Saw something REALLY disturbing yesterday...

[JJ_Westbrook]

I really hope none of you have ever seen anything like this, but I have to ask. I was at my regular "hang-out"/local dealer yesterday. I was there about three hours or so. Another regular came in and told the dealer "I know what I want, now." Turns out he saw that Springfield is now offering the XD in .45acp and he wants one. "Great choice", I commented, "but I don't think there are many of them in circulation, yet." "I am waiting for an XD40 to show up and can't wait to see the .45". Well this went on for a few minutes before the dealer remembers something he wants to show me.

He reaches under the counter and pulls out a pistol box. As he opens it and begins to pull it out to show us, he starts the story...

"I sold this to a guy last week, brand new, from the factory. He calls me back and says, I cant get this gun to fire...at all. It won't go into battery. Of course I replied, well just bring it in and we will see what the problem is. Well, I immediately order the guy a new one, just in case. The guy comes in the next day with the gun and I spent a few minutes looking it over. I don't notice anything REALLY out of the ordinary. Though, this is somewhat of a new design so, who knows?
I asked the guy what happened when he took it out and tried to shoot it. He said he loaded a magazine, inserted it into the gun, and racked the slide. He could see immediately that the slide didn't go all the way forward with a round in the chamber. He tried to pull the trigger (not the brightest bulb in the box) but nothing happened. He manually racked the slide again and it did the same thing. Did this several times and it happened every time. ...This, of course confused and frustrated him, so he put it up and went home.
So I get to looking deeper and decided to chamber a round to see what is going on. I put a round in the magazine, inserted it into the gun, and racked the slide. Sure enough, it would into go into battery. ...I looked down at the top of the slide and I could see why. Instantly I was chilled to the bone at what I saw. [Right then he rocked the slide back on the pistol, let it lock open, and leaned it down for us to see. OMG, we saw it at the same time. The firing pin. We realized that we shouldn't be seeing the firing pin. It was protruding from the breech face as far as it would go.]
He took the slide off the frame and began to explain and demonstrate that the spring that was supposed to hold the firing pin back, is apparently on the wrong side and is actually forcing it forward! The only way to push the firing pin IN was to depress the firing pin safety button and manually push in the pin with your hand. If you let the firing pin safety go at this moment, it would hold the pin back but as soon as you depress it again, the pin is forced forward out through the breech face."

Now, I don't want to have to spell out exactly why this is SO dangerous. Simply because I don't want someone actually TRYING to make this happen. I am sure most of you will realize the hazard of this situation. I will say this........Slam Fire.


Anyway, I am sure you noticed that I neglected to mention what brand/model pistol this was. This was intentional. I am not trying to knock on a particular manufacturer, just concerned at the lack of Quality Control here. Anyone ever see anything like this before?

[03RangerXLT]

someone probabluy was dicking around with the gun after it left the manufacturer. Gun manufacturers test fire their guns before they ship them and from what it sounds like, that one would have been red flagged immediatly!

[one-eyed-fatman]

Damn good point Ranger. Each pistol comes with a fired casing.

[Lumberjack98]

Geesh. Glad that none of you got hurt.

Thanks for sharing that story.

[[TASF]Overkill]

I would think a slam fire would be ALMOST impossible with an XD, and maybe most pistols. When a new round is stripped from the magazine, it slips up the "bolt-face", under the extractor, over the firing pin hole, and fully into position. It doesn't seem at all likely that it would get past the firing pin unless it broke...

Certainly a nasty possibility though.

[potatoho]

The XD will do this if the firing pin damping spring is missing/broken.

[Meta4]

That could really ruin someone's day.

-James

[Vampire]

Originally Posted by 03RangerXLT

someone probabluy was dicking around with the gun after it left the manufacturer. Gun manufacturers test fire their guns before they ship them and from what it sounds like, that one would have been red flagged immediatly!

That was my thought as reading this. My assumption was the buyer took it apart, cleaned it and re-assempled it incorrectly (intentionaly to create.... or due to human error)

[JJ_Westbrook]

Guys, I hope you are right. I hope this was not the manufacturer's fault.

I would think a slam fire would be ALMOST impossible with an XD, and maybe most pistols. When a new round is stripped from the magazine, it slips up the "bolt-face", under the extractor, over the firing pin hole, and fully into position. It doesn't seem at all likely that it would get past the firing pin unless it broke...

And this is the only thing that stopped this disaster. If that spring had been just a little weaker...I shudder to think. There were several people with him when he went to shoot it. Not to meantion the natural reaction, for many people, when a gun fires unexpectedly is to drop it/let it go... Can you imagine what could have happened if this had happened with a full mag and lots of people around?

Btw, this is something we talked about after he showed us this... Do all makers test fire ALL firearms before they leave the factory? Or do some/any use a "Random selection"? i.e. leaving the possibility for something like this to slip out, undetected?

[bkelm18]

I dont know if they do all of them, but my XD came with a spent casing in a little envelope from the test firing, I assumed they were all done like this.