Is a firearms manufacturer really even a firearms manufacturer if it doesn’t offer at least one polymer-framed, striker-fired 9mm pistol? There are quite a few on that market, it seems, and more coming all the time. Springfield Armory has been at the forefront of the pistol game for decades. One of their latest, the Echelon, looks like a winner. Why don’t we put some rounds through one with a threaded barrel, so we can see how the pistol works, and along the way, we’ll try out a BANISH 9 and a BANISH 9K, too.
“Tactical Tupperware”
The Springfield Armory Echelon 9mm has a 4.5 in threaded barrel. The optional extended magazine, Vortex Defender ST sight and BANISH 9 suppressor make for a formidable firearm and a joy to shoot. Photo by Ryan Grant.
The term is often associated to polymer-framed semi-auto pistols, and for die-hard purists of pistol shooting, it isn’t exactly a term of endearment. Of course, these same purists would call anything that wasn’t a 1911 junk. Not to knock on any 1911s out there, but poly-framed pistols are pretty amazing, too.
Me and my big hands
Before going too far down the rabbit hole on the virtues of pistol design, let’s stick to the Echelon 4.5F and discuss how it slots in. As someone who has handled a lot of striker-fired, polymer framed pistols, I can say that I put a lot of emphasis on feel when determining if I like a pistol or not. And yes, it is all about feeling in different aspects, but initially, if I pick up a pistol and don’t immediately like the way it feels in my hand, I am extremely likely to put it back down and not go much further with it.
I have decently sized hands for a guy. In picking up the Echelon 4.5F, I immediately liked how it fit right into the slot – that space between your thumb and index finger – that forms the top of your grip. From there, wrapping my fingers around the grip and finding my trigger finger falling along the side above the trigger group must feel right as well. Springfield did a great job with making this area feel solid and functional, with plenty of traction to grip, yet without too much material to make things feel clunky. They offer several interchangeable backstraps to allow one to customize the grip feel, but I was right at home with the standard “medium” strap.
Next up is control placement. Again, I don’t want to have to strain my hand to operate the controls, like the slide release or the magazine release. There’s no thumb safety, so that isn’t an issue, and the rest of the controls also feel good to my hand. The slide release is small, and the spring is heavy enough that it takes some pressure to get it to let go, but it works pretty well, so there is no issue there.
This is the 4.5F model, with a 4.5-inch barrel with a threaded end. There is a more compact 4.0 model, but I chose the full-size model because I really like full-size semi-auto handguns.
Triggered
A good trigger means a lot, as does a great sight, like this Defender ST from Vortex. If you haven't tried a red dot on your handgun, you're missing out. Us "old guys" are really liking them a lot. Photo by Ryan Grant.
An old gun writer friend of mine told me early on in my career that a good trigger can make even a crappy gun good, and a bad trigger can ruin even the best firearm. The longer I’ve been shooting, the truer that statement has become. The Echelon has a funky-but-effective trigger. It uses Springfield’s Central Operating Group system. The trigger itself is in three parts, with a safety trigger in the middle, slotted between two polymer triggers. It is wide. It took me a minute to get used to the fact that the trigger is about twice as wide as many other triggers I have used in the past. However, it works.
On average, you will get a trigger that breaks between 4.5 to 5.5 pounds on an Echelon. My test pistol came with a trigger that breaks consistently at 4.7 pounds. It is also quite crisp at the break. You can feel where the break is in the pull, and I found that to be nearly perfect for accurate shot placement.
Break-in
For consistency, and because I had a lot of it on hand, I did most of the break-in shooting for the pistol using Remington UMC 115gr full metal jacket (FMJ) rounds. These are obviously target rounds and are on the light side. Muzzle velocity is 1,145 feet per second. This ammo is less than ideal for shooting suppressed, but for basic trigger pulls to get the pistol broken in, and to give me an idea how well it was going to run and feel, it was a decent choice.
Slide stuff
The frame is quite thin for a full-size auto. It gives you great control. Photo by Ryan Grant.
Springfield gives you a lot of aggressive slide serrations to make racking easier. The real star on the slide is the optics area. The pistol has good iron sights, but since I knew I would be using a suppressor with this gun, I focused more on the optics mount.
The mounting area is a patent-pending “Variable Interface System” that allows the direct mounting of a wide range of optics to the slide without the use of adapter plates. There are self-locking pins that hold your optic in place. I mounted a Vortex Defender ST sight to the Echelon and have enjoyed how solid it mounts.
If you have a threaded barrel, you need a suppressor, right? Photo by Ryan Grant.
BANISH 9
The Echelon and the BANISH 9 go very well together. Accuracy is really good, and you don’t notice the added weight much, especially with a loaded mag in the gun. It ran ok with the 115-grain target ammo with only a minor hiccup when rapid firing during a mag dump. It did much better with 124-grain target ammo and was flawless with some 147-grain Hornady XTP that I had on hand. No mags were dumped with that ammo, though, as my wife is already mad at me for my ammo budget.
For fun, I screwed on the BANISH 9K and had similar experiences with it. It wasn’t quite as quiet as the 9, but the weight difference was noticeable as you would expect. It didn’t care for the lightest target loads, but past that, had no issues. At just 2.7 ounces, it is hard to beat the 9K for weight and performance, although I tend to keep mine attached to a different Springfield pistol – the Hellcat Pro. That’s another story, though.
My final combination for the Springfield Armory Echelon includes the Vortex Defender ST and the BANISH 9 suppressor. This combination takes a pistol that feels great in the hand and shoots extremely well for me and makes it just that much more fun and enjoyable to shoot. with an MSRP of $739 for the Echelon 4.5F threaded, it isn’t the cheapest gun out there, but you get quality, reliability, and solid accuracy.
The bottom line for me is really quite simple. If I test a firearm, I ask myself, would I buy it? I'm not going to lie. I have had some firearms that I have tested in my 20+ year career that I was more than happy to send back. With the Springfield Echelon, I knew about a week into testing it that I was going to ask Springfield to just send me the invoice. This baby is mine. You have to go get your own, but I think you should.
While some have had feed issues, during testing there were none experienced with this handgun. Follow proper break-in procedures and clean the firearm after use to avoid issues.
Without a suppressor attached, it fired every round it was fed, regardless of the weight. With a suppressor attached, the Echelon was more reliable with heavier and/or hotter ammo.
Our test Echelon had a 4.7-pound trigger pull and it was very crisp with a short follow through, making it a superb trigger feel and quite accurate.
I shot a few CDs in my day and found the Echelon to feel very different. While I liked the CDs, I like the Echelon better and I think many will like it, too. Go try one for yourself!
While many suppressors can be used on several different caliber firearms, we have some specific models that can make your shooting more enjoyable. Pick the caliber that you have in mind. If you don’t see your caliber, pick one close to it to see our recommendations.
