Today I fired my XDs for the first time, along with about 10 other guns provided by a non-member of this forum, my friend of many years, Tony, and two forum members, Evad and darkwolf45.
Evad brought along a Sig Mosquito .22LR, his 9mm Glock and his new .45, of which I forget the maker; while darkwolf45 brought along a very nice 1911, in fact the best one I ever shot (darkwolf45, please fill me the info about your guns here, as you know them better than I do), along with a very nice .38 revolver which needed some cosmetic work ,but like his 1911, fired like a dream. Tony brought his Ruger Mark III 2245 and his brand new Glock 40 caliber. There was a gentleman in the next stall over with some sort of pistol which shot a 410 round, and that was fun as well. All in all, we had a plethora of firearms in difference calibers, some in the same caliber, and we all sent a lot of lead downrange.
I fired both Glocks, the 9mm and the 40, and I like the lightness of them in one regard, no so in another. I like a bit of heft and the Glocks lack that. I also don't care for the lever to drop the magazine or the overall feel of them. Of the two Glocks, I liked the 40 over the 9mm, but that's mainly because of the one thing I liked about that Glock, which was the recoil. It's very snappy. I still say that while Glocks are fine firearms, I'm not good for them and they aren't good for me. To each their own.
As for the XDs, I'm definately nowhere near ready to carry it because I'm not accurate with it at all. Of course I only put 100 rounds though it today, so that's to be expected. The sighting is different, the recoil is definitely a lot snappier than my XDm both before and after my recoil rod upgrade to the XDm; but I expected in would be that way because of the shorter bar ell of the XDs. I also like the 7-round magazine over the 5-round ones, simply for the fact that the 7-round magazine let's me do 7+1 and more importantly, it allows me to not only have a bigger, yet still very concealable gun with an almost full sized grip. I'm not used to the trigger of the XDs, but I can overcome that in time. I think it's a great little gun and I'm very pleased with the purchase from jimbob85 on here. darkwolf85 liked my XDm a lot more than the XDs, and that's ok by me, because quite frankly, I do too.
One of my complaints about the XDs is the fiber optic sight. I could see where that could come loose, fall out, etc, and then you have a real problem. I'd like to replace that with a traditional solid front sigh vs what's there now. I think it's fine if this was a competition gun, but it's not. It's a backup CC for me / spare .45ACP firearm. The other gripe I have is that the 7-round magazine doesn't quite seat right. It's not 100% flush like the 5-round version is, and perhaps that's because of the extender sleeve for the 7-round magazine. Of course the XDs feels similar to my XDm, but it's not the same, nore would I expect it to be. I can tell that it's a Springfield XD Series pistol by the feel of it, but the XD and XDm are much closer, but then both are full-sized guns usually. Perhaps I need to compare the XDm Compact to the XDs for a much more fair comparison for feel and grip.
As I stated, I'm glad I purchased the XDs, because it's probably the best carry pistol you can have for the size in .45ACP, and if I can change out the sights and fix that gap in the 7-round magazine, it'd perfect. I wish the trigger was more like the XDm, but I'm leery about changing out trigger systems on carry pistols simply for the sake of should any legal issues arise, I try and keep my carry pistols as close to OEM as possible. The only modification my XDm will ever has is the recoil rod from brass stacker.
I did look at both the XDm Compact and the M&P Shield for CC, and I decided omn the XDs. I don't think that it's the best gun for everyone, and I think you should give it a run on the range before you buy it. I was ok with not doing that because I committed to it before I even fired it. In fact, I've done that with every gun I've purchased thus far, and while it's not the best practice, I've yet to be disappointed. Of course I don't recommend that for everyone, I believe that you should try before you buy and I'm going to do that myself down the road when looking for a revolver and rifles. I don't think I need to do that for my next goal of purchasing a Ruger 10/22, but for an AR-15 or a .357, yes, I will. I tend to be very through in my research, which is why I have been so fortunate thus far. I[m open to any suggestions on the Ruger 10/22, because I know there's a ton of options, different stocks, configurations, etc, all I've considered thus far on it is getting some BX-25 magazines for it. I'm also open to AR-15 and .357 suggestions as well, but both of those purchases are more down the road. When it comes to a shotgun, Benali M4, but that's even further down the road.
So back on topic, there's my review of the XDs and a fun day at the range with some friends new and old.