First Look: Echelon 4.5F with Manual Safety

In today’s article, Joe Woolley gives us a first look at the new Springfield Armory Echelon 4.5F with a manual safety. Many people are looking for a thumb safety on any defensive pistol, and Springfield is now offering it as an option on the Echelon 4.5F. The company provided a loaner pistol to the author for this review.

Introduced in the second half of 2023, the Springfield Armory Echelon 4.5F pistol has already had a darn good run. First, Guns & Ammo named it the “2023 Handgun of the Year”. Then the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers ranked it as the “Best New Handgun” for 2023. This year saw it win a “Gold” ranking in the Member Tested and Recommended program of the National Tactical Officer’s Association (NTOA).

Springfield announced in late May that they would be offering OD Green and Desert FDE colored versions for those so inclined. Now, they have a new version mounting a feature I think the NTOA and self-defense-minded citizens need to know about — an ambidextrous frame-mounted manual safety.

Basics of the Echelon 4.5F

First, the basics. The Echelon is a full-sized, polymer-frame, striker-fired 9x19mm Parabellum semi-automatic pistol. Overall height (without the Trijicon RMR sight we mounted) is 5.5”. Adding on the Trijicon brought the overall height to just over 6”, and this minimal increase in height was achieved through the fact you can direct-mount the optic to the slide (more on that in a bit).

Overall length of the pistol is 8”. The slide is made of billet machined steel with a tough Melonite finish. The barrel is 4.5” long (unless you get the 5.28” threaded barrel Echelon). Both are hammer-forged for accuracy and durability. The pistol comes with two magazines — one flush-fit that holds 17 rounds, and one extended that holds 20. Reduced capacity 15-round and 10-round models are also available for restricted locales.

Modularity seems to be the current theme for handguns, and I understand why. Handguns that don’t fit your hand correctly are much more difficult to shoot well. Grips that are too large or too small don’t index well on the target for anyone. To address this, the Echelon features a “grip module” that can be adapted to fit a wide range of hand sizes.

My dad had long piano-player fingers. He didn’t pass that gene along. I’m a big guy with wide hands and short fingers. Handgun fit can be problematic for me. Not so with the Echelon. Had it not been small enough (or large enough) for my hands, Springfield Armory includes additional backstraps that can easily be changed out to fit you hand. It comes with ones in small, medium and large sizes, and each features an integrated armorer’s tool. The medium size it shipped with worked great for me.

The grip module had several more features I liked. Just about every part of it I needed to touch was covered with what Springfield terms as “Adaptive Grip Texture.” This is the same texture you will find on the ever-popular Hellcat 9mm. If you are not familiar with it, think of it as having two layers of fine bumps. The first layer features flattened tops that provide a good grip when held lightly. The second/deeper layer has “sharpened” points that come into play when I use my death grip.

I don’t intend for handguns to move in my hands, and I squeeze them accordingly. The design on the Echelon made it easy to control under recoil. The texture was present on the magazine release, the bottom and forward surface of the trigger guard, the takedown lever, and the two index points on the sides of the frame. The trigger guard has been nicely relieved, allowing the middle finger of the shooting hand to ride as high as possible. It has also been sculpted to bring the support hand higher.

The slide is also designed to help the shooter. I am a big fan of press checks where I move the slide to the rear about ½” to verify whether the chamber is loaded. I understand that Rule #1 states that every gun is always loaded, but I want to know. I don’t like grabbing the rear of the slide where my hand covers the ejection port and hides everything I need to see. I’m also more than slightly paranoid about letting my hand come near the muzzle through this process.

The Echelon features forward grooves ending with a “trench” just forward of the ejection port to give me plenty of room and purchase. There are three more grooves at the rear of the slide that help accomplish the same goals if you prefer the “slingshot method” of operating a slide. The “wings” at the very back of the slide can also come in handy when manipulating a slide with a red dot attached.

The sighting system is another place where Springfield Armory shows some serious ingenuity. The iron sights are excellent. The rear sight offers a sharp ledge to allow one-handed manipulation as necessary. Then they beveled the corners to keep you from slicing up your hand clearing a malfunction. The notch is a deep “U” shape that mates up well with circular insert in the front sight. That has a tritium insert for low light capabilities along with a luminescent circle that makes it easy to pick up in the light. While not overly tall, both sights are of sufficient height to allow the shooter to co-witness them through the Trijicon RMR I installed.

Unique Features of the Springfield Armory Echelon

Remember I mentioned about direct-mounting the Trijicon RMR? You might think this means the Echelon has an optics footprint cut exclusively for that optic, and you would be wrong. Frankly, the optics mounting system for the Echelon is simply magic.

I’ve railed at optics manufacturers for years about developing a universal system for mounting handgun optics. It seems that everyone is determined to develop their own unique footprint for their sight and leave the mounting thereof to the gun companies.

To address this, Springfield Armory has produced an amazing solution with the Echelon to allow their products to easily mount most reflex optics. They call it the Variable Interface System, and the idea was to create an optics area that was already drilled and tapped for mounting screws and featuring movable pins to accept as many footprints as possible.

Screws are great, but red dots really need a recoil lug to stabilize the whole arrangement. The Echelon’s system also provides a couple of posts that fit in mortises on the top of the slide. These posts have tabs inboard of the recoil stud that impinges on the base of the optical sight. The tabs are built in such a way that the mounted sight pushes down on the tab, camming them and the recoil stud into a very tight fit with the slide and the sight. My experience has shown the system to be rock solid thus far. And it does all this without adapter plates for the vast majority of popular red dot optics out there. Chances are your preferred sight will mount directly to your Echelon slide, allowing for a rock-solid fit and — in most cases — cowitnessing of the excellent iron sights. Like I said, magical.

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In addition to the innovative Variable Interface System, the Echelon also features — within its polymer grip module — a stand-alone fire control unit Springfield calls the Central Operating Group. This is the serialized part that ATF considers to be the actual firearm. It also contains many slightly important working parts for the pistol — like the trigger and the sear. Or should I say, sears? More on that in a moment. Also, this system allows you to easily swap out grip modules in different colors and sizes.

According to Springfield, the Echelon is designed and tested to exceed SAAMI drop test parameters by adhering to extremely rigid standards set by the company. To achieve this, the Echelon’s Central Operating Group features a unique second sear design to help prevent unintentional discharge should the firearm be dropped.

The trigger proper within the Central Operating Group is a flat-faced unit that is designed to break at right around 90 degrees. It is wide with curved edges, making it comfortable to manipulate. It contains a blade safety that must be depressed before the remainder of the trigger can be moved to the rear. Since the safety disengages when it’s flush with the trigger face, there is no projection remaining to push into your trigger finger during recoil.

They also designed the striker so that it is fully tensioned when cocked. Simply rack the slide and everything is good to go. The trigger stroke doesn’t require any additional muscle to cock the striker, thus allowing that task to be accomplished with reduced effort.

On my sample, required trigger compression averaged a smooth 4.7 lbs. Since Springfield also seems to be about as paranoid as I am about safety, they also added a secondary sear that would stop the striker from contacting the primer in the very unlikely event the primary sear fails. No, I’ve never heard of that happening.

Echelon 4.5F Manual Safety Specifications

The Next Step

Now that we have laid out the details of the pistol itself, let’s dive into the identifying feature of this newest model. This latest version of the Echelon adds yet another safety feature in the guise of a frame-mounted, ambidextrous manual safety. It’s located at the rear of the frame, similar in position to that of a 1911.

Springfield’s take on this useful little gadget is different than most I’ve seen. Textured tabs are mounted on both sides of the frame at the rear. By the way, the Echelon should be great for southpaws — all the controls except the takedown lever are ambidextrous.

While relatively unobtrusive, the location and feel of these thumb safeties should make them easy to operate for anyone comfortable with a 1911-style pistol. Flipping up the safety locks the trigger, though not the slide. The Echelon can still be loaded, unloaded or chamber-checked with the safety engaged. The safety can even be engaged when the striker is at rest.

The lever is thick enough to be activated easily with a very positive “click” when done. It is also small enough that the shooting thumb can ride on the outside of the lever. Everyone has their own idea of what a perfect safety is. For some, a flat, wide paddle-type safety that requires the thumb to stay high in the grip can be uncomfortable. If that’s you, you need to try the Echelon.

The manual safety on the new Echelon provides extra back-up in the event of a critical incident. I love a good 1911 and the manual safety thereon when adrenalin is ramped up. All my experience has been in the competition world. I can’t imagine what it must be like when the threat is real. I like that safety there in case I forget Rule #3 (Keep your finger off the trigger until it is on the target and you have decided to shoot).

Shooting Results

I tested three different kinds and weights of ammo. The first is the new 80-gr. screamer from G9 Defense. These pint-size little pills averaged 1,536 fps. which generated 419 ft lbs. of energy and grouped just under 2”. Next, we selected the tried-and-true Remington 115-gr. FMJ “Green Box”. These mid-weight loads chrono’d at 1,171 fps with 350 ft lbs. of energy and averaged 1.41” groups.

Lastly, we wanted to see what some heavier bullets would do in this Echelon and picked up some 147-gr. FMJ’s from Fiocchi. Looking like a great subsonic option, the Fiocchi’s chronographed 966 fps. with 305 ft lbs. of energy and 1.49” groups. Average group size across all three types was just over 1.6”. Of course, this Echelon functioned perfectly — and we gave it plenty of chances to fail.

Springfield Echelon 4.5F with Manual Safety Performance

Conclusion

So there you have it. Springfield Armory has taken an already great 9mm duty-style pistol and added an appealing new feature to the platform. If you are the type of shooter who wants a reliable and accurate 9mm pistol with advanced features like its optics-mounting and modular grip module, and also prefers a manual safety, this is the one for you. The list price for the standard capacity as well as restricted locale-capacity guns is $679.

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