Though mainly known for its bolt-action hunting and competition rifles, Savage Arms has a history with handguns that goes back to the company's earliest days when it competed with John Browning to be the U.S. military’s first semi-automatic handgun. This competition led to the Savage 1907, a popular early concealed carry pistol. Savage has had a handgun renaissance as of late, introducing its own lineup of iconic M1911 pistols and jumping into the popular micro-compact handgun market in 2022 with the Stance. New for 2025, Savage is introducing an updated and enhanced micro-compact pistol with the Stance XR.
The Stance XR takes the original Savage Stance design and gives it greater magazine capacity and a better trigger. Image courtesy of Savage Arms.
Like the original Stance, the Stance XR is a polymer-frame, striker-fired 9 mm Luger handgun with a locked-breech action and a modular serialized chassis. A fully ambidextrous design, all controls are bilateral, including an optional manual external safety lever. The 18-degree grip angle is textured and stippled on all sides with a customizable size through the use of interchangeable backstraps and the slide is beveled for easy holstering and unholstering.
Like the original Stance, the Stance XR has fully ambidextrous bilateral controls. Image courtesy of Savage Arms.
Updates on the Stance XR include a Picatinny accessory rail molded into the dustcover and a slide designed for mounting electronic optics with Savage’s Quick-Release Optics (QRO) plate-mounting system. The trigger is re-designed to have a crisper pull and a shorter reset. Magazine capacity is increased from the original Stance’s seven rounds to 10 rounds with a flush-mounted magazine or 13 rounds with an extended magazine (one magazine of each capacity is supplied with each pistol). Dimensions are 6.2” overall length with a 3.2” stainless steel barrel, 4.6” high with the flush-mounted magazine, 0.96” wide at the slide and an unloaded weight of 22 ozs.
Magazine capacity on the Stance XR has been increased to 10 rounds with a flush-fit magazine or 13 rounds with an extended magazine (pictured). Image courtesy of Savage Arms.
The Stance XR will be offered with black, flat dark-earth (FDE) and gray frame finishes with the modular chassis allowing the end user to swap colors. Slides are made of stainless steel and are given a flat black nitride finish.
The Stance XR is available with XS night sights that features an orange tritium dot on the front sight and two tritium dots on the rear sight. Image courtesy of Savage Arms.
The Savage Stance XR has an MSRP of $461 for the base model, $539 for models with XS night sights, and $631 for models with nights sights and a factory-installed Crimson Trace CTS-1500 red-dot sight. For more information, see the company’s website.
The Stance XR is available with a factory-installed Crimson Trace CTS-1500 red dot sight that uses the pistol’s new optics mounting system. Image courtesy of Savage Arms.
