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Sidearms & Scatterguns Unsafe XD40, hammer striking when squeezing beavertail safety

sentry1

Crayon Eater
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 7, 2012
1,991
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Madison, Alabama
I bought this XD-40 back in 2004, and it's worked pretty well up till now.

Keep in mind all testing was done with the weapon unloaded, so no need to give me a safety brief.

Today at the range, I fired off two shots, and then I couldn't get the firing pin cocked back. After clearing the weapon, a little function testing revealed that the beavertail safety was depressed, even without my hand on it.

The normal process of racking the slide with my left hand, while holding the pistol in my right hand, wasn't working. However, if I held the grip so my palm wasn't on the beavertail and then racked the slide, the firing pin would stay cocked.

Here's the dangerous part: The moment I took a proper grip and squeezed the beavertail in my palm, the firing pin went forward. If I had had a round chambered, I would have had a negligent discharge.

Anyone experienced this before? I'm going to call up Springfield on Monday, I was thinking about sending the weapon in to get overhauled anyway, I guess this made my decision for me.
 
There are a couple of issues with the XD/XDm pistols, which could be the cause of your problem or part of it. On the grip safety, the grip safety pin has a notch in it that engages the grip safty spring and if the pin is inserted from the wrong side or got nocked out then the grip safety will stick in the depressed position. You can try tapping it a bit one way then the next until the grip safety moves freely.

The other big issue with these pistols is the striker retainer roll pin. These are prone to splitting lenghtways down the middle from the striker impacting them and then they often brake in half them there into, three to four pieces. This can cause a number of issues. On all the XD/XDm pistols that come throuh my shop, for whatever reason, I always replace that roll pin with a much stronger heavy duty 304 stainless coil pin, which ai had speically made for that. They are a lot stronger and more durrable than the crappy roll pin the factory uses.

The other thing to check is that the leg of the sear spring is still under the reatiner pin. Sometimes those retaner pins get a little loose and bend up a bit allowing the leg of the sear spring to come out form under the pin.

Semper Fi
 
Well, I sent the pistol in to Springfield, and they quoted me 5 - 6 weeks turnaround for the full work. They actually got it back to me in 2 weeks, and didn't even charge me for some non-warranty work... Though I suspect that may have something to do with me spending $600+ in their custom shop.

I had adjustable tritium sights installed, an action job done, and a new NM barrel installed (extended length, so I can have it threaded for a suppressor once these student loans are paid off).

The customer service experience was more than satisfactory. The reps were courteous, and responsive for the most part, aside from the fact that I had to call and actually catch the person I wanted to speak to, out of two voicemails I left, I never got a callback.

Turnaround time being significantly shorter than quoted was also a nice touch. I know I've been frustrated waiting on all the little things that keep my new bolt gun from being completed.