Is a HS2000 an XD or is an XD a HS2000?
If you are a Springfield X.D. shooter, owner, or enthusiast, odds are you have bumped into the term “HS2000” in your travels. You may have even heard speculation that the HS2000 is the X.D. Well, we are here to bust the myths and shatter the misconceptions.
Back in the (former) People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, there was a group of engineers in the state of Croatia who banded together to form a company called IM Metal just as the hard-working Croats decided to pack up their stuff and break away from being under the Yugo banner. This was in the early 1990s.
The IM Metal gang built a series of pistols for the young and embattled Croatian military, the Walter P-38-ish PHP and the SIG P220-ish HS95.
By 1998, the company, enjoying a peace dividend and able to design firearms without worrying about their country being invaded any minute, had created the first ever polymer-framed handgun in Croatia. Using extensive CAD/CAM techniques the company used a BASF based Ultramyd 66 material for the polymer lower, a very close SIG-style internal mechanism yet with a striker fired trigger system, and, unique in its class, a rear grip beavertail safety.
The prototypes had been worked out by the verge of the millennium and the HS2000 was born. As a step to support their new and innovate product, the company even changed its name from IM Metal to HS Produkt. All it needed next was a big market.
