XD Failure to Eject

[ben1987]

Hi everybody, so I have about 1100 rounds through my XDm 5.25 9mm, and just today I was beginning to have fairly regular failure to ejects. I have been practicing a drill to work on recoil anticipation where I chamber a round, take the magazine out, and fire the round, then reset the trigger and dry-fire. This really is helping my muscle memory to stop dropping the barrel making my shots break low and to the left.

Just today though, the XD started having failure to ejects on about 70% of rounds shot like this. However, it never had a FTE with a magazine in. I shot multiple 5 and 10 shot strings with a magazine inserted, probably 100 rounds total, and it never experienced a FTE. However, on the 50 or so shots I shot without a magazine in, it would FTE on about 70% of them. This would either lead to a case caught in the slide or the more rare occurrence where the shell would actually drop out of the empty magwell. I've searched online and within these forums and haven't found anyone posting a similar problem.

I know the easy answer is just to not shoot it without a magazine, but the failure itself still worries me. I was shooting Winchester 115 gr 9mm, the 100 round value pack, which is what probably 90% of the rounds fired through the pistol have been, and this is the first time I have had any problems. Also for more background info, I had installed a PRP Extreme trigger kit around 500 rounds with no other problems since installation. I removed and inspected the ejector and did not see any defects, chips, fractures, etc or anything else looking out of the ordinary within the gun internally.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated, Thanks!!

[Sarge]

WWB isn't exactly overpowered in 9mm. Might just be weak enough that the gun depends on the mag being in there to bounce the brass off of. How far does the brass eject under normal circumstances? Is it robust or just dribbling out a foot or less? Does the gun eject with an empty mag in place? XDM springs are kind of stout too so coupled with weak ammo?? With that PRP trigger you should have gone ahead and put a lighter recoil spring in it as well. If you get a chance try that and see if ejection improves.

[ben1987]

It varies considerably, anywhere from 1 to 3 feet away from me each shot, but to be honesty I have had a few cases land on the brim of my hat since I installed the PRP (typing that out makes me think I can't add 2+2 haha), so hopefully the combo of weak ammo and strong spring is what's causing it. And yes it ejects with an empty mag in. I got some hornady critical defense ammo I will actually be taking out to the range this afternoon to see if it happens with a stronger load. I started looking at new recoil springs since I got in from the range today, I am looking at the 14 lb spring, I read that the stock spring is around 18 lbs so hopefully this will fix the problem.

Thanks for the advice!

[Sarge]

I put a 14 in my 5.25 when I put the PRP in. 14 was recommended by the Powder River folks. If the critical defense stuff ejects fine under all conditions then you probably found the answer. Good luck

!

[ben1987]

Yep the critical defense ejected fine 10/10 with good distance. Well I'm going to order the 14lb spring immediately, I didn't know that the trigger would affect the ability of the slide to cycle on the OEM spring. Definitely nice to know its not something wrong with the gun! Thanks a lot Sarge!!

[XD525Shooter]

The XDm action is fully cocked when the slide goes into battery. Therefore the full force of the striker spring works against the recoil spring when the pistol is in go mode(cocked). If a lighter striker spring was utilized when the PRP was installed this makes sense. Less resistance from the striker spring causes an increase in the amount of force applied directly to the slide by the recoil spring.