Springfield Armory may be on the cutting edge of handgun design with its Echelon, which was introduced in 2023, but the company isn't forgetting about folks who prefer a manual safety. Now, the Echelon line of guns has several manual-safety-equipped variants available, each outfitted with a bilateral thumb safety located in the traditional position at the top-rear portion of the frame.
The manual safety lever features styling and texturing that matches the rest of the gun's frame, enabling it not only to blend aesthetically but also provide a sleek, snag-free profile during use. Like other traditional thumb safeties found on guns like the M1911, the manual safety on the Echelon is engaged when its in the up position, preventing the gun from firing. A downward swipe with the thumb on the shooter's strong hand disengages the safety quickly and easily.
In addition to the company's standard-capacity Echelon, which ships with one 17-round and one 20-round magazine, manual-safety variants are also available in reduced-capacity models that have 15- and 10-round magazines only. Other than the capacity change, features among all three versions remain the same. The guns are outfitted with 4.5" hammer-forged steel barrels, which are contained within a billet slide treated with a Melonite finish. The guns are optics-ready and ship with a mounted cover plate.
On the frame, the Springfield Echelon includes wraparound grip texturing, along with texturing on the front portion of the frame behind the four-slot Picatinny accessory rail. A deep trigger-guard undercut and frame beavertail makes it easy to obtain a high firing grip for optimal recoil control, and a bilateral magazine-release button makes it easy to change magazines with either hand. Interchangeable backstraps also enable users to fit the gun to their hand. A blade-in-shoe trigger safety adds an additional element of security to the gun's firing mechanism, ensuring that the gun will fire only with a deliberate trigger pull.
The suggested retail price on the manual safety-equipped version of the Springfield Armory Echelon is $679. For more details, visit springfield-armory.com.
