Posted: 7/25/2012 6:02:12 PM EDT
|
Picked up my awesome Bi-Tone XDS today. I sold a P45 to a friend today, which I loved, to finance the purchase of the XDS. My initial impression was WOW! While small, it is not so small that I can't comfortably hold it.
I got it home and cleaned it, then, I decided to load up five snap caps +1 in the chamber and do some dry firing and slide cycling...I have never done this with another gun before, and I'm not sure why I decided to do it with the XDS. Anyway, the snap caps I am using are nice, all aluminum ones. HOLY FUCK!!! Not sure if it's the feed ramp, or the extractor, but the rims on those dummy rounds are scratched to hell! I had a few double feeds to deal with, and one of the dummies is so mangled, the gun will not go into battery with that round in the chamber. First off, is it normal for new guns to chew up snap caps like that? I can understand compact and sub-compact pistols to be very stiff at first, and I hope that is all there is to this. I am going to continue to dry-fire and slide cycle with the dummy rounds until I can get to the range this weekend. I am anticipating all of the dummies to be chewed up...so I will stop by the LGS tomorrow and pick up a dozen or so plastic dummies in order to keep practicing without destroying the nicer/more expensive aluminum ones. Normal? Fucked up? What say you? |
|
There have been a few owners with extraction/feed issues. I have been following a couple threads over there, that deal with the same issues you may or may not actually experience.In any event below is a forum for the XD line of pistols. I also just purchased a XDS, and have yet to shoot it. I will probably hit the range this weekend and run 100 or so round through her.
XD Talk |
|
100 rounds today at the range. Very accurate at five yards. Very controllable...fast, accurate follow up shots. I did notice that at ten yards, my point of impact was WAY low...as in not on a 6" plate. I had to aim at the top of the plate, or ever so slightly over at ten yards to get center hits on the plate...normal/expected with a gun that small, or user error?
Somewhere between round 50-75, I had one light strike. Not malfunctions of any kind before, or after. So far, I love it. I'll need a few more range sessions before I make it a carry gun, but so far, I'm impressed. |
Took mine out to the range today for its first showing. I thought it was going to end badly when the first round I tried to chamber wouldn't go in all the way and kept the slide from going into battery. Popped the mag out, recycled the slide (round wouldn't eject since it never got fired) and on the third slide cycle it finally went all the way into battery. No further problems, tried a couple of different ammo types, all was well from a function standpoint.
As to the gun itself, it's definitely different than the XD/XDM. The felt recoil is noticeably higher. This is not a gun to take to a handgun class or competition. The recoil is also of a different character than the XD/XDM. It seems to rock/rotate more in the hand than the XD. This is perhaps from the fact that my pinkies are not fully able to get on the grip. The grip is narrower, by design, so perhaps there is less chance to firmly brace the gun to prevent rock. It's also lighter than my other 3 XD/XDM .45s which I'm sure also contributes. The gun is really quite accurate, even though the barrel is really short. The trigger pull is smooth, not very hard, and has a definitive consistent break to it. Follow up shots are harder and take longer due to the increased rock and recoil. Perhaps some of that may go away when I get the 7 round mag and put on the larger backstrap. (As an aside, does anybody make those rubber/sand decals for the XDS yet? That might help, too.) Nonetheless, I found I got as good as 2" groups at 10 yds if I took my time and concentrated on my grip. It's clearly not as good as it's larger brethren but plenty good enough (and frankly better than most). POI was low and slightly to the left of POA at 10 yds. Not sure why. After putting about 150 rounds thru, I called it a day with that gun. I'd interspersed my shooting with my 4" XD (.45 as well) just for comparison. My groups were 1/2 the size with the 4" XD than with XDs so I either have some work to do or need to add some accessories. 
It's a very nice, concealable .45 but I wouldn't say it's my favorite to shoot at this point. I'm sure I'll like it better once I feel how much less weight I have to carry around vs. my XD. 
|
|
Bought the wife the black XDs for her birthday present. We got a chance to use it this past weekend. For such a small and light gun the recoil was actually pretty easy to deal with. It definitely felt less snappy than some 380's I have shot. The five rounds went fairly quick and the wife agreed that she would need to carry a back up magazine as well. On the plus side the spare magazine is light and thin enough to be easily carried.
We shot it at 15 feet to 50 feet and it was easily minute of badguy capable. I had no belief going into this that it was going to be a match gun or be anything more than a small CCW in 45 ACP that would easy to carry in light summer clothing. That being said I was easily able to make hits on CoM. The trigger has some slack before the pull gets a little harder breaks fairly easily and had some overtravel. Reset was about halfway through the triggers range but it reset with a loud click and feel. The magazine has a stiff spring and it was a little bit harder to load up that magazine as compared to a 1911 magazine. Only one issue, one Federal FMJ didn't fully seat and it wouldn't extract either. Had to smack the back of the slide to get it to finish seating. Fed it a variety of hollow points and it feed and extracted all of those without issue. Did notice brass markings on the lower half of the ejection port. Hand ejected brass did have some light marks start from the ogive to the head of the case with some burring on the case head. Not sure if its from the extractor or the ejector. Overall I am very happy with the gun for the role it was picked and designed to do. Hope to get one for myself some day. |
|
Love mine. I took it out and put 200 rounds through it the first time out. Like others have said the recoil was better then expected. Best way i can describe it is a straight back thump to the palm. I won't be shooting 200 rounds through it all at once again any time soon (had a pretty good blister on my thumb)! Here is the round count.
50 rds Factory Reloaded 185 grain ball 100 rds Factory Reloaded 230 grain ball 40 rds Federal 230 grain +P hollow point 10 rds Federal 230 grain hollow point 5 rds Spear Gold Dot 230 grain + P hollow point (what i plan to carry for now) Had zero issues with it. Used the bench to do some supported slow fire and had a 1" group dead center at 7 yards. My wife stated she thinks the recoil is better then the Karh PM9. I think the slightly wider grip gives you more to hold on to and it just feels different. Brought it home and gave it a good cleaning. This last weekend I put another 50 rounds of 185 ball through it. Still no failures. I did notice today that the extractor really does grab onto the brass. Checked out one of the Spear Gold rounds after unloading it tonight for dry fire drills and realized I will have to keep an I on them over time. No sharp edges right now but you can tell where the extractor grabbed on to it. After my first range day....I sold my Karh PM9. Love the XDs! |
|
Quoted:
I did notice that at ten yards, my point of impact was WAY low...as in not on a 6" plate. I had to aim at the top of the plate, or ever so slightly over at ten yards to get center hits on the plate...normal/expected with a gun that small, or user error? Did you try different brands of ammo to see if the POI changed? I've been looking HARD at these little pocket rockets. My usual carry gun is the SA Micro 1911, a 3" bbl model. |
|
My .02 cents:
So far I'm absolutely impressed with this platform/configuration. Honestly, shooting .45 ACP is new'ish to me as my typical target shooting caliber is 9mm, and HD is 40 S&W. I've been looking for a CCW solution for awhile now. I have a Kahr CM9, but really dislike the long trigger pull. (yes I know, that's part of the safety action) As such, trigger feel is now one of my main considerations. I was kinda eyeballing the newer Sig P938's, as my wife has a P238 so I'm familiar with the relative size, but then saw the online reviews of the XDs. Shortly after that, an XDs showed up in the display at the range I visit. I had the opportunity to fondle that display, and it felt very comfortable. My larger sized hands still want an extended mag/pinky rest + a possible Hogue Handall/Pachmyr, but overall it felt way better than the Kahr and Sig. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and now the range I visit has 2 (1 bi-tone, and 1 black) XDs' for rental. I discovered this the day I was there for my CHL Qual. Oh yeah. it was on. 
After qual I rented an XDs , and man I tell ya what, it's very nice. Surprisingly, recoil is quite manageable. Seriously, way less than I expected, and not that much different than my Glock 22 (if not better). The heft/weight with a loaded mag felt very similar to the CM9, and I really like the FO front sight. The trigger was also significantly more to my liking. A little heavy on the initial pull, but reset was much better than I expected. After my first couple of initiation mags, I had it down to 1.5" groups @ 10 yds. I know there's supposedly a 9mm and 40 S&W in this platform's future, but as good as it felt with the .45 I'm wavering on whether to wait or become an "early'ish" adopter of the .45. The Kahr is definitely on the selling block now. |
|
Quoted:
Sent my bi tone xds back to SA it was shooting at least 10" low at 10 yards. Haven't got it back yet. Overall really like it / groups ok just low. Also got the 7 round mag which makes it feel way better. Got it back from SA - Its dead on now! The paperwork just said inspected and repaired. Whatever they did fixed it..... 
|
|
Sold mine after one trip to the range. To be fair, I didn't really expect to like it all that much, but it was one of those guns I just had to have when it came out because I like Springfield. I have a Kimber Ultra Carry II .45, so I already have a sub compact .45, and I can acutally fit my hand on the grip, shoot it more accurately, and the recoil isn't so bad that you're limited to only shooting it when you have to. The only sacrifice is a little size and a lot of weight, but that doesn't really matter when you tuck it into a crossbreed supertuck.
Really cool gun. Not one I care for though. Would make a great CCW. |
|
Quoted:
Sold mine after one trip to the range. To be fair, I didn't really expect to like it all that much, but it was one of those guns I just had to have when it came out because I like Springfield. I have a Kimber Ultra Carry II .45, so I already have a sub compact .45, and I can acutally fit my hand on the grip, shoot it more accurately, and the recoil isn't so bad that you're limited to only shooting it when you have to. The only sacrifice is a little size and a lot of weight, but that doesn't really matter when you tuck it into a crossbreed supertuck. Really cool gun. Not one I care for though. Would make a great CCW. What was it about the gun that you did not like ? |
|
A friend bought one, and she brought it to me because it was having issues chambering rounds without stove piping and double feeding. It was also denting the fuck out of the top round in the magazine.
I figured it was her method of chambering the weapon, such as riding the slide home. Nope! Pulled the slide to the rear and let it fly, stove pipes, and rounds driven downward. Attempting to eject a round is a bitch. The ejector isn't reliably kicking the cases out. The slide serrations were pretty damn sharp too. They cut up the sides of my fingers pretty good. So now the pistol is going back to the shop to let them dick with repairing it. Compared to the ease and function of my Glock 36, this hasn't been a very good experience sadly. |