Springfield XD CAA Micro Conversion Kits

The Micro Conversion Kits “MCK” have been out for a couple years for other brands of pistols. So imagine my excitement as I spotted the prototype of the Springfield MCK at the CAA Shot Show booth basically hiding out in plain sight. We were told that plans were to get these out to the public by summer 2020, and I put my name on the the list for take my money. Unfortunately as luck would have it, a world wide pandemic slowed everything to a halt. During my quarantine I basically sat alone eagerly refreshing my browser and waiting in anticipation for any updates on all the new gifts a new year would bring. Then the good news—CAA would finally start shipping the Springfield XD MCK kits.  

Now the Springfield MCK is a stabilizing brace pistol. Basically a polymer clam shell that fits around your favorite Springfield XD pistol. The whole contraption makes the pistol larger giving you plenty of real estate to bolt all sorts of goodies to it. The MCK essentially transforms the XD pistol into a temporary Pistol Caliber Carbine “PCC”. Temporary in that MCK brace allows for multiple shooting positions from single handed shooting all the way up to shouldering the brace and everything in between. 

Easy and fun to shoot the PCC is one of the hottest segments in the firearms industry. With less recoil and noise than full fledged rifles, they can be less intimidating to newer users. Experienced shooters love that a PCC can be easily mastered and can be shot at almost every range even when a rifle caliber may not be allowed. On a budget? The MCK means that you can take a currently owned pistol and change its capabilities on a whim just by inserting it into the chassis.

The Springfield MCKSA9 fits 13 different XD pistols in 4 different barrel lengths with the small frame version. The MCKSA45 large frame version fits 7 different XD’s that are chambered in 45acp and 10mm. Both versions come with adapters to fit the Classic XD’s, XDM, XDmod.2 and even the new XDM Elite pistols. 

All Springfield MSK’s come with the newer Gen 2 extended stabilizer that is super comfortable to use in multiple shooting positions. The soft rubber easily wraps around the arm and comes with a vector strap to stay secure. A bonus is that the brace was designed to allow the MCK to shoot while folded or open. Topping off the Springfield MCK is a 12 inch aluminum Picatinny rail. Earlier Gen 1 versions of the MCK’s for other pistols came with polymer rails. People complained that the polymer rails were not up to snuff and CAA fixed that with the standard included aluminum version. Who doesn’t love a full 12 inches giving you plenty of room to add your favorite flip up sights and a red dot all at the same time. 

All CAA MCK’s come with the option of adding an advanced kit. That upgrade comes with a front and rear flip up sight set, a single point sling, flashlight or laser and a set of thumb rests. My favorite thing in the advanced kit is the tiny S1 Baton Olight flashlight. Requiring only one CR123 battery it’s so tiny and cute but packs in the features. Offering three different lighting levels, the brightest at around 500 lumens, it is amazingly bright for its size. The light can easily be programed to return to each of the three levels direct or a simple two click press goes right up to bright. Once the unit is on another 3 taps turns on the strobe function. The light is so small it hardly adds any weight to the overall package. 

Using the MCK is super easy. In the box, it comes with a few charging handles that are meant to press fit onto the back of the different XD slides.  Insert the charging handle that matches your pistol into the MCK body using a twisting motion.  Then slide it all the way to the rear of the MCK body. Adjust the MCK barrel shroud to match your barrel length by adjusting the screws on the front polymer rails and pushing the barrel shroud in or out. That’s the hard part of the set up and if you are not regularly  using the MCK with different versions of XD pistols you can leave them as is. Now insert the nose of your unloaded pistol into the front of the MCK until it locks into place. You should hear an audible click. Now close the back locking gate and the MCK is ready to use. Once you get the hang of it you can insert or remove your pistol in seconds. 

Before I added my Springfield Hex Dragonfly red dot, I dialed in the CAA polymer flip up sights. Now remember that this MCK will never have the accuracy of a sniper rifle. The whole way this conversion kit works is by a pistol press fitting into a polymer body. Each time you install or remove the pistol how it fits in the MCK slightly changes. With that said the MCK excels with distances of up to 50 yards. It is easily able to hold a repeated groupings of a couple inches after repeated installation and removal of your pistol. On my particular unit with the CAA flip up polymer sights, I had to adjust the rear sight all the way to the left to finally center my impacts at distance. And while this was disappointing, I plan to try further experimentation to see if it’s the sights, the rail or maybe how I’m inserting the pistol to narrow down what’s affecting the sighting in. 

While the flip up sights get the job done, adding a red dot makes the MCK truly remarkable. The whole MCK may seem like a gimmick, but trust me it is not. After adding my Springfield Hex Dragonfly, it was like adding a supercharger to a car. The red dot truly allowed me to drive the platform like it was meant to be. 

Even though the Springfield MCK may be a new product, I have some insight into the durability of the product. I contract for an indoor range.  At that range one of our rental guns is a Glock 17 in a Gen 2 MCK. Now if you don’t know anything about working at a range know this—rental guns are abused. Think about it.  Every day strangers rent firearms that they have no attachment to. They get thrown about, dropped, bled on and cleaned only when absolutely needed. Even though we tell customers to use in house ammo only, people still run all kinds of ammo through the guns. Officially, over a 6 month period,  that Glock in the MCK easily has over 10 thousand rounds though it.  Yep, I even checked in the computer. But a more realistic number, would be twice that and there are still no breakages of the MCK. So if you just take even one ounce of care of your MCK, I think it will be fine. 

The MCK is not a firearm and requires no background check. As an accessory, it is a fun and viable option to take an already owned pistol and basically make it two different firearms. The MCK can be had for between 280 to 500 dollars depending on all the different options and lights and lasers you add to your package. The fact that even with just the base unit it will work with almost every XD and XDM (with a few exceptions) ever made, makes it a real winner in my book. If I had to pick one upgrade that I consider a must for the MCK, it would be a red dot that mounts as “co-witnesed height”. As I said before the red dot makes this platform truly formidable. My second choice is the Olight flashlight.  It gives the MCK 24 hour performance. I mean how else are you going to identify your target in the dark. The flashlight is easily one of the best features of the MCK. Overall the MCK fits all the check marks from being a fun range toy all the way up expanding the capabilities of your pistol. And while it may seem like an expensive investment the quality of the package as a whole is a great investment and should bring you years of enjoyment and service.

Is the MCK perfect? No, but none of the cons are things that are in the category making the MCK a don’t buy. On my personally purchased unit the CAA polymer foldable sights are off. To sight the MCK in centered at 25 yards I had to adjust the rear sight ALLLLL the way to the left. Does that make the MCK unusable, no it just bothers me and like I said I will have to do some further investigation. Especially since our rental MCK the rear sight is slightly to the left but not as bad as my unit. Every time you remove the gun you may have to re-sight in the platform depending on how picky you are. Now as I said this will matter most if you are shooting long distances. If your plan is to stay within across the house, across the bedroom, or distances up to 25 yards, you will easily get defensive accuracy even with repeated installation.  There’s no suppressor option…..Booo the Glock version 2 MCK has the option for removing the barrel shroud for use with a suppressor. Come on CAA,  the Springfield MCK is a version 2 platform but lacks that function. I want a quiet Springfield MCK, so I can be all tacticool and such. And there’s one final con.  Yes, the MCK works with a ton of different XD pistols, but if you have a compact 3 inch XD, an OSP XD/XDM with suppressor sights and a thread barrel or even the long 5.25 XDM, the MCK will not work for you. 

If you like what you saw and are interested in getting on of these fantastic MCK kits, we have them for sale ready to ship

Lets take a look at the Glock MCK that we use as a rental gun in the indoor range that I contract for. Remember this unit has over 10 thousand rounds through it officially in the computer system. But customers are always bringing their own ammo in as well so a good guess would be twice that amount of actual usage. The next thing to remember that these guns are not cleaned unless necessary when they stop functioning. So I am trying to say this MCK has lived a hard life, if it can survive the life of being a range rental, you should be ok.