XD9 FTE, potential WWB link

5035 Views 39 Replies 17 Participants Last post by ninjadroid, Nov 1, 2005

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · Aug 19, 2005

Howdy y'all.

Got my XD about a month ago and have taken it shooting weekly. For my first outing, I put 500 rounds of Rem UMC through it without issue. Cleaned, lubed, and went back a week later with 250 rounds of WWB and got a handful of FTEs. Suspected my cleaning job (this is my first gun), so I gussied it up with much vigor, and took it back a week later with 300 rounds of WWB --- got a slightly larger handful of FTEs. My shooting partner suggested it might be a bad mag, so we marked 'em, gave the XD the ol' once over, and went back to the range a week later (today) with 200 rounds of WWB --- got even more FTEs, spread across two mags, with one mag having 3 FTEs during the course of fire.

Yeah, damn.

Anyway, we're going back tomorrow with both some UMC and WWB in hand for testing. Details as they develop...

1 - 20 of 40 Posts

NewXD40fun

· #2 · Aug 19, 2005

ninjadroid said:
Howdy y'all.

Got my XD about a month ago and have taken it shooting weekly. For my first outing, I put 500 rounds of Rem UMC through it without issue. Cleaned, lubed, and went back a week later with 250 rounds of WWB and got a handful of FTEs. Suspected my cleaning job (this is my first gun), so I gussied it up with much vigor, and took it back a week later with 300 rounds of WWB --- got a slightly larger handful of FTEs. My shooting partner suggested it might be a bad mag, so we marked 'em, gave the XD the ol' once over, and went back to the range a week later (today) with 200 rounds of WWB --- got even more FTEs, spread across two mags, with one mag having 3 FTEs during the course of fire.
Yeah, damn.
Anyway, we're going back tomorrow with both some UMC and WWB in hand for testing. Details as they develop...

Document every detail!

I had failure to fire and failure to feed problems on my new XD40. The first question Springfield will ask you when you call them is "what brand of ammunition did you use?" So document each failure with the appropriate brand of ammo. And try every brand of ammo you can get.

When you end up sending it back to Springfield for repair you should include a detailed report of the failures. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of my XD failures at the time.

I sent my XD back, had if 'fixed' and it failed again, in a different manner, but it still failed again so I sent it back again. I'm still waiting for it.

Returning a firearm via UPS or FedEx is very expensive ~$60!! Springfield will usually reimburse you for the shipping or give you their shipping account number, either way you will be without your XD for at least two weeks.

Tom

R/T Performance

· #3 · Aug 19, 2005

Sounds like an extractor or case rim problem

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 19, 2005

Haven't gone shooting yet, but I took a closer look at the extractor this morning, and noticed that the inside of the bend appeared to be curved. Which, obviously, can't be right. I found a toothpick and poked around in there, and discovered it to be just *packed* with gunk. Hopefully, that's all that's at play here, but we shall see.

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 20, 2005

Todays performance was better, but not good enough. 15 rounds of WWB went fine, and all but one round in the last mag of 250 rounds of UMC were without issue. Still, 1 in 265 is not acceptable.

I gave the gun as thorough a field-strip cleaning as I can tonight. Tomorrow, there will be another trip to the range. Planning on 250 more rounds of UMC, 300 rounds of WWB, and 50-100 rounds of TBD "Good Stuff."

I haven't been testing the weapon scientifically, which is to say that I can't yet confidently say what is causing the failure. My gut tells me that the extractor is weak, that dirtiness makes it even weaker, and that the extractor doesn't "like" WWB for some indeterminate reason.

Tomorrow will be a "blank slate." The gun is damn clean. We will interweave mags of UMC and WWB to normalize any effects the accretion of filth might have. The "Good Stuff" should be a test for the combat readiness of the gun --- you wouldn't bet your life on cheap ammo, so if the guns FTE problems turn out to be real, but limited to cheap ammo, then it is still a worthy choice for combat. At least, that's how the theory goes.

At this point, I rate the likelihood that the gun will go out to Springfield to be near-certainty. The possibility that it is operator error is now vanishingly small, and any FTEs tomorrow will confirm this. And even if the giving the extractor extra squeaky-clean TLC eliminates my woes, the gun will probably still get shipped out for repair; I don't think it unreasonable to expect my weapon to handle 1K rounds before cleaning is required.

Stay tuned, kids --- same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel.

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agalindo

· #6 · Aug 20, 2005

I go shooting with a friend who always has FTE with WWB 9mm. Blazers and Remington work fine in this gun be WWB will always have some fail to eject. Even his reloads with WWB brass have trouble ejecting. He shoots a Hi Power. On the other hand my XD .40 has no problems with WWB.

XdSniper

· #7 · Aug 22, 2005

Never had a problem shooting WWB through my xd9... :twisted:

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 23, 2005

Well, the results are in. My extractor needs repair. Out of 570 rounds fired, there were 8 FTEs --- 4 with WWB, and 4 with UMC. There was no discernable magazine-to-failure correlation. And off to SA it goes.

Megaaaaaaaaaaan!

LUV2SHOOT

· #9 · Sep 4, 2005

All I can say is my XD9 chokes and pukes (fte) 1-2 rounds out of every box of WWB. I was going to send it back but got some Blazer and went through 250 rounds in one session with zero problems. What really surprises me is it has the same problem on the Ranger rounds also. This is primo stuff with nickel cases and all. But put 124 gr. +p Gold Dots in and it chews em up and spits em out all day. I called SA and for once they didn't offer to pay for shipping. Said if it was the guns fault they would reimburse me. Guess it must be starting to cut into their bottom line to ship guns. For what it costs to ship it I can have my gunsmith look a it and probably fix it for less. I know some guns don't like some ammo. But most every gun I own (Sig , Glock, H&K, CZ, various 1911's, and so on) will all feed everything. I can live with Blazer and Gold Dots. I just really like the Rangers.

gsfmiker

· #10 · Oct 2, 2005

i've put 2300 rounds through my xd9 service, and all but 50 rounds have been WWB. Not one failure. Ever. I love this gun! Sorry about your probs though

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #11 · Oct 2, 2005

Guys, these FTEs might be my fault. I noticed that as the gun got dirtier, it failed less. It occurred to me, then, that putting CLP on the extractor might be a bad thing. I'll have to test this some more, but in the mean time, if you're having FTEs, make sure you haven't been making the extractor slippery. Both the Glock and HK cleaning guides state that the extractor should never ever be lubed --- that's the surest way to make your gun fail. Advice that's probably worth taking to heart.

Waldo

· #12 · Oct 2, 2005

agalindo said:
I go shooting with a friend who always has FTE with WWB 9mm. Blazers and Remington work fine in this gun be WWB will always have some fail to eject. Even his reloads with WWB brass have trouble ejecting. He shoots a Hi Power. On the other hand my XD .40 has no problems with WWB.

Same for me, Blazer is great, WWB FTE 3 out of 15 times.

Its crap.

tec

· #13 · Oct 2, 2005

Every gun likes different ammo.

Some swear at Wolf some swear by it. Same goes for WWW, Blazer, UMC, etc.

I guess I am lucky, After about 1 thousand rounds, mine eats WHATEVER I feed it, with no problems. You may want to try running some more rounds thru it also, and clean that gunkout of the extractor.

As xd40fun mentioned, the cost of shipping back to SA is not cheap, try running some more ammo thru it and see what you get.

Let us know what else happens.

If the extractor is bad, Forum member "DON" is looking for bad used ones for research and study.

gddyup

· #14 · Oct 2, 2005

I've put about 500 rounds through my XD 9mm since new with all but 25 rounds being WWB. I haven't had a single issue and the accuracy has been on spot.

Each pistol is different and yours may just be tempermental with that certain type of ammo for whatever reason. If it works fine with other types of ammo I would continue to shoot that.

R/T Performance

· #15 · Oct 3, 2005

tec said:
As xd40fun mentioned, the cost of shipping back to SA is not cheap, try running some more ammo thru it and see what you get.

Let us know what else happens.

If the extractor is bad, Forum member "DON" is looking for bad used ones for research and study.

If it is broke send it in it was cheap to send mine less than 25 ups ground and SA reimbersed me 8)
I had finish issue not rust just worn severely

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 23, 2005

Well, I'm now 850 rounds and only 1 failure, which was a failure to eject due to a weak round (my friend experienced a failure from the same batch of ammo). The lesson, I believe, is to not lube up your extractor. However, some people here use CLP for everything and don't have any issues. I think that some of these extractors are close to being out of spec, and lubing them just pushes them over the edge.

I'd like to replace my extractor for piece of mind, but is there anywhere I can buy the part these days? xd-hs2000.com ain't sellin' it no mo'.

R/T Performance

· #17 · Oct 23, 2005

I would check canyon-creek or Don :shock: Seem to be the only guy smart enough to have thought that far ahead 8)

ninjadroid

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 24, 2005

Never mind, I had 3 failures in 200 rounds today. This gun has issues. Guess I'll just buy a replacement extractor... oh, wait, I can't.

Who wants an XD?

[TASF]Maverick

· #19 · Oct 24, 2005

Me me me!

An XD AND a project! All kinds o' fun to be had! Mmm yummy

8)

How much do you want for it and where are you located?

hobocircus

· #20 · Oct 24, 2005

Too much use of CLP :x

Put some CLP on your fingers then try to pick up a ball bearing. :x Basically sounds like this is what your XD is trying to do.

I suggest you get a good toothbrush and some canned GunScrubber and blast that stuff out of the extractor. Lube only the surfaces that need lube, such as the slide rails and maybe the lightest touch possible on the outside of the barrel. Don't spray the stuff on, use a Q-tip and lightly coat it. Use lube sparingly, it isn't a magic cure all.

The pistol is working better the more you fire it, because the more you shoot it, the more the lube is being thrown off areas where it isn't needed. The extractor does move, but its such a tiny movement. Oil is the last thing it needs.

Your XD can do much better than that.

Good luck, shoot safely.

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