[XD with aftermarket trigger wouldn't pass safety checks]

Did you get your PRP parts back from Springfield?

My thinking is that with the PRP parts installed, the pistol would not pass "the lawyer safety test". Springfield is concerened that a modified pistol that they have worked on could come back and bite them someway, somehow, at a future date. For instance, they will not sell parts to repair pistols. My XD 45 service's extractor was worn out but I could not buy one from Springfield. Sent it in and they replaced it N/C. That pistol had not been previously modified in any way.

Your post got me thinking, so I just checked out our two 9mm XDM 5.25's that have PR trigger kits, and my bud's XD-9 Tac that I just installed a drop-in PRP kit along with polished striker, reduced power striker springs, and titanium striker indicator and reduced power striker safety spring w/titanium striker safety.

Our XDM's have passed safety checks at sanctioned matches where all safety systems, (trigger and grip), must function independent of the other. All 3 pistols just passed these same tests here in my home.

As far as being able to trip the sear from the rear of the slide, I don't see how that is a valid safety system check, but I'm sure it can be done since I have had to use that method before to get the slide off an XD that was assembled incorrectly, OR assembled before enough materiel was removed from the PR trigger overtravel stop, preventing the trigger from releasing the sear and preventing dissasembly of the pistol to correct the problem.

Never forget to do the "freezer test" on PRP trigger installs.

Hope this helps.

JD

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.

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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.

[Shout out to Springer Precision]

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....

[Sold my XDS]

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.

[Aftermarket Barrels for the XD]

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.

[XDS observations]

I'll stick with my G19 thank you very much. What about all the people who can't do their own mods to the gun to make it reliable?

adapt, improvise, overcome.

[XDS observations]

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.

[XDS observations]

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.

[Extended striker?]

I'm thinking that an extended striker (if one existed) would render the striker safety (drop safety) ineffective.

If you've ever done a trigger job that reduces trigger travel to the point where the safety lever doesn't disengage the striker safety fully, you start getting light strikes. If you look at the primer on a light strike from this type of scenario, you will notice that the striker leaves a faint mark on the primer which means that it still contacts the primer. If you were to extend the striker, I would think that it would increase the likelihood of detonating the primer in the event of the striker safety being asked to perform its duty.

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.

[Primer Pick Up Drill]

I'm wondering why primers just don't come in tubes/straws instead of the little trays. It would save us all a lot of time.

you'll poke your eye out!!

[Primer Pick Up Drill]

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...

[Opinions on adjustable night sights XDm 5.25]

'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.

[Hole under front sight]

I think that's where the bullet comes out...

Aha!

Thanks. While we're on the subject of holes near the front sight, what's the hole near the dovetail that's only visible when you remove the front sight for?

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

[1st stage nervousness ...how to shrug it off?]

I seem to always make a stupid mistake on the 1st stage. Sometimes it costs me a procedural or points down. I am fine after that. What do you do to shrug off those beginning of the match jitters?

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.

[competition is driving me crazy]

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.

[Grip Strength and Recoil Control]

I am 64 and have had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands so I have a bit of experience in hand strengthening and rebuilding. I use the weakest COC available -- and it is sufficient for me.

wrist curls and reverse wrist curls with full lower arm isolation are part of my training, as well as a good tricep workout. You must build the whole arm from the fingers up to the shoulder.

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.

[Grip Strength and Recoil Control]

I am 64 and have had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands so I have a bit of experience in hand strengthening and rebuilding. I use the weakest COC available -- and it is sufficient for me.

wrist curls and reverse wrist curls with full lower arm isolation are part of my training, as well as a good tricep workout. You must build the whole arm from the fingers up to the shoulder.

I'm currently having a lot of trouble with compression and inflammation of the median nerve in my Left hand. This the result of a blown attempt to repair the distal tendon in the second digit. Nice to know some other shooters have had carpel tunnel problems and can continue to shoot.

Tar

Try to be patient. It took me a year to fully recover my grip strength after the surgeries.

[Grip Strength and Recoil Control]

I am 64 and have had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands so I have a bit of experience in hand strengthening and rebuilding. I use the weakest COC available -- and it is sufficient for me.

wrist curls and reverse wrist curls with full lower arm isolation are part of my training, as well as a good tricep workout. You must build the whole arm from the fingers up to the shoulder.

[XD Tactical 9mm went single shot this weekend]

your sear spring is too light.

[who sells large amounts of new 5.56 brass ready to load]

well i am involved in a new start up ammo company, since the processing of once fired ammo is time comsuming and some PD contracts require the use of new brass. so, do any of the large ammo companies sell brass directly? this is for an order of 20,000+ pieces.

i have been talking with remington about it and they sell to wholesellers only, i am waiting on a reply back on how to become a wholeseller. does anyone know if the others do the same such as FC, WCC, LC or.... PPU maybe? i have been sending emails and making phone calls for a day or so but no answers or return calls yet.

you will need to apply for a Type 6 FFL to become a wholesaler for ammo components.

[Seated position]

Hope you don't want to make anyone draw from a holster while seated.

I am the MD for our local CCW match. a couple of months ago we did just that -- simulated sitting in a car, drawing from the seated position. and engaging targets through the window. It drew almost as much negative as positive comments.

[competition is driving me crazy]

"This weekend I was 4 seconds down going into the last stage. I figured I had to push harder to make up the time."

What did you think was going to make you faster than you are?

Or alternatively, if you were/are capable of being/going/shooting faster, why did you wait until the last stage to do so?

I've never seen anything good come from the conscious control of speed in a match.

There are some personality types that may be able to pull of a Hail Mary run on the last stage, and that may well be a skill unto itself, but for most it will be a lost cause.

Would you be willing to try another way?

i dropped the time during a fumbled mag change on the first stage. we were pretty much even for the next 4 stages (I shot them to the best of my ability). I tried to push to hard on the last stage.

[competition is driving me crazy]

I noticed a dramatic improvement in my match scores when I stopped caring what other people thought, or if I wasn't doing something the way I was expected to. I just shot and had fun, not really paying any attention to anyone else's times or results. When you are having fun, you are much more relaxed, and the movements, such as reloading are more smooth.

I appreciate your help. I always have fun when I shoot and I always strive to improve the quality of my technique. That pesky timer though...it changes everything.

[competition is driving me crazy]

You might try not paying attention to what your competition is doing and just shoot each stage as if you are not competiting against anyone else. Focus on only your times and your hits. Try putting yourself on a squad where there is no one you normally compete against so you can just focus on your own shooting and not worry what the others are doing ... Pick a squad where you don't know anyone, it's amazing how easy it is to focus when there is no one to chit chat or BS with. I shot my best match of my short 1 yr in this sport at the FL State Championship last month. It was my first level II match and my buddy had to back out at the last minute so i shot the match by myself. Don't think I said 5 words to my squad mates the whole match ...but I shot 3rd highest % pts shot and 4th highest total alphas shot - both higher then the division winner ...

Shooting at our club is as much a social event as a sport. It is the once or twice a month that I can get together with a group of close friends and let loose. I would not shoot on another squad -- primarily because I am the squad leader and RO. Three or four of us engage in a friendly competition each month, and we take our lumps occassionally, as do all shooters who push the envelope.

Adrenalin is usually a contributing factor, and controlling it is somewhat of an art form.

[competition is driving me crazy]

The drive to want to win is only an asset when it pushes you to practice better/more and develop your mental game. When you let it make decisions for you in a match it is never your friend. It will sing the siren song of shooting beyond your skill sets with predictable unpleasant results. The skills you bring that day are the only skills you have. No amount of desire will change that. Shoot your own game. Let the results sort themselves out after the match. My bet is that not only will you do better but you will enjoy the sport more.

Good advice. Thank you.

[competition is driving me crazy]

I choked on the last stage. It is becoming a bad habit -- this drive to win.

Not bad to want to win - but maybe it's more important to shoot your best,

and identify areas to work on during your next practice.

If you work on weaknesses enough, you should win next time, or the next.

Winning also depends on who you're shooting against. You can shoot

as well as you ever have, but if the Club Champ is shooting, you lower your

chance of "winnning" - but, you still shot YOUR best.

You can only shoot as well as you know how, on any given day.

I am competing against people of the same skill level as myself.