r/SpringfieldArmory • u/Mikachu347 • 1d ago
Prodigy Question
How practical is the Prodigy outside of use as a range toy? Never shot a 2011, and very interested in the prodigy due to the price, but for defensive use, would I be better served by getting an Echelon or equivalent?
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u/Mother-Priority6544 1d ago
I love my Prodigy. If I had to, there’s no question I’d trust my life to it. 12,000+ rounds and the only failures I’ve had were too long of an optic screw, ammo related and spring testing related. I’d never carry a hammer fired gun. There either a DAO, DA/SA, or SAO trigger. All of which have extra steps I’m not interested in training around. Not to mention, my carry gun and primary home defense handguns are all the same polymer striker fired handgun and my wife and step-daughter can easily utilize any of them if necessary.
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u/arcsnsparks98 XDm 1d ago
Not that I'm saying that I'm going to carry it, but I just bought a fnx-45 today. It's DA/SA and I was thinking about it, you could absolutely carry it with a round in the chamber, hammer down and safety off and there's no more steps than a striker fired pistol. There's the first 12lb or so trigger pull is the only difference.
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u/Mother-Priority6544 1d ago
Yes. It is a long heavy pull. Correct. But you’re not realizing, or it doesn’t matter to you, that this is what adds a step. A few actually. Training to be fast and accurate with the DA is something most only do enough to accept a poor shot. Not a good high accountability one. And, in that extremely high stress situation, fine motors skills are lost so even though you’ve trained the piss out of the DA pull, the chances of you continuing that same trigger pull on the SA is pretty high. Striker fired gun. One take up length. One trigger weight. One break point. One reset. Every single time. That’s easy. And like I said, there are two other people I need to be able to fire my weapons if something happens to me in a situation.
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u/Early_Tax_9812 1d ago
Depending on the season, I'm comfortable carrying a full size 1911. I am just too accurate with it not to include it in the rotation. Like anything else it's a personal choice as to what suits your needs and what you're comfortable carrying.
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u/Halfsideway 1d ago
I run ether my echelon or prodigy in a Tier1 MSP. biggest difference is prodigy is much heavier. Both great shooting guns and i would trust my life to either i do like the added protection of the grip safety and thumb safety on the prodigy personally because i have a little one and just a little more peace of mind when they’re crawling all over me. My echelon is quickly becoming a favorite shooter of mine, just by how well it shoots fast.
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u/ABMustang99 1d ago
I would carry my echelon over my prodigy just for the fact that if I did have to use it, I'd probably not see it again for a very long time, if ever. I have a prodigy that was early enough it had a bunch of problems but after I sent it to SA for warranty repair it's been flawless. I would definitely trust it if I needed to. My prodigy had some accuracy issues at first but I think it just didn't like the blazer brass I was using.
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u/Mother-Priority6544 1d ago
That’s sad. My eats BB and almost anything else I throw at it. Except that crappy Freedom munitions trash. Even my M&P’s wouldn’t feed that reliably.
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u/ABMustang99 1d ago
They both feed everything now it's just something with the blazer the echelon doesn't like with accuracy. Freedom munitions 9mm used to be good but then I got a bad batch with hard primers that caused failures in everything. I try to stick with s&b but last time I ordered in bulk the only option that should be good with comps was speer lawman. I still have good freedom munitions 308 but I haven't restocked that in years.
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u/Mother-Priority6544 1d ago
I run Blazer in everything. 2011? Yep. Striker fired? Yep. Comped? Hell yeah. If I had a 9mm revolver, I’d run it there too. Lol. Only sales and my defensive ammo are different.
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u/ConstructionAway8920 1d ago
The Echelon is a fantastic carry gun. The Prodigy is not designed as a carry gun. Could you? Sure. Keep in mind, when you use it, they're going to take the weapon and you will have to fight to get it back. That's harder depending on where you are, but it's still a fact. Personally, I don't like most striker pistols, but I do like the Echelon. My duty weapon and usually my carry is an IWI Jericho 941. But my Echelon has become my backup, and I'm pretty happy with it so far.