[TWL]

I have the SA XDM 9mm 5.25" and a SA XDM 45 cal. with a 4.5" barrel.

Several questions.

1. Is there a general opinion as to when an owner of these guns should consider replacing the recoil spring ?
ie: After how many rounds.
2. Does the recoil spring brake or does it just begin to lose strength and affect the action ? ( perhaps both )
3. Is the recoil spring guide rod identical in my two guns ? ( They appear to be )
4. Is the recoil spring identical in my two guns ?
5. Is replacing the OEM recoil spring guide rod with a Stainless Steel rod worth the cost ?( on either or both guns )
6. What are the advantages of the SS guide rod ?

Thanks for your input.

Hanagan

 

[TSiWRX]

I unfortunately only have a couple of answers.

1. Is there a general opinion as to when an owner of these guns should consider replacing the recoil spring ?
ie: After how many rounds.

I made this post a while ago:

My 4.5-inch XDm9 hit just over 17K rounds when I finally decided to change out the recoil and striker springs. Nothing was run with the way the gun was working, just felt that it was time. She currently has right around 30K rounds on her.

I swapped the recoil spring assembly and the striker spring from my then-new range/training-only XDm9 3.8 Compact to my carry 3.8 Compact at a time when the carry had just under 8K rounds on it. This would mean that, currently, that set of springs, now resident in the range/training copy, has right around 12K's worth. Again, I haven't noticed any problems.

Not that I'm advocating such long cycles - it's just that I've had the luxury to be able to really abuse my range/training copies, and I thought I'd share what little experience I have. :smile: Overall, various XD/XDm owners here have either written or called-in to SA with this question, and have gotten variable answers when it comes to an actual cycle/round count: from what little I can remember, the range has been anywhere between 3K to 10K. However, one consistent mention (in addition to the "we test the springs out to 25K) has been to simply keep an eye on how far your spent casings are ejecting - and that when they start going noticeably farther out than usual, to switch out the recoil spring.

The range 3.8 Compact went through one day's worth of Costa Ludus HE01 (the last day, the most rigorous) about two months ago - through the rest of the 5 days of HE01 and HE02, I sent through well over 3K rounds on the 4.5-inch. I've also since put another 400 rounds or so on the range 3.8 Compact, in another single-day class.

My round-count has increased quite a bit a bit from when I made that post, and I'm now basically taking things at 5K increments on the 4.5-inch and 3K increments on the 3.8 Compact.

The spring/assembly is pretty cheap, so I just see it as the cost of doing business. I know the guns can go quite a while without having to worry about it - but why abuse it, right?

2. Does the recoil spring brake or does it just begin to lose strength and affect the action ? ( perhaps both )

At my round-counts, I've yet to see one of mine actually break.

Again, as I'd written previously, the only consistent line from the SA representatives that various members here have spoken with in the past is the advice to "keep an eye on how far your spent casings are ejecting: when they start going noticeably farther out than usual, switch out the recoil spring."

 

[TWL]

TSiWRX,

It looks to me like you were the right person to go to, since you've given this subject some serious thought.

Neither of the two guns I mentioned have a very high round count, but I was just thinking about the future.

Many thanks.

Hanagan

 

[TSiWRX]

^ No problem, glad to help.

Not really "serious thought" (I try not to have too many of those :lol - just that I've been lucky to have had the opportunity to really be able to abuse my training/range-use-only copies.

 

[dglock]

I have the SA XDM 9mm 5.25" and a SA XDM 45 cal. with a 4.5" barrel.

Several questions.

1. Is there a general opinion as to when an owner of these guns should consider replacing the recoil spring ?
ie: After how many rounds.
2. Does the recoil spring brake or does it just begin to lose strength and affect the action ? ( perhaps both )
3. Is the recoil spring guide rod identical in my two guns ? ( They appear to be )
4. Is the recoil spring identical in my two guns ?
5. Is replacing the OEM recoil spring guide rod with a Stainless Steel rod worth the cost ?( on either or both guns )
6. What are the advantages of the SS guide rod ?

Thanks for your input.

Hanagan

Do you really mean "brake"? If so then yes it does brake the slides foreword speed. If you mean break then no it does not, it gets weaker and shorter.

Watch the ejection pattern of your pistol, if the ejected cases start ending up in the next area code then your spring is getting weak and should be replaced.

don

 

[TWL]

Don,
Sorry for using the wrong word. I see what I did incorrectly in my post.
I should have used break instead of brake.
It was intended to describe a "single-piece item becoming two or more pieces".

I will watch the ejection pattern as you suggested.

From what I have read on other postings relating to this subject, it appears that some members feel that a SS guide rod helps the recoil and/or upward muzzle flip on a 9 mm. If that is correct, do you think it would do the same for the SA 45 ACP ? Now when I fire the 45, there really is little recoil. As others have said, it feels more like a push.

Hanagan

 

[TSiWRX]

Don,
From what I have read on other postings relating to this subject, it appears that some members feel that a SS guide rod helps the recoil and/or upward muzzle flip on a 9 mm. If that is correct, do you think it would do the same for the SA 45 ACP ? Now when I fire the 45, there really is little recoil. As others have said, it feels more like a push.

The physics of the muzzle flip is a simple one - all conventional handguns, regardless of caliber, will do it:

Physics of Muzzle Flip XDTalk Forums

A heavier gun helps mitigate felt recoil: rent a flyweight snubbie .357 Magnum at your local gun-range and rent its sister full-sized, heavy-framed counterpart - shoot the same .357 Magnum load through both. It'll become viscerally apparent to you what that extra mass does. :wink:

Adding weight towards the muzzle will also help counter muzzle rise.

However, in-reality, what best combats recoil is proper grip technique - and grip strength:

Understanding recoil spring weight...XDM 9 XDTalk Forums
Grip this XDTalk Forums

:smile:

 

[fredj338]

Never seen a recoil spring break, but they do lose their ratings. Springs are calibrated in #s. So a stock spring starts out at say 18#. After firing say 5K rds of full power factory ammo, the rating will lessen, maybe 15#. At that point the frame starts receiving more pounding. There is no real round count, because it depends on the spring in the gun & the ammo used. Even 5K rds is a conservative number. Shorter slides use stiffer springs, so you may need to replace one that early if shooting say a sub compact 40.
I am not a fan of captured spring setups, especially w/ plastic guide rod. So a ss rod adds about 1oz up front where the weight is needed & allows easy swapping of springs. Example, I wanted to shoot 40 minor loads in my new XDm 5.25. It won't function with the stock spring so dropping to a 14# makes it run 100%. Separate springs are often cheaper than assemblies. So popping a bit for a ss guide rod, worth it to a high volume shooter. I got my XDM end of Nov, already has more than 1000rds thru it. Shooting 40 minor, I expect the 14# spring go 9-10k rds.

 

[TWL]

Fred,

Thanks for the useful information. I'm going to go with that 5K round count for spring replacement, since it's easy to do and not very costly.

Your help is much appreciated.

Hanagan