Loaded chamber indicator...weak link in the design?

[Gryff]

Originally Posted by Hitman45

I don't really use the LCI. I just run my thumb acroos the striker..if it's back...you know it loaded.

Actually, not true.

If you load a magazine in the gun, but not seat it all the way in the well, and then rack the slide, you will have a striker indicator showing cocked, but you may not have actually chambered a round.

This has happened to me maybe twice in three years of competition, but the LCI helped identify promptly the failure to feed a round into the chamber.

I prefer the LCI to doing a manual press-check, since a press-check might result in the slide not going fully back into battery.

In all honesty, the LCI is more important than the striker indicator. Other than a mis-fire, it is nearly impossible for the LCI to show the gun as loaded, but it not to be also cocked.

-Jim

[deapee]

If it's going to stick, at least it'll stick up by design and not down...just incase someone's an idiot. As was mentioned, I always know what condition my gun is in...and even still I always visually check before I do anything anyway.

[Glenn]

Originally Posted by KeithM

My opinion of the intent behind the LCI is to indicate that the gun is indeed loaded, not to confirm that it's safe. It's not there to tell you that the gun is unloaded so that it's safe to dry-fire, practice drawing, clean, or whatever, it's there to tell you the gun is loaded and ready to fire. The one time that it is not advisable to treat a gun like it's loaded without confirming it is when you actually need to use the gun. So if in the middle of the night someone breaks into your house, you can pick up your gun, run your finger over the top of the slide and confirm it's loaded without having to rack the slide or assume that you did when you last loaded it.

+1 Keith I agree

[invssgt]

Originally Posted by JohnC

I just squirt some Hoppes #9 on it and lift it up and down a few times. Cleans it right up....

+1 on that.

We have three of them in the family (two 40's & a Nine, all service length) that have close to 9,000 rounds down the pipe between them. One of the 40's has eaten mostly lead-bullet reloads. Dousing the works with Hoppe's #9 is a good way to keep the crud washed out, and our loaded chamber indicators have never given a problem.

Actually the LCI is one of the features I really like about the XD. The fact that it is tactile allows you to run your thumb over the slide in a pitch-black room, if you need reassurance that your chamber is hot- or not.

[ZerroDefex]

Originally Posted by Gryff

Actually, not true.

If you load a magazine in the gun, but not seat it all the way in the well, and then rack the slide, you will have a striker indicator showing cocked, but you may not have actually chambered a round.

Actually, the striker indicator is going to pop out whether or not the magazine is inserted when you rack the slide. You don't need one loaded to set the striker.

[jmiahhenry]

I agree with most everyone here I think the key is cleaning. I shoot my rounds than anyone I know and I also carry about five days a week, so my guns goes through hell but I keep it cleean and oiled. I knew a cop that lost his life do to a jam cause the gun had not been cleaned in quite sometime.

I shoot about 20,000 rds or so a year.