Training with my XD-40...

[jethro3898]

My brother-in-law and I are going to be taking a tactical pistol class at the US Shooting Academy in July and I saw that the class requirement is 1000 rounds of range ammo and 250 rounds of frangible ammo per student. By the way, I'll be using my XD-40 4" service.

I have been scouring the internet for deals on bulk ammo and have found a place with pretty good prices: www.bulkammo.com. I assume this is re-loads. Is such ammo okay to shoot? All I have ever put down the pipe was Winchester, Blazer, or UMC stuff for practice...once I tried some type of Israeli ammo that kicked like a mule....never again. It has all shot really well (accurate), but the Israeli stuff was all over the paper. Is this the same problem I will get from this remanufactured stuff? The good thing is, my gun has eaten every round I have ever fed it, no failures of any kind.

Buying this remanufactured stuff can save me about $100 versus new Blazer ammo and way more than $100 over the WWB or UMC stuff. Some people have even recommended simply buying from Wal-Mart. Last time I checked with them, I don't think their .40 ammo was all that cheap. I guess the plus side is that I can buy a box or two per week and spread the money out over a larger period of time, but I will probably end up paying more in the long run.

I thought I'd get your guys' input since many of you shoot a whole heck of a lot more than I do.

Two other questions:
1. What do they mean by frangible ammo? I assume they mean soft-point rounds (non-FMJ) for use on steel targets and not hollow-point rounds.
2. I read on another forum that you can easily switch out a 9mm barrel and magazine in an XD-40. Is this true? In other words, they said that the gun is the same in 9mm or .40 variants, just the magazine and barrel is different. Sounds possibly dangerous to me, but I'm no gun guru. IF this is legit, how much would something like this cost? If it is possible to do, I might be interested in looking into this...not necessarily for the training, but just for the versatility on down the line.

Thanks in advance for your responses.
JED

[wJAKE19]

frangible is ammo that breaks up into smaller pieces upon impact of a surface harder than itself. it is not just a soft point lead bullet. it is made up of smaller pieces of metal, or plastic pressed or glued into the shape of the bullet.
it is designed for maxium energy transfer and a much decreased risk of ricochets.

yes you can buy a drop in 9mm barrel for your xd 40. www.pistolgear.com has them. they are about 125 bucks, they are safe and they work just fine. e mail Scott at Pistol Gear, as he knows a lot more about these barrels than i do.

[Ishpeck]

Bulk Ammo sells more expensive than our local ammo shop.

[Hooz]

Originally Posted by wJAKE19

yes you can buy a drop in 9mm barrel for your xd 40. www.pistolgear.com has them. they are about 125 bucks, they are safe and they work just fine. e mail Scott at Pistol Gear, as he knows a lot more about these barrels than i do.

That is incorrect. PistolGear does not offer conversion barrels (yet).

You can buy a 9mm EFK Firedragon conversion barrel for your XD-40 for $155. Couple that with some 9mm mags and you're ready to roll. I had that exact setup for quite a while and never had any issues with feeding or stoppages, but YMMV, of course.

[peacemaker]

wat is ur idea of expensive?? i just bought 250 rds of UMC 40 cal ammo from bass pro for $64. not sure if u have one where u live though. goin off of a usual box of 50rds would cost u $17 u save between 15 and 20 bucks per box of 250.... however, i did notice that they are goin up to 72 bucks now.

[tony stark]

You might try ammoman.com.
I would check with the school as to the if they will allow remanufactured ammo or not.
When I went to the Front Site, they will allow new ammo only.
If it's going to be like hunting, the ammo is probably going to be the least expensive part of the whole thing.
Find a good price on some good ammo, then concentrate on your shooting instead of your ammo. (JMO)