Posted: 6/3/2014 7:46:34 AM EDT
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I have been purposefully abusing my XD45c for over a year to see what would stop it. I've punted it across fields, thrown it in mud, kicked it across gravel parking lots, haven't cleaned it much the whole time, etc. It generally runs like a top and has had countless rounds through if, probably 90% suppressed using a Storm Lake barrel.
I'm on vacation at the beach this weekend and decided to throw it in the sand. I laid it on the beach and kicked the sand to cover it. Slide was closed and empty mag was inserted. It spent about 30 seconds in the sand, then I pulled it out. This treatment resulted in a nearly complete lockup of the pistol. The mag release would barely budge and I had to drag the magazine out forcefully. The slide would not move more than 5mm or so. The striker still dropped but there was no way for the gun to cycle at all. I ran it under the hose for a while and with a lot of force I was able to pull the slide back far enough to turn the takedown lever. I removed the slide and hosed out the innards. Upon reassembly the gun would cycle and dry fire but was very gritty in all functions. Later that night I filled the sink with water and manually cycled the gun about a hundred times underwater. This resulted in a lot of sand particles floating to the bottom. The slide now cycles fairly normally but the trigger is still gritty. The magazine initially had trouble dropping free but now does so reliably. The mag release still sticks occasionally. I let it dry in the sink overnight. This morning I found a few traces of brown water in it, that looked like possible traces of rust. We'll see what happens with that. Lesson learned: XD runs through a lot, but sand seems to be an Achilles heel. Pics to come when I return home later this week. |
| Yeah, sand is a nasty thing for any weapon. The normally reliable M9 is no exception either. When I was at Ft. Dix for pre-deployment training, we were doing advance to contact drills with transitions to sidearms. The Safariland 6004 holsters we were issued would allow sand to get into our M9s to the point when you ran out of ammo in your M4, you would try to get your M9 out (sand also tended to jam up the hood on our holsters) pull the trigger and watch the hammer come back half ways and stick there. Even if you did get the first round off, it would rarely function well enough to get off a second round. Prior to flying out to Afghanistan, I took down every weapon we were taking (there's a reason our TSE team leader wanted a CATM troop along on this trip) with us and got the sand and debris cleaned out of them to get them back to normal operating conditions. Yeah, sand is some nasty stuff to get into a weapon! |
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It really does not take much to get you in trouble with sand – ask the guys who shoot 1911 in USPSA. Oil/water will both get you in trouble when sand is around. If you really want to "sand-proof” your gun, you can try NP3 coat your guns, then you can skip all oiling…. |
| On the one hand I felt conflicted when I started; I love all my guns and doing this to an XD that's probably worth $800 (try to get yours stippled by Boresight Solutions and let me know how that goes for you) seemed wrong. But now it's kind of fun watching it eat up challenge after challenge. This is the only time I've gotten it to fail. |