Why the hate on the XD's?

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FWIW, I currently own several (dozen+)polymer pistols. Glock, S&W, Keltec, SA, and Steyr. I have likes and dislikes among all of them. Of all of them, my old G22 2nd gen LE trade in would be the last to go. Anyway, I would have no issues at all about grabbing any of them in a "need to" situation. My advice is to try out as many as you can before a purchase if you are on a limited budget. Like anything else you can buy a lemon in any brand. I have taken my S&W Sigma 40VE and SA XD 9mmSC on 2 road trips totalling over 14k combined miles. I wouldn't take them if I didn't trust them. IMO you can't find more hate for the Sigma on the internet than any other pistol. I trust mine 100%. It all comes down to shooter/owner preference and experience with an individual/particular pistol. FWIW, my wife outshot me a couple of weeks ago using my SA XD bitone service 9mm. This was after she hadn't shot in about a year after developing a very bad case of the flinches. It was good to see her tear up the 10x ring on the target at 15 yrds using the SA XD9mm. Got her interest back into shooting.
 
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I currently own XD's and Smith & Wesson M&P's in 9, 40, and 45. (This is not from overindulgence, I simply still have many handguns left since I closed down my gun shop a year ago).

I've used each major type of pistol in pin shoots / IPSC and I am fastest - by far, with the Glock 21 in major auto and my old Ruger P95DC in minor. The reason for this? Not necessarily weapon design, but familiarity. Each weapon points different. When I point a heavier handgun, I point it like my Glock. When I point a lighter handgun, I point it like my Ruger. I can't consciously control this, so my point of aim is always screwed with other weapons with a similar feel and I end up missing - or worse, having to take longer to consciously line up my sights.

The more I practice with other handguns, the more I find my skills degrade on the first two I'd bought over a decade ago. Sure, there's a few I've found that "point" like my Glock, or my Ruger, but even though my point of aim is true my trigger control sucks because it's unfamiliar. :)

My advice here isn't about which handgun to buy. You said you are a new shooter. So my advice is that whichever one feels good and you end up buying, make it a lifelong choice. Too many people get caught up in the "newest" / "greatest" / "best" ever produced. Or, they end up not happy with that first weapon, and jump from gun, to gun, to gun, and never really get better.

Some people (like me) just like guns, and have too damn many of them. Then their wives tell them to start a gun shop to sell them off, and 3 years later end up with 4x as many as they started with. :)

So.. Instead of spending money buying more, and more, and more weapons, unless you're getting a weapon that fills a new, necessary, and specific "role", spend the money on ammo and (if you have them nearby) training classes.

Eventually, with time, ammo, and practice, that first handgun will feel like it's a part of you, and all others will sort of feel like a glove that don't quite fit right.

Just my .02.
 
trent i love you! um...if you wanna pm me or something...ill try to help unload the inventory. i have to wait for wifes ok though.

as to post, yes. well put.
get what feels good. id add this, im hesitant, cuz its old debate,. but oddly the ppl that own them for the most part dont care.
9mm vs 45
the only folks that really seem to care (again no slam meant to anyone) are those that dont shoot either a nine, or a 45.

i dont really care for the xd personally. it IS a glock knock off, without the goodies of the glock. ive shot them personally. even in .40
if it works for the shooter, better than a glock, then go for it.
but to just nut off cuz you dont like plastic....its kinda not ok....

shoot em, think, shoot em again. decide. be happy. i wont be robbing him either way....

-G
 
that part was to sigma, btw. lol.

you actually only own one polymer....anyway i mean no problems. if you like the XD, sweet.
lets just try to keep misinformation is plentiful. just ask a liberal.

i did not say that, and happy shooting bro.

-G
 
9mm is FAST to recover and get a second shot on.

45 is BIG.

I can't seem to find both. (And don't say 40 S&W, because I'm not a fan).

FWIW, and not trying to be pretentious here, just putting this out for sake of argument - I hold our club record on 5-pin shoots in Major Auto with a bone-stock Glock 21 @ 3.03 seconds (we shoot from low ready). I can't even come close to that with anything else out there. Yes, the Glock is good, but I don't think it holds THAT big of an edge in speed over everything else (except maybe the H&K USP, aka... "brick slide"...). It's simply triggers. I cannot stand the triggers on an M&P or XD. They feel alien to me.

Not that they are better, or worse, but I've put tens of thousands of rounds down range from Glocks, and under a thousand each with the other pistols. So they feel wrong.

If you buy an XD or M&P and shoot it pretty much exclusively, 10+ years from now you'd say the same thing about all the other guns.

It's all in experience. Get what feels right in your hand and don't look back or second guess yourself.

And... That's all I'm saying. :)
 
agreed mstrat.

i like the bold. go with yuor gut.
and it was also a comp shooter.....

you will always shoot better with what feels right. always. just ask ...him/her lol

i personally dont like sprigfield XD.
that me, i shoot like crap wiht them
if you shoot great...im all behind you.

rock out, with your glock out!
had to say it....

-G
 
Tips?

1. Buy ammo
2. Shoot ammo
3. Reload ammo
4. Repeat

Find out who's running IPSC or IDPA matches in your area if you've never been to one. I shot handguns for 10 years before I met up with someone and discovered them.

I was pretty damned convinced by then, that I knew how to shoot, and shoot really good.

Boy, was I really, really wrong. Fumbling through my first match was more than a little depressing. Yeah, I could shoot alright - at paper, while not moving, without a timer running. I got my eyes opened up so wide that day, it made me rethink everything I knew about guns from the ground up.

Never assume you know everything, and always listen, watch, and learn new ways to improve yourself.

That's all the advice I can give. :)
 
Pistols are just tools, opinions are worth what you pay for them, and preferences are just that and not factual evidence of a failing.

Buy what you think feels good, points well, and has a good trigger. Buy a mountain of ammo. Shoot under competent instruction. Repeat.

Personally, I want a pistol that feels/handles and points like an M&P, comes with a stainless slide and has the extra capacity of the XD, has the trigger pull and reset of the Glock 35, and the reliability of Glocks in general.
 
Honestly, I really don't care what a bunch of anonymous bungholes on the internet think. I buy what I like and shoot well and I don't care what name's on the slide. The only people that seem to be h/\t0rz (or whatever the 'leet' types spell it as) are the ones who have an agenda- "The more who agree with us, the more kewl we are!"

As for me and mine, frankly my dear, I could give a- darn.
 
I prefer Glock because the company makes parts available to it's customers. I also like the vast aftermarket support as well as Glocks support through GSSF. The XD is a nice gun but it felt strange to me. A friend od mine has one and he likes it a lot. Him and his wife are comfortable with ot but were not with my Glock. There is nothing wrong with the XD series. The people who bashed it were just brand loyalists.

If cost is an option I would get a Glock through GSSF and call it a day. The Glock 19 would be my first choice for an all around gun.
 
I don't discriminate. I despise ALL over priced, foreign made, plastic pistols with horrible triggers.:cuss::evil:

You want to buy a gun made in Croatia, go right ahead. Glocks, at least to me,
are really 200 dollar pistols, jacked up to 600 dollars, thanks to millions in advertizing, and president Obama, and the old Democrat congress, with Pelosi as the dull point of the spear.

There are so many, far better value options then any of these guns, it's not funny.

I don't know XD designs, or many other plastic pistols well enough to comment on the cost of customizing them to MY liking. If someone gave me a Glock 34 or 35, I would be able to start with a pretty good place, trigger wise, and maybe just adding a new barrel would be all that was required.

I think a Glock, completely tuned and tricked out, is a 500 dollar gun.

From the comments, the XD trigger design doesn't give me warm and fuzzies.

I've shot a Glock 30. It grouped as well as a combat shotgun. The Glock 34, tricked out for race gunning, was hyperaccurate, great trigger, and just flat out neat.

If you want a 45 ACP, for me, I like 1911's, and they come in a variety of
sizes. They also come at price points that are so close to the plastic guns that I've never been able to pull the trigger on a plastic purchase.

Whoops. I just realized the Kahr PM 9 is a plastic pistol.:eek: If I could buy a Kahr PM45 in our sick state, I'd be giving it long hard consideration.
 
I had this XD45 Tactical for a while, but I was terribly inaccurate with it.
I think it was the trigger-pull.
While it is a single-action pistol, it had a terrible trigger-pull unlike any other single-action pistol I have ever shot.
I really didn't care for the grip safety either.


HPIM6525.gif
 
I love these types of discussions, you get the partisan's of every stripe. Very amusing.

Let me disclose my bias. I'm a Sig guy. I love them. That being said, I've owned Glocks and sold them all. I don't know what it is, they just didn't feel "right" to me. Never had any trouble of failures, they just never grew on me.

I have two XDs, however, a 9 and a .45. I really like their feel, they're accurate and have functioned flawlessly. The XD9 is my desk gun, the XD45 is in my nightstand. I still carry SIG, but there's nothing wrong, at all, with XDs.
 
I would go to the range and rent both to see what gun you like. I have the glock 30sf and love it.
 
My take...

let me start by saying that I'm more of a revolver guy, and don't shoot autoloaders as often.

Anyways, I want to like the XD line, but my own limited experience with the XD9 wasn't very positive.

A few years ago, I rented an XD9 with the 4" barrel. I was interested in seeing how easy it would be to limpwrist a few different types of autoloaders. One of the guys at the range suggested that I try the XD. I decided to humor him and I rented the XD. Anyways, I was holding the gun loosely, trying to induce a malfunction. With the XD9, I succeeded before shooting through the first magazine.

It was a failure to feed and round actually got stuck at an awkward angle.
The nose of the round went in at the wrong angle and the round got stuck. For the life of me, I couldn't tell you how this happened. I'm not really that familiar with the XD. It was a rental gun and I was using reloads made by a local "company".

After fumbling with the gun for a little bit, I finally decided that the safest way to remove the round would be to lock the slide back, remove the magazine, and then use something other than my finger to dislodge the round. In total, it took me a few minutes to clear this malfunction. I can't remember if I used a pen or if it was one of the tools that I carried with me in my range bag.

I have no axe to grind with SA, nor do I work in an industry that is even remotely related to guns. I live in Illinois and my family immigrated to the US from the former Yugloslavia. I have every reason to want to support this company.

Anyways, I also shot several other guns that day, with the reloads, and was not able to induce malfunctions in the PX4, 90-two, P226, CZ 75, or the G17.

This experience soured me on autoloaders. I was afraid that my wife might limp wrist an autoloader in a defense situation when I wasn't around. For this reason, I filled my safe with revolvers. It took me about three years before I actually broke down and bought my first centerfire autoloader.

Listen, I don't dislike XDs. For a while, I was actually think of buying an XD45 compact, even after this experience. I've never read anyone else having this specific problem, so I figured that it was a fluke. Still, when I finally decided to buy my first centerfire autoloader, I went with another gun.

I think that most large gun manufacturers make good, reliable guns. I don't think that any guns are perfect, but I don't think that you could go wrong with an XD. For me, I prefer the M&P, and ruger and S&W revolvers.
 
Someone may have already covered this. After market sights are easy, easy, easy to come by....went to my local gunstore, bought meprolights for my xd .40 sub and had it back in my hands in about 15 minutes, still dead on.... I have had that same xd .40 for about 4-5 years now and even though I have aquired other pistols in the meantime, I hang onto it due to the reliability it has proven to me. I also have a service model xd .45 and a Glock 45. Both excellent weapons with absolutely no hiccups, definitely handle different, I think that part of the challenge and fun is mastering different weapon systems. Can't go wrong with either choice, both are excellent guns... I think someone said it best when they said " there is no holy grail of guns".... good luck
 
one last thought....@Prosser, I just recently picked up a Kahr PM45 roughly 4-5 months ago, thoroughly impressed, if you do ever get a chance pick one up, you wont be disappointed....
 
Personally I don't own any XD's but I have shot a few of them and I do like the way they feel in my hand. However, one of the biggest drawbacks for me is the grip safety. I will never carry a gun with a grip safety. In addition, out of M&P's, Glocks, XD's, and HK's I've seen more XD failures during classes when being ran hard than the three others mentioned. While they likely wouldn't be ran that hard in a self defense situation it's enough for me to choose the other three brands. Again, I think they are nice guns, but they aren't my first choice. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
Polymer Perfection

The XDm .45 ACP with a PRP trigger kit w/trigger stop ($100) and a solid stainless guide rod ($25). Bought it in July and totally love it. The trigger is great now and it will feed SWCs that give the XD trouble.;)
 
Hey everybody I just turned 21 last Friday So naturally I have been deciding on a handgun, well actually for the past year. After very extensive research, shooting etc. I had it narrowed down to the Glock 30, XD 45 compact and the M&P 45 compact. So I decided to go with the XD for various reasons and was planning on ordering it next week. Tonight while doing a little looking around I stumbled across m4carbine.net where there is much hate for the XD line. I am not one to go on a few opinions but they really make me second guess my choice. Is the XD really a bad weapon? I'm not saying at all that it is better than a Glock or M&P but in my opinion it is on par with those models. What do yall think?
Click to expand...

All I can tell you is what a local firearms trainer tells everyone, and that is XDs break very fequenly in his classes. May be fine for the recreactional shooter, but put thousands of rounds through it in a class, they dont hold up. He likes the other two mentioned weapons just fine;) Not every XD goes down, but enough for him to not trust them. I have owed a few with no issues to speak of.
 
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I share your confusion with people who are quick to call anything trash and not offer reasoning or personal experience. I can tell you I threw a couple mags through a buddy's XD-9 and I like it. The recoil is very manageable, control placement works for me, and it feels like a solid piece of equipment. I'm not crazy about how it sits in my hand, or the 1911 style grip safety. Then again I'm sure my hand is different than yours. Try em before you buy em. Any particular reason why you are going with sub compacts and not just compacts?
 
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