XD won't feed reloads

[LPatterson]

The only thing no one seems to have mentioned is, have you tried polishing your feed ramp? I have 3 XD45's and they all had feeding problems until I spent a 1/2 hour and 2 felt pads on a Dremel until I could no longer feel ridges with an Xacto blade point. I now do the same thing to my Glocks.

[OUshooter]

The only thing no one seems to have mentioned is, have you tried polishing your feed ramp? I have 3 XD45's and they all had feeding problems until I spent a 1/2 hour and 2 felt pads on a Dremel until I could no longer feel ridges with an Xacto blade point. I now do the same thing to my Glocks.

I spent some time today working on the feed ramp, and then hit the range. I saw no improvement of any kind. The 10rd mags still feed fine, but the 12rd mags just laugh at me.

[OUshooter]

Here are some pics of the hang ups. Just as a refresher:

mixed headstamp 1x fired brass

sized using EGW U die

165gr TC Berry Plated bullet

crimping to 0.4205" - 0.4210"

COL ~1.125" (floats between 1.123" - 1.126"

Loads feed fine from 10rd mag but wont from the new 12rd mag. 12rd mags have fed every type of factory ammo I've thrown at them.

[Classic_jon]

Making some guesses here but I would check two things on the 12 round mag and then some suggestions on the bullets to check. I have 10 12 round mags for my XD service and the only time I have had an issue like what you describe it was caused by gunk on the follower.

First: Does the 12 round mag consistently FTF on the same round each time or is it random?

If it is the same round (or close to the same one) each time I would say to take the mag apart and scrub the inside plastic follower with a plastic scrubber pad and then rinse and wipe the inside of the mag out and after it is dry put it back together. There may just be some plastic/gunk or something on the follower/mag that is causing it. You may also want to look for a defect in the mag such as a dent or bend.

Second: Compare the feed lips between the 10 and the 12 round mags and see if they are bent the same. In reading elsewhere on the site I seem to remember some people having similar issues being caused by the feed lips.

Take a look at the bullets and check three things to narrow down the cause:

1) What is the OAL and bullet type of the factory bullets that the 12 round mags feed with no issues?

2) On the reloaded rounds that FTF what is the crimp and OAL like? Look to see if the FTF round is hanging on the lip of the brass as it goes into the barrel. This Saturday we had a guy with a Glock shooting some reloaded ammo that the crimp had a definite ridge to it when you ran your finger over it. It looked like it may have been contributing to some FTF and failure to go into battery issues he had.

3) Load up some ammo at 1.130 or 1.135 OAL and see if the 12 round mag feeds them ok.

Side note,

I will never personally buy a Promag ever again. I bought one and took it back the next day after it had serious issues with the follower and then had the bottom pop off and dump ammo everywhere.

A friend of mine has one of the 11 round ones and if you load it to 11 it has all kinds of issues. If you load it to 10 the promag follower will occasionally hang. In short, I personally would not use the Promag to determine reliability of feeding ammo.

[RIIID]

The 12 round mags are new correct? The spring might be too strong and slowing down the slide, load them up and let them sit for a day or two. Have you changed the recoil spring out for a lighter one? What power factor are your reloads? They might be too light for a Tac 40.

Rich

[OUshooter]

The 12 round mags are new correct? The spring might be too strong and slowing down the slide, load them up and let them sit for a day or two. Have you changed the recoil spring out for a lighter one? What power factor are your reloads? They might be too light for a Tac 40.

Rich

Gun is bone stock except for the sights and some grip tape.

PF = 185ish

One thing I noticed tonight is that the feed lips are a few hundredths longer on the 12rds vs the 10rd. The round is hitting and starting up the feed ramp but the head of the case hasn't cleared the lips yet. On the 10rds by the time the nose has engaged the feed ramp the head of the case as cleared the lips.

I think tomorrow I'm going to sacrifice the POS ProMag I have collecting dust and shorten the feed lips on it so see if there is any change.

[OUshooter]

The 12 round mags are new correct? The spring might be too strong and slowing down the slide, load them up and let them sit for a day or two. Have you changed the recoil spring out for a lighter one? What power factor are your reloads? They might be too light for a Tac 40.

Rich

Gun is bone stock except for the sights and some grip tape.

PF = 185ish

One thing I noticed tonight is that the feed lips are a few hundredths longer on the 12rds vs the 10rd. The round is hitting and starting up the feed ramp but the head of the case hasn't cleared the lips yet. On the 10rds by the time the nose has engaged the feed ramp the head of the case as cleared the lips.

I think tomorrow I'm going to sacrifice the POS ProMag I have collecting dust and shorten the feed lips on it so see if there is any change.

Just thought I would throw out an update.

I've tried trimming the feed lips with no improvement.

I've tried altering the COL from 1.165 to 1.110 with no clear winner.

I've tried EGW undersize die

I've tried Lee FCD

The one thing I haven't tried is a different bullet profile. If someone can point me towards RN 180gr I'd love to buy some.

I can't even get this damn thing to run factory UMC 180gr TC ammo reliably.

I sent an email to SA but as you can imagine they were a big fat fing zero for help. What really pisses me off is a buddy I shoot with is a Glock guy, and his Glock ran my reloads like a champ.

Edited March 20, 2010 by OUshooter

[The_Vigilante]

I am using the Precision Molys which are RNFP with no problems. They are 185g.

[GISMap]

Montana Golds have a nice RN profile. They are all I use (165s).

I load all the way out to 1.20" with no problems in my M&P. You might load up a few to try and cycle. My M&P will feed anything no matter how slow I ride the slide, your gun just doesn't like that truncated cone design.

http://www.montanagoldbullet.com/index.html