By Mike Schoby
Glock fanboys, as much as you hate it, you can’t beat the 1911 design. The grip angle, the trigger, the pointability—even after 100 years, the design is still a top fighting gun and unrivaled in competition. If it’s so badass, you may ask, “What damn near killed it off for the younger generation?”
Capacity. That’s it. Not a better trigger or more accuracy or red-dot ready or more powerful. Nope, zilch, nada. Just more capacity. As 9mm loads improved to the point where a .45 ACP wasn’t statistically much better, and you could get a Glock that carried over two times as much ammo, a tidal shift in carry guns happened within one generation.
However, the ghost of John Browning can rejoice, as the double stack 1911 in 9mm took all the greatness of a 1911 and made it comparable for modern capacity requirements. Para-Ordinance, then later STI, now known as Staccato, were early pioneers in this category. And Staccato still makes a damn fine gun, however the main barrier to entry is cost. Luckily Springfield Armory recently entered the market with its 1911 DS Prodigy—essentially offering all the features of a Staccato at about half the price.
The Prodigy is offered in many variants and barrel lengths. I ordered the Compact, with the recently released 3.5-inch barrel, and like the entire Prodigy line, the pistol is feature-packed.
The frame is machined from billet aluminum (forged steel on the full-size models) secured to a polymer grip module that is comfortably slim, but still holds a 15-round, double-stack magazine. In the full-size version, the standard magazine capacity is 17 rounds (20- and 26-round extended magazines are also available for either the full-size or compact).
The forged slide features a match-grade, reversed-cone bull barrel, a highly visible white dot with green tritium blade front sight that is combined with an Agency Optic System sight plate. If you don’t want to run an optic, the Prodigy features a great U-notch rear, but if you want to run about any red dot in existence, you can get a plate for it with the rear sight already machined into the plate. I mounted an Acro, and the iron sights were clearly visible in the bottom of the sight window making finding them or the red dot easy and fast.
On the lower, there is more interesting stuff going on. The ambidextrous side safety is extended but not obnoxiously so. The beavertail safety has been bobbed—offering enough protection to avoid slide bite, and not stick out like a 1980’s Porsche 911 whale tail. Correspondingly, the hammer is skeletonized and shortened, giving it a great look albeit hard to cock. But if you are carrying a 1911 with the hammer down, round in the chamber, and need to cock a gun that was never designed to be cocked, you need to run several laps before buying a Glock.
The polymer-grip frame is lightly textured and provides excellent purchase without being too abrasive. It feels about like grip tape. The mag well is slightly beveled and the magazines (yes, magazine(s), the prodigy comes with three mags total) have finger/thumb depressions in the baseplate in case they ever need to be ripped from the gun in a jam scenario.
At the range, the 1911 DS ran perfectly on a mix of Fiocchi Range Dynamics and Black Hills 100-grain HoneyBadger+P without a hiccup. Accuracy was exceptional. And the whole gun made for a pleasant shooting experience—low recoil, quick double taps and a straight rearward impulse.
I read some internet warriors claiming the DS Prodigy is made with foreign parts. I called Springfield, and they refuted this bullshit stating it is 100% made in America with American-made parts. So, why is it half the price of a Staccato? I guess Springfield isn’t using their profits to fund cringeworthy Tim Kennedy social media videos.
Pros: Everything everyone loves about Staccato—at about half the price.
Cons: You’ll have to find something to buy with the extra grand.
