The very first handgun I purchased was a 40 caliber XDm. The reason that I chose it was that it's what I shot best with off the wall of rental polymer pistols at a local range/gunshop. Fact is that I find the it points superbly. However, the 40 caliber M&P was a very close second and the grip is probably the best feeling polymer grip on the market. In all honesty, I'm not really a fan of the off road traction bars on the XDm and prefer the stippling of the M&P.
Since that purchase, I picked up 4 S&W revolvers and 2 Sig Sauers, which I believe was the prototype of the grip contours on my XDm, when compared to the grip on my Sig P239 it measures almost identically in reach and width with length being the only major difference. The Match Barrel hype is just that, from a bench rest I can shoot tighter groups with my P239. So, it's not going to group under an inch at 25 yards, but it will group between 2 and 2 1/2 inches and that's certainly good enough for Action Pistol Matches.
Pluses for the XDm is that it has a LOT of capacity, in the 40 caliber it's 16 rounds in the magazine. It also has a decent trigger for a striker fired pistol and a short reset. Recoil isn't at all bad and feels very similar to the recoil of my P239. I also like that the XDm features a grip safety, with that safety you don't have to worry about an AD while holstering if the trigger gets snagged as long as you stay off the grip safety. Finally, with the 4.5 inch version, you get a nice long sight radius.
Minuses are that like most striker fired pistols there is a noticeable amount of creep once the sear is engaged, about 1/16 inch. There is also about 1/16 inch of overtravel in the trigger, however that is easy to fix with a small shaped bit of rubber glued to the frame. One benefit of adding an improvised overtravel stop is that the reset is effectively reduced to about 1/8 inch, which makes rapid fire drills very easy to run. I also find the pre-travel spring is a bit too weak, whenever I pick it up and start shooting it I have a tendance to "slap" the trigger for the first couple of magazines. Probably because I always do some DA revolver shooting at every range session. Finally the bore axis is a bit higher than some of the polymers on the market so there is a bit more muzzle flip than something with a low bore axis like a Glock. Since Sig Sauers have a bore axis similar to my XDm, the muzzle flip really doesn't bother me but it would probably be an issue for someone used to shooting semi's with a low bore axis.
Bottomline, the XDm is a quality polymer with the mixed blessings of almost any polymer, which means that you get a somewhat so so trigger in a fairly light weight pistol with pretty high capacity magazines. For me the most positive feature is that it's such a good "natural" pointing pistol. Would I recomend it, not sure, some would be driven nuts by the trigger. However, I would certainly recomend taking one for a test drive.
