I’m a big-bore fan. I was delighted when the Springfield XD 45 was announced. I grabbed one as soon as it was available but was disappointed to discover that the grip size of the .45 version is slightly bigger than that of the .40 caliber version I’d carried for years. In fact, it proved to be too big for my small hands. Proof was in my overly large groups; I was not able to properly control the gun.

Knowing that shot placement is far more important than bullet size, I reluctantly gave in to the fact that the gun was simply too big for me. My XD 40 went back into my holster as my primary firearm. I didn’t realize it, but the solution—Springfield Armory’s Custom Shop—was right under my nose.

I had the chance to speak with Dave Williams, head of Springfield’s Custom Shop, and mentioned that the grip of the XD 45 was a little too large for me. He suggested that the Custom Shop could reshape the grip into a smaller configuration. I was delighted.

Heinie’s Straight Eight sights feature tritium inserts, reduced glare and permit one-handed cycling of the slide.

Checking its website, I saw that the Custom Shop does trigger work, frame work and installs match barrels along with myriad other services.

I contacted Dave and discussed a host of options. I wanted a four-inch base gun without the thumb safety. The primary modification was to reduce the grip circumference in order to shorten the trigger reach. I also asked him to undercut the trigger guard to help lower the gun in my hand.

For increased purchase, especially when my hands are slippery with sweat, I asked Dave to stipple the grip to a sandpaper-like surface. And while I’m happy with the factory trigger on my current XD, a little smoothing out couldn’t hurt.

As for sights, I wanted night sights with the ability to belt-rack the slide. We bantered back and forth a bit and decided upon the Straight Eight design by Heinie.

The sights consist of a tritium dot in the front sight post and a single, slightly smaller tritium dot in the rear sight. The proper sight picture is created by placing one dot on top of the other to form an elongated figure 8.

The gun arrived in four weeks, exactly when Dave said it would. The grip reshaping did the trick. It felt exactly like my XD 40. I placed the customized .45 on top of my .40 and visually confirmed that the grips were indeed now the same size.

Upon first inspection of the stippling, I was disappointed in the texture. It was not as coarse as I had anticipated. The workmanship, however, was quite nice. The entire underside of the trigger guard was stippled as well as all the way under the rear of the frame right through to the beavertail.