My first SA - so excited, ended somewhat disappointed - but hopeful

[digdave73]

Hi shooters,

My first post on your forums, and just acquired my first SA of any kind. Some pistols I've ran through on my journey are: H&K P30 9mm (sold & regret that), Glock 26 9mm (sold, do not regret), Ruger P89 9mm (sold, regret), Kimber TLE .45ACP (sold, without regret), CZ-85B stainless 9mm (shoot regularly), Sig Sauer P230 .380 (shoot & carry regularly), Kimber Eclipse .45ACP (shoot & fondle regularly), and finally just this week when I discovered that the new SA XDs was made of Unobtanium I opted for an XDm 3.8 Compact .45ACP.

On Thursday, I put 50 rnds of Speer Lawman 230gr hardball through it with no problems of anykind, and was very excited and pleased with how it felt in my hands and shot, and liked the grip I was able to utilize while shooting that I could not do with my other semi-autos, e.g. crossing my left thumb up over my right and locking it down into the grip - with no frame safety on the XDm, it was easy to do and made a much stabler shooting platform for such a Compact piece.

I brought it home, and cleaned it. Next morning, I headed out with 250 rounds of Remington UMC 230gr TMJ hardball as well as 50 rounds of the ammo I intend to carry with it, the Hornady 200gr XTP hollow-points. Attached is a pic at 7 yds, the top group is the first 9rnd mag of Hornady, aiming as near to center as possible, and the middle target X with the 13 rnd spare mag of Remington UMC - this pistol hits pretty much dead-on where I point it, so I'm pretty happy with that.

My mission, though, was mostly to satisfy myself that the pistol would be dependable and I fired roughly about 300 rnds in 45 minutes - the weapon was pretty hot! But by the time I got to ~325, I began to experience failures of the slide to return completely to battery when loading the next cartridge, and the first time it happened it was with the Hornady - and I did not realize the slide was not fully forward because it allowed me to squeeze the trigger and the striker fired - but did not contact the primer as I discovered when I cleared the weapon. By the 3rd malfunction, or failure to feed properly, it had occurred with both types of ammo, and with both magazines, and I had by then noticed that slide was not fully forward although it was allowing me to pull the trigger. By the end of my range session, it was occurring with almost every other round, and I simply had to push lightly on the rear of the slide with my thumb, or give the pistol the slightest little flick, and all was well.

So, I'm rather hoping that this was a problem of a machine being overheated and parts being unhappy when so hot, and not a permanent problem that will require the gun to be sent back. It was definitely not a problem of any kind of excessive fouling or powder/detritus obstruction within the slide rails or any other parts, nor was it what seems to be the go-to line of many responses I have read about this - the old "limp-wristing" out. What made me a little suspicious was the fact that today it was easily inducible and repeatable while cycling live rounds through it after I had cleaned it, simply by riding the slide forward slowly, it would almost always hang within about 1/8" of being completely forward. After careful inspection, it seems to be the guide rod or guide rod spring/assembly that is weak or non-functioning, OR that this is an inducible failure any time, and the next time I go to the range and the gun isn't smoking hot I won't have a problem. That is my hope, anyhow.

I really like this pistol, and purchased it with the idea of it being my new carry piece in lieu of my trusty Sig P230 - but I have to go back and shoot a little bit more to make sure that it was just a hot, unhappy gun under non-normal conditions that caused those failures and not some problem that needs repaired. If it is the latter, I still have high hopes that SA can make it right and I'll have a dependable pistol that I won't have to fire, shake, fire, shake, fire - what an image!

Overall, aside from this most important of all issues, that my firearm MUST go bang every time without special treatment, I am extremely happy with the fit and feel of it in my hands - I've yet to try out the other backstraps, but the one it shipped with is nice enough for now. I like the finish, I like the fit, I like the appearance, and the field-strip procedure, I especially like the grip safety - something I never could get comfortable without on the Glock 26 that I owned previously. It was a wonderful firearm, and functioned flawlessly, each and every time, shot good groups, and was really a great piece - but I never could feel comfortable carrying it with a round in the chamber. Everyone's MMV, and it works safely for the millions and millions, but just wasn't for me - Enter in the SA XDm stage right. I feel much better with this setup (and prefer the disassembly, too ) for my own safety and piece of mind, so I'm hoping that this problem I'm having will either not be a problem to begin with, as I said, only surfacing under extreme abnormal conditions which I put it through shooting it to a pretty high temperature, or that it will go away if I shoot it some more, or at worst, will be corrected if I have to return it to the factory.

I just wanted to put in my experience, as I've read a little bit about others having feeding issues, but not quite sure if they've had experience like mine where they could actually pull the trigger because it looked at first like it was ready to fire on the follow-up shots, instead of blaming the magazines, cartridge lengths, or people's apparently uninformed grips.

[Texasbdog]

Great shooting, hope you figure out the problem. I am loving my XDM 9mm 5.25, about 800 rounds and no issues, the most at one shooting was about 250 rounds, never a hiccup and it's accurate, not as accurate as you but for me it's great.

[john_bud]

Is that a 5.25" Xdm? Ive heard that some of them were shipped with springs that are too weak. I'd call SA up and chat, they have a reputation of being pretty responsive.

Seems like it (in your hands) is a good shooter. Will be a better feeling once that gremlin is out!

[digdave73]

Thank you Texasbdog, glad to hear yours is running great, and sounds like you're liking yours as much as I am mine.

john_bud, no - it's a 3.8 Compact. Thank you for your input - I will definitely keep that in mind, because it didn't even occur to me to contact SA directly. But now I don't know what to believe - today I went back to the range and fired 100 rounds of the Remington 230gr hardball UMC target ammo, and 20 more of the Hornady XTP 200gr - took me about 25 minutes, doing a few double-taps here and there, and emptying some mags rather quickly but still hitting my target, then allowing a few minutes to cool - and never had any problem whatsoever. I can induce the malfunction by hand, but that's not the same thing as actually having a problem with the firearm. I guess so long as it continues shooting like today, unless I see any range reports by other shooters with 3.8 Compact .45's speaking up and saying they also have a weak spring assembly confirmed by SA, OR, I have problems surface again, I'll figure I overheated a machine, and there is no problem.

Thank you again, shooters. Have a great 4th!

[digdave73]

On my 4th range outing Friday evening, the malfunction was back to stay. Only this time I had brought my wife along, and the whole drive I was just talking up how great my new pistol was, and how excited I was to have a new carry piece to supplant my trusty Sig Sauer P230 for no reason whatsoever except the 42 reasons that I really needed it and came up with in the car while driving to the range with her , because it was a manly.45ACP rather than the wimpy old .380, and was ever so slightly shorter in length, thus easier to conceal, and since I'd recently dropped a few pounds the added slide & frame thickness would fit well with the new IWB holster and wouldn't be a concern relative to the slim lines of my Sig, and many variations thereof.. :roll eyes: ..and even used the same ammo as my super-awesome Kimber Eclipse, so range time would now be even more expensive. Wait, did I just say that out loud?

The weapon had been cleaned thoroughly as usual, and I had two types of ammo, and was even taking my sweet time and turns with my wife shooting it. But by the time we had reached about 100 rounds fired (a total of 450 through the weapon so far), failure of the slide to return fully forward with each new round occurred after almost every shot. And it is painfully easy to push the entire slide & barrel back to it's malfunction position with just one finger while cleaning it & dry fire practice.

Anyhow, john_bud you were certainly correct about SA's reputation of being pretty responsive - I emailed them a description of my problem yesterday (Monday) afternoon, and by this morning I had an email response notifying me that a new recoil spring assembly was in the mail.

So! Once it arrives, I'll just have to go back to the range and throw some more lead downrange. I'm really hoping that this will clear it up and I will be able to add the prefix "trusty" to my new XDm Compact. I'll follow up in case anyone might benefit.

[HowardMan]

when you describe how easy it is to push the slide back it definitely sounds like something is off. i have an xd40sc so its a little different but when i first got mine it was tight as hell and even with over 1k rounds through it its not quite that loose. hopefully the new assembly fixes your issue. keep us posted.

[digdave73]

I received my new recoil spring/guide rod assembly from SA last week, and my new IWB holster from oldfaithfulholsters dot com - I got the Stage III kit and assembled it myself in about 10 minutes saving about $32 and 2-3 weeks shipping time in the process. The new recoil spring assy was noticeably stiffer than the original, so I was pretty hopeful that this was the solution to my problem.

Today was the first opportunity to go back to the range, and I fired 150 more rounds through it (total now ~600), with zero malfunctions. But I still can reproduce the feeding malfunction by hand by cycling the slide forward slowly, it will hang up as always about 1/8" of being fully forward - something no other semi-auto I've ever encountered will do. But that just isn't the same as a malfunction when operating, and I guess I'm satisfied. It seems reliable now, and perhaps with more shooting the 'sticky' problem will go away. In any case, I'm delighted that it has gone away while shooting, when it matters.

[digdave73]

As I said in my previous post/update, I believe my problem is solved, and now I'm more convinced that my speculation about the difference between riding it forward and actually cycling while firing, even though I've never had a pistol that would do this before, was also correct. While perusing August's American Rifleman, in an article about the new Steyr C9-A1 the author noted that: "Riding the slide will cause it to hang up just a fraction of an inch before coming fully into battery."

So. New factory recoil spring/guide rod assembly that I could easily tell was much stiffer, and no problems with 150 rounds. I think I'm in the clear.