By Jeff Johnston, FE Hunting & Shooting Editor
If you’ve been hanging around here much you know our opinion of Springfield’s Hellcat pistol. Several of the team including myself like the OSP Pro version (21.ozs., 3.7-inch barrel, 16- to 18-round capacity, optics ready) so much that it’s what we choose to carry everyday. This gun is simply the most perfect blend of concealability and shootability we’ve ever felt in a handgun. (Read here for the full review.) But it was just made even better by the addition of a threaded barrel.
Here are three reasons why:
- Adding a small, lightweight suppressor such as SilencerCo’s 7-oz. Omega 9K gives the Hellcat great versatility. When I’m bowhunting I routinely see some animal like a hog or a coon that needs killing, but I don’t dare shoot for fear of alarming every buck in the area. The suppressor doesn’t make the 9mm silent, of course, but it drastically reduces the sound from that of a thunderclap to more like a limb falling in the woods. I keep the can in a side pocket on my pack and attach it in less than a second if needed. (Note that this suppressor—like most when used with automatic handguns—requires the addition of a piston mount to assure flawless functioning, but these are easily purchased from Silencerco.)
- Target practicing and just messing around on the range with buddies is 10 times more fun with a silenced handgun. Nobody has to wear hearing protection and so everyone can talk shit at will. The key to getting good with a handgun is shooting often, and the best way to do this, like any other learned skill, is by making it as fun as possible. While the standard sights that come on the Hellcat Pro are not tall enough to use with many suppressors, you can buy suppressor-height sights or, even better, install a red dot on the optic-ready slide.
- The only difference between the Pro OSP Threaded barrel version and the Pro OSP is that the threaded barrel version adds .7-inch to the barrel and one ounce in overall weight. But that half an inch, because it’s barrel only and sticks out of the middle of the slide, doesn’t affect the gun’s concealability in any way when worn in common carry techniques; It simply adds a few FPS to each round and gives you the ability to silence your carry gun.
If you don’t have a 9mm suppressor and don’t plan on buying one, perhaps the threaded barrel version isn’t worth the extra $20. But for the rest of us, we’ll be upgrading … and talking shit nonstop. $710
