LikesToShoot

As mentioned, what bullet are you using? In my barrel I've loaded from 1.090" to 1.150" depending on what bullet I'm using. The "plunk test" in your barrel should tell you what'll work. http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=196723&hl I have a pet load for a MG 115 gr HP w/power pistol that yields 14** FPS, for 100 yard head shots out of a CX4 Storm but drops to 12** FPS, as a flame thrower load, out of a M&P Pro. You might want to try the 9mm reloading section here for this question.

Five quick ten round mags tonight without any problems. So the round count on the original recoil spring is right around 1250 or so and counting. My smith will be happy to know he was right again and his next dinner with drinks are on me. The tape on back of the two defect mags seems to have cured their problems and I doubt I send them back for fear that I won't see them replaced. Here's a picture of the two slides together (XDm,left, AA,right) and you can see how wide the AA striker is. A little file work removed enough material to clear the safety lever. Good luck to anyone else that goes down this road.

OK, I sent off requests to Wolff, ISMI and a spring company for what they had near my current used spring dimensions. No reply from Wolff or ISMI but the spring company can make something and I could get a life time supply for about the same cost of eight guide rod assemblies. I cut one coil off the old (currently in use) extractor spring and ran 100 rounds through the gun without any problems. The time change and recent extremely cold weather was all but eliminated my range time. While I had it apart I modified the profile of the extractor where it touched the barrel cutout Today I tapped out the guide rod for a 4mm x .70 x 15mm hex cap screw. The washer I tried to use to hold things together was too large for me to install the guide rod when I stopped by the range after work. I hate to admit this but I lost the end plug at the ACE store so I had to file down a washer that would hold down the forward spring seat and fit into the slide. This was installed tonight and the slide seems to function fine with the old guide rod / spring assembly. Weather forecast looks good for a range visit tomorrow after work when I'll be using the old recoil spring assembly and modified extractor with shortened extractor spring. Something I did notice with all this slide swaps was the that the striker safety lever was catching on the AA striker whenever I would pull the AA slide off the frame. Tonight I went a head and removed a little material off that area of the striker to prevent damaging the safety lever.

I had some time to play with my used guide rod today so I decided to try to make it into a serviceable part by drilling a 1/8" hole into the end cap. Once drilled out I would tap it for a 4mm machine screw and then cut the end cap off making it into a Glockish guide rod. To my surprise while drilling it out I felt a "jump" in the bit and knew I had passed through something. Low and behold, the end cap is pressed into the guide rod to retain all of the pieces as an assembly. Without too much effort I had the end cap off and the rod completely disassembled. I took measurements of all critical areas and I'm now in search of suitable springs for testing. Since the 1/8" drill bit is the nearest recommended drill size for a 4mm screw I continued to drilled out the rod for future tapping. A quick drive by at a local ACE Hdwr only yielded a few washers but no usable spring. Here are my measurements. The guide rod diam. is .260". The spring wire is .035", 29 coils, overall length 5.250" and an outside of .350". My smith is still of the mind that the extractor spring if too stiff vs. the recoil spring too soft. (The recoil spring and extractor spring work against each other at the last 1/8" of travel.) Since I had ordered an extra extractor kit I'll cut the old extractor spring as instructed and see what happens.

I got ahold of someone to talk to today, the same gal that's on their phone service. When I told her of my problem she told me to contact management at customerservice@advantagearms.com . When I told her that the recoil spring took care of the problem she said "good". I told her that I thought 1200 rounds was too short of a service life and that I'd send a message to CS. Well I tried to send CS a message and it was returned as a bad address. (ran into this before with them). So I called back and spoke with her again about the bad address. She then told me she had since spoken with management about my issue and said they don't have a stronger spring but could order a replacement from their website. Again I told her this kit was only a couple month's old and this seemed like a very short service life. She told me that their product has a 30 day warranty. So there you go folks. You're on your own once you buy this kit from them. Once I find a source for better springs I'll let you know.

Shot another 250 rounds tonight with the new guide rod w/recoil spring. It only had one failure to fire and it had a firing pin strike on it but fired OK the next try. The key thing is that the slide closes fully with the new GR w/spring. Tomorrow I will give them a call, leave a message stating the problem and ask to have someone give me a call to discuss their mag problem and recoil spring issue. I guess I'm spoiled from dealing with companies that try to take care of their customers. Not the case so far from AA.

11/3/14 I went ahead and sent AA an email describing the problem with the slide not closing. Not surprising, based on recent dealing with them, I received NO reply from them. (Six years ago they were right on top of any correspondence regarding their products.) Today I received my parts order and the first thing I tried was the guide rod w/coil spring. Slide closes fully again. Myself, my smith and a couple others don't see how this captive rod and spring come apart. I'll call them next week and leave a message, that seems to be they way they work. You call them, leave a message then they reply with an e-mail. At least this'll run again without not firing or firing out of battery but the long term fix has yet to be determined.

+1 IMHO, A backup gun would be perfect. I don't really see a need to go after a special build minor gun. Lighter loads will work just fine for 3-gun since you only need two hits anyway, not two A's. How many rounds have you run through this XDm? I would guess I have about 7500 through it. I figure its due for new springs in the very least, not that I am having any problems outside of worn out mag springs. Its just that I have been running this particular gun since mid 2012 in USPSA Limited, and started 3 gun this year. Time for some good ole preventative maintainance I figure, and maybe a new coat of paint sincee its looking a little rough with all the abuse I put it through. My plan was to just get a lighter recoil spring (if I needed one) when I run minor loads for 3-gun. After a year of 3 gun I find I am not at a disadvantage having 20 v 23 rounds per mag and .40 minor is crazy soft shooting. At least feels that way to me. With just 7500 rounds it sounds like you may already have your lighter (weaker) recoil spring on hand for minor. I never had any problem shooting minor with my factory spring but it's your call. Mag springs of course and may as well replace the recoil spring. I know I'm strange but I like running my gear "as is". I consider the holster and usage wear as adding character. It's fun to give the expensive and pretty gun guys a run for their money with a worn plastic gun.

+1 IMHO, A backup gun would be perfect. I don't really see a need to go after a special build minor gun. Lighter loads will work just fine for 3-gun since you only need two hits anyway, not two A's. How many rounds have you run through this XDm?

After talking with a shooting buddy on the phone tonight I started playing with this kit again. I was wrong about the plunger block keeping the striker back when the slide wasn't fully forward. It does release the striker which in turn does move the slide forward but most of the times it doesn't fire the round. I had a couple rounds go off tonight when I suspect it was slightly out of battery. It had a different sound report and I felt a little blow back / spray. This kit is grounded until further notice. I'll call them tomorrow and let them know what I have discovered.

Glad you like them Chris. Another 150 rounds tonight with the Dot Torture Drill at seven yards. Maybe 5 or 6 failures to fire but fired when striker reset and slide pushed closed. I don't see how this guide rod comes apart so I'll wait until my parts arrive before I start messing with it.

After comparing the AA 1911 to the XDm. The extractors look very similar but the recoil spring is noticeably weaker on the XDm. The 1911 has well over 5K rounds thru it compared to the 1K in the XDm. AA has a fairly decent list of replacement parts available so I ordered the things I like to have on hand and will do some mods when I get my spare parts order. Here are a few pics, guide rod w/spring, extractor, slide not closed due to weak spring and closed fully.

10/27/14 After work I shot a couple hundred rounds doing Bill Drills and Dot Torture drills. I had a few failures to fire towards the end of my session. The breach face and barrel shroud here pretty dirty and after wiping some off grit it seemed better. I definitely need to clean this more often. Ordered the shorter Dawson front sight when I got home. 050-329 Sight/Glock/Front/All Except*/Opt/.130T/.125W/Ramped/*Except 17L or 24/Tools Included 11/1/14 Installed the new front sight, cleaned / oiled the gun and went to the range. It was a pretty cold morning, around 30F, and the gun wouldn't fire. Not enough over travel on the PRP Extreme trigger so I had to file a bit more off the stop. After that it was pretty much good to go for another 200 rounds. Thank goodness I decided not to shoot the steel challenge match this morning. There were a few times that the slide didn't close completely, due to the extractor hitting the barrel, and the striker didn't release. I noticed this might be a problem before but I suspect that the cold weather may have slowed the slide down a bit. Luckily the plunger block prevented the striker from releasing and firing out of battery like it did on my early AA 1911 conversion kit. TAKE NOTICE OF THIS IF YOU DECIDE TO MODIFY YOUR PLUNGER OR STRIKER AS MENTIONED EARLIER IN THIS THREAD. When I have time I'll take a few pictures of the extractors from both kits. Since I received such a cold response from AA with their defective magazines I'll modify the extractor myself. They can figure this out for themselves or read it here on Enos.

This was a really fun match, thanks for putting it together. Match details: Six squads with pretty much an even number of shooters on each. First shots a little after 10:00 AM. All squads stopped for lunch break after three stages and resumed after that. Our squad, #1, was done a little before 3:00 PM and we broke down our final stage once the MD gave the OK. Match flow was real smooth, didn't feel rushed nor bottle necked. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised on how quickly this match ran. When I seen the early squad list with a 20 shooter squad and others with much less I thought we were doomed. The MD's made adjustments where needed, cut the par times and things moved real quick. Results are here: http://www.rlft.us/ A couple of videos have been posted on You Tube. "BRRC Monster Match 2014", filter it down to; past week or month.

What about the spring end that's down in the extension? What's the best way to pull the spring up into the mag tube to slide the pad off? Thank you.

What's the easiest way to remove the SP XDm 140mm base pads?

Looks nice! How many rounds can you load with a Dawson XDm base pad?

Today I went to the range today and ran another 250 rounds thru it using the Dot Torture drill at mostly 5 yards and then 7 yards. http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture The front sight I installed is a little too tall since it shoots low when the rear sight is fully adjusted down. A 12 o'clock hold works really well. I used double face tap to adhere 1/4" pieces of rubber onto the bottom of the three good mags and was able to do some reload practice. (dropping my mags on a heavy coat to protect them) I decided to wait until the winter off season before I send the two undersized mags back for exchange. A piece of black gorilla tape on the back of the mags make them 100% reliable so they'll work for now.

OK, here's a few more pictures that I hope may help.

If he just took a little off the contact surface, that mates the plunger, to allow to move forward when the plunger is depressed his drop safety should still work. Correct? Apparently my trigger bar moves my plunger deep enough to let the striker hit the rim and light the round off.

I'll try to take another picture from a different angle of the plunger ledge.

Looking at both slides a little closer it appears that the AA plunger has a larger step than the factory. This insures that the striker can move forward enough to fire the round and doesn't weaken the striker. No signs of chipping, yet, but I will keep an eye out for that area. Me thinks I'll want to have another striker, plunger w/spring and recoil assembly in my spare parts bin anyway. AA told me I don't need an RMA so the mags will go out later this week. Too busy to shoot this week anyway.

Of Jessie? For sure.

I guess I just got lucky that it works with my PRP Extreme trigger and the other guy here wasn't so lucky. So, if a guy had a kit that didn't work with his trigger job then the easiest thing would be grinding off the striker edge that hits the block. Cool! Trigger safety and grip safety still work and basically it's a Series 70 type gun vs. Series 80. Thanks Scott. I'm sure that'll help some folks out.

I did my finally fitting while it was installed. "I used a piece of crocus cloth (flexible sand paper) to trim down the trigger stop while it was installed." Also, after you think you have it perfect. Put the gun in the freezer for about 1/2 hour and re-test to make sure it still works remember to also push the slide down to the frame and test again. I, like several others, have had the striker fail to release when the gun got cold because there wasn't enough over travel.