Live Round stuck in chamber of XDm .45 ACP

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CZ57

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I was shooting at the range today and as I fired the last of 5 rounds from the magazine the gun failed to fire on the second mag of 5. Thought it could have been a light primer strike but noticed the gun was slightly out of battery. I can not retract the slide and the live round is still in the chamber with a possible light primer strike. The load is a handload and it is possible but not probable that the load was over-length for the chamber. But evidently the striker did move forward when I pulled the trigger and is why I suspect that there could be a light strike on the primer.

Also, I have installed a PRP Match easy fit trigger kit and wonder if there is a malfunction with the firing pin safety plunger possibly stuck in the up position preventing the slide from going rearward. All of this has me pretty nervous about troubleshooting. I have been handloading for 25 years and I just don't believe the case was overlength and thus the bullet lodged on the rifling. I am engaging the frame safety as you would with a 1911 but the slide won't retract beyond about 3/16". One of my first thoughts was about having to call Springfield Armory and explaining that this happened with a handload and them telling me it would void the warranty. Anybody have a suggestion, at this point I am stumped.

After looking at some other threads I see a recommendation for putting the muzzle end of the slide on a wooden table, allowing clearance for the barrel and recoil spring guide, and pushing firmly on the frame until the round ejects. No amount of hand pressure will do it otherwise. I think I'll give this a try as it alleviated a similar problem a shooter had with his 1911.
 
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It works best with guns that have internal recoil guides, like traditional 1911s and CZ75s.

BTDT. :)
 
Yeah, I figured that but I got a corner of the table (My reloading bench) between the barrel and the guide rod. Worked out great!;)

I'm also going to shorten the handloads. I am using a 200 gr. RNFP that are loaded to 1.225" so I will shorten them to 1.210".
 
Had an almost identical instance with an XD9SC about five years ago, with the same resolution.
That particular round had a high primer. It was a handload done by a friend(long before I started handloading, but I learned a valuble lesson that day...two of them, actually.)
 
Well, I wish I knew what the cause was. The primer hadn't been struck but the bullet stayed in the bore with the powder behind it. Easily removed with an aluminum rod.;)
 
Take the barrel out of the gun and use it as a chamber guage to determine the proper OAL of your loads.

They should drop in with a "clunk", case head even with the barrel hood.
And drop back out when you turn the barrel chamber down.

You can also "color" a bullet with a magic-marker and keep seating deeper until the rifling leade stops rubbing the marker off the bullet.

rc
 
rcmodel said:
Take the barrel out of the gun and use it as a chamber guage to determine the proper OAL of your loads.

They should drop in with a "clunk", case head even with the barrel hood.
And drop back out when you turn the barrel chamber down.

You can also "color" a bullet with a magic-marker and keep seating deeper until the rifling leade stops rubbing the marker off the bullet.

rc
Click to expand...
^This

I've come across several XD45's that are on the short end of spec for OAL. It is possible for a casing to be within OAL spec and still be too long for the XD45's chamber.

After getting into a batch of reloads that were too long, I now perform the chamber guage test on every round I intend to fire in my XD45.
 
It is possible for a casing to be within OAL spec and still be too long for the XD45's chamber.
Click to expand...
No.
The problem with 9mm & .45 XD's seems to be, the rifling leade is cut for FMJ-RN military type bullets.

You will especially have problems with FP, TC, or JHP bullets that have more full dia bullet shank sticking out of the case.

A FMJ-RN bullet begins to get smaller right at the case mouth as the ogive begins to round down to the curve and fits the short leade perfectly.

Any standard SAAMI spec case should chamber perfectly, if the bullet isn't sticking out too far and hitting the leade.

rc
 
rcmodel said:
No.
The problem with 9mm & .45 XD's seems to be, the rifling leade is cut for FMJ-RN military type bullets.

You will especially have problems with FP, TC, or JHP bullets that have more full dia bullet shank sticking out of the case.

A FMJ-RN bullet begins to get smaller right at the case mouth as the ogive begins to round down to the curve and fits the short leade perfectly.

Any standard SAAMI spec case should chamber perfectly, if the bullet isn't sticking out too far and hitting the leade.

rc
Click to expand...
Well, the ammo that gave me problems was all FMJ-RN (Hornady).

I agree that any SAAMI spec case should chamber perfectly but I had several that did not.

So ... yes.

I can also believe what you're saying about the leade, though. As I've encountered bullets (FMJ-RN no less) that will "stick" in the lead and not drop out during the chamber guage test described above.
 
I run into that with Kart barrels with shouldered RN or SWC bullets. The chambers are minimum spec, and the leade is very short, and and part of the bullet at full diameter that enters the leade gets wedged in tightly, making extracting a live round a bit of a hassle. I normally just drop a hand-turned finishing reamer into the chambers and tweak'em a little. Takes care of the problem nicely.
 
All good solutions, but I'd like to point out that the XD has a quirk where you cannot retract the slide unless the grip safety is depressed. Not sure if the XDm is the same, but it has caused confusion in the past, as its easy to shift your grip to get the fingers far away from the trigger and thus deactivate the grip safety when clearing a failure to fire.
 
Yeah, Wally the XDm uses the same grip safety.

I have attributed this problem to the length of the load. Consequently, I shortened them all from 1.225" to 1.200" as I load them with W-231 as well. The 1.225" load uses a fairly slow powder (Ramshot True Blue) and I'm not concerned about a significant pressure rise as these loads are fairly mild.;)
 
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Quote:
It is possible for a casing to be within OAL spec and still be too long for the XD45's chamber.
No.
The problem with 9mm & .45 XD's seems to be, the rifling leade is cut for FMJ-RN military type bullets.

You will especially have problems with FP, TC, or JHP bullets that have more full dia bullet shank sticking out of the case.

A FMJ-RN bullet begins to get smaller right at the case mouth as the ogive begins to round down to the curve and fits the short leade perfectly.

Any standard SAAMI spec case should chamber perfectly, if the bullet isn't sticking out too far and hitting the leade.

rc
Click to expand...

The CZ and the XD have similar chamber characteristics, including short headspace to the leade/rifling.

The drop-in test should be done on 'every different' bullet you run. It only takes a minute or two to do 'by hand'. Push the new type bullet a short ways into a spent unsized case and slowly insert it into your chamber until it seats firmly on the case mouth. Gently pull it out and measure the OAL. Repeat this test until you see consistency. This is the oal that is just touching the cone or leade. Subtract about .015" from that OAL and you're good-to-go for that bullet in that gun.

The CZ has to be loaded darn short for many flat nose, HP and conical shaped bullets (no real ogive). Most RN bullets can be loaded out to SAAMI max.
 
I had the exact same issue on my XD-45, using handloads with 1.230 OAL. Those same rounds ran fine in the Glock 21 and Taurus PT145, but siezed up the XD after about 6 shots. I was able to get the round out eventually (got the slide freed up after several nervous minutes of trying) and now will not load anything longer than 1.2 OAL for that gun.
 
Well, I wish I knew what the cause was.
Click to expand...
A few things could have gone wrong.

When you seat bullets, you get a range of OAL that depends on the shape of the bullet and the seater plug. The worst the fit, the more variation of your OAL. So it might have been normal variation.

Secondly, the bullet could have been malformed. If the bullet nose was shorter or thinner or more rounded than normal, it would seat the shoulder longer. Esp if your seater plug is concave, as most pistol seater plugs are.

Another possibility is you may have short-stroked the ram while seating it.

It must be reassuring to know your gun didn't strike the primer in this scenario!
 
I believe the OP stated that it was a XDm. The XDm's are supposed to have
a match grade barrel. Persnally, I like my original XD better than my XDm.
 
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