I've had my xds for about 2yrs now and I carried the federal hallow point round. I decided to switch over to the hornady critical defense. I decided to go to the range last weekend and while I was there I wanted to test the critical defense to see if it ran well.. After a couple shots I noticed I kept getting failure to feed and the I would have to constantly assist the slide into battery. I came across a couple rounds that would jam on me and keeped the round to retry racking the slide and I noticed the edge of the round would get stuck on the feed ramp. Obviously i decided not to carry that round and switched back to my federal that ran through the gun like butter without an issue. I was wondering if anyone else has come across an issue like this ?
On the picture below on the right side you can see the rounds that we're getting caught on the feed ramp. Definitely not a round i would want to carry !
I've seen many reports of the Hornady ammo getting caught on the feed ramps of various guns - good job testing it before deciding to carry it. Try Federal HST or Speer Gold Dot - they generally run well in the XDs, and tend to have better terminal performance as well.
I'm no expert but I do my research and yeah, HST's are a great round for SD. Not sure if there is better, maybe equal or close but between the HST and Hornady, HST all damn day long.
I remember seeing a video on youtube where some guy had this issue. He determined, then demonstrated, that the issue (for him at least) was with HP rounds with a narrow 'mouth'. Wide mouthed HP ammo (like HST) did not have the issue.
That's the only round that hangs up in my XDs as well, I don't carry them. The Hornady XTP's work fine in my gun but there are better rounds out there.
I haven't had any issues with t he critical defense in any caliber so far. I got a bunch as a gift. I did trim the excess that protruded from the bullet with a razor blade.
it's that stupid rubber tip. Z-max ammo has them as well, have same issues in many reliable guns otherwise. Terminally, they are a last gen bullet as well. Stick with the new tech, bonded bullets are tougher and hold together better and don't have a dumb rubber stopper on them. Another last gen bullet that performs well is xtp, sabers, mag tech. Lately, I've began sticking with bonded for carry. Still have an buttload of xtp's so I can't jump that train yet. the latter is still high quality. bonded include gold dots, ranger T, hst's, and I am sure there are others
Yeah, I stopped using the Hornady Crit series a while back for similar issues. Testing showed an issue with my XDS 9, through my G19 eats them just fine, but I dropped them for both guns anyways. I now carry Winchester Defend 9mm 147gr.
I too agree it's the orange rubber tip. It's like a pencil eraser and of course it would get caught. Only ammo my XDS won't shoot. Like the majority -go with HST
I had the same issue with the Hornady Critical Duty in my full size XD .45. The polymer tips kept getting hung up on the bottom edge of the feed ramp. Switched to Federal HST and never looked back.
Hornady Critical Defense has worked well in my XD 45 and XDM 9. Never a problem of any kind. The Hornady CD did not perform well in a Kahr CW 45 I once owned. I've seen testing where the Hornady CD in 9MM has worked particularly well (penetration & expansion) in short barreled pistols. The only Hornady Critical Defense round I will not carry is their .380. From all I can gather, it appears to be a woefully underperforming round. None the less, my first choice remains Federal HST in 9MM for concealed carry.
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