Was reading an older article talking about the XD / XDM?s weakest link, the striker retainer pin, and the frequency In which they break. Is this a common problem that anyone has experienced, or a rarity, something that is unlikely to happen, or has Springfield possibly addressed this? I?m currently waiting on a response from Springfield to see what they have to say

I cannot speak for the 10mm 's, but I have one of the oldest XD 40's, shortly after they rebranded from the HS Produkt 2000.

I've had it for more than 15 years now.  I've shot it a lot with 40 cal, and even a bunch with a 9mm conversion barrel.

I don't know how many times I have fired the gun, but it's been enough to know that I haven't had any trouble with parts breakages or weird wear or anything.

These were mostly with factory loads, and I'm not sure how it would do with a steady diet of hot loads or anything, but I have also fired some really hot loads through it without issue too, other than what I feel is excessive recoil, and why I don't make a habit of it.

I will say that springfield, being an importer and not actually make anything from that product line, kind of soured me on the xd because I had dropped a small pin and tried to order a replacement and they didn't want to sell me one.  I don't even remember which pin it was.  Sear pin or something.  I had dropped it while taking the gun apart and couldn't find it, and the lady I spoke with absolutely did not want to sell me a replacement pin.  Said it was a factory part and they wanted me to send the gun in to them and a bunch of BS and the shipping charges round trip no doubt would have been 25 times the cost of the replacement pin.

So, that's when I stopped being one of their customers.

I ended up having to make my own pin.  I found the right size wire gauge drill bit and cut the shank off and used it to replace the pin with.  So, while the guns have been around long enough now that you can probably find spare parts at places like numrich gun parts or ebay now, that was the jist of my customer service experience with them and why I don't buy their stuff anymore.

I bought my 10mm XDm soon after they came out. except for a couple of boxes of factory ammo to check out the new gun, it has been fed a steady diet of hot ammo with 0 problems. I got most of my 10mm load data from the "pull down" thread on this forum so most of it duplicates ammo from Swamp Fox, Buffalo Bore, etc... the only problem I had with my XDm was light primer strikes because being new to striker fired guns, I got oil in the striker channel and it slowed things down in there.

Thanks, it kinda sounds like this issue is brought on primarily by dry firing without snap caps.
Thanks

This just in from Springfield

Good afternoon,
Thank you for contacting Springfield.   The striker retainer pin can start walking out or even break if the firearm is dry fired excessively which is why we recommend snap caps if you intend to dry fire continuously.  While, we can not make any recommendations for after market striker retainer pins, we do have replacements in stock if needed.  Please contact our Customer Service Department with your serial number at 1-800-680-6866 for any replacement parts.   Thanks again,
 
Have a great day!
Pam B | Customer Service
Team Springfield
420 West Main Street
Geneseo, IL 61254
 
800-680-6866
pamb@springfield-armory.com

Quote from: Kenk on June 15 2022 12:07:07 AM MDT
Was reading an older article talking about the XD / XDM?s weakest link, the striker retainer pin, and the frequency In which they break. Is this a common problem that anyone has experienced, or a rarity, something that is unlikely to happen, or has Springfield possibly addressed this? I?m currently waiting on a response from Springfield to see what they have to say

Wow, you're going way back in time to the early 2000's.  Yes, the first year or so imports of the XD9 had an issue with the striker retaining roll pin cracking lengthwise.  Also yes, this pin broke mainly from dry firing...A LOT! (like competition shooters do)  The solution was either call and wait for SA to send you a replacement roll pin or go down to the hardware store and just buy a few replacements.  (I think it was a 2mm or 2.5mm roll pin)
As I was shooting my XD9 every weekend at USPSA matches, I went to the hardware store.  I replaced mine exactly once and I attribute that to "Murphy's law" of, if you have the spare part, you'll never need it.

I haven't heard the issue come up in a long time but if you do a lot of dry firing, cheap insurance is to buy a spare pin.  That way it will never break

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, will have Springfield just send be a few to have on hand. Have you had any other issues with that pistol? Mine has had 0 malfunctions in something like 1K rd?s, pretty impressive I think

I'm glad they changed their policy on small parts.

Me too, if someone is going to produce something, they best support them parts wise also

Quote from: Kenk on June 15 2022 03:14:25 PM MDT
Me too, if someone is going to produce something, they best support them parts wise also

Yeah, I agree.  That's the whole reason I haven't bought anything else from them too.  And there have been other chances of that happening over the years too.  Especially when I was looking for a 45acp.  But, I ended up with a sars k245 and looking back, I'm glad that I did.  It turned out to be the best 45 that I've ever owned.

Quote from: Kenk on June 15 2022 02:50:20 PM MDT
Thanks Jeff, will have Springfield just send be a few to have on hand. Have you had any other issues with that pistol? Mine has had 0 malfunctions in something like 1K rd?s, pretty impressive I think

The only other issues were:
1. The finish on the slide.  Mine was a pre Melonite and showed lots of wear.

2. Recall on the locking block.  SA claimed the recoil blocks were cracking on some high round count guns.  Mine had over 20K through it with no issues but I sent it back anyway.

3.  Finding standard capacity magazines.  Remember, this was back during the Clinton mag ban and the only way to get standard capacity mags was to modify Beretta 92 mags.   (thank God that's over with!)

I gave that XD9 to my son when I picked up a brand new S&W M&P 9L 5" for shooting USPSA.  (the 9L is a whole other story)
It had around 40K rounds through it and he's put a few more through it since then.

Hope this helps and enjoy your XD!

Jeff

Absolutely, Thanks Jeff!