2022 Handgun Of The Year: Springfield SA-35

Now in their 20th year, the Golden Bullseye Awards are chosen annually to recognize the firearm industry’s best new offerings. Here is this year’s winner as selected by the editors of “The World’s Oldest And Largest Firearm Authority.”

Field Editor Justin Dyal’s experience with the iconic High Power pistol stretches back several decades, so when he made the bold claim in our cover story, “Classic, Modern, American: Springfield’s SA-35 High Power,” that the SA-35 “sets a new standard for being ready to go straight out of the box,” it got our attention. As beloved and venerated as John M. Browning’s pistol remains today, the design does not come without its own set of gripes, and Dyal said Springfield appears to have taken these shortcomings to heart in designing its rendition of the High Power.

“Custom High Powers tend to feature enhanced sights, eliminate the magazine-disconnect safety, replace or re-contour the hammer to eliminate hammer bite, change the shape of the thumb safety, improve the trigger pull, replace the stocks and bevel the magazine well,” Dyal explained. “From my perspective, the SA-35 easily has the best sights, thumb safety, trigger pull, stocks and magazine well of any factory offering in the design’s 85-plus-year history.” Between his lofty praise and our excitement at finally seeing a domestically produced High Power on the market, the Springfield SA-35 was an easy choice for Handgun Of The Year. springfield-armory.com

About the Golden Bullseye Award:
The Golden Bullseye Awards were created two decades ago to recognize quality, innovation and value within the firearm industry, with the editors of the NRA Publications Division convening annually to nominate and select the standout performers from the previous year’s crop of new products. The discussions can get animated at times—as each year there are always more new guns, ammunition, optics and accessories worthy of accolade than we could possibly call out—but consensus eventually results in winners being selected, with the passionate back and forth serving as evidence of the firearm industry’s health and innovative spirit.