Springfield Armory brought several new offerings to show off in Houston last weekend for the 151st NRA Annual Meeting. 

Guns.com caught up with shooting sports legend Rob Leatham to get the 411 on new guns from Springer such as the 16+1 capacity XD-M Elite 4.5 OSP in 10mm, the innovative 15+1 capacity Hellcat Pro, and a new Commander-length Emissary model in 9mm.

The new XD-M Elite 4.5 Optical Sight Pistol, as its name would infer, comes standard from Croatia via Springer with a 4.5-inch hammer-forged steel barrel and a slide milled for a micro red dot. With a 7.6-inch overall length, the pistol includes an extended and flared “short” magwell for rapid magazine swaps.

Using flush-fitting 15-round magazines rather than the standard Hellcat's 11+1, the Hellcat Pro brings a 3.7-inch hammer-forged barrel to the carry game in what Springfield says is a smaller footprint than any other gun in its class. For those keeping count at home, the Hellcat Pro runs 6.6 inches in overall length and 1 inch in width, which puts it in the same box as the nominally 10+1 capacity Glock 43X.

With a distinctive frame that includes a squared, glove-friendly trigger guard, the Emissary has wrap-around grip texturing, a skeletonized hammer, and a solid-body flat-faced trigger.

Springfield also had the Hellion, the Croatian-made consumer variant of the VHS-2 bullpup rifle. In testing, we found this gun to be reliable and have one of the best triggers on the market when it comes to bullpups.

Another interesting new rifle on the wall at Springfield's booth was the sub-MOA guaranteed Saint Edge ATC. Debuted last December, the rifles, offered in a standard black model as well as an Elite Coyote Brown model with a better trigger and stock, are both built on a one-piece monolithic lower that is machined from 6061 T6 aluminum.