Guide Rod Upgrade - Tungsten or other XD owners

[jgrauman]

got the new bushing and 18# spring today. the new bushing is awesome. i'll probably go to the range in a bit and try it out.

[Guest db99wj]

Very nice, keep us up to date!

[molonlabetn]

I agree with that. I think the original designers (which isn't Springfield BTW) probably knew what they were doing. Of course they may have tweeked the design when it made it to the States.

The factory spring is already stiff. Too stiff in my opinion. As I understand it the spring is the way it is to handle many many +P loads. If you don't have a solid grip on the gun it will malfunction. It too close to close to the edge of not functioning for me.

Are you guys wanting to make the spring stronger?

I've tried to "limp-wrist" every XD which I have owned, and a few of the others which I've fired... I couldn't get it to happen, even to the point of the gun nearly falling out of my hand, they all ejected and fed without a hiccup. I've come across few pistols which could handle this... namely Sig and Beretta, in my experience. Even some models of the 'uber-reliable' Glock are markedly prone to limp-wrist issues...

I believe that it may have something to do with the dual-buffered recoil setup of the XD, which has a weak tensioning spring and a heavy primary spring. This allows the slide to accelerate quickly, initially, but in a controlled manner. Still, the 5" models have only a single spring... And they are just as reliable, from my experience.

I don't see much of a point in messing with the recoil system of a carry-gun... too many variables to screw up which the designers would be cursing you for, if they knew.

I would only increase spring-tension on a gun which got a steady (darn near exclusive) diet of hot ammo. I would only reduce the tension in a non-carry gun which I used watered-down reloads, and needed to ensure function.

[jgrauman]

I don't see much of a point in messing with the recoil system of a carry-gun... too many variables to screw up which the designers would be cursing you for, if they knew.

the original rod, though well designed, is two peices and has been known to fail. as far as the "variables", you are actually decreasing the amount of variables that could go wrong by replacing the factory guide rod.

[jgrauman]

I would only increase spring-tension on a gun which got a steady (darn near exclusive) diet of hot ammo. I would only reduce the tension in a non-carry gun which I used watered-down reloads, and needed to ensure function.

to each his own. as stated in my other posts, changing recoil springs to reduce or increase felt recoil and control muzzle flip is up to the individual shooter

[Donnie]

I've still got the stock recoil spring in my ported .40 and have no problem with it. I've considered going to a full length guide rod in it to experiment with the recoil and followup shots, but haven't gotten around to it. I can see a big advantage like, molonlabetn has said, if you compete and reload your own rounds. If you like the bunny fart rounds, you can have a light spring that would make them function unlike a stiff factory spring.