I'm really kinda curious as to how others stumbled upon the XD. It was kind of an odd journey for me. It started as something OTHER than a search for a pistol.
As a side project, I've been developing my own composite body armor over the last several years. I've tested that armor against every round I can find a pistol for from .22LR all the way up to, and including, such monsters as 454 casull and 50AE. When I made the decision to purchase a carry weapon, I knew from my testing that I wanted a round that could split the difference between the penetrating power of 9mm+P and the just brutal stopping power of .45ACP. That pretty much makes it a choice between .40S&W and 10mm. I also knew that I needed something with a relatively shallow grip because I have pretty small hands. I had an opportunity to fire both rounds and, based on that, felt that 10mm might be hard for me to control. So I settled on .40S&W and started looking at various models.
I was initially not looking at the XD because everything I know about shooting I learned from the Marine Corps. That also means that I had inherited the Marine Corps' institutional antipathy towards anything that doesn't have an exposed hammer. Fortunately, during all the looking and asking and talking, I'd gotten to know a couple of the guys behind the counter very well and learned to trust their opinions a bit. One of them told me flat out that I had to at least give the Glock 23 a chance. So I took it out of the case and did a few blind lift exercises. Sure enough, it felt good in my hand and came up on target more naturally than any of the exposed hammer frames I'd been looking at. The other hammerless design they had was the XD. So I asked to see that one, too. In my hand, it did not come up on target quite as well as the 23. It was VERY close, though. I also felt that the XD had the superior trigger group and that the action was smoother. I also felt that overall fit and finish was better on the XD. The icing on the cake was the fact that the XD was significantly less expensive than the 23 (almost $100). So I chose the XD and THEN I learned about the lifetime warranty and the extra mags and whatnot.
I'm really sold on the product. That doesn't happen to me a lot.
So how did you land on yours?
As a side project, I've been developing my own composite body armor over the last several years. I've tested that armor against every round I can find a pistol for from .22LR all the way up to, and including, such monsters as 454 casull and 50AE. When I made the decision to purchase a carry weapon, I knew from my testing that I wanted a round that could split the difference between the penetrating power of 9mm+P and the just brutal stopping power of .45ACP. That pretty much makes it a choice between .40S&W and 10mm. I also knew that I needed something with a relatively shallow grip because I have pretty small hands. I had an opportunity to fire both rounds and, based on that, felt that 10mm might be hard for me to control. So I settled on .40S&W and started looking at various models.
I was initially not looking at the XD because everything I know about shooting I learned from the Marine Corps. That also means that I had inherited the Marine Corps' institutional antipathy towards anything that doesn't have an exposed hammer. Fortunately, during all the looking and asking and talking, I'd gotten to know a couple of the guys behind the counter very well and learned to trust their opinions a bit. One of them told me flat out that I had to at least give the Glock 23 a chance. So I took it out of the case and did a few blind lift exercises. Sure enough, it felt good in my hand and came up on target more naturally than any of the exposed hammer frames I'd been looking at. The other hammerless design they had was the XD. So I asked to see that one, too. In my hand, it did not come up on target quite as well as the 23. It was VERY close, though. I also felt that the XD had the superior trigger group and that the action was smoother. I also felt that overall fit and finish was better on the XD. The icing on the cake was the fact that the XD was significantly less expensive than the 23 (almost $100). So I chose the XD and THEN I learned about the lifetime warranty and the extra mags and whatnot.
I'm really sold on the product. That doesn't happen to me a lot.
So how did you land on yours?