XD all the way - i bought the 4'' 45 acp model i love it. ive shot several other brands since - simply no comparison

Where are you buying ammo? 45 auto is more expensive than both the 9mm and 40 s/w.

I too was recently shopping. went to a store and handled both the springfield and sr9. I chose the sr9. it felt better in my hand, I didnt like the grip safety, the ruger has a mag release on both sides that doesnt have to be 'switched', its already there, finally, the sr9 also has an actual safety.

my suggestion is to get to a store that has both in stock and feel them out.

also, my ruger out the door was less than $500. the springfields are higher than that. at the local place,about $100 higher.

I really like the SR9's. Of the ones I've held it is my favorite. I also liked that it had a actual safety as well as the trigger safety. Moreso just the actual safety. I don't want a gun without much less a handgun without a safety. I'm not so sure why soo many new ones don't have them. Even with the trigger safety's if something hit the trigger just right it could still go off. Not likely but possible enough to worry me.

Anyone else know about the +P rounds not to be used in polymer framed pistols? If so why shouldn't you use them?

That is one reason why a quality holster is very important regardless of what type of handgun you are talking about.

trust me the XD's with no safety are perfectly safe and i belive they are making them with and external saftey noe anyways. Ive tryed and tryed to get mine to misfire on me because of the no safety and couldnt do it. I do have a good Blackhawk holster that completely covers the trigger whyle its in it.

As for the +P ammo, They said it is because the Polymer is not built to hold up to the power of the recoil the +P ammo makes. I belive they ment more for 45 then a 9mm.

The springfield xd has a grip safety,as well as other internal safetys,so even without the manual safety (optional) it's still IMPOSSIBLE for 1 to just "go off" if something "hit" the trigger.

What's a grip safety? I know you all probably think I'm an idiot but I have no idea what one is.

See the button on the back of the grip. Its the grip safety it has to be pressed with a firm grip for the gun to function. It is mainly on 1911's but Springfield is famous for 1911's.

Oh that's cool. I wouldn't mind having something like that. I know when I looked at several guns at a local place they didn't have safeties at all. At least I didn't see anything like that on them. Only had a heavy trigger pull and I didn't like that at all.

I held a springfield w/ the grip safety and didnt like the way it felt in my hand. seemed like i had to hold it way up on the gun to keep the grip lever in check.