The new Springfield Armory Emissary is a big, bold brute of a gun—there’s nothing subtle about it. It features a unique tri-top slide design with chevron-style cuts towards the muzzle and wide and deep rear cocking serrations at the rear. It also has a finely serrated flat top between the sights. The slide is a high-polished blued steel, while the railed frame is satin finished stainless steel. Springfield Armory has given the Emissary grenade-style checkering for its front strap and its G10 grips mimic the same pattern. The squared triggerguard completes the Emissary’s “bold” look.
Springfield Armory machines its frame, slide and barrel from high quality steel forgings and it’s designed to provide the shooter with a lifetime of hard use in the most extreme conditions. There’s a single strong-side-only extended thumb safety and a high sweep beavertail grip safety that are both fit with precision. Springfield equips the gun with a stainless steel, bushing-less, barrel that helps tame muzzle flip.
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Designed for rapid sight acquisition, the front sight features a yellow luminescent ring around a Tritium lamp, while the rear sight has a deep “U” notch. In use, it is as easy as placing the ball in the basket and it can be devastatingly fast. But it is not built for precision long range shooting. Despite this, the Emissary acquitted itself quite well with an aggregate group size of just 1.18 inches with all groups shot at 25 yards. Part of this accuracy is attributable to the Emissary’s 3.75-pound trigger pull. It is crisp, without any creep and has absolutely no overtravel.
The Emissary is a prime example of what all production guns should be. It exhibits many of the traits associated with a hand-built custom pistol but with a production gun price of just $1,279!
