XD firing pin block operation

[ljb2of3]

Hey all, question for anyone who knows the inner workings of an XD.

Today during the IDPA match out at Oil Capital I had a failure to fire happen four times. Three of the times I just racked the slide to clear and went on, the fourth time I instinctively pulled the trigger again and it went bang. All three that I ejected didn't even have their primers dented. The working theory was that my grip was off and thus I wasn't depressing the grip safety far enough to fire. Which might make sense, my hands were freezing and I was under the stress of a match, which is new.

Now the odd part... between this gun (new, still less than 200 rounds) and rentals in the past few months I've put at least 300 rounds though an XD prior to the match and never had an issue with my grip. Now that I'm home I've been playing with my grip during dry fire and I have to really try before getting my grip far enough off to not engage the grip safety. Also, when the grip safety isn't engaged, it doesn't go click. I am 99.999% certain that during the match I felt it go click every time.

So, here is my crazy theory: On the first trigger pull the sear releases the firing pin but the firing pin block doesn't get pushed quite out of the way... the pin drops part of the way, producing the click I felt, and on the second pull, the block is pushed completely out of the way and the pin goes ahead and drops the rest of the distance and goes boom.

Am I crazy and just need to work on my grip some more, or is this possible? Got any other explanations?

Poking around in the slide, this already looks impossible, since the firing pin isn't under pressure when it is against the block... Just wondering what everyone else thinks.

-Landy

 

[grwd]

The odds are high that it was you and not the gun.
You may have not let the trigger far forward enough to reset the trigger.

Alternatively if it's a gun issue, it may
be due to some debris in the firing pin channel

Do some dryfiring and get used to the trigger a little more, where things happen during the stroke of the trigger both before and after the break and shoot it a little more before you decide to possibly use the warranty.
If you were closer to me, I'd be happy to check
Out your pistol for you.

 

[technetium-99m]

A buddy I started bringing to matches had the same problem. The gun would not misbehave for him in relaxed shooting and would run bill drills for me all day long.

I watched his hands when I ran him at H&H and he was so amped up from match shooting that he would pin the trigger back and not release it at all, get frustrated, rack the slide and then continue.

When shooting a match you have to let the trigger out, take up slack, and squeeze back no matter how fast you are trying to go. Be alert about what you are doing and try that before blaming what is likely a perfectly functional XD.

 

[tul9033]

I ran him on at least 2 of those issues and both times the striker indicator was visible both before and after the issue. Since the striker did not move we assumed it was due to not engaging the grip safety. Not resetting the trigger is also a possibility.
However, trying to reproduce the issue I would encourage you to test from the draw. I noticed you were using a cross breed in the 5:00 position and drawing from back there can easily do weird things to your grip. You were taking your time so a big there.

Edit to add: If you heard and felt the click, the striker definitely didn't move, I don't recall hearing it. At the time I was pretty sure when you pulled the trigger a second time there was no click the first attempt. I remember the gun flinching a bit and then a repull and bang. Of course you were behind the trigger so my perceptions may very well be incorrect.

 

[ljb2of3]

I ran him on at least 2 of those issues and both times the striker indicator was visible both before and after the issue. Since the striker did not move we assumed it was due to not engaging the grip safety. Not resetting the trigger is also a possibility. However, trying to reproduce the issue I would encourage you to test from the draw. I noticed you were using a cross breed in the 5:00 position and drawing from back there can easily do weird things to your grip.

Good, someone who actually saw what was going on! I was too focused down range to notice the striker indicator myself. For now I'm just assuming it was me doing something that caused the malfunction... I really don't want to believe the gun was at fault!

You were taking your time so a big there.

Thanks, I figured I can't miss fast enough to win. Besides, missing the target just wastes ammo! Next month I'll give it another go, hopefully a bit faster and with less problems. I'm still wondering how I missed one target on stage six entirely.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

I'm pretty sure the XD is single action. Pulling the trigger releases the striker, which can only be reset by the reciprocation of the slide. There is no "second strike" capability. If you pulled the trigger again and it went bang, you probably didn't let it reset or didn't have the grip safety depressed.