I've had an XD .40 cal Service model ( the 4") in Bi Tone for several years. Never had any issues (other than crap from Glock fans, of which I'm one) , and fired a couple thousand rounds of ball, a few hundred of hollow points. I had maybe 5 FTE, maybe a jam or two, possibly, er probably user error

I sent the gun down to Canyon Creek for the trigger job, quick reset, no slack and just over a 4# of pull. I'm sure Rich did nothing wrong and love the way the trigger feels.

Since then nose down jams and stuck so tight its tough to drop the mag, pull the slide back and hope to knock out the jammed round. Sometimes just have to pull the slide back and release. Maybe riding the slide, changed grip, had folks watch, still a jam o matic.

I have replaced the guide rod with a Don's Guide Rod since, get this, SA does not allow others to sell their parts. They wanted $16.95 plus $6.95 for their cheap ass spring assembly. Problem not resolved with Don's 22# spring, so I try the factory rated 18# or is it 17#, depends on what you read.

Does not solve the problem, so I check out the XD forum. I see the problem listed with the new 45, nose dive and Rich responds. Check out the feed lips, go back to the factory 18 # spring, look at the followers. I isolate two mags as possibly bad, and call SA for replacement mag springs. Hell no we don't sell springs SA, you just buy new mags! Wolff does ( $7.95 each, new mag is $21)and I have 6 on order, but only for my 10 rounders, no soap on the 12 rounders springs I bought since the ban.

BEWARE this SA policy is a affront to common sense and damn tough on a user. I like my XD when its a good gun ( defined as goes bang EVERYTIME you pull the trigger) For now my SIG 229 is beside the bed where the XD used to be , the Glock 21 downstairs.

I always recommend the Glock over the SA XD to students wanting an auto pistol. I think I'll have the armorer change out my Glocksprings n/c at the GSSF match this summer.

I'm out over $100 and the gun is unreliable. I'll put on my flame proof suit and let you know what fixes it for me. May be an XD on Gunbroker.com soon

Was it ok before you had the trigger job done - a couple of malfunctions before the alterations?

Here is what Rich said:
With nose dives the feed lips of the mag might be too tight or with the #22 spring the slide isn't making its full travel. It might be going far enough back to just grap the next round but doesn't have enough energy to strip the round with the full force of the spring.
About mag springs I never needed to replace any but I think the Caspian High Cap mag spring will work.

Also this was wierd to me and the Keiths I was shooting with yesterday, but Rich's comment makes sense:

Me
I installed the DGR and the 22 lb spring in my 4" .40cal. When the gun is uncocked, it is in battery and the slide does not move with with say two finger pressure. However, once I cock the gun it is easy to move the slide in and out of battery with little pressure, 2 fingers light can move it around.

Rich
When the firing pin is cocked it takes pressure off of the recoil spring so the slide will move easier.

Keith gave his solution, buy the Glock 22 and don't mess with it!

Have you lubricated the slide?

I have no idea what's wrong, I'd have to shoot it. But, wow, when I lubed my slide my CZ performed like a brand new gun. Slide flew back and forth. Incredible difference.

I do the Glock armorer trick, one drop of oil in each side the slide rail, set the slide vertical and just let it run down the slide. I also use a little oil on the on the plastic rails on the frame itself on the XD. Not necessary, in my experience on the Glock.

Bob, just a thought............ one of our forum members had a problem with his Dan Wesson 1911 clone. I THINK the problem turned out to be the brand of ammo he was using. Could this be the case?? Did you try different brands of ammo??

I was shooting with Cekalla and we had his chrono set up. Tried his reloads, the Fed AE, the Fed HST and some Delta Precision Reman used for USPSA shooting. All worked, but I'd pulled the two suspect mags. I'll put in the weaker recoil spring and put in the new +10% mag springs, clean the mags, etc I may have a bad mag but two makes me question that, particularly since one is a new 12 rounder.

It only happens about 5 to 7 times in a 100, should have ordered a new mag to test when I was ordering the springs. I'll be using the Glock 35 at the steel match this weekend!

I had a similar problem with my XD .45 GAP. To test the mags I loaded my .40 S&W mags with .45 GAP rounds and the problem went away. I bought two new mags and havn't had any trouble since. I took my old mags to a friend of mine who works in a machine shop and had him compare them to the new ones and he said the lip spread was different. He adjusted them and now they work fine too.

I also have a friend who works in a machine shp, I'll have him take a look. Thanks for the help, as unfortunately I got little useful feedback on the XD Forum

If you want to bring the suspected mags with you tomorrow, I will take a look at them. I'll bring calipers with but I may need to bring them back to the shop to get serious about measuring them.

I guess that is IF you are still going to the steel match tomorrow. The weather is not looking very good. But that could change by the morning! The last few years we have had rain for this match, but, all the shooting positions were covered. As long as it's not too windy we'll be fine. So we got that going for us. And even if it does rain? At least we won't have to paste cardboard targets.

I once had a 9mm that would occasionally have a failure to feed on certain magazines. A sharp tap on the rear of the slide would feed it into battery. Holding the slide, I very slowly (and carefully!) let the slide ride forward, and watched what happened. What I found was on the ‘bad’ magazine, the round would run into the feed ramp and stop! On the ‘good’ magazine, the nose of the round would start to rise up before it got to the feed ramp. The lips of the magazine weren’t letting the round come up soon enough. I spread front edge of the lips of the magazine slightly, to let the nose rise up earlier and haven’t had a problem since (several years, maybe 1000 rounds).

The shape, width etc. of the feed lips can be critical. As an example, I have a High Standard .22lr pistol. The breech face is almost completely flat. No feed ramp or other guide features. The round has to be guided into the chamber entirely by the shape of the magazine. I recently bought some magazines for it. Most of them work fine, but one keeps jamming. By running the rounds manually and slowly. I can see that the nose of the bullet is running into the top edge of the chamber. That tells me that the front lips need to be squeezed (to lower the nose) or the rear needs to be spread (raising the rear, lowering the nose).

I would suggest you do the same thing (maybe use snap-caps if you want) and see what is/isn’t happening between working/nonworking magazines. That should give you some clues. A little observation and common sense can take you a long way, and you often learn something in the process!

I'm probably WAY late on this....I forgot to check the date of the post.

If you had the work done, and the slide tightened, now the clearances have changed. A margional Magazine before would fail now. With tighter tollerances everything has to be right on the money.

DD

It sounds like something happened with all the mods to the pistol.

But here is my story:
When I first got my XD 9mm 3" I was shooting shitty ammo. It would put the cartriage nose down into the slide, and bind up so tight that I had to lock the slide back to drop the mag. This was happening every 2-3 rounds. Change ammo and it goes away.

Good luck.

Steel match today?!? And I was just sitting around working on homework? Sigh.

So where was it?

someone1980, check the date on the post you quoted.