kcobean

Timmy, I am running the Pistol Gear operator magwell. I like it because it doesn't require send in/modification of the backstrap. No idea if the Dawsom magwell prevents this, but if it does they should probably advertise that fact.

Just picked up both punches and some pins from Springer. Probably getting near the 4k mark with my .40 5.25 and heading to Limited Nationals in a few months. Figure I'll head off a bad situation with a little prevention.

Yeah, I'm sure you could grind the left side of the rear of the magazine down to ensure clearance. Not sure what it would do to the rigidity of the lip on the left side though. Maybe nothing.

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. Agreed, but I think you're missing my point. I know for some comp. only guns, smiths are disabling the striker safety by cutting the arm off the striker that engages the safety. For a comp. only gun this is a good way to eliminate this problem altogether if a very light trigger is desired. Some people just take out the striker safety all together for Limited division which is generally not a good idea. There is the possibility of the XDm releasing the striker when slamming a fully loaded mag home. If there is a round in the chamber and the striker safety is disabled/removed, guess what happens. This will only happen if there is not enough sear/striker engagement though and will typically only happen when one starts to modify the amount of engagement which again, is not recommended. Agreed that modifying the amount of engagement is a bad idea. It pays to have a smith that really knows these guns and can keep things safe while getting the most out of them.

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. Agreed, but I think you're missing my point. I know for some comp. only guns, smiths are disabling the striker safety by cutting the arm off the striker that engages the safety. For a comp. only gun this is a good way to eliminate this problem altogether if a very light trigger is desired.

First off, I have to say that I love these things. They're durable, reliable and easy to use. But a caution about them....because of the way they tool the edges of them, the extension does not stop the mag's upward travel like the stock baseplates do. The result is that during hard insertions, the rear edge of the magazine strikes the ejector and over time will peen it. Here are a couple of pictures of my XDm40 5.25's ejector after about 1 season using the Dawson extensions: I don't know how much more peening will occur over time or if this is it, but just wanted to point it out.

I have a ss guide rod in my 5.25 .40 and my backup gun, a 4.5 .40. Love it. The gun shoots noticeably flatter.

The XDm will eat anything you can feed it, they're damn near indestructible, and run all. the. time. That's my experience and my son and I have been shooting them in competition for several years. now. That said, the stock trigger is not good. A trigger job is a good investment if you're going to run it for more than a couple of matches. Beyond that, shoot and enjoy.

I may get jumped on for this, but here goes... I have a Blackhawk Serpa that I use for USPSA. I have modified it by grinding off the retention knuckle on the inside of the retention mechanism so that it no longer contacts/retains the pistol. I like the serpa frame because it keeps the gun off my leg better than a DoH when I'm walking around, it's equally low-cut in the front for quick clearance/presentation, and is very solid. I can also adjust the angle from vertical to a bit forward leaning if I want to.

Tactical Turkey!!!

Thanks for the input gent's. At the VA/MD sectional this weekend, I shot 90.92% of the points before penalties and 85.92% after penalties (6 mikes, no other procedurals.) The 1st place finisher (a GM) shot 92.66%. I need to get rid of the Mikes. I placed 27th of 75 in Limited and was the 5th place B class in the division with a 66.909%, which is just a tad higher than my current classification percentage, so I think I performed on par with my current abillity. I'm pleased with my finish given where I'm at in my shooting progression but I need to work on minimizing time spent on movement and presentation when coming to a shooting position. I think those two things cost me the most time. A good example of this was a 30 point stage (15 metrics) that required lots of movement. I shot the stage clean (the only person in the match to do that in fact) but almost 10 seconds slower than the top finisher. 10 seconds! That 10 seconds is what I need to work on eliminating.

I'm curious how people evaluate their performance when looking at scores, particularly at things like major matches. Do you look at your: - Overall place amongst all shooters - Your place within your division - You place within your division and class - % of points shot excluding / including penalties - Raw points shot - All of the above Is one of the above a better indicator of performance than the others?

Thanks forgetful. This gun has a pretty light recoil spring in it. I don't know what weight it is, but this gun cycles by hand much easier than the XDm9 he was shooting before, so I suspect it's an 11 lb or thereabouts. It was really nice to see the gun run 200 rounds today without a hiccup.

Ok, last follow up on this....re-cleaned and lubed the gun, tensioned up the extractor more to the point that I can slide a round up under it by hand and it stays snugly in place. Went back to the range and put 200 rounds through the gun without a single failure. Problem solved, and now I'm smarter! Thanks guys.

Kinda what I thought, but the extractor is pretty tight already. Tight how? lots of tension sliding a round up the breech face or hard to get out of the slide? if you load a dummy round, and remove the mag and slowly hand cycle it what happens? I've been reading alot and it sounds like an appropriately tuned extractor will hold a round against the breech face if you slide the round up under the extractor by hand. This one definitely would not do that. I've given it a little more bend and now it will. Back to the range tomorrow to see if that does the trick. I'm trying to get this gun ready for the VA/MD sectional, so hopefully this will get it in match condition.

I'm having the same problem in my Caspian hi-cap 9mm. Anyone know if the Aftec extractor would work in my Caspian?

Kinda what I thought, but the extractor is pretty tight already.

So it looks like my hunch about having under-lubed the gun was correct. I cleaned the gun (again) and put a liberal amount of Brownell's Friction Defense on the slide rails and took it back to the range today with 100 rounds of the same ammo that was problematic before and 100 rounds of ammo that had a few extra tenths of a grain of powder. The short-stroking problems went away, but a new problem has showed up. It seems that the extractor is letting go of the spent case about half-way out of the chamber, so when it picks up the next round in the magazine that round has nowhere to go. I have to drop the mag, rattle the spent case out of the gun and reinsert the mag. Anyone have any ideas how to fix that one? The VA/MD sectional is next weekend and I'd really love for my son to be able to shoot this gun, but right now It's looking like he'll shoot his XDm instead.

Man I'm tired of hanging around at the bottom of this list. I'll be dry-firing if anybody needs me.

My 13 year old son got an invite from USPSA to shoot Limited Nationals in St George, UT in Sep. I asked around my local clubs if there were any unallocated slots and sure enough, I found one, so we both get to shoot. Wondering if anyone who's done nationals before has any tips for what to bring, how to bring it, how to prepare, etc. Thanks!

I've been shooting USPSA for about 3 years now. Most of that has been with an XDm40 5.25. Here are my thoughts: I made B class November last year with the gun bone stock. This year I spent a few bucks on a mag well, a heavy guide rod and a trigger job and my XDm is good to go as a limited gun for a good long while. It's reliable, easy to maintain and the mods were cheap enough and haven't affected the reliability of the gun at all. I made myself a deal that I will shoot this gun until I make Master, at which point I will "treat myself" to a nice 1911. At that point I will have to decide whether that 1911 will be an open gun or a Limited gun, but my point is that the XDm is every bit the gun you need to shoot all the way to that point, in my opinion. I would take some of the advice above...buy a press if you don't have one and start reloading. Shoot every chance you get and burn your XDm up. By the time you wear it out, you'll be much more prepared to shoot with the big boys in Open class if you decide to go that route, or you'll be able to take advantage of the finesse of a 1911 built for Limited. My 0.02.

Man that thing is absolutely beautiful. I have his little brother, an Aluminum 9mm 5". Such a sweet gun! Definitely let us know if you decide to sell!

Hi guys, My son's Caspian high-cap is having an issue and I'm hoping you can guide me towards a proper solution. The gun was acting up 2 matches ago, failing to go into battery and occasionally stove piping. I think I figured out that it just does NOT like to be dirty (We brought it to the match dirty from the preceeding match.) So I cleaned the heck out of it and figured it would be good to for the next match. Last weekend, it started doing what I believe is short stroking. The slide would cycle, but sometimes not far enough for the ejector to flip the spent case off the extractor claw or pick up the next round in the mag, so it would just shove the empty case back into the chamber. Then sometimes it would cycle back far enough to pick up the next round out of the mag, but not far enough to eject the spent case, so as the breech face was shoving the next round up the feed ramp, the spent case would stay on the extractor, ride forward with the slide and hit the back of the chamber, stopping the gun from going back into battery. I took it out to the range and shot it myself and was able to reproduce the problem exactly, so it's not that he's limp-wristing or riding the slide with his thumbs. I couldn't get three consecutive shots out of it in two magazine worth of ammo. The gun is pretty new and only been to a few matches so far with the same ammo which is 124gr round nose on 3.8 grains of titegroup with Federal #100 primers. I chrono'd this ammo in this gun at a safe 135 PF. I check my loads every 25 or so rounds, so I know my powder spec is on target. While I was shooting it, a guy offered to let me try some different ammo, which was 147grain factory ammo (WWB or similar). I loaded up 10 rounds and shot the entire string without a failure. So my questions are these: 1) I have only ever shot XD's prior to this gun. The XD's don't give a hoot whether you lube them or run them dry, they just run. The range we were shooting at is VERY dusty so I brought the Caspian out with almost NO lube on the gun anywhere to keep it from getting gummed up. Do you think that was a contributing factor? How/how much do you guys lube your 1911's and what do you use? Only thing I have right now is a standard lightweight oil that came in a pistol cleaning kit. 2) It seems that if under-lubricating is not my issue, I have 3 choices: more powder, heavier bullet, or lighter spring. What are y'alls thoughts on the best way to bring reliability to this gun? Thanks for your help! Kelly

Blade-Tech DOH is what my son used when he shot an XDm. I use a Blackhawk Serpa that I modified to disable the locking mechanism.

Try wiping your rounds down with a silicone cloth before loading them into the mag. If you're getting too much friction between either the slide and top round or top round and next round down, just wiping them down with one of these cloths might do the trick?