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A Challenging Problem XD Malfunction Description

5K views 42 replies 18 participants last post by  jiminsandiego 
#1 · (Edited)
EDIT: If you have no interest in addressing the issue I'm describing, please do not read or respond. I'm really not interested in the obvious or predictable. Thanks.

I usually only lurk here on XD Talk and read as I usually don't have much to add, and far more to gain from the depth of experience here. I had a conversation with a buddy on Facebook about the often maligned grip safety on the XD family of pistols. He had, apparently, more than one instance of failure with the baseline XD where the grip safety had caused not a failure to fire, but where he was unable to drop a mag and clear a round in the pipe. I've been lots of different places looking for an explaination for this and can't seem to find a duplication of what he describes. Maybe you all can say. I'll post the convo:

Him: "Only one I dont care for is the XD line with the wierd grip safety that never works right."

Me: "Never heard of an instance like that. I have 2 of that family w/ 100s of rounds. No malfunctions yet. It's no different from a 1911 grip safety."

Him: " I've had 2 get stuck on me, when they get stuck with a round in the chamber and a magazine you cannot clear it without actually going through the whole magazine."

Me: "Are you sure that was the issue? The blowback mechanics, extractor and the slide stop are totally independent of the safeties. The bolt face doesn't lock forward into the breach regardless of whether the firing pin blocks are engaged."

Him: "No it was a rental gun a few years back, I went to go put it down and clear it, and I couldn't get the slide to pull back, so I put it on the table and the safety was still in. I didn't really mess with it after that. I went and got the range guy and he picked it up fired off the last few rounds and it worked fine after that. A few months later I took my brother fun shopping and the same thing happened. I heard that this was a problem early in the xd line and has since been fixed. But I just can't seem to get past it."

Me: "I have heard of a few issues of the grip safety not engaging properly - for whatever reason - thus not allowing the gun to fire, which makes sense to me. That yours fired tells me it can't be the same issue. On the XDm and the XD, (Not so with the XDs) unless you have that safety depressed properly you will not be able to rack the slide back, though on mine it's possible 3 times out of 10 to still cock the firing mech w/o. Moot if the pin is already cocked from firing, one still won't be able to rack the slide unless the safety is pressed. You've got me intrigued. I could see a dirty rental w/ a high round count developing wear and tear issues, but that the issue crossed over to another gun (?) is strange. I assume you could still drop the magazine? There's nothing holding that in except the button. It's even more independent of the process. I might've dropped the mag, emptied it on the bench, reinserted, then locked the slide back using that last round in the tube."

Him: "No, that's the problem, the safety was fully depressed, I could not manually pull the slide back (but it would fire and would slide back) and the magazine would not release."

So that's it. I'm at a bit of a loss. I'd love to provide a rational explaination, but it sounds like there's more than one or even 2 things going on here. I have no reason to believe my buddy is full of it, nor do I have reason to believe he is in any way incompetent. Anyone heard of this?
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Way to much to read, but from the first paragraph

If you do not depress the grip safety the gun won't shoot.
If you do not depress the grip safety the slide won't rack.
The grip safety has nothing to do with inserting or ejecting a magazine.
If a round was stuck in the chamber you will have to force it out.

Your buddies an idiot just ignore him on the topic and enjoy your gun.
 
#3 ·
Way to much to read, but from the first paragraph

If you do not depress the grip safety the gun won't shoot.
If you do not depress the grip safety the slide won't rack.
The grip safety has nothing to do with inserting or ejecting a magazine.

Your buddies an idiot just ignore him on the topic and enjoy your gun.
If you had no interest in addressing the issue I would have preferred you kept silent. Too much to read? Move along and don't waste our collective time.
 
#8 ·
First, james is a gunsmith that specializes in the HS2000, XD and XDm lines. You should be more appreciative of his input.

1. why do you care what your friend thinks
2. he doesn't understand the pistol
3. he is probably leaving out some key piece of information that would tie this all together
4. you'll never get to the bottom of this specific failure.
 
#11 ·
First, james is a gunsmith that specializes in the HS2000, XD and XDm lines. You should be more appreciative of his input.

1. why do you care what your friend thinks
2. he doesn't understand the pistol
3. he is probably leaving out some key piece of information that would tie this all together
4. you'll never get to the bottom of this specific failure.
1. Not relevant
2. That's possible
3. That's possible too - it dawned on me that focusing on the grip may not have been the issue at all
4. Based on the responses you're probably right.

I did see James' qualifications and would have placed more value on his input had it addressed the content I'd laid out. He decided it was too much to read. His tech response was elementary to any XD series owner. I don't doubt his depth of knowledge, but his reply was unhelpful.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Range rental gun , Who knows and Why care. I have two Xdm's with thousands of rounds and zero grip safety issue's !
Chances are you will not get a definitive answer.
 
#5 ·
Ultimately I don't care that it's a range gun. But I do care about the reutation and self propogating bad info. I'd like to get smarter on the subject myself and be able to give him an intelligent answer to the issue he had.
 
#6 ·
I think you already have the answer you are looking for. You can research the issue your friend had but i doubt you'll find anything. If it was an issue someone here would know about it (it is after all XDTALK). It's the first I've ever heard of it and apparently a first for a few others. But I guess I'll bite.

It sounds as if your friend didn't have the grip safety fully depressed while trying to rack the slide to the rear. Can he recreate the issue time and time again? Possibly on video?

Edit* As others have said the grip safety is a completely independent function of the magazine release button. More often than not, perceived malfunctions are human error not the gun itself.
 
#9 ·
I had a few instances where my xds wouldn't fire. The problem was my hand wasn't high enough on the grip to depress the safety. I know the xd is different than the xds. I got rid of the xds because the grip safety. I wouldn't worry about a crappy range gun.

Sent from my two-story outhouse.
 
#13 ·
Honestly , Without first hand knowledge of the actual pistol and or being there ,To witness the
failure.
Your just not going to get a good answer.
I understand you wanting to learn more about firearms. Most gun owners do.
 
#14 ·
Thanks, sansooshooter. You're probably right. It was worth a try. (To me) Probably not a very good 1st impression w/ the forum either. I'm actually pretty easy to get along with.

I'm certainly no novice to firearms, but can't claim to be an expert at the nuances of a lot of their inner works. If there's no answer, so be it.
 
#15 ·
Sounds to me like he had a round not all way into chamber (possible with a poorly maintained range gun). If he tried to drop mag without racking then the hung round holds mag (possible with a lessor experienced shooter). Bet he or range help pushed it into battery while thinking (wrongly ) that grip safety was issue. If so then their problem went away. As for shooting all to clear - sort of confirms inexperience.
 
#16 ·
I gave you the answer your friend does not know what he's talking about.
Enjoy your gun and stop listening to him get your own experiences.

You wrote a freaking book, that could have asked in two to three simple questions/Sentences. Too much narrative. My opinion and sticking with it. Its easier to help you if you just spell out what the problem is.
 
#17 ·
I gave you the answer your friend does not know what he's talking about.
Enjoy your gun and stop listening to him get your own experiences.

You wrote a freaking book, that could have asked in two to three simple questions/Sentences. Too much narrative.
Some people like a little foreplay before getting to the point... lol
 
#23 ·
I am with @ajamesp51 on this one...everyone uses the Grip Safety as a go-to feature to Haterade about...your friend is no different...he couldn't figure out what was causing the malfunction, so he swung at the Grip Safety Strawman...

The Grip Safety is the primary feature of the pistols...if you aren't competent enough to operate one, go buy a Glock and whine elsewhere...

For the Record, @ajamesp51 has probably forgotten more about these pistols than I will ever know--acting like a douchebag towards people who legit wanna help you might be ok on other forums, but it won't fly around here
 
#33 ·
Him: "No it was a rental gun a few years back,
"A few years back." I doubt your friend remembers the exact problem. Only, the recall took place since then and the safeties were fixed. He needs to get his head straight on the new design; it's not the same gun.

Wish I hadn't of read all the replies and seen the tail wagging. Anyway, if you're gone, you're gone and won't see that I took the time to read your post and find the relevant data in your discussion.
 
#34 ·
Maybe I missed it, but since the issue seems to be beyond the OP and his buddy's technical skills and the pistol should be sent to the Springfield Armory gunsmiths for service.

Unless the OP is willing to get his hands on the pistol and detail strip the frame, asking the collective about what could be wrong is going to be a fruitless endeavor. What is known about your friend's pistol is that it is not operating properly, and is broken. It should be sent back ASAP and not fired until it's fixed by the SA 'smiths.

Sorry we can't be of further assistance, but sometimes there's a limit to the usefulness of the internet, and it has nothing to do with the competency of the people on the forum.
 
#35 ·
his buddy doesn't even own an XD...he was simply blanket-bashing the XD line based upon a hypothetical rental gun (that I am not even convinced ever existed) its another Troll Thread
 
#39 ·
i'm not an @$$hole...I just have a very short tolerance for stupidity and arrogance...:grin:
 
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