base configuration.
You get a lot of firepower in a small package, but is it reliable? I have found several 10,000 round torture tests that the Hellcat passed with flying colors.
In one test they used Federal ball ammunition (FMJ), these same testers later did a second test, with an additional 10,000 rounds of ammunition through the same gun.
Another set of testers did 10,000 rounds of +p ammunition through another hellcat micro. +p ammunition is loaded with extra powder which means it heats the gun more and wears on parts more aggressively.
In the +p test, they had multiple shooters, and only one of them had any malfunctions at all, a total of 9. The others had none. They chalked the errors not up to the gun but to the user being fatigued and limp wristing.
In the FMJ tests, the only errors were the slide not locking back due to user error. This was the case for both 10,000 round tests. It did not have any malfunctions in 20,000 rounds that caused the gun to stop firing.
A fourth test, by holster manufacturer T-Rex Arms found a lot to hate about the hellcat, including recoil, shoot-ability, the ability to shoot “fast”, and ergonomics, BUT- it was the most reliable of all the sub compacts they tested. They had 2 light primer strikes and 1 failure to feed. This was over 2000 rounds, without any cleaning. Most likely the light strikes and failure to feed were caused by fouling in the striker channel and on the feed ramp, but it may have also been ammo choice.
They also noted that tactical reloads were slow. This is because the gun is so small you have to break your grip to get the next mag in. In self defense, tactical reloads are exceptionally rare, and with practice this can be sped up, this isn’t a combat pistol. If you need a gun to get into a serious gun fight with, you are in a different league entirely than someone like me, who maintains a high safety profile. This eliminates my need for combat pistols, tactical reloads, and speed, all of the critiques against the gun.
As far as the design goes, the Hellcat Pro uses the same architecture and it’s also been tested.
- A writer at field ethos found his Hellcat Pro to be 100% reliable over a three year period
- Armory Life ran 2,500 rounds through two hell cat pros of mixed ammunition. Mixed magazines – meaning each round was a random choice. This is challenging for a gun as the charges of each bullet and weight is different, some rounds may not have as much powder to effectively cycle the gun. Steel case ammo is also challenging for some designs. The hellcats ate it all, with zero malfunctions.
- This Reddit discussion also has multiple users claiming up to 4000 rounds of flawless reliability.
This is a gun that fits literally in a front pocket, and with minimal maintenance can reliably shoot up to 20,000 rounds malfunction free. It’s why I chose it to trust my life and the life of my family to. Sure it’s not pleasant to shoot, who cares? If I shoot this thing it’s going to be to save my life, all I care about is that it goes bang. The gun is accurate, but it’s not a race gun. You won’t be going to war with it or engaging multiple armed suspects in a fire fight. This is the gun you take jogging, to church, to the ATM.
The gun design is over 7 years old, it has been used to fire millions of rounds collectively. It has excellent safety architecture, reliability, durability, and an optimal set of features, including an optic cut and rail, which allows users to set it up how they wish. With so many years of service, the hellcat has a pretty good level of aftermarket support from holster makers, trigger manufacturers, etc. I plan to keep mine 100% stock, I’m not even throwing an optic on top.
What makes this handgun so great? Not only is it small enough to take literally anywhere in a front pocket or in a iwb holster, it’s light enough to be worn without a belt. Unlike other micro 9s that are larger or have lower capacity, this one carries the maximum of what California allows to be carried, 10+1. If you bring a spare mag, you have 21 rounds to defend your life. If you live outside of California, you can use a 13+1 mag, and carry a 20 round mag in your pocket, for 34 rounds.
Using the worst error rate of 3/2000 rounds, the hellcat was 99.85% reliable. This was with zero maintenance. Meanwhile, the Armory Life tests of 20,000 rounds used lube and an air compressor about every 250-500 rounds and had zero stoppages. No matter how you slice it, that’s impressive.