Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS

Today, we’re comparing the Springfield Armory Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS. Both of these guns are small concealed-carry micro-9mms. This class of handguns was popularized when the Sig P365 was introduced and its 10-round capacity rocked the concealed carry world.

Previously, guns of that size had only held six rounds. 

Springfield realized that their XD-S options were not doing as well with the popularity of the Sig P365 SAS, so they introduced their own brand-new Hellcat.

This gun boasted 11 rounds with a flush-fit magazine and 13 with the extra magazine included with the gun. It offered its own feature set, which we’ll discuss below.

Dimensions

Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS Concealed Carry

When comparing the Springfield Armory Hellcat vs the Sig Sauer P365 SAS, the size, weight, and capacity are all key attributes.

Using their flush-fit magazines, the Springfield Hellcat and Sig P365 SAS are almost identical in weight. When you account for the extra round in the Hellcat, it’s still only 0.1 ounces heavier than the P365 SAS. Weight is an important factor if you’re carrying this gun without a belt. When you don’t have a belt to support the weight of the holster and the gun, every ounce matters.

So while you do get one extra round of capacity with the Hellcat, you don’t really see a weight advantage in turn.

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Size

Both of these guns are going to be similar to carry from my weight perspective. When it comes to size, normally one of the most important dimensions for concealment is the width of the grip and the height of the firearm from the bottom of the magazine baseplate to the top of the slide. 

These guns are identical when it comes to the width of the grip, but the Springfield Armory Hellcat has an advantage vs the Sig P365 SAS when it comes to the height of the gun.

The Springfield Armory Hellcat, as you can see on the chart, is 0.2 inches shorter than the Sig P365 SAS. While this may not sound like a lot, it’s a huge amount when it comes to concealment. This holds true for all types of concealed carry. 

I’m going to have to say the winner is the Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS when it comes to concealment. Both of these guns are very small and will conceal well for most users, but the Springfield Hellcat does get a slight advantage for its slightly smaller size and an extra round of capacity. The Hellcat holds 11 rounds standard while the Sig P365 SAS only holds 10.

Both of these firearms have the ability to add higher-capacity magazines as well. The Sig P365 SAS has the option to add either a 12-round or 15-round extended magazine while the Springfield Hellcat only has the option for a 13-round extended mag.

Both of these can work well for concealment too if you’re carrying inside or outside the waistband but realize your concealment advantage will go away with the longer grip.

Ergonomics Overall

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Both of these guns take very different ergonomic cues and feel quite different. You’re going to feel a drastic difference when you handle these guns in a store.

Frame

Your Springfield Hellcat frame is going to feel much larger in the hand than a Sig P365 SAS frame. This is due to the increased circumference around the grip, which is a major advantage for larger-handed shooters while the decreased circumference on the Sig P365 SAS is an advantage for those with smaller hands. 

Earlier, we mentioned that the Springfield Hellcat was slightly shorter in the grip than the Sig P365 SAS if you were using flush-fit magazines. That could be a disadvantage for the shooter, as I personally cannot get my bottom pinky on the grip of the Hellcat for support.

The top of my pinky just barely touches the magazine baseplate and I don’t get any force from that finger. The Sig P365 SAS, on the other hand, allows me to get three-quarters of my pinky on the magazine baseplate and a very solid grip on the gun. 

If you throw an extension in, my hands worrk great with both firearms.

But without that extension, there’s definitely an advantage to the grip on the Sig P365 SAS having that little bit of extra pinky room. But for that little bit of advantage in shooting, you’re going to get a little less of a concealable firearm. 

Unfortunately, there is no perfect world and we have to make compromises at times.

There’s no modularity built into the frame of either one of these pistols, no removal backstraps, or anything like that. However, you can replace the entire frame on the Sig P365 SAS quite easily. There are multiple companies making aftermarket frames, and you can always put a Sig P365 frame on the gun as well.

I’d say that’s an advantage to the Sig P365 SAS vs the Springfield Hellcat.

Texture

The texture on the Sig P365 SAS is a standard P365 texturing and it feels really good. It’s aggressive and going to hold steady in your hand, but it’s not going to cause any issues if you have softer hands. I can say the same about the texturing on the Springfield Armory Hellcat, although it appears just a little bit slicker. 

Neither of these textures are going to cause you any pain or discomfort unless you have very sensitive skin where you’re concealed carrying them. I do have to say that I think Sig Sauer did a slightly better job on the texture on the P365 SAS. (Also, if that texturing ever wore down, you could easily replace the frame on the firearm. That is not an option for the Hellcat. You would have to have the gun completely re-stippled to get more texture.)

Slide

When comparing the slides on these two guns, it’s really a no-brainer.

The finish on the slide of the two pistols is almost identical, so that really doesn’t affect the use of the slide, but the serrations themselves are much better on the Sig P365. They’re just more aggressive and I find them easier to use than the serrations on the Springfield Hellcat. The serrations on the Hellcat are not that aggressive. If my hands got really sweaty or wet, I’m confident I can rack the slide on the Sig P365 SAS. I couldn’t say the same about the Hellcat.

Sights

When comparing the sights on the Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS, this is where we’re first going to see a major deviation in design. 

The Springfield Armory Hellcat has a pretty standard set of sights. They’re a very good set of sights but are only the standard. They use dovetails to insert the sight into the gun and the front is a very bright yellow where they have tritium vials in it, while the rear sight has a painted white U around the rear notch. They’re very high-contrast and work well in the daylight. The front night sight works decently in low-light conditions.

Unique SAS Sights

The Sig Sauer P365 SAS, on the other hand, is something not many have seen before. The sights on the P365 SAS are based on the Meprolight Bullseye design. The sight itself is mounted into the rear of the gun flush with the slide.

There’s a window at the front of the sight unit that has a fiber optic. That fiber-optic gathers light and subsequently causes the sight to glow. 

When you look at the rear of the gun, you’ll see there is a tunnel. That tunnel has a traditional fiber optic circle in the front of the gun and then it has a fiber optic ring around that. To aim the sights, you place the ring over the front sight over your target and then center the ring around the dot.

This is a bit untraditional, and while it sounds cool in theory, I have my reservations about the system.

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The system requires somewhat of a different focus than traditional sights.

It doesn’t use a target focus like a red-dot, but it’s not quite a front-sight focus either. The front-sight focus on this system obscures the target more than a traditional front-sight in my opinion.

It’s definitely usable, but if you’re shooting with one eye closed, it’s definitely not as easy to see your target as if you’re shooting with both eyes open. 

Therefore, if you’re a shooter that shoots both eyes open, you’re probably going to want to go with the sight on the Springfield Armory Hellcat.

The Sig P365 SAS sights just aren’t as accurate. If you’re shooting these guns at a distance, the Hellcat is going to outperform the P365 SAS all day long.

This is completely due to the sighting system. 

Mechanical Accuracy

Mechanically, these guns have a very similar level of accuracy. The SAS sights are designed to be low-profile and not snap. They’ll probably work pretty well for somebody shooting within 7 yards, but once you get outside of that, they can become harder to use.

Also, they’re not the easiest sights in the world to pick up. If you’re the type of person that doesn’t practice with your carry-on regularly, then the sights on the Springfield Armory Hellcat are going to be much easier to use. 

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Another thing I’ll mention is that the sight on the Springfield Armory Hellcat tends to be more reliable. I haven’t heard many cases of the tritium vials breaking on this Springfield Armory Hellcat, while the Sig Meprolight sights have issues with coming to the consumer dead quite often.

My shop has had a lot of the Sig P365 SAS’s where the tritium component of the sight is dead. That said, it’s still fairly dull when you’re shooting it in low-light scenarios. The sight works much better if you have some sort of ambient light to lighten up those fiber-optic rods.

Aftermarket

There are no aftermarket sight options for the Sig P365 SAS, unless you consider the fact that you can get mounting plates for a red-dot on this gun. That said, the red-dot will not have the ability to have backup iron sights.

That’s definitely something you need to consider when looking at the Sig P365 SAS vs Springfield Armory Hellcat. 

The Hellcat, on the other hand, has traditional liner sights that can easily be replaced. They take a standard Sig cut, so you can actually replace these with almost any sight you can imagine. There are a ton of Sig-cut options on the market.

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You can also get the Springfield Armory Hellcat OSP variant, which has a mount for a red-dot. This red-dot will co-witness with the sights on the Hellcat, meaning you have a backup in case your dot fails.

Controls

The controls on these guns also take a drastically different approach. Most of this is due to Sig Sauer’s changes in design for the Sig P365 SAS vs the standard Sig P365.

It would probably be fairer to compare the Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 as opposed to the SAS vs the Hellcat.

Safety: Sig Sauer P365 SAS

There is no external safety on the P365 SAS at this time. You can get the Hellcat with a thumb safety if you would like. The Hellcat thumb safety is very well-designed. It’s low-profile, and I think Sig did an excellent job with that. So if you’re looking for thumb safety, then there really is no comparison to make here. You’re going to need to get the Hellcat.

Trigger

The triggers on these guns are drastically different.

One has a rolling break, while the other one has a hard one in return. The Sig P365 SAS has light take-up right before you start to get creep. But once you get that creep, you’re going to pull that through, so you have a nice rolling break.

Now let’s look at this trigger on the Springfield Armory Hellcat. The trigger on the Springfield Armory Hellcat still has that light take-up, but then you’re going to reach what feels like a wall. From there, you’re going to feel somewhat of a rolling break and it’s much more definitive and hard than that of the Sig P365 SAS.

Reset

The resets on both these triggers are similar. It resets right to the initial heart point of the trigger, right behind the initial take-up. Don’t get me wrong, both of these triggers are definitely good, but I prefer the rolling break on the Sig P365 SAS as opposed to the more hard break on the Springfield Armory Hellcat.

The Hellcat break is definitely more definitive with a harder and heavier trigger. 

If you like a very definitive trigger, you aim for the Hellcat. But if you’d like a nice rolling break, you’ll prefer the Sig P365 SAS. People will argue about what is a better trigger all day long, but really it comes down to personal preferences. I think the trigger on the safety of the SAS will work better for most newer shooters and I think the Hellcat will look better for shooters that have a very high degree of skill.

It just depends on what you’re looking for at your current skill level.

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Slide Lock

The slide lock on the Springfield Hellcat is well-positioned so you can easily drop it using your right-hand thumb. It’s set up for a right-handed shooter, but there is no ambidextrous option. It’s low-profile and placed in a good position where you can easily hit it. It could be a little bit larger in my opinion, but it definitely works well enough for a gun of this size. 

The Sig P365 SAS has the slide stop inset into the frame of the firearm. It is very low-profile and is not possible to use as a slide release. You could technically use it if you had a screwdriver or if you have very strong fingernails, but that’s what it would take to drop the slide. The take-down lever on the Sig P365 SAS is also low-profile to avoid sliding. 

This is great in theory, and honestly, it makes for a cool-looking feature on the gun. But practicality-wise, I would rather have the standard P365 slide stop. The standard stop is just easier to use and I really don’t think it’s a snag point in most scenarios.

Magazine Release

The magazine release on both of these guns is very similar — they’re both push-button-style releases that are reversible from one side to the other. They come set up for a right-handed shooter and are very easy to reach without breaking your grip. To fully drop the magazine on either gun, though, you’ll likely need to break your grip as the palm of your hand will likely drop regardless, blocking the magazine from dropping fully free. 

The Sig P365 SAS could have really benefited from a heel-style magazine release. Considering it’s supposed to be very low-profile, I think I would have preferred seeing a heel-style release on this gun. 

I know you’re probably thinking, “What is this guy saying right now? Can he be serious?” Yes, I am. I know that feature sounds outdated, but on a gun like this that’s meant to be low-profile and sleek, it would’ve been nice to see the manufacturer give that attention to utilitarian detail.

If they would have done that, they might have made the ultimate 9mm pocket pistol with an element of class and sophistication, which it lacks. It would’ve set this gun above every other choice on the market when it comes to pocket carry with a 9mm micro. 

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Nobody could have competed, but instead, they had to stay with the rest of the market.

Frankly, they probably are competing better from a commercial standpoint. The feature I’m suggesting would be loved by myself, Ian from Forgotten Weapons, and other extreme gun geeks, but I’m not sure if the general public would have appreciated it as much.

Magazine Well

The magazine wells on both of these guns are very small. That said, your hand actually acts as a magazine well when feeding magazines into the guns themselves. I actually find it easier to load the magazine on the Sig P365 than the Hellcat. The reason for this is that the grip on the Hellcat is so short that my middle finger actually interferes with getting the magazine seated into the gun.

I don’t have this issue with the Sig P365. Again, the Springfield Armory Hellcat is going to be a little more concealable for most people, but having a shorter grip does have its downsides as we’ll get to in the shooting portion.

Quality

The quality on both of these guns is pretty similar, but I do think that the frame on the Springfield Armory Hellcat seems a little bit nicer than the frame on the Sig Sauer P365 SAS. 

The frameless Sig P365 SAS is modular and is somewhat disposable. It’s easily replaced, which is a great feature to have, but at the same time it just feels cheap to me. Not significantly cheaper than the frame on the Hellcat, but just a little bit.

The quality of the slides is almost identical and in reality, these guns almost have an identical quality level. 

However, I think the sights on the Hellcat seem a lot higher quality than on the Sig P365 SAS. At the end of the day, I don’t think the pistol quality is going to be enough to make your decision of Springfield Hellcat vs Sig P365 SAS.

Aftermarket

There is a decent aftermarket for both these guns. As I stated earlier, there are a lot of aftermarket options for sights on the Hellcat and you do have a couple of trigger options as well. That being said, there is a lot more offered for the Sig P365 SAS. You don’t have as many sighting options, but you’re going to have more triggers and frames available on the Sig P365 SAS.

Aesthetics

Aesthetically, it’s no contest. I think the Sig P365 SAS is a much more attractive gun. The low-profile sights on the rear and the low-profile controls really make this gun look sexy in a way I didn’t expect. 

This gun is everything I want the Sig P365 SAS to be from a look’s perspective. It’s really low-profile and sleek. The Hellcat, on the other hand, has too much badging, and the serrations look kind of odd. They look cool in 2021, but I’m not sure how they’ll age. The frame also isn’t the most attractive frame on the market. It just looks a little bit off in my opinion, and the gun isn’t as proportional as the P365 SAS.

Shooting

Shooting these guns makes things get a little more complicated. A lot of it is going to depend on how you have them set up with the magazines. If you’re shooting these guns with extensions, the results are going to be different than if you’re shooting these guns with flush-fit magazines. 

The Sig P365 SAS has a better recoil impulse, in my opinion, if you’re shooting it with a flush-fit. The reason for this is that I can get more of my hand on the gun. Getting that little bit extra portion of my pinky on the Sig P365 SAS makes the gun more controllable for me when shooting with that flush-fit magazine.

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Now, if I throw an extended magazine in both guns, the situation reverses.

The recoil seems slightly softer on the Hellcat than the Sig P365 SAS. Both of these guns have very mild recoil from their size but they are still very small 9mm micro-compacts. These guns are going to have recoil and it’s something you’ll have to deal with, but they work fairly well.

Sights

I also much prefer the sights on the Springfield Armory Hellcat to those on the Sig P365 SAS. The SAS sights are actually more fun to shoot because they’re somewhat challenging. I like challenges and weird and eclectic things, and for firearms that’s no exception. That said, if I’m having to use this gun to defend my life, I will take the sights on the Springfield Hellcat all day long. They allow for a higher degree of accuracy and adjustment. 

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When I purchased the Sig P365 SAS, the guys at my gun store told me they had lots of issues with people bringing the guns back because the sights were off.

Unfortunately, there is no real way to adjust the sights on the Sig P365 SAS. In my opinion, this is a major flaw in the design.

Not only do you need Sig Sauer to have perfect quality control for the Sig P365 SAS to work, but you also have to get Meprolight to design their sights to a high standard.

This could probably be improved to get a more accurate and consistent setup, although I’m not sure it’s worth it.

These sights do not pick up quite as quickly as a standard set does and I much prefer the sights on the Hellcats, which makes the experience much better.

Price/Value

The MSRP of the Hellcat is more than $100 less than the MSRP of the P365 SAS. Their split makes the Hellcat a better monetary value in my opinion. However, the price isn’t always what makes a gun the best value for that person.

Related Articles

• Sig P365 vs Hellcat
• Springfield Hellcat Review
• Sig P365 SAS vs P365
• Sig P365xl vs Hellcat
• Sig P365 SAS Holster

Pros/Cons

Hellcat Pros

• Capacity
• sights
• Size
• Grip with 13-round magazine
• Red Dot Option

Hellcat Cons

• Grip with 11-round magazine.
• Slide serrations
• Aesthetics

P365 SAS Pros

• Grip with 10-round magazine
• Slide serrations
• Asthetics

P365 SAS Cons

• Sighting system(no adjustment)
• Capacity
• Size
• Controls