Springfield xdm 9mm mags

[ace4059]

I used to carry a Springfield xdm in 9mm (19+1) and I have noticed the springs in a the magazines are weak now (mags loaded to 18 rds) and will not lock the slide back on the last round.

I am aware of people saying the springs do not fatigue from storing loaded mags, just from cycling. Is the Springfield spring an exception? Anyone else have any problems with the springs in the mags? I didn't know if this was a know issue.

I looked and only saw factory replacement springs. Are there any aftermarket springs available?

[ace4059]

I called Springfield customer service today the the man on the phone first said the springs need to be replaced between 3,000-5,000 rounds. He said leaving the mags loaded weakens the springs and do not need to be left loaded for More than 1 month then you must leave them unloaded for 1 month so not to stress the spring. Basically he said cycle the mags in and out of use. He also stated unload the mags and leave the ones I am having problems with unloaded for a few months and the "springs will gets there spring back".

I call bs on a weakened spring regaining its tension. Guess we will see.
I've never had a problem with glock, pmags, kahr, or sig mags weakening from having them loaded for years. Does Springfield just use cheap springs?

[ace4059]

Here is an update to the update.

I did a lot more research on the Springfield XDM 9mm and the 19 rd magazines. They are know to have issues with the weak springs. People have reported problems in as few as 300 rounds through the magazine.

Here is one link (old thread) to another forum for a reference. I'll do some more searching and see what comes up or if there are any fixes.

I called a place that offers WOLF +10 springs but the catch is, I have the older mags with the v-notch in the bottom that hold the floor plate on and wolf does not offer a spring that is compatible with the older design.

I first want to say I did not call looking for a hand out or free parts, I was trying to buy the replacement parts.
I called Springfield CS again this morning and spoke to different person and I can say I am truly disappointed in their customer service. I WILL NOT be buying anything springfield again. I asked about the design change and the guy said yes the base plate was changed. I asked to buy the new base plates. Then the guy replied we can sell you new magazines. He said they do not sell base plates. I said well then can I buy some new springs that will work with my existing magazines. Then he informed me that they do not sell any magazine parts only new magazines as a whole because they have several manufactures of their magazines and can not keep all the parts in stock. He said I need to dispose of my current magazine if they are not functioning properly and buy new ones. I told him that is sorry customer service and through more internet research that several people are reporting weak springs. I informed him that no other guns have weak spring that I keep loaded and he informed me the cause was "spring set" and I needed to unload the magazines every few days to keep that from happening.

Springfield... when you are going to lie to the customer, at least be consistent with your lies and misinformation.
I guess if you have a springfield and you start having problems you just throw it away and buy something else.

Rant over. Anyone know of a fix or where I can get parts that will work?

[TSiWRX]

I have about a dozen of the older, "dimpled/notched" spring 9x19 XDm mags, too.

I've got about 70K live-fire rounds through my three XDm9s, cumulative over the last 5 years.

Virtually everything has been through the same 6 range/training magazines I purchased in November of 2010, when I started shooting. The majority, actually, rest on four of those six, but even taking the larger figure as the basis for calculation, that's still well north of 11K per magazine. It was only at the end of this past season that I started noticing failures.

They're not loaded 24/7 nor are they used every weekend, but they are stored loaded far more often than not, and whey they are used, they're dropped - in sand/mud, on grass, on gravel or rocks, or on concrete. Sometimes, yes, they're even ripped out and discarded on the unforgiving concrete that's an indoor rage. Here in NE-Ohio, in the winter, most classes tend to take place indoors.

I also have a few segregated "defensive" magazines from this batch, which have been and remain today loaded 24/7. I exercise these magazines - with the defensive ammo they hold - once every 6 to 8 months, and so far, they've not had any issues. One mag was carried separately as a "test" spare for approximately 2 years, just to see what that would potentially do, and when I tested it at the end of that duration, it also fed and fired without any issues.

The first of the mags to fail were one of my two segregated dry-fire magazines. These two mags are typically *not* stored loaded, and when loaded, usually see anywhere from only 2 to 10 rounds of snap-caps/dummy-ammo used. Because of the way I use these two mags, I honestly do not know when they started to fail. I only realized it because I'd almost stepped out of the house without mags on a range-trip, and I grabbed these two, which are outside the safe, to save me the trouble of opening it again. I ripped off the blue tape covering their base-pads and headed right out the door. When I got to the range, I noticed that the mag failed to feed consistently, and troubleshooting easily revealed it to be a spring strength issue. The other mag fed/functioned just fine, even locking back the slide. I do not know why only one of the two failed; thinking back, I did not show either mag any favor during their use. I honestly have no clue how many times each of these two magazines' springs have been cycled.

At a low-light class last month, I had several instances of failure-to-lock-back-on-empty. I initially attributed this to my right thumb possibly holding down the slide stop - a problem I've battled on-and-off over the course of the last few years - but as I checked my equipment after the class, I noticed that 5 of the 6 practice magazines (which I wrote of above), failed to be able to consistently positively push the slide-stop all the way up into the detent of my two 3.8 Compacts. Sometimes it would catch enough of the detent to effect lock-up, but more often than not, it just didn't go up far enough. One of the 6 remained viable (and I know from its ID number that it's my least used one). All 6 magazines continued to be able push the slide-stop up just enough to catch the detent on my 4.5-inch XDm9, if only barely. Regardless - 70K rounds spread through them, ~5 years. I thought it was about time.

I initially made the mistake of purchasing the Wolff +10% springs, too. Well, it was a careless mistake, as I also own a number of the newer magazines with the "square/ non-dimpled" springs and base-pads and I did know of the existence of this difference. Instead of calling Springfield - and I will say here that I am very disappointed at their response to your inquiries (I am a member of XDTalk, and based on my interaction with Forum members there, I agree with your sentiment that their CS is inconsistent; personally, I've had excellent service, but there have been lackluster performances of the kind you've cited here reported by more than just a few Forum members)- I simply purchased the dimpled/notched version from Springer Precision:

http://shop.springerprecision.com/pr...?productId=138

I've only used the magazines once so far, and have only been able to fill them to 18-rounds. There seems to be a bit more room to compress to fit in the 19th round, but I have yet to be able to achieve this, even with the aid of the MagLula UpLula.

One of the practice mags uses the flat spring, and I replaced it with the Wolff +10% power unit. In that magazine, I was able to successfully - and rather easily - fill to 19.

All mags performed flawlessly at a two hour seminar I attended two nights ago.

I will be attending a 4-hour low-light seminar in another two weeks or so, and will update.

Hope this helps.


----

PS:

I have been thinking about swapping to Glocks for the last year or so. The main reason for this is the lack of any hard-use data from the XD-community, and thus a lack of knowledge regarding service intervals. I essentially abuse my range/training guns so that I can get a feel for what may fail and when that might happen, so that I can keep my defensive gun running well - heading off potential problems as based on the to-failure round counts of the ones I abuse.

[DanjojoUSMC]

I would talk to competition guys who have run an XDM and/or XD for a while and see how they set up and their replacement schedule. For some time now there have been bunches out there with high round counts consistently doing as well or better than some more widely approved brands/models.

[TSiWRX]

^ Thanks! I will definitely try to follow-up on that.

[turnburglar]

Not to sound like a hater, but get a glock. My wife has an xd9 that she has had for the last 8 years, and those mags have been double feeding a lot lately. I also had an xdm45 that had quite a few stoppages for the 1000 rounds I ran through it before deciding to get rid of it. Between the shitty mags and mushy triggers I decided to switch platforms to my glock 19. Couldn't be happier.

edit: as I'm sure your aware that excuse he gave you about spring set is complete BS. When I was in the military we kept mags loaded at full capacity for years and didn't have any issues. Do you have to replace the springs in your vehicle every year? cause those support your cars weight 24/7 and don't seem to wear out that often.

[GregP220]

https://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto...1/mID60/dID442

[TSiWRX]

https://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto...1/mID60/dID442

^ Ah, but yes, we did try......

I called a place that offers WOLF +10 springs but the catch is, I have the older mags with the v-notch in the bottom that hold the floor plate on and wolf does not offer a spring that is compatible with the older design.

I initially made the mistake of purchasing the Wolff +10% springs, too. Well, it was a careless mistake, as I also own a number of the newer magazines with the "square/ non-dimpled" springs and base-pads and I did know of the existence of this difference. Instead of calling Springfield - and I will say here that I am very disappointed at their response to your inquiries (I am a member of XDTalk, and based on my interaction with Forum members there, I agree with your sentiment that their CS is inconsistent; personally, I've had excellent service, but there have been lackluster performances of the kind you've cited here reported by more than just a few Forum members)- I simply purchased the dimpled/notched version from Springer Precision:

http://shop.springerprecision.com/pr...?productId=138

I've only used the magazines once so far, and have only been able to fill them to 18-rounds. There seems to be a bit more room to compress to fit in the 19th round, but I have yet to be able to achieve this, even with the aid of the MagLula UpLula.

One of the practice mags uses the flat spring, and I replaced it with the Wolff +10% power unit. In that magazine, I was able to successfully - and rather easily - fill to 19.

And as an update, just today I was able to fill the notched/dimpled spring equipped mags back up to 19-rounds with the assistance of the UpLula. I still can't do it by hand (I'm no He-Man, but I can crush out the #2 Captains of Crush, so I'm not super-wimpy, either ).


----

I would talk to competition guys who have run an XDM and/or XD for a while and see how they set up and their replacement schedule. For some time now there have been bunches out there with high round counts consistently doing as well or better than some more widely approved brands/models.

^ So I replied I would, and I started down this route.

Wife's down with the stomach flu, so I'm playing the attentive hubby, and while taking care of her, I scoured the Brian Enos Forums for some info. This is what I jotted down as my notes, pretty much as I read through all 32 pages of their "XD" sub-Forum:


Striker retaining pin is perhaps the lowest common denominator. Failure of this component at higher round counts, particularly of dry-fire, is inevitable. Proactive replacement either with a reinforced aftermarket roll-pin or at more frequent intervals with standard pins. The good thing is that this pin needs to be driven out in order to effect cleaning of the striker channel, so it's one of those things that should be able to be routinely replaced with little forethought. Like replacement of the recoil and striker springs, it's both easy and cheap.

In terms of other "scheduled maintenance," it's really pretty much just the usual for any other semi-auto handgun:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=209656

- recoil spring

- striker spring
- magazine spring

- and for those who intend to go the long haul with this gun, a "benchmark for accuracy" so that one can come back to this at-intervals, to insure that the barrel hasn't been "shot out" or other mechanical issues taken place that negatively impacts the gun's performance.


Here's some specifics.

At first, I just took notes, but after these first three, I decided that I should, for my own reference later if nothing else, also link the threads for context.


Trigger failure
- Reshoot 5 year old gun, unspecified round count
- grapemeister 2 guns, 1 broke at approx. 10K, the other between 125 to 150K

Cracked/chipped slide
- Bunchies95 2 guns, 1 at 25K and one at 50K
- grapemeister at 25 to 30K
- Just4FunLP > 25K (and extractor at > 50K)

Cracked frame
- CGT80 reported of a couple (pair) of shooters he knew who competed across the nation, ~ 75K



http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...9#entry2243817
RIIID reported "a client with 190K+ rounds," but did not provide any other details
xd1977 reported a broken striker retaining pin at ~18K and proactive all springs replacement at ~25K
djt5656 reported 10K rounds, with recoil spring change (on a 5.25" variant) at 7.5K

This thread also had a great post by grapemeister -

Update: 16 Jan 2014 [later corrected to 16 September 2014 - http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...9#entry2246612 ]

XD Tactical, Still my primary competition gun, now over 4 1/2 years old, and 100,000 + rounds

16 Jan 2014 - Broken striker. Will call S.A to see if they will send me a striker

I'm still happy with this gun but it's got some miles on it, and not quite as accurate as my newer XD. January 2015 or maybe after the World Shoot, I'll make this gun my backup gun, and go to my newer XD mentioned below that now only has about 4,000 or 5,000 rounds through it. Still using all my original XD magazines , including the mags from my 1st XD purchased around 2008 or 2009.

Posted 17 January 2013 - 06:48 PM

Xd Tactical 9mm about 3 years old, about 90,000 rounds, still primary competition gun

Cracked slide - replaced by S.A., no charge
Cracked frame - replaced by S.A., no charge
Broken locking lug - barrel replaced by S.A, no charge
Front sight broke off twice - replaced by S.A., no charge (http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=135487, note his reported pace on this gun is ~2K rounds/month)
Extractor failed - replaced by S.A., no charge
Trigger checked and set at 6lbs, worn springs replaced - by S.A, no charge
My cost - switched to Warren rear sight, Dawson front sight. Powder River striker retaining pin, and occasional Wolf 16lb spring

XD Tactical 9mm, leass than a year old, 2,000 rounds
No Problems
My cost - Powder River striker retaining pin, Warren rear sight/Dawson front, Wolf 16lb spring

XD 9mm service model, 4 years old, about 20,000 rounds
Broken striker retaining pin - replaced by S.A. no charge
My only cost - switched to Powder River striker retaining pin

All magazines still going strong

In November of 2013, grapemeister made two posts in the following thread, speculating on why he saw the numerous parts breakages he did with his primary gun above:
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=184082

Other posts:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=160019
- slide-stop/release breakage; no round-count given, but seems to happen to those who favor using the slide-stop/release for slide-lock/"emergency" reloads

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=172633
- spare parts recommendations; unfortunately, GlockOp did not reply to the thread publicly to reveal how he managed to get the spare extractor...currently (as of 1/2016), Springer Precision does offer an aftermarket extractor (as well as their aftermarket ejector and striker)

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=161732
- trigger bar breakage in two (2) XDm's chambered in .40 S&W; OP did not specify round-count (this was cited in another thread http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...8#entry1246883 as a known issue in some earlier [c. 2005] examples that was speculated to have been resolved by ~2010)

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...8#entry1796905
- tambarika, 80K rounds through five XDs
- bobert1 complained about Springfield Armory's parts policy

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=156378
- Bunchies95, at a pace of 1K live-fire a week, swaps recoil spring, trigger spring, striker spring and sear spring every 3 months (12K rounds)

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=151474
- waynes_world_45 reported that he started seeing various problems at approx. 10K rounds, and that's what prompted him to use the 10K mark as his service interval for all springs

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...4#entry1549288
- Classic_jon reported no light-strikes even on CCI primers with the factory striker spring at 10K rounds (the poster did not properly reconcile round-count, so I'm using the lower of his two reported round-counts)

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=135081
- Lee G reported two (2) broken grip safety springs, in one year; no round-count supplied
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...3#entry1207789
- [b]salilus reported a broken grip safety at 15K


http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=121791
- joedodge reported 30K rounds, replacing the recoil spring every 10 to 15K rounds
- Classic_jon reported a cracked striker spring guide at unknown round count and a chipped a barrel lug at ~22K rounds, which, when he returned the gun to Springfield Armory, their technicians reported that the barrel's rifling was still well within its service life.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=114609
- various members regarding damaged barrel lug, when a round count was reported, it's been at 20K+; from various threads on XDTalk as well as this thread on the BE Forums - http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...howtopic=83754, this was a known issue with earlier .40 S&W chamberings, and I have actually personally witnessed two different XD-40 Sub-Compacts shear off each one of their respective barrel lugs during high-round-count classes)


http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=113630
- various members regarding extractor breakage/loosening, when reported, 17 to 25K

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...3#entry1208089
- XD Niner reported a cracked locking block at 25K (note that early-on [c. 2005], the locking blocks were reported to be an issue, which prompted a design change by HS-Produkt/Springfield Armory [ http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...owtopic=109778 , which is worth also noting that FranDoc reported 15K without any issues, Gordian the same (x2; although he cited, strangely, "thin walled" magazines and "bent" mags from dropping the mags on harder surfaces?), JServais reported 13K])
- j33716 reported 30K without mechanical issues, with routine replacement of springs (unspecified intervals)
- Avezorak reported 15K without mechanical issues


And yes, OE replacement/spare parts availability for heavy users has been a persistent lament:
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/inde...howtopic=87528


----


So, DanjojoUSMC, thank you for your most helpful post.

A good friend of mine (a Glock guy through-and-through) had been trying to convince me that I was worried for nothing, that my XDms should truly be good-to-go, particularly as based on my personal experiences over the last 5 years. As I'd written in my post-script in the previous post, I'd been seriously thinking about swapping out to Glocks, going so far as to have texted him, earlier this AM, to get his thoughts on whether I should just go ahead and purchase 3 Glocks right now, given that I already had the money set aside (my original plan was to purchase the guns and update my support gear [I own a G32 with a half-dozen Glock mags, two 22-round happy-sticks, and also a LW 9mm conversion barrel for it in conjunction with 5 Magpul 17-rounders, plus a couple of holsters], all at the same time some time towards the fall of this year) and was thinking that the gun-stores might get kinda nutty as the elections approach.

Now, in having read through these past threads on the BE Forums, I really feel much better about the durability of this platform, and I think I'm just going to get a few more items for the parts bin, and invest in a few more magazines (and magazine springs!).

[ace4059]

Thanks for all the great info. I'm going to order new dimple springs from springerprecision and see how those hold up. That looks to be my only option with the old floor plates. The only new style floor plates I have found are machined aluminum and they run for $20-$25 each.