XD9 Tactical Having Weak Ejection

[Twombs76]

As the title says, i own an XD9 Tactical Model (produced 2011) and have been having some serious ejection problems. Its had just over 3000 rounds through it (most of them steel cased wolf) and recently the ejection has became very erratic, it varied from just barely dribbling out and falling a couple of inches from the gun to landing consistently roughly three feet on the shooting bench i was resting it on and everywhere inbetween.

Firing position was on sand bags inside the red circle. the ejection was that giant pile of steel cased ammo. 250+ rounds fired




Now you could think i limp wristed it and the lack of rigidity was not giving the slide enough rigidity to fully recoil and kick the case out correctly, but the recoil impulse was similar to shooting wolf prior to this outing. Plus i had a second XD9 to compare with (a sub compact Produced in 2003) and it ran perfectly fine on the same exact ammo!

The fact that the recoil impulse felt the same and the ammo worked fine in another XD, lead me to think that the problem with ejection was rooted to the extractor/ejector. when i broke the gun down to inspect it on the range i noticed a gouge in the ejector as well, the extractor had no abnormalities.

From what ive seen on my XD is that the gouge on the ejector is from the Mec-Gar 18 round mags i recently bought. (Witch i love by the way, and just bought another)

Below are some photos of the factory mag and the Mec-Gar mag in both "pressured" or "pushed up" positions and the "rested" position. in the photos its clear the space between the feed lips on the Mec-Gar mag and the ejector is much closer that the factory mag, also the spot its nearest to is were the gouge is located.



Factory Mag Rested




Factory Mag Pressured


Mec-Gar


Mec-Gar Mag Rested



Mec-Gar Mag Pressured



The gouge was present after the first range session with the new Mec-Gar's so i am pretty confident the new Mec-Gar's that have altered by ejector. but it could just be the wear of 3000 rounds(mostly steel) changing the angle on the ejectors face.

The red lines on the images below are to "highlight" the worn areas

The face of my ejector is not pictured however it has became worn on half of the face (the bottom half) to a point in with it has possibly changed the angle.



Top view of the ejector




Right side of the ejector




Left side of the ejector with the gouge


My XD subcompact on the other hand has very little wear on the ejector and contains the old style ejector that is much more substantial, and heavy duty looking. most of the wear on the machined (MIM?) ejector is on the bottom of the ejector were the mag's feed lips make contact.



Older machined (MIM?) ejector on the LEFT
Newer stamped steel ejector on the RIGHT


I was looking for a ejector replacement and i found this one made by Powder River Precision

PRP EJECTOR

Witch resembles the older machined (MIM?) ejector found in my subcompact, although the PRP is machined 416 Stainless Steel and is heat treated,

If you have any experience with the PRP ejector or with what determines an XD's ejection pattern, or have even had ejection problems in your XD orXD(m) and have resolved them feel free to chime in.

at this point i'm just hoping its not the extractor cause that results in a guaranteed trip to Springfield.

Thanks for any advice or insight on the matter.

[dglock]

Originally Posted by Twombs76

As the title says, i own an XD9 Tactical Model (produced 2011) and have been having some serious ejection problems. Its had just over 3000 rounds through it (most of them steel cased wolf) and recently the ejection has became very erratic, it varied from just barely dribbling out and falling a couple of inches from the gun to landing consistently roughly three feet on the shooting bench i was resting it on and everywhere inbetween.

Firing position was on sand bags inside the red circle. the ejection was that giant pile of steel cased ammo. 250+ rounds fired




Now you could think i limp wristed it and the lack of rigidity was not giving the slide enough rigidity to fully recoil and kick the case out correctly, but the recoil impulse was similar to shooting wolf prior to this outing. Plus i had a second XD9 to compare with (a sub compact Produced in 2003) and it ran perfectly fine on the same exact ammo!

The fact that the recoil impulse felt the same and the ammo worked fine in another XD, lead me to think that the problem with ejection was rooted to the extractor/ejector. when i broke the gun down to inspect it on the range i noticed a gouge in the ejector as well, the extractor had no abnormalities.

From what ive seen on my XD is that the gouge on the ejector is from the Mec-Gar 18 round mags i recently bought. (Witch i love by the way, and just bought another)

Below are some photos of the factory mag and the Mec-Gar mag in both "pressured" or "pushed up" positions and the "rested" position. in the photos its clear the space between the feed lips on the Mec-Gar mag and the ejector is much closer that the factory mag, also the spot its nearest to is were the gouge is located.



Factory Mag Rested




Factory Mag Pressured


Mec-Gar


Mec-Gar Mag Rested



Mec-Gar Mag Pressured



The gouge was present after the first range session with the new Mec-Gar's so i am pretty confident the new Mec-Gar's that have altered by ejector. but it could just be the wear of 3000 rounds(mostly steel) changing the angle on the ejectors face.

The red lines on the images below are to "highlight" the worn areas

The face of my ejector is not pictured however it has became worn on half of the face (the bottom half) to a point in with it has possibly changed the angle.



Top view of the ejector




Right side of the ejector




Left side of the ejector with the gouge


My XD subcompact on the other hand has very little wear on the ejector and contains the old style ejector that is much more substantial, and heavy duty looking. most of the wear on the machined (MIM?) ejector is on the bottom of the ejector were the mag's feed lips make contact.



Older machined (MIM?) ejector on the LEFT
Newer stamped steel ejector on the RIGHT


I was looking for a ejector replacement and i found this one made by Powder River Precision

PRP EJECTOR

Witch resembles the older machined (MIM?) ejector found in my subcompact, although the PRP is machined 416 Stainless Steel and is heat treated,

If you have any experience with the PRP ejector or with what determines an XD's ejection pattern, or have even had ejection problems in your XD orXD(m) and have resolved them feel free to chime in.

at this point i'm just hoping its not the extractor cause that results in a guaranteed trip to Springfield.

Thanks for any advice or insight on the matter.

I don't have any experiance with mec-gar mags in any of my 4 xd/xdms only factory mags.
I only shoot brass cased ammo,my own reloads, in any of my pistols. Just replace the ejector and it will be fine but i think you will have to be very carefull inserting those 18 round mags!

don

[FJ40Jay]

I use mostly mec-gar mags in my service model. I have noticed no problems or contact. I also have at least 3k rounds through my XD. I have read somewhere, not sure how true it is, but the spring in the recoil asembely may be partly to blame for week ejection.
but for sure there is a issue with the ejector and the mags in your pistol.
Good luck.

[Twombs76]

Originally Posted by dglock

I don't have any experiance with mec-gar mags in any of my 4 xd/xdms only factory mags.
I only shoot brass cased ammo,my own reloads, in any of my pistols. Just replace the ejector and it will be fine but i think you will have to be very carefull inserting those 18 round mags!

don

Yeah i'm going to replace the ejector, just ordered the Powder River Precision Ejector, and its already shipped. It will be interesting to see how the mag might wear on the PRP ejector, if if wears in similar spots like the stock ejector did, ill have to call Mec-Gar and see what they have to say.

Originally Posted by FJ40Jay

I use mostly mec-gar mags in my service model. I have noticed no problems or contact. I also have at least 3k rounds through my XD. I have read somewhere, not sure how true it is, but the spring in the recoil asembely may be partly to blame for week ejection.
but for sure there is a issue with the ejector and the mags in your pistol.
Good luck.

Thats interesting you've had no similarities of wear on your ejector with a similar round count, while also using Mec-Gar mags. my ejector must have just had some metallurgy problems and worn and changed easier. Cause i love the Mec-Gar 18 rounders! Springfield/HS Product should have designed their factory mags like this to start! Anti friction coating, easy to load even to 16 to 17 rounds, and just a couple bucks higher in cost.

[hobie16]

do you slam your mags in repeatedly?

[Twombs76]

Originally Posted by hobie16

do you slam your mags in repeatedly?

No, i don't slam them in repeatedly very fast and hard

[dglock]

Originally Posted by FJ40Jay

I use mostly mec-gar mags in my service model. I have noticed no problems or contact. I also have at least 3k rounds through my XD. I have read somewhere, not sure how true it is, but the spring in the recoil asembely may be partly to blame for week ejection.
but for sure there is a issue with the ejector and the mags in your pistol.
Good luck.

No, weak recoil spring will make the ejected cases fly farther from the gun and with more velocity not less.

don

[FJ40Jay]

Originally Posted by dglock

No, weak recoil spring will make the ejected cases fly farther from the gun and with more velocity not less.

don

Ok, thanks for clarifying that. I new it had some affect.
I also Love the mecgar mags. I use them way more than my oem,s.

[Twombs76]

Went to the range with the new Powder River Precision Ejector installed in my XD, and it completely fixed my ejection problems.

I looked at my stock stamped Ejector closely after it was out of the firearm and it definitely looks the the angle on the ejector face had changed. Must have had some bad metallurgy, and just worn out past that point when parts stop wearing.

So if your having any ejection problems or you just want something a little more substantial than the stock part get the PRP Ejector, i highly recommend the Powder River Precision Ejector for high volume shooters like myself as well.

Ejector Face


Ejector Wear


Comparison of Ejectors

[ddodgin]

Interesting. I have 10 XD mags and one of them is a Mec-gar. I noticed the same damage on my ejector while cleaning one day. Havent had problems yet but only have about 2000 rounds through gun and only one Mec-gar mag. Had a Springer trigger job done and they ground the spur off when it was there. Only 300-400 rounds through since, no problems, still using Mec-gar mag in the mix. will re-post if I see the damage recur.