New XD-9 Service w/ problems

[rick1000]

I just bought a bnib xd-9 service model. I have read most of the stickies and did alot of reading up on the XD's and decided to get one this past month based on all the positive feedback here on the xd talk forums. I took it out with me today to shoot after we were done with our dove hunt. Well to say the least, I am concerned with the results I had. Today was the first time my xd was shot (other than in house testing) and I started off shooting at a shoot n see target stuck on a stump about 10 yards away. I noticed that all my shots were going far right. From the stickies I aready knew that the sight is point of aim and not 6 o' clock, but I was 8 or 10 inches right every time. Thinking that I was jerking the trigger or that my off hand shooting was causing the problem as this is a new gun for me, I set up my folding table with a sandbag and shot from this position at the same target, same yardage. I recieved the same results. I began to compensate shooting a good 8 inches to the left of my target and hit left center of the target with around 1- 1 1/2 inch groups. My question is has anyone had this problem? Could my sights have drifted in the dovetails? I was shooting whitebox Winchester from Wally World but they were consistently right. Any suggestions would be helpful. I am wondering if i should just get a good set of Dawson sights and ajust my rear sight and be done with it. How is customer service with the XD. I know it is a Springfield product but made out of house in Croatia.

[EJ25]

are you shooting how you usually shoot other pistols?

[xd-shawn]

my XD9 shot to the right too, take a punch and knock your rear sight over, problem solved

it's not a manufacturing problem, you cant expect all handguns to shoot 100% dead on out of the box, mabye with a $1k+ gun like a kimber/wilson combat/ect, but not an XD

[rick1000]

Originally Posted by xd-shawn

my XD9 shot to the right too, take a punch and knock your rear sight over, problem solved

it's not a manufacturing problem, you cant expect all handguns to shoot 100% dead on out of the box, mabye with a $1k+ gun like a kimber/wilson combat/ect, but not an XD

Isn't that just masking the problem though? Both front and rear sight are in perfect alignment with the sight alignment markings in the dovetail. Oh well, I will give that a try. Thanks for the input, and any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[GFunk]

My XD-9 shot perfect out of the box, but I sure couldn't. It took me about 1500 rounds to figure out how to shoot it correctly - now I have to try extra hard not to hit bullseyes every time.

I found that I had poor trigger control - something I corrected with sight adjustments on my other pistols. Once I figured out the trigger control, I had accurate, predictable shot placement every time - and the gun did its job by putting the bullet impacts at point of aim.

I had to do a lot of dry firing to understand that I would pull the slack out of the trigger, then sort of jerk the last little bit. This caused me to shoot low left all the time. I focused really hard during dry firing to just continue to increase trigger pressure even though the actual trigger mechanism wasn't moving with the increased pressure. Then when the trigger finally broke (fired), the sights were still dead on.

Poor explination probably, but the point is - I'd lean more on your shooting style than the gun as far as inaccuracy, but you never know - could have received a bad egg .

[rick1000]

Good point ,but could I really shoot consistently to the right everytime with or with out the sandbag? I thought the same while shooting offhand so I made it a point to just squeeze the trigger enough to engage the trigger safety and then pull the rest of the trigger nice and crisp. I will get some differnt kinds of ammo this weekend and try everything mentioned to see what is causing this problem and post back. I hope it is something I am doing to be honest.

[KI4LIV]

I had a similar problem with an XD-9 Tactical that I had bought a while back... The rear sight was not centered - and my shots were tightly grouped but not where I aimed!

Check your sights - you could have the same problem. I ended up selling the gun for a $15 loss to a friend of mine who was able to correct it by centering the sights.

[rick1000]

Originally Posted by rick1000

Isn't that just masking the problem though?

Oh well, I will give that a try. Thanks for the input, and any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Not trying to be a jerk but I already covered that.

[BoneDigger]

Rick,
Do you have access to a laser bore sighter? If so, try putting it in the barrel and see how it aligns with your sights. One assumption that you are making is that ther sights are perfectly centered. I don't think that's a guarantee. Even if the rear sight is only "slightly" off, it can have a huge impact on POI.

If you do not have access to such a device, take the gun back to where you bought it and make them aware of the issue. If they have a boresighter they may be able to check it for you. If not, make THEM pay for the shipping back to SA.

Either way, I think the chances of the sights being off is much more likely than the barrel or frame being off in some way.

My XD Service and my XD subcompact both shot perfect center straight from the box.

Todd

[rick1000]

I will do that. Thanks alot.