TSiWRX

http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?179626-Springfield-xdm-9mm-mags ^ That started off as a thread about the magazine springs, but my input there side-tracked it to overall maintenance and long-term use/concerns. I did a lot of back-tracking on the Forums here at BE.com, and took advantage of many past posts here. Credit was given where it was due, of-course. My understanding from more recent posts on XD-Talk is that they are now releasing more and more small-parts if you specifically request them, the ejector and extractor, for example, has seen some reluctance in the past, but now seem to be available. There also seems to be a tech-to-tech difference, here as well, so luck may play a factor. Don't worry too much about that striker-area disassembly. It's not nearly as hard as it seems. Just remember that as the rear plate comes off that the striker spring and its guide are under quite a bit of spring-pressure there, and you'll be fine. And while everything is out, there, also take out the striker safety assembly and its spring, an give that area a good cleaning, too: I've found that I can go quite a long period, there, but that eventually things will get gummed up enough that it can affect overall reliability ( http://www.xdtalk.com/posts/4596585/). When you tackle this area, the Springer Precision free disassembly videos on YouTube are an excellent resource: ^ and you'll see that within the first couple of minutes, it will walk you through the complete disassembly of this area. Overall, if you're decently careful with lube/cleaning, this area should remain trouble-free for quite a long time. I'm not a competition shooter, so I really don't tackle this area as often as I likely would, given that problems in this area would likely lead to a pretty sucky day when competing, whereas if something happened with mine during a class, I'll simply go get my backup XDm. That said, I did pull and clean both the striker, striker channel, and the striker safety and its channel this past spring. With close to 6K rounds on the clock since my last cleaning in that area, it was actually remarkably free of any detritus. Sorry for the formatting - I hope my edit at least allows you to read the post more clearly, ChemistShooter. I initially mis-configured my reply to you, and am having difficulty restructuring the post. Sorry!

^ Hey, I'm First-Generation Chinese/Taiwanese. I use what I gots! It works great. Is economical - and I don't mind if it breaks even after just a single use.

Family-pack of wooden chopstics from your local Asian foods market. In terms of hammers: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/410835/wheeler-engineering-hammer-and-punch-set-with-hard-plastic-case ^ MidwayUSA has these nice hammer/punch sets that have a case, so you can take them with you to the range.

New here. Sorry to be visiting this one so late. If your friend has not yet purchased the spacers (Springfield Armory calls them "X-Tensions"), ask him to please perform a few day's worth of reload drills before he finalizes his backstrap as well as X-Tensions sizing decision. For some shooters, spacers such as these can cause the mag to hang in the magwell after the release has been punched, mainly due to the meat at the heel of their dominant hand (or, if they're using a padded-palm shooting glove, the same) "locking" to the texturing or other physical features on the spacer. Cutting or otherwise modifying the spacer at that area to allow for clearance can be the definitive fix, but for XDm-owners, if this is found to be an issue, sometimes, the simple substitution of a smaller spacer can serve as cure. It may look funny, but it's a functional fix for some, and should not affect one's grip.