The Hellcat was originally introduced by Springfield in late 2019 as their contender in the then-new micro 9mm concealed carry handgun category. It was available with or without a manual safety, and eventually Springfield introduced an optics ready variant. All of these are available in Black or FDE Cerakote.
The Hellcat is 6 inches long, 4 inches tall with the flush baseplate and 4.5 inches with the 13 round extended magazine. It is almost exactly an inch wide, and has a 3 inch hammer forged barrel with a 1 in 10 twist. Basically, the Hellcat is very similarly sized to the Taurus GX4 we looked at recently. The Hellcat weighs in at a featherweight 18 ounces unloaded, and carries and MSRP of 660 dollars for this optics ready model. Street price is closer to 550.
The Hellcat has some notable features baked into it that set it apart from other entries in this category. Starting with the frame and working front to back, the first thing we notice is that the Hellcat has a picatinny slot for mounting lights or accessories, which is something that most of it's competitors lack. Aft of that is the Hellcat's rotating takedown lever and slide lock. That slide lock is nice and low profile so it doesn't snag on holsters or clothing. At the very rear of the frame is a pretty good sized beaver tail that lets the shooter get a good high grip on the Hellcat. South of that is the reversible magazine release, which is nice and flush with the frame at the rear but sticks out just enough for easy actuation at the front. It's protected by this polymer ridge that's molded into the frame. Magazines pop out nice and easily.
Speaking of magazines, the Hellcat comes with two: an 11 round magazine with a pinky rest, and a 13 round extended magazine with an extension. They are finished in a nice polish and are marked with "9mm" on the front and witness holes for round count on the back.
The most notable features of the Hellcat frame is the texture. Springfield calls that texturing "adaptive", as it's supposed to grab harder the more you squeeze the frame. That texture is all around the grip, as well as up higher on the frame where thumbs rest and also on memory pads on either side of the frame.
Moving up to the slide, we see one feature of the hellcat that often goes overlooked: the front face of the recoil guide rod is textured, and it extends out past the crown of the barrel. Springfield intends this to be used as a sort of standoff device, helping to keep the slide in battery in the event that the muzzle is pressed against something firmly. Other features on the slide include cocking serrations on the front and rear, a loaded chamber witness hole on top, as well as the Hellcat logo on the side and Springfield Armory logo on top. Additionally, this particular slide is cut for an optic using an RMSc footprint. Springfield throws in a metal cover plate for times when there is no optic mounted.
The sights on the Hellcat are surprisingly good. They are metal front and rear, with a u-notch white outline rear sight and a high visibility front dot with a tritium insert for use in low light. The sights pick up quickly and easily, and the u-notch configuration serves to really funnel the eye to the front sight. Overall it's a great setup for a defensive weapon.
The Hellcat is striker fired, and uses a partially cocked striker system similar to the Glock trigger. The initial part of the trigger pull serves to pull the striker back until it reaches the fully cocked position, and then the sear drops the striker at the rear of the trigger travel.
All of this goes to explain why the hellcat trigger is really not the greatest in terms of feel. The initial take-up is pretty gritty, and if you're moving slowly there is a noticable amount of slack or mush right at the break. The worst part of the trigger pull for me is the reset, which is longer than one would think at first. As far as pull weight, the Hellcat trigger is Abit on the heavy side, weighing in at between 7 and 8 pounds.
Disassembly of the Hellcat is simple, and very similar to other striker fired handguns. The slide is locked back, and then the takedown lever is rotated until it is in this position. The slide can then be released, point in a safe direction, and pull the trigger, and the slide comes right off. Inside the Hellcat we can see that Glock inspired trigger system, as well as a dual captive recoil system and a barrel with a nice factory polish on the feed ramp , which is a nice touch. To reassemble, the barrel drops back in and the recoil system drops in on top of it and indexes on the lug. The slide drops back onto the frame, gets locked back, and then the takedown lever drops back down.
Overall the Hellcat is a solid entry in the micro 9mm concealed carry category. It's bring a lot of features to the table that it's competitors don't have. This particular Hellcat is going to go through a long term test along with that GX4, and at the end we'll put them head to head to see which is the better carry option. That's all I've got for you this time, so until next time: stay safe!