Review: Custom XD-9 by Springer Precision - Pic Heavy

[Medic218]

I have an XD-9 Service that I wanted a little work on so I decided to send it in to Springer Precision and let them tune it up a bit.
They offered me their FedEx discount, which was nice, so it was about 45.00 each way. They do this for all their customers by the way.

Services I had done:
Grip chop
Trigger job
Recrown barrel
Undercut trigger guard
Install my supplied sights(Trijicon HD)

Before you ask...no, I have not had a chance to shoot it yet. This review is just to show their handy work since when I was looking for pictures of some of the services they offered I couldn't find any of the things I wanted done. So, I decided to have them done on my pistol and then share it with anyone wondering what a particular service would look like once completed.

Now to the good stuff!


Finished product.


There is a bit of a gap that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting it to be a more precise fit, like from the factory. What you see hanging off the back is from the pinky extension.


Notice the gap.






Notice the offset. Both the compact and the full size mag have some side-to-side play in them but they do still lock in nice and tight and everything seems to be functioning ok to spite it.



The undercut of the trigger guard came out nice and smooth.






The grip chop came out a little rough in my opinion. I would have thought that paying someone to do it and having it done on a mill would have yielded a cleaner end product. I was able to clean it up pretty well with a Dremel and a nylon bristle wheel.







Real happy with the sights and how they turned out. The bright orange is a great contrast on the nearly all black rear sight and should make getting on point a snap. The tritium is bright and easy to pick up in the dark.

[Medic218]

Barrel recorwning just 'cause. I think it turned out really well and looks slick.


All in all I'm please with the work they did. My only gripe would be the roughness left over by the mill on the grip chop. It took me all of 5 minutes with a Dremel to clean it up and I feel the extra effort to clean up their work should have been made.

The trigger job seems nice while dry firing it. The take up and reset has been greatly reduced. They said they set it at about 4#, which I have no way to test, but it is a bit lighter than the factory trigger. The biggest difference is not the weight of the pull but the length of it as well as the reset.

[beschatten]

I agree with you, a few minutes with 1000 grit sandpaper would have cleaned up a lot of the roughness. Other than, really great work on their part.

[RIGPIG]

Looks pretty nice. The gap between the frame and basepad is necessary for seating mags. It allows the mag to be inserted far enough to ensure the detent locks in. All mag-fed semi autos have a little gap for this reason.

[Medic218]

Looks pretty nice. The gap between the frame and basepad is necessary for seating mags. It allows the mag to be inserted far enough to ensure the detent locks in. All mag-fed semi autos have a little gap for this reason.

Right, I figured that if I want to look at the positive of it I could just consider the function to be similar to an exteneded baseplate on my 1911 mags.
The side-to-side play was an unpleasant surprise though.

[RIGPIG]

I wonder if cutting the bottom of the grip off removed some ribs on the inside of the magwell that might affect side to side play. I'm unfamiliar with XD. Could you add some sort of epoxy to the inside of the frame and then sand it to fit so your mags will be tighter? It's sort of a non-issue until the movement causes feed malfunctions.

[Medic218]

I thought about adding some expoy and reforming the inside o the mag well.
Looking back I should have just cut the dang thing off myself and gotten it where I thought it shoul have been.

I did get to the range. Function was flawless.
I'll just need to get used to it.
I had a hard time maintaining a decent level of accuracy while standing but from a rest it was dead on.

I also added the rubber Talon grip and am already thinking if taking it off and seeing what the factory grip offers.
It seemed slick and didn't really give me any grip advantage as far as I could tell.

[Dave Williams]

Looks pretty good.

I know XDs aren't popular here but I really like them. I got to shoot an XD45 next to a G21 Gen4 and an S&W M&P 45 and the XD was the better gun for me.

[SpeedRacer]

Looks good, and his triggers are fantastic. I would highly recommend installing one of his enhanced grip safeties as well, I consider it a mandatory upgrade for anyone using their XD for defensive purposes.

[Medic218]

What's the benefit of upgrading the grip safety?