tambarika

Parts are headed back but not in hand yet. I hear you and also wonder about the lawyer test bit, but my read on things is that the person who worked on my gun felt there was an issue with the striker safety that really needed to be addressed though. I got the trip the sear thing from a phone call to prp, he called it the pencil test if memory serves and said it was one of the tests that they require a gun to pass. If you drop something light in the barrel with gun pointing upward and then dry fire, the gun will launch it a foot or two in the air, if you repeat the process except trip the sear from the back instead of pulling the trigger , the striker safety should stop the striker and the pencil should not move. One of my two XD's at home was popping the pencil up a little bit when I manually tripped the sear, I next verified that the gun would dimple a primer. I'm far from qualified to know what apparent issues are important and which ones might not be. I do (now) like for my guns to pass the pencil test though & I really can't feel much difference in the gun with the original striker safety and striker safety spring installed. A bit of fiddling without parts replacement may well have resolved the pencil popping thing, but I got to wondering about what happens when you get a bit of grit here and there with the light springs installed and now I am probably a bit paranoid about it. =============================================================================================================== that in itself should be a reason for using a competent gunsmith for any modifications you may require. No one wants to hear about you or anyone else getting injured from the haphazard modification of a firearm.

I compete with a 9mm XDM (and 5 other XD products). The first thing I do when I get a gun ready for competition is replace the mag springs with Wolff springs. Factory mag springs are extremely weak and unreliable. Unfortunately, Wolff does not manufacture XDM hi-cap mag springs. I did however find that Springer Precision sells something quite similar -- and they are excellent. My stock springs had begun to fatigue and I have been experiencing feeding issues the last match or two. These new springs are well made and have much more 'spring' in them than the stockers. Kudos to Springer....

I have 5 XD models and one XDM. All of them are reliable (0.10% failure rate). I bought an XDS (45 ACP) about 5 months ago -- thought I was going to put it on my CCW along with my 3 and 4 inch 40 S&W XD. Yes, it went back to Springfield for the recall. The two most prevalent criticisms of the XDS I have seen are trigger reset issues and feeding problems on the first round of a full mag. I had both of these. Even with a PRP trigger kit the best I could do was about a 7.5# trigger. The PRP striker spring gave me frequent light strikes so I switched back to the stock one. I had reset issues about once every 15 rounds. In spite of the great accuracy of the pistol, the feeding and reset issues left me with a pistol that I would not use confidently for self defense. I put nearly 400 rounds through the gun -- so it was broken in. The recall did not address either of these common problems. If you want to understand part of the feeding problem, align an XDS mag with a Wilson Combat mag, and note the difference in the feed angle. I massaged the ramp on the loading block several times (changed angle slightly and polished) -- this alleviated most of the feeding problems, but still the gun was not reliable enough for me. The first round feeding problem was a real show stopper for me. If you have experienced this, you know how hard it is to clear -- it is a real brute force monster. While I will not hesitate to continue to recommend Springfield (and PRP) products, I think this particular model should be approched with caution. I might like to try one in 9mm to see if it has the same first round feeding issues. They are also a bear to work on. I can disassemble an XD or XDM and repair, modify, enhance it with almost no effort at all. Not so with the XDS. The smaller parts shoved very closely together make it much more difficult to work with. While I learned to deal with the extremely heavy trigger, I can't say that I was thrilled to have to work with something that heavy.

Having had the opportunity to install and use 3 different after-market barrels for the XD, I thought I would share some of my observations. I have used (or currently own) Barsto, EFK Fire Dragon, and Storm Lake barrels. I have 7 XD models, with about 120,000 rounds down range between them: XD tactical, 9mm (back up competition) XDM tactical, 9mm (primary competition) XD tactical, 45 ACP (competition) XD compact 40 S&W (primary carry) XD sub-compact 40 S&W (backup carry) XD sub-compact 9mm (unpurposed) XDS 45 ACP, (backup carry) I purchased a Barsto 40 S&W barrel for the XD compact, a Storm Lake 9mm conversion barrel for the XD compact, and an EFK Fire Dragon 9mm conversion for the XD sub-compact. The EFK and Storm Lake are drop in replacements, the Barsto is a gunsmith fit. The Good News: both the EFK and SL barrels dropped in without any fitting required, have much tighter lockup than stock (very close to a custom fit XDM barrel), are much more accurate than my stock barrels, and so far have proven to be 100% reliable – no feeding or cycling issues at all. I slightly favor the EFK Fire Dragon barrel of the Storm Lake, only because of fit and finish. The SL has sharp edges and visible tooling marks – areas that could possibly drag on guns with tighter tolerances than mine. All edges of the EFK have been dehorned and there are no visible tooling marks. Both have chambers that are 0.002 tighter than stock. That coupled with the much tighter lockup than stock more than likely accounts for the increased accuracy. The Bad News: I will be honest up front about Barsto products. I do not favor them. Their chambers are minimum SAAMI, which accounts for far more difficulty in achieving a gun that functions reliably over 99% of the time. All 7 of my XD pistols do function with over 99% reliability. I personally cannot conceive the purpose of the tighter chamber of the Barsto barrel. Its slightly better accuracy will not become visible under 40 yards, and while I routinely shoot steel to just under 50 yards, I would not exchange the slight increase in accuracy over reliability – ever. To be satisfied with the Barsto barrel, I had to run a standard chamber reamer through it. It was the only way to get it to feed reliably. I have done the same thing for other people who bring me their XD pistols to work on (I am a gunsmith) who have these barrels. Given the hefty price tag on the Barsto compared to the EFK or SL, I cannot justify the extra cost. One other benefit of the EFK and SL barrels is they clean much faster than a stock Springfield barrel. I would heartily recommend either one for caliber conversions or someone seeking a slight performance boost in their pistol without sacrificing a reliably functioning weapon.

adapt, improvise, overcome.

it worked. Using a small sanding drum on my dremel, i slightly widened and deepened the ramp on the locking block, then used a cratex polishing bit to smooth it out. I now get smooth feeding when racking the slide, as well as when dropping it from slide lock. i will post before and after photos as soon as i can, but i have to caution you that when i say i took ' a little' off, i'm referring to less than 10 thou. the widening of the ramp is not the issue, the distance you move the lip back is. this is very similar to adjusting a 1911 feed ramp. There must be at least 1/32 inch clearance between the locking block feed ramp and the barrel ramp. if you move the ramp on the locking block too far, you will change the angle of the bullet as it is pulled from the mag, resulting in a 3 point jam. like they say, you can always take more off, but you can't but it back on. widening the ramp prevents the nose of hollow point bullets from jamming on the ramp, deepening it slightly adds the momentum necessary to overcome a slightly short full rack prior to releasing the slide.

I have about 250 rounds down range with my facory modified XDS. I am extremely happy with the accuracy, to be able to consistently knock down steel plates at 25 yards is something this little gun shines at. To be honest though, it has two glaring faults that, until they are repaired, will prevent me from adding the weapon to my carry permit here in CA. I have heard of many other shooters observing the same quirks, so i know this is not a 'my gun' issue. first, and most significant, is the jam that occurs when dropping the slide on the first round of a full mag. the easiest way to force this jam is to insert the mag first, and then rack the closed slide to attempt to seat the first round. many times, the round will nose dive and lock up tight against the locking block, requiring tremendous effort to remove the mag and clear the feeding issue. after careful examination, this appears to be caused by the shape and angle of the locking block itself. this is not an area to just take a file or dremel to without some thought and prep. i will be modifying this area carefully, and will post before and after photos once i am satisifed that the fix works. anyone who has ever tried to alter the ramp angle of a 1911 with a dremel and got a little carried away knows how tricky this action is. the second area of concern on the XDS is trigger reset. every once in a while, the trigger will not reset properly, forcing you to either rack the slide slowly to get it to engage, or perform a stoppage clearance drill to seat a fresh round and reset the trigger. the problem here is that this may cause the primary issue described above to occur. there is tremendous friction between the various parts of the trigger linkage, and this may be a factor in the reset issue. I will be examining this also while repairing issue #1. while i have heard people say that making sure you fully rack the slide before releasing it fixes this problem, i do not find this to be an adequate fix -- my other 6 XD/XDM pistols can easily coax a bullet into the chamber, there is no reason the XDS cannot be taught the same trick. staty tuned for photos.

i stone 5-6 thou off the striker safety to prevent the drag you are describing. you can safely do this without affecting the integrity of either part.

you'll poke your eye out!!

i've decided to compete in the open division. i am working on a small solar powered vacuum assist mechanism. I got the idea by looking at devices for men who have 'personal problems'. no sense in re-inventing the wheel here...

'adjustable' and 'night sight' do not belong together in the same sentence. Night sights are generally tactical and low profile, hence not adjustable. Adjustable sights are generally for competition. Changing the height of the front sight or adjusting the load are the typical ways you match a front and rear sight to achieve an acceptable POI.

shooting around corners. Turn the gun on its side to activate the hole.

i get to the range early, find an empty bay and put 20 or so rounds into the berm -- no target. takes the edge off for me.

Here's an update. This weekend was one month since the original post, and the match that prompted it. I went out and shot my game, and did not look at the score sheets at all during the match. I did fairly well (3rd place) considering I was competing on one hour of sleep from the night before. I was a bit slow on the first stage, nailed the next four, and fell apart from exhaustion on the final stage. All in all, a good match.

How much weight are you using for the wrist curls? What do you mean by "full lower arm isolation?" I have arthritus in my fingers... Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets help as does using a Grip Master... Started using the COC grippers a few months ago and they help a great deal with hand strength... Sometimes my thumbs get sore if I try using higher strength CoC grippers... Recently started using an IronMind green egg and their Expand-Your-Hand Bands for warm up and cool down... They both help, too... 5-7 pounds for curls and reverse curls. Isolation means resting your arm on your leg so only the wrist muscles flex. One thing that works for me (I have had full blown arthritis in both wrists for nearly 20 years): I hot shower in the evening prior to working out. Body is warm and flexibile. better workouts.