A sure thing for home defense and barrel-of-monkeys fun on the steel range, Springfield’s Saint Victor 5.5″ PDW 9mm is no novelty firearm
by Rob Reaser
I’ve been accused of being a lot of things, and most of those things are likely true. Yet being “with the times” certainly has never been one of those things. I like older stuff. Classical stuff. Even archaic stuff.
Take music, for instance. My wife used to hit me with this all the time.
“You should listen to something new,” she would say, usually while I had Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Guns N’ Roses or some other great cranked up.
“Anything after 1988 is crap,” was my standard, flat reply. And it still is.
I’m sort of that way with firearms. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy shooting the latest and greatest products coming to market, and I own many of them; however, it often takes guns with heritage and legacy to get me excited.
Having something of a Luddite personality, you’ll understand why I yawn at most contemporary ARs but get rather animated when heading to the range with my M4 or M16 clones in tow. Cool stuff, there, in all their bare-bones, open sight, MILSPEC glory.
So, it’s not difficult to see that I’ve not jumped onto the whole AR pistol or PDW (personal defense weapon) things with vigor. Yeah, some of them are interesting, and, yeah, I keep a 300 BLK SBR I built propped beside the bed (I’m not THAT much of a Luddite). But move the discussion to AR pistols chambered for pistol caliber ammo…never tripped my trigger.
Springfield Armory’s just-released Saint Victor 5.5″ PDW, though, has elevated the PDW thing several notches in my estimation. With its 5.5-inch barrel, the gun is pure fun on the steel range, and for close-quarter home defense environments, it’s a definite winner.
The Saint Victor 5.5″ PDW seen here is a variant of the 5.5″ Pistol already in the Saint Victor line. Both guns are chambered for 9mm, and both utilize a direct blowback bolt operating system. These guns are fed via 32-round Colt-style magazines. The only differences between the two is that the pistol variant is black while the PDW features a Tungsten Gray Cerakote finish, and the PDW comes with SB Tactical’s HBPDW brace.
The HBPDW brace is a quality piece. Based on the Q Honey Badger brace, the HBPDW provides three-position adjustment and an extra contact point for enhanced stabilization and control. Simply push a button to extend or collapse the brace to your desired position. An ambidextrous QD sling swivel cup allows for left- or right-side cross-body mounting.
The handguard is the expected free-float variety and secures to the barrel nut with SA locking tabs. M-LOK slots — one on each handguard flat — accommodate the accessories of your choice. The gun comes with a hand stop mounted to the bottom of the handguard. I don’t like hand stops, so I took this one off for testing.
Operationally, the 5.5″ PDW is standard AR fare. One feature that stands out here is the 45-degree safety selector throw. This shorter throw (versus the 90-degree throw of a standard AR design) makes it faster and easier to shift from safe to semi-auto fire with a simple flick of the thumb.
The trigger, you’ll note, is a flat-shoe design and comes with nickel boron coating. It feels like a better choice for this platform than a conventional curved trigger. The trigger pull weight averages 3 to 3.5 pounds.
The diminutive handguard, while open for attaching accessories, doesn’t provide a lot of acreage for a support hand grip. Adding even a sling swivel forces the hand into the corner of the guard and magazine well. It’s just something you must get comfortable with when deploying a PDW like this.
The muzzle protrudes only about 5/8 inches past the end of the handguard. Springfield’s over-the-barrel muzzle drum makes tidy work of it, extending 1.25 inches beyond the handguard. For testing, I removed the factory muzzle drum and installed the RXD910Ti suppressor developed as a collaboration between Dead Air Silencers and Ruger. For this, I removed the suppressor’s pistol booster and interfaced the can and barrel with the Dead Air P-series fixed mount, which screws directly onto the muzzle’s 1/2-28 threads.
For testing, I setup the 5.5″ PDW with the aforementioned suppressor, Blue Force Gear adjustable sling, and Meprolight’s M22 Pro optic. Fully decked out and with a full 32-round magazine of 115-gr. Magtech 9mm FMJ, the kit weighed in at 7.5 lbs. Slung cross-body, it proved to be a light-to-wear, easy-to-maneuver rig. For transport and storage, the gun comes with a padded case with exterior pockets that hold two magazines each.
I began range time by zeroing the optic at 25 yards and then establishing accuracy potential. I shot 10-round groups and was never disappointed. The below target was representative of the 5.5″ PDW’s accuracy with the 115-gr. Magtech load. Here, a 1.37-inch group. I chose 25 yards since that is on the far side of the typical range for home defense engagement yet within the 9mm Luger’s effective terminal ballistic performance. Average velocity of the Magtech load was 1198.9 fps with a standard deviation of 18.4 fps. Good, consistent ammo!
With accuracy like this from a 3.5 MOA red dot, what more could you ask for?
Operationally, the gun ran smoothly and reliably, with no failures throughout the cycle of operation. I really liked that short-throw safety selector.
The trigger, though, was something of an oddity. The flat shoe offered a solid purchase for the trigger finger and the single-stage operation proved crisp, with practically no detectable sear travel before the break. The reset is equally super short. The oddity is that the pull, when firing, feels heavier than the 3 – 3.5 lbs. the Lyman trigger scale recorded in the shop. Go figure. Whatever the case, this system works well for this platform.
With the accuracy testing out of the way, I spent the rest of my time splashing lead against steel. Whether standing, kneeling, or barricade shooting, the 5.5″ PDW was quick on the target and even faster on target reacquisition. As a close-quarter defensive arm or something to have an absolute blast with on the steel range, Springfield Armory’s latest addition to the Saint Victor family is a home run.
But is it enough for this Luddite to jump into the PDW arena?
Hmmm…I may have to give it serious consideration.
Springfield Armory Saint Victor 5.5″ PDW Specifications
- Barrel: 5.5″ CMV, Melonite, 1:10, 1/2×28
- Upper Receiver: forged 7075 T6 aluminum, type III hardcoat anodized
- Lower Receiver: Forged 7075 T6 aluminum, type III hardcoat anodized, Accu-Tite Tension System
- Finish: Tungsten Gray
- Bolt Carrier Group: 9mm blowback
- Handguard: aluminum free-float w/ SA locking tabs, M-LOK
- Pistol Brace: SB Tactical HBPDW
- Trigger: nickel boron-coated flat
- Muzzle Device: SA muzzle drum
- Receiver Extension: 3-position adjustable
- Receiver End Plate: QD
- Charging Handle: standard
- Safety Lever: 45-degree short-throw ambidextrous
- Trigger Guard: B5 Systems, polymer
- Grip: B5 Systems Type 23 P-Grip
- MAGAZINES: (1) 32-round
- Weight: 5 lbs., 15 oz.
- Length: 18.5 – 23.25 in.
- MSRP: $1,399
