21 Dec 13
Springfield Armory XD/S Recall:
The top four pistols we see at Courses currently are, Glocks, XDs, M&Ps,
and Kahrs. SIGs represent a distant 5th place. 1911s, Berettas, et al
bring up the rear. One exception is the Beretta Nano (small, 9mm concealment
pistol), which is right now enjoying appreciable popularity.
SA’s XD/S, in 45ACP and 9mm, is another small, flat, single-column pistol,
specifically designed for concealed carry. It is very popular, and, like
all XDs, runs fine. We’ve seen a number come through Courses, and my wife
has a copy, which she likes and carries regularly.
Earlier this year, SA found it necessary to recall the XD/S. Friends at
SA explained to me that a single customer, an XD/S owner, said he experienced
a “slam-fire” with his XD/S during the normal loading process. SA asked
the customer to send the weapon back to them, which he did. During
thorough testing at the factory, with all brands of ammunition, SA was unable to
duplicate the reported slam-fire, with the pistol in question, nor with any
other copy of the XD/S tested. No other slam-fire incidents, other than
the single one mentioned above, have ever been reported.
It is a phenomenon I’ve never witnessed on the range with the XD/S, nor
with any other modern autoloading pistol.
Nevertheless, design engineers at SA recommended to management that a small
design change be implemented with the XD/S that would make the pistol
absolutely drop-safe, and thus altogether immune from slam-fires.
SA then courageously decided to voluntarily recall the XD/S for retrofit at
the factory. The recall was done very professionally, and included our
copy. We sent ours in, via FedEX as instructed, in September. It was just
returned to us, as promised, last week. It has been updated, inspected,
and tested, and they even included an extra magazine, a nice touch. All was
done at no charge. Shipping was pre-paid, both ways.
Our XD/S now runs fine. Of course, it has always run fine!
SA deserves a lot of credit for, at great expense, quietly and
professionally correcting this ostensible design error, an error which, as noted
above, is probably mostly imaginary.
When you have a copy of the XD/S, and have not yet sent it back to the
factory for this upgrade, I recommend that you do so, without delay. Either
way, it is extremely unlikely that you will ever experience any safety issue
with this pistol. However, for one, I’m not inclined to second-guess
design engineers at the factory. SA is bending over backwards to take good
care of its customers, and I sincerely recommend that you take advantage of
their magnanimity.
/John
