I was gifted an XD40 Springfield Armory service model a few years back by a friend who didn't like the idea that it had "too many springs and parts" to mess with (he is a revolver guy). I already had a SA XD45 so I was familiar with the platform. I used it on a course I took and fired over 500 round in the two day class. At the end I had to ask myself what all the hype about recoil was as it is a *****cat. I'm not a big guy but I have worked with my hands all my life so the recoil nonsense was a bit of a joke. Enough so that I recently bought a Shield 40 2.0 for a pocket gun. Plenty of good defensive ammo out there and no issues with either. I have plenty of 9s but seem to go the .40 more often than not.