Well, no HST for me!

[Bree]

Originally Posted by bartonmd

I get that, and I didn't say that the ammo is junk, but rather that mine doesn't seem to want to feed it 100% reliably, when it seems to feed ball ammo 100%. Just like the only guy who was having trouble every mag with the TAP ammo, but ran everything else fine. I am having trouble with the HST, but TAP seems to run fine. If anything, regardless of whether it's a problem with my XD or mags, or whatever, it at least may stop somebody from saying "mine fires ball just fine, and nobody with an XD has had any problem running HST, so I'll carry with it assuming it's fine after firing 20rds."

About mags, and mag springs, I did notice that some of my mags, right out of the box, are slightly harder to load than others. I thought about it, but it does still seem to load ball ammo fine, so I don't know that it's a big deal or not. They all seem to have plenty of pressure, but aren't all the same... Also, it's not like all of them are the same and one is weaker... They are all slightly different, and I know none of them are as hard to load as the double stack .45 Glock mags, but neither were the XD's I rented before buying this one, so I don't know.

Mike

You're right. It needs to be reported for sure. Now we need to verify all the non-HST things that might have gone wrong. Do you use a double stack mag? Sometimes the followers get out of alignment and that causes the round to come up into the ramp slightly off from where it should be. Tolerances are pretty tight in these guns.

Same thing with the mag lips. You can get a set of lips that are slightly out of spec and some ammo will feed perfectly while other types will jam. That happened to me on my P3AT. Once I figured out that one of the lips was ever so slightly bent, it was easy to make the adjustment anhd get it feeding properly again. It doesn't take much.

Try buffing that ramp with some polishing rouge or maybe some 1000 grit sandpaper. There might be a small irregularity that is causing the rounds to hang.

The ammo is just too good to walk away from without a fight!! LOL!

[smokey240sx]

dammit i was set on buying this for my carry ammo. I guess i'll pick up 100rd of these and hope for the best. I guess its not a problem to go back to gold dots. I would really suck if my XD can't handle this.

[Myk9noseknows]

Just another reason I trust Hornady 200g TAP in all my .45 beasts

I've even had issues of the HST's in my Kahr 9mm, had to switch to CorBon DPX

[Bree]

Originally Posted by smokey240sx

dammit i was set on buying this for my carry ammo. I guess i'll pick up 100rd of these and hope for the best. I guess its not a problem to go back to gold dots. I would really suck if my XD can't handle this.

Like I said... I have the same gun Mike does and they run through mine fine. It may not be the gun. He is checking to see if other factors may have contributed. It is too early to say one way or the other.

I am NOT removing the HST's from my mags at this time. And I have a box of Gold Dots as well as DPX in the ammo can which I could easily switch out to.

Mike... why not give Federal a shout? I'm sure they will be very interested in your experience and maybe they can help ID the problem. They have made a very strong effort to market this product to law enforcement. They will not want to have any unsatisfied customers.

[bartonmd]

Originally Posted by Bree

Like I said... I have the same gun Mike does and they run through mine fine. It may not be the gun. He is checking to see if other factors may have contributed. It is too early to say one way or the other.

I am NOT removing the HST's from my mags at this time. And I have a box of Gold Dots as well as DPX in the ammo can which I could easily switch out to.

Mike... why not give Federal a shout? I'm sure they will be very interested in your experience and maybe they can help ID the problem. They have made a very strong effort to market this product to law enforcement. They will not want to have any unsatisfied customers.

Absolutely, if they run through yours fine, then keep them. There have only been a couple I've heard of that have had problems feeding with them, and they have a very good rep.

I will try 50 Gold Dots, and some more of the TAP ammo, before I contact Federal. If I have issues with either of those, I'll know for sure it isn't the ammo, but some thing with the weapon.

I did look at all of my mag lips, they all look good, and all mate against the shell casing just fine, if even a little harder toward the front of the case.

I may have to bring them into work (I can't carry here, or anything, but I don't see empty mags being a problem) and test them on the tension/pressure gauge and see how different (and in or out of spec) the mag springs actually are...

Mike

[Bree]

Ya know Magpul makes a special follower for AR-15 mags because the followers sometimes get misaligned and that causes jams in the rifle. I wonder if the same kind of thing might be true with some handgun mags. The spring tension might be just fine but if the follower gets hungup or misaligned and doesn't present the cartridge the right way, it might well jam.

[Philadelphia]

As another voice from the peanut gallery

Make sure the mags are kept clean. A little powder residue grit in the mag that makes the follower stick or hang up will cause misfeeds that can be hard to diagnose.

I open mine up and run a rolled up paper towel through them after every range session or every other depending. It is surprising how dirty they get. Takes 30 seconds and then one less thing to worry about.

[bartonmd]

Originally Posted by Philadelphia

As another voice from the peanut gallery

Make sure the mags are kept clean. A little powder residue grit in the mag that makes the follower stick or hang up will cause misfeeds that can be hard to diagnose.

I open mine up and run a rolled up paper towel through them after every range session or every other depending. It is surprising how dirty they get. Takes 30 seconds and then one less thing to worry about.

I do agree, but this is the third time to the range with this thing, and it's got ~500 rds through it, using (5) different magazines...

Mike

[Bree]

Originally Posted by bartonmd

I do agree, but this is the third time to the range with this thing, and it's got ~500 rds through it, using (5) different magazines...

Mike

If the follower is gummed up inside, you may very well have it in more than one mag. How would you know? Very few people break the mags down and strip them to clean them out. It might be one mag and the jams only happen when you pull that particular mag. It would be very hard to know which one it is and this type of problem can be non-repeatable... sporadic.... so you could use that mag for awhile, get a jam, then use it again without incident and then another jam. It happens in AR-15's. Why not in XD's?

[bartonmd]

Originally Posted by Bree

If the follower is gummed up inside, you may very well have it in more than one mag. How would you know? Very few people break the mags down and strip them to clean them out. It might be one mag and the jams only happen when you pull that particular mag. It would be very hard to know which one it is and this type of problem can be non-repeatable... sporadic.... so you could use that mag for awhile, get a jam, then use it again without incident and then another jam. It happens in AR-15's. Why not in XD's?

It happened at least once in a 13rd mag, and at least once in a 10 rd mag. I have had both of my 13 rd mags apart, and neither of them had any gunk buildup. I have only had (1) 10 rd mag apart. I have (3) 10-rd shorties, and (2) 13-rd mags with the factory X-tension... I was purposely rotating through the mags at the range when this happened. I loaded them all with the HST before I went, then shot them all, then loaded them all up again, then shot them all, and then finished up with a couple of the same mags a couple of times.

In hind sight, I should have noted the mags with the issues, and run a bunch of rounds through just those mags, to see if it happened again.

I do know, though, that it's not just one magazine that's the problem, if it's the mags.

Mike