Give it another chance or not take that chance?

[IanS]

I wouldn't be so hard on the gun. Sometimes the inexplicable happens. SA has a great service dept. and I would shoot it more and give it a chance. Shoot any gun enough and they all inevitably choke, even revolvers. If problems stay persistent even with reasonable troubleshooting, then I would dump it.

I would at least replace the recoil spring with a new one.

 

[BWT]

For me, it would be my official range pistol for the next 200 - 300 rounds. if they are flawless I'd be more likely to think the jam was some type of fluke. Of course if someone wanted to buy it before I reached that 300 rounds, I'd sell it in a heart beat.IMHO

 

[dgludwig]

Shoot any gun enough and they all inevitably choke, even revolvers.

Agreed, but assuredly not like the malfunction as described by the op. In the way the op reported the pistol freezing up, no clearance procedure that I'm aware of would have allowed him to get back in the fight if it had happened during a self-defense scenario we all carry a pistol for. Further, as many have wondered, the mystery is only compounded by the fact that no casing was found in the chamber. Most malfunctions can eventually be deciphered by examining the spent cartridge or replicating the failure so that a potential problem, such as a bent guide rod, a poorly tensioned extractor, weak recoil spring, a rough feed ramp, crud in the firing pin channel or a host of other potential causes can be isolated and rectified. Not in this case. Not only was factory ammunition used and fired from a clean pistol that had performed in an exemplary manner in the past, but factory technicians apparently have no clue as to why the pistol locked up.

Terry A: Have you shot the pistol since your last post? Probably not what you want to hear (but a concern implied in your initial post), if what happened to you had happened to me, I'm not sure I could ever trust the pistol again with my life, no matter how many rounds I later fired downrange to prove its reliability. The thing that would trouble me the most is that no cause for the failure has been identified nor a probable theory espoused as to why it occured.

I hope that you will keep us advised as to how well (or not) the pistol has subsequently performed. I certainly wish you the best of luck and am appreciative that you have bought this matter to light.

 

[44 AMP]

Shoot enough, and strange things will happen. Glad your gun worked the next time you shot it. Best thing I can say, is avoid that ammo you used before.

On a general note, I notice a number of folks saying how they would get rid of (sell) a gun that was giving problems. I understand how one would want to do that, but is it really ethical? Will the buyer still want it (and pay your price) if you are honest and tell them it is messed up? Or do you just say nothing?

Over the past 30 years, I have sold 3 guns that were malfunctioning. Each time, for a cheap price, and each time making sure the buyer knew what they were getting. My question is, if you have a self defense gun that isn't working right, would you consider it ethical to sell it without explaining the problem?

 

[EdInk]

Gotta be from crap ammo. Was the service person the smith that actual worked on the gun? If not, the statement not important. Keep it and shoot it. I have over 5000 rounds though my XD. The only issue I ever had was from ammo and it was horrible stuff. Made my XD stovepipe twice. Made my friend's G17 FTF once, stovepipe once and jam once. This was out of a 500 bulk pack of the reloaded garbage. The XD platform is IMHO the best polymer gun on the market. However, if you don't trust it I'll give you $100 for that jam-o-matic. How many 1000s of flawless shot did it handle?

 

[Blue Grass]

Sounds like crappy ammo. I've got over 8,000 rnds thru my Kimber Custom Defender II, including my junk 200gr lswc reloads, and have had exactly 1 ftfeed. It was an AMERC case.

 

[dgludwig]

Glad your gun worked the next time you shot it.

I don't think he has said he has shot it yet (since it was returned from the factory).

 

[Terry A]

Just wanted to share an update....

The ol' XD-45 has funtioned flawlessly since SA returned it. I lost count of how many rounds of assorted ammo have been shot with no malfunctioning whatsoever. I'm so glad I gave it a 2nd chance. great gun.

 

[Spenser]

Call me weird, but once I lost faith in a Walther p99 because I perceived a frame crack. I'm not sure it was or wasn't, but I could see something there. I traded the pistol with full disclosure of the potential defect to the buyer, and he wasn't worried about it, and said if it was he'd ship it back. The rear sight had also fallen off for no apparent reason, and the little pin that held it in vanished at the same time.

My confidence in that gun as a weapon I'd bet my life on was shot. Therefore, it wasn't worth keeping to me. I'd say that you have to run that math through your brain. If it keeps working and you can forgive and forget, keep carrying it. If there's a smidgen of doubt in your mind about the thing, I'd say it's done as a defensive weapon.

But that's just me....

 

[DoctorXring]

.

I bet it was an ammo generated problem. Your gun sounds
fine to me. ALL pistols can be made to act similarly with
a bad round. They said there was not round in the chamber.
I bet that there was, probably a high primer, and it locked
the gun.

Take this lesson home from this -- examine carefully any ammunition
that you load your gun with for "defensive" purposes. Check bases for
high primers by putting them on a hard, flat surface. Check case
mouths for any defects.

good shooting, dxr

.

 

[geetarman]

I know it has been discussed before. I only use factory ammo for SD.

Others feel differently.

Geetarman

 

[44 AMP]

Not belittling anyone, but...

You should also check factory ammo that you use for SD. The best factories are very good, but none of them is perfect. I will admit I have not found a bad round from a high end maker, but I have found them in bargin ammo, and its possible that even a top shelf ammo maker can have a bad one get by the QC people.

I have seen "factory" rounds with primers upside down and even sideways! (how that got crushed and didn't go off, I'll never know). I have seen facotry ammo with very loose neck tension (bullet setback after a single chambering), and various other defects. One time I even had a dud round that turned out to have no flash hole in the case!

Factory ammo is generaly good, BUT if you are going to rely on it to save your butt, it is only prudent to check it closely, just in case.

 

[B.N.Real]

Sounds to me like an internal part that could cause that seizing-did it-and all the action of racking the slide against the part,pushed it back in place.

I'd get it doublechecked by a gunsmith you knew who knows those guns well-just pay him to take the whole thing apart,clean it and recheck everything.

I have read about some XD's having pin shift problems.

You loved the gun before.

A great gunsmith rechecking it and Locktiting any pins that might shift,might stop anything from happening again.

ANY-ANY-ANY GUN can have a problem.

 

[DBLAction454]

Now it feels like a wife who cheated...can it ever be trusted to be 100% faithful in the future?

+1 on the analogy

If you use the XD-45 as your carry/HD gun then I would shelf it and carry/use a different weapon until you put another couple hundred rounds through it to help build your trust again. Could be an ammo flaw so I would only use quality factory ammo for the next few hundred rounds through the XD-45 and see if she has any more flaws to show you. I'm hoping for your sake it was just a rare/crazy malfunction. I'd be heartbroken if my most trusted weapon failed so young in its life and to fail so miserably as a FROZEN SLIDE that I couldn't get apart myself.

Hope this helps and that she becomes old faithful again!

 

[FALshootist]

I would consider it as good as gone and make it happen as soon as I could. If the factory can't find a problem and all the parts seem fine it appears that they're saying this type of occurance is supossed to happen or at least not unusual. Either case is unacceptable.