How finnicky is the XDS-45?

[Doc Hoy]

I have loaded rounds exclusively for 1911 clones: B.M., RIA, and Zig. Took a little while but I have the rounds worked out that they cycle through these three pistol with good reliability.

Used the rounds in my XDS (Like new condition, new to me and first time I shot it) and got one round to work, the very next round jammed. Failed to go into battery.

Is the XDS, more finnicky than the 1911s?

[lee n. field]

Every XD and XDS I've handloaded for (I have 4) has a tight chamber. Try running rounds through a Lee factory crimp die.

[Dan-O]

What shape bullet are you using? Semi wad cutters don’t play nice with xd’s.

[buckey]

I load for a XD-s and yes they are on the tight side so what I have found that works is to use the Least amount of bell you can get away with. And as always seat the bullet and crimp in two operations.
P.S. Take your barrel out and set your dies up till every reload will pass the spin test.

[Doc Hoy]

Many thanks. I will give these suggestions a try.

[T. O'Heir]

"...Semi wad cutters don’t play nice with xd’s..." They not have the feed ramps chamfered? That's all it takes to make a 1911A1 feed anything. Extend the feed ramp half way up the sides of the chamber.
"...Failed to go into battery..." Suggests an OAL issue. Possibly a crimp issue.

[Doc Hoy]

SWCs in anything.

I inherited about a thousand rounds of SWC from a lady in Dade City about five years ago. I wound up giving them all away.

[railroader]

My XDS 45 is fine with my reloads. Like was suggested try a Lee factory crimp die. I do and it helps. It will iron out the cases. Just go light on the crimp. How does factory ammo work in your XDS? Do your reloads pass the plunk test with the barrel out of the gun?

[lee n. field]

the very next round jammed. Failed to go into battery.

Do a "plunk test". (remove the barrel from the gun. Drop a loaded round into the chamber, and note how it seats.)

Bullet might be seated too high, and be biting the rifling. If so, adjust to seat low enough for this not to happen.

If the cartridge hangs up before it drops into the chamber all the way it could also need crimping. Thus, my suggestion to try a Lee Factory Crimp Die.

You should not need to do anything to the feed ramp. It's mirror smooth from the factory.

Failure to go into battery was a problem early on for the XDS 45. If you look, folks write about it for a stretch early on, and not much later. (I had this with mine, a "new old stock" gun I bought, I think, 3 or 4 years ago. A lot of dry firing, hand cycling, and light polishing in certain spots resolved it.)


----edit to add----

link to what I recommended: Factory Crimp Die

[zeke]

The 45 xds is pushing the limits on small 45 acp design. There is a lotta "lift" with powerful loads, and like a lot of small pistols it requires a tight grip. Quickly gave up on the extended mags because they could pull the mag out enough to cause mis-feeds for me. Others like the extended mags.

Mine is accurate, reliable, powerful and easy to conceal. Carried it for about 4 years. Never shot any lead through it and used fmj for practice rounds.

[Doc Hoy]

To Railroader,

Haven't tried factory loads yet. Maybe next time I go out.

To Lee,

I am using a RN and it may be seated too high. The way I cleared the round was to lightly pull back on the slide until it came loose. No apparent deformity to the bullet.

To Zeke,

I like this pistol and I sure wish I had been able to put more rounds through it. When I was still teaching in university one of my professors was threatened by a student. The university declined to take any protective action exposing the professor (105 pounds soaking wet) to more of the students barbs including threats against her family. (I finally left the school over this and other outrageously stupid decisions.) She asked me about personal defense and I recommended the XDS-45 (She was not comfortable carrying a shotgun.... ;o) ) for the very reasons you mentioned. Quality, size, control-ability and weight of the bullet.

[lee n. field]

Originally Posted by zeke

The 45 xds is pushing the limits on small 45 acp design. There is a lotta "lift" with powerful loads, and like a lot of small pistols it requires a tight grip.

I remember listening to a Springfield rep on a podcast of a radio interview a bunch of years ago. This was after the XD45 had come out, but before the XDM, XDS or Mod 2.

Caller called in asking if they were going to have a .45 subcompact. The Springfield rep replied that they were having trouble getting the recoil assembly right, for reliablity, in the 3" subcompact size.

So I guess they never did, and settled on the 3.3 inch for (first) the XDS45, and later the .45 Mod 3 version of the XD. Thus, also, some of the feeding issues early users of the XDS were having, that I alluded to above.

To Lee,

I am using a RN and it may be seated too high. The way I cleared the round was to lightly pull back on the slide until it came loose. No apparent deformity to the bullet.

Over the years I've run into a bunch of subtleties with loading the .45, that I had to solve. In a sense .45ACP is easy, a great big cup for powder. In a sense, it's not because you run into things like this.

BTW, I have run cast lead SWC .45 in mine, with no problem.

[Jim Watson]

As I recall, the first iteration of XD45 would not handle semiwadcutters, but they supposedly fixed that in the XDm.

I am phasing out SWCs for anything; my first P220 would not work with them, I don't ask the current one to try. 1911s are spotty, so I am just loading RN instead of keeping a book on individual guns.

[dgludwig]

Haven't tried factory loads yet. Maybe next time I go out.

I'd want to try factory ammunition so that I could eliminate my reloads as a factor causing malfunctions. If factory loads work fine and my reloads don't, I know where to start. If the pistol malfunctions with factory ammunition too, I'd start looking at extractors and magazines in chasing down the cause of the jams.

[JERRYS.]

a co-worker's cousin has the compact XD45 I believe it is the XDs? anyway, it shot everything we stuffed in the magazine. he had pretty much everything in fmj and h.p. Wal-Mart carried on the shelf plus some top line hollow points.

[Carmady]

I had a 4" XD-s 45. Here are some notes, all reloads with 200gr LSWC, except for one batch of 117 185gr LSWC. I had a similar problem, but sold the pistol before figuring it out.

TNT 200 LSWC, 1.250” OAL

Date Load Total Load Total Day Total Amt

10/12/17
200 LSWC PP/6.3 1.252” 97 97 507
load all fired, FTFe/heel, better than 9/4, if PP later ^gr & vOAL

9/28/17
200 LSWC Uni/6.0 69 69 410
1.250” OAL, heeled about 5 into battery

9/14/17
200 LSWC HP-38/5.0 50 150 341
1.241”(28) 1.250”(22) OAL, heeled a few into battery
200 LSWC HP-38/5.5 50
1.250” OAL, heeled a few into battery
200 LSWC Uni/6.0 50
1.250” OAL, heeled a few into battery

9/4/17
185 LSWC PP/6.2 117 191 191
1.255” OAL, all ran fine
200 LSWC PP/6.3 2
1.252” OAL, FTFe two out of two, too weak?, too long? (200)
200 LSWC HP-38/5.0 72
1.241” OAL, all ran fine
9/4/17 Note: similar rounds with different results
185 LSWC PP/6.2 1.255” all 117 ran fine
200 LSWC PP/6.3 1.252” FTFe 2 for 2 (top in mag after chambering 1st rd)

[Doc Hoy]

DGL,

Haven't tried factory ammunition because I did not have any wimme. You can bet I will the next time I goes out.

Carmady,

Thanks for the data.

[CDW4ME]

My XDs 45 works fine with the flush mag, extended mag not so much.