[njswampman]

For those of you who do carry your XD regularly. Do you keep one in the chamber? Or chamber empty, and run the slide when necessary? Reason I ask is having owned only double action pistols, it's a bit unconfortable having one chambered, and not having a manual safety. Any feedback?

 

[therooster]

if you dont keep one in the chamber you might as well carry a hammer....

 

[country85]

if you dont keep one in the chamber you might as well carry a hammer....

It could not have been put better.

 

[BeardXXXd]

do u drive down the road hoping ull see the accident coming and plan on putting ur seat belt on "real quick"

 

[tcotariu]

The lack of a manual safety is also why I have not yet purchased an XD. Everything I have read or heard makes them seam like a great gun, but I am just not sure that I would feel comfortable without that manual safety.

It would, however, be nice if somebody could answer the question and concern rather than just "turning off" the interest of somebody just because they asked a legitimate question.

 

[BeardXXXd]

well its pretty much a guarantee the gun wont go off unless u pull the trigger. aka dont pull the trigger.

the trigger safety along with the grip safety makes it very difficult to fire per say
holstering can be done with out the grip safety depressed.

a safety is another thing to remember that might slip ur mind in the "heat" of a situation.

a very large % of police forces are confident enough to carry glocks and glocks do not have the (huge in my mind) benefit of the grip safety

if ur not comfortable with it dont buy one.. what are u looking for us to say?

 

[DJDan]

Manual safeties are for suckers!

Seriously...this pistol is very safe with just a little common sense. IMO it is much safer than a manual safety in the heat of the moment...and in pretty much every other situation as well.

It would require some effort (and stupidity) on the owners/handlers part to have an AD with an XD pistol.

The fact about manual safeties are that many times people forget to flip them in high stress situations getting themselves shot...ask my neighbor!

I almost forgot...yes I keep one in the chamber...otherwise I might have to throw the gun at someone to defend myself....Excuse me bad person..could you hold on while I rack my slide....oops because I was stressed I only racked it part way and have a jam...could you hold on another sec.....POW!!!!! I'm dead.

 

[njswampman]

I was looking for others to share their experiences, and thoughts on my question, certinaly not smart ass comments, but thank you anyway.

 

[therooster]

well its pretty much a guarantee the gun wont go off unless u pull the trigger. aka dont pull the trigger.

the trigger safety along with the grip safety makes it very difficult to fire per say
holstering can be done with out the grip safety depressed.

a safety is another thing to remember that might slip ur mind in the "heat" of a situation.

a very large % of police forces are confident enough to carry glocks and glocks do not have the (huge in my mind) benefit of the grip safety

if ur not comfortable with it dont buy one.. what are u looking for us to say?

well said.

may i add: the gun WILL NOT go off unless the trigger is pressed.

the XD has 2 safeties. one on the trigger, and one on the grip. whats the point of adding a "manual safety"? thats what we call a solution to a non existant problem.


now... there is a great advantage to having a "manual safety" like a 1911, but it has nothing to do with shooting yourself:

when someone gets your gun away from you they have to consciencely take off the safety. in a fight or flight stage thier instinct will be to just pull the trigger, but guess what... it wont fire untill they consciencely take off the safety. so it saves you from being shot with your own gun... by someone else not yourself[/].

a lot of LEO's are switching away from Glocks for just this reason.

 

[Clumsy_ninja]

First let me say hello to everyone. I am new to this board and only just bought my first XD pistol today.

NJS don't worry about the pistol "going off" with one in the chamber. The pistol is designed to be carried that way.

I have worked in law enforcement for over 10 years and most of that has been with a Glock 22, which as you may or may not know has fewer "safties" than the XD series pistols.

I have carried a Glock in all types of weather, clothing and holster configuations and not one accidental discharge.

A revolver has NO safties (external that is) and people never seem to woory about them.

If you are worried about it try this: Buy the XD and bring it home. Cock it but DO NOT LOAD it. Wear it in a holster or however you plan to carry it and roll around on the floor. Do hard physical exercise. Run in place, jump up and down. Drop it. Get a friend or relative to wrestle with you. Do every physical thing you can think of that might "discharge the weapon . Pull the trigger WITHOUT depressing the grip safety.

Do this for as many days as you like and at the end of it all I bet the pistol will not have discharged. Since you are doing this with NO ammo in the pistol you will feel confident that once it is loaded it will not fire until you pull the trigger.

I also carry off duty a S&W 1911 single action .45ACP. I carry it with a round in the chamber and the hammer cocked back, safety on. I carry it in a holster that has no retention strap (open top). I have never had an accidental discharge with it either. I will admit that most of my cop friends feel uncomfortable with that, but they are the ones who don't have an interest in guns to begin with and aren't educated enough to understand the design.

Hope this helps

 

[Matt`G]

I carry one in the chamber. For the first week or so of carry, I did not chamber a round... logic told me it was safe, but I wanted to kinda feel it out for myself. After a bit, I realized that I hadn't ever had any situation that could possibly have discharged the gun. I started carrying with a round chambered after that, and have since. I like clumsy_ninja's advice -- give that a try and see how you feel about it.

 

[03RangerXLT]

At first I was a bit against carrying this chambered. It was the first firearm I have ever owned and currently the only pistol. Some people on here brought up the point, why not? It wont fire unless I take the neccesary steps to fire it. I would have to grip the pistol properly, and I would have to squeeze the trigger. So after thinking about this, I started actually carrying, not chambered, then eventually after I realised that teh gun hadn't tried to jump up and kill me cause it didn't have a safety, I went all the way.

 

[pdjplano]

First let me say hello to everyone. I am new to this board and only just bought my first XD pistol today.

NJS don't worry about the pistol "going off" with one in the chamber. The pistol is designed to be carried that way.

I have worked in law enforcement for over 10 years and most of that has been with a Glock 22, which as you may or may not know has fewer "safties" than the XD series pistols.

I have carried a Glock in all types of weather, clothing and holster configuations and not one accidental discharge.

A revolver has NO safties (external that is) and people never seem to woory about them.

If you are worried about it try this: Buy the XD and bring it home. Cock it but DO NOT LOAD it. Wear it in a holster or however you plan to carry it and roll around on the floor. Do hard physical exercise. Run in place, jump up and down. Drop it. Get a friend or relative to wrestle with you. Do every physical thing you can think of that might "discharge the weapon . Pull the trigger WITHOUT depressing the grip safety.

Do this for as many days as you like and at the end of it all I bet the pistol will not have discharged. Since you are doing this with NO ammo in the pistol you will feel confident that once it is loaded it will not fire until you pull the trigger.

I also carry off duty a S&W 1911 single action .45ACP. I carry it with a round in the chamber and the hammer cocked back, safety on. I carry it in a holster that has no retention strap (open top). I have never had an accidental discharge with it either. I will admit that most of my cop friends feel uncomfortable with that, but they are the ones who don't have an interest in guns to begin with and aren't educated enough to understand the design.

Hope this helps

I think this is excellent advice, thanks. As a new XD owner, but unlike yourself, not a LEO or having any prior handgun experience prior to the XD, getting comfortable with the gun and all the aspects of carrying it is paramount before doing so, IMO.

 

[Fly-Sig]

The others have brought up some good reasons to carry fully loaded. Let me add some thoughts.

First, you might be fending off an attacker with your left hand while trying to bring your gun to bear with your right hand. How are you going to quickly and effectively chamber a round with only one hand?

Second, the round in the top of the magazine might misfeed. Hey, it happens, and Murphy tells us it will happen at the worst possible time. If you have one in the chamber you will be 99.9999999% sure it will fire when you pull the trigger. But, if you have to chamber a round there is a much higher chance of failure.

Third, you might be in a situation where stealth is paramount. Perhaps you are in a convenience store with your young child when two thugs come in wearing ski masks and waving pistols around. They don't see you, so you quietly draw your pistol and hide behind a freezer to defend your child's life if the thugs come your way. You couldn't do this if you had to noisely chamber a round to ready your firearm.

Fourth, most deadly confrontations happen very fast. If your attacker doesn't expect you to be armed you have some element of surprise, plus you are taking a proactive step by using your firearm. But if you need an extra second or two to rack the slide you give up most or all of your time advantage.

Fifth, an unloaded pistol may be far more dangerous to you than no pistol at all. One of the members here was carrying with an empty chamber when he was accosted by 3 thugs with knives. They robbed him of his valuables. He feared the entire time that they would discover his pistol and then knife him out of fear. He had to work hard to keep his pistol concealed from their view while emptying his pockets. Had they searched him or caught a glimpse of his pistol they might have killed him. His empty chamber could have cost him his life! But a loaded chamber still gives you the option to not use your gun if you decide it isn't necessary to draw your gun.

The XD is as safe as any modern pistol to carry fully loaded. The grip safety and the trigger safety ensure that the gun will not discharge unless it is gripped normally and then the trigger pulled. I carry my XD fully loaded with no worries.

 

[mcone]

For those of you who do carry your XD regularly. Do you keep one in the chamber? Or chamber empty, and run the slide when necessary? Reason I ask is having owned only double action pistols, it's a bit unconfortable having one chambered, and not having a manual safety. Any feedback?

Chambered always. Chambered is critical for instant use.

However, I had the same concern when swtiching from a Ruger P95DC with double action (by that I mean trigger cocked on the first shot). What convinced me that the XD40 machine will not fail is the third safety - the FIRING PIN SAFETY. This is a small metal block that prevents the firing from moving forward until the trigger bar is physically moved back. A raised section of the trigger bar must also raise the firing pin safety, which means that the trigger must be pulled in order for the pin to strike primer. You can see good pictures of this at James' site: http://www.xd-hs2000.com/disassembly/slidedisassembly.html

The only conceivable situation in which I could see the XD firing without the trigger pull by human hand would be under almost unconceivable stresses - the kind of stresses that will kill a human first (like a high-speed fall.) For example, would an XD fail if you dropped it from the Empire State building? Maybe. But so could any other firearm - even with additional safeties.

-Mike


p.s. Even if you could carry in NY, NY to the top of the Empire State Building. Please don't try the toss-test of your XD on my account.

 

[manygunner]

Hasn't this one gone around once before already?

Always with one round chambered. To do otherwise is to court diaster.

 

[manygunner]

well its pretty much a guarantee the gun wont go off unless u pull the trigger. aka dont pull the trigger.

the trigger safety along with the grip safety makes it very difficult to fire per say
holstering can be done with out the grip safety depressed.

a safety is another thing to remember that might slip ur mind in the "heat" of a situation.

a very large % of police forces are confident enough to carry glocks and glocks do not have the (huge in my mind) benefit of the grip safety

if ur not comfortable with it dont buy one.. what are u looking for us to say?

well said.

may i add: the gun WILL NOT go off unless the trigger is pressed.

the XD has 2 safeties. one on the trigger, and one on the grip. whats the point of adding a "manual safety"? thats what we call a solution to a non existant problem.


now... there is a great advantage to having a "manual safety" like a 1911, but it has nothing to do with shooting yourself:

when someone gets your gun away from you they have to consciencely take off the safety. in a fight or flight stage thier instinct will be to just pull the trigger, but guess what... it wont fire untill they consciencely take off the safety. so it saves you from being shot with your own gun... by someone else not yourself[/].

a lot of LEO's are switching away from Glocks for just this reason.

Yes, but a lot of officers get killed because they forget to turn their safety off also. OOOOPS!!! It goes both ways, no gun is idiot proof and there are a lot of idiots in uniform.

 

[therooster]

Yes, but a lot of officers get killed because they forget to turn their safety off also. OOOOPS!!! It goes both ways, no gun is idiot proof and there are a lot of idiots in uniform.

i couldnt agree what that statement more.

 

[bd]

If you are worried about it try this: Buy the XD and bring it home. Cock it but DO NOT LOAD it. Wear it in a holster or however you plan to carry it and roll around on the floor. Do hard physical exercise. Run in place, jump up and down. Drop it. Get a friend or relative to wrestle with you. Do every physical thing you can think of that might "discharge the weapon . Pull the trigger WITHOUT depressing the grip safety.

Do this for as many days as you like and at the end of it all I bet the pistol will not have discharged. Since you are doing this with NO ammo in the pistol you will feel confident that once it is loaded it will not fire until you pull the trigger.



Hope this helps

Greetings Clumsy_ninja,

You give with good advice. I did this routine to get over the "heebie-jeebies" carrying a 1911 in condition 1.

As to the question.....


The XD is a very safe gun, I've been around this board for about 4 years and I don't think I've heard of one going off by itself the whole time.

In fact I've been in some training situations where the gun did fail to fire because I didn't have a proper grip.

Both safeties have to be made to make this gun fire. The odds of that happening accidentally are slim.

Just don't get complacent.....any gun can make a fool out of you.

bd

 

[SRSpano]

I carry one in the chamber, 12 in the mag, and 24 on the other hip!