Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Xds .45 help please

I just bought a xds .45 and loaded up some 200 grain xtp’s to a coal 1.268 the problem is if I load the magazine and try to cycle the loaded shells they get stuck on the slide and don’t fully eject. I have some factory round nose ammo that ejects fine until the last one in the mag then it does the same. If you fire the reloads it shoots good and cycles fine

I am going from memory here, but the XDs has a very short ejection port in the slide. I, too, had problems ejecting some loaded cartridges from the gun. The best bet may be to remove the magazine and try to eject through the magazine well. I don't recall a problem with ejection of fired cases.

Evan, I'm wondering why you are loading that long. Hornady specifies 1.230" for the cartridge OAL. You are .038" over that. It may be causing some of your issues. My XD Tactical was also finicky, but always operated at the specified OAL. The issue I had with mine was it had a very tight chamber and I had to use a Lee factory crimp die when I loaded for it. That is not the cause in your case, but I'd shorten the OAL to what hornady specifies and see if that helps any..

The hornady guide I have downloaded shows oal of 1.275 I started at 1.268 because that was under the 1.275 and what the round nose ammo was that worked. But I did try to shorten them to 1.210 and had the same problem. Also I might add the longer once cycle fine loaded through my xdm.

I just went back and looked closer and you are absolutely right I was wrong I was looking at the wrong place when you go specifically to the 200 grain to it does say 1.230. But like I said I was having the same issue when I shortened them

Personally I would be looking at the extractor tension. Sounds like it’s releasing to soon with a loaded mag.
Either that or you are limp wristing and not providing enough pop for function. And that’s not a slam. It’s been known to happen.

I think you might be right on the extractor tension as I am messing with it now I see that when it jams the slide is not all the way back but the case is already trying to come out

Hodgdon's COL for that bullet is 1.2250" so it will be safe to seat them deeper. But the extractor tension does sound suspicious to me.

Honest question: what is the purpose of cycling the loaded rounds from the magazine through the action? If it is to function test then why not load up enough to fill a magazine and test fire? If the rounds do not bind when loading the magazine and then feed and eject without issue I would find the loads to be acceptable.

A second question: is it possible that working the slide by hand is the problem? The slide would be moving much slower than it would be when fired which might have some affect on the timing of the round ejecting?

A corollary to that- is the added length and/or profile of the bullet the problem? That a different bullet ejects properly most of the time leads me to think this could be a factor. This is especially so as the bullet in question, as well as the Speer HP in the same weight, are problem children in about half of my own 45s including my full size XD. Mine are problems in the area of feeding but that is not to say the shape cannot be an issue elsewhere.

My questions are out of curiosity rather than derision as I approach this from a different perspective. Maybe a flawed one which I would then like to correct. I hope the questions are taken as I meant them and thanks for further education.

Woodsmaster,

I have function tested like that, but it always scares the begeezers out me. I got to where I load up dummy rounds for that. But you should be able to eject cleanly a loaded round especially if you have a FTF. I wouldn’t really want a SD gun that the mag has to be dropped to clear it.
As far as slide speed that is a possibility which is why I brought up not enough pop to get it done.

Thanks for the response, it gives me more grist for the mill.

I'd get the chills working live rounds through the action like that too, for the same reasons. I will "plunk test" a few rounds when trying a new bullet but generally I find if the round passes the plunk test and fits the mag I am good to go to test firing. I am lucky that I can shoot in my back yard so I'll take the first handful, load them in the mag, and then shoot. If all goes well I'll go back in and start cranking rounds out.

I didnt mean to drop the mag in order to clear a failure to fire, I meant drop the mag and then empty the mag rather than cycle the mag through the action. I wouldn't want to need to drop the mag either, too much can go wrong. Sorry I wasn't clear on that.

I can understand wanting to be able to readily eject an intact round in a FTF situation. I wonder if the factory designs everything to work at a speed as if fired rather than by hand? One would then be taking the gun out of spec to make it "correct". Kind of an interesting conundrum.

The XTP has changed in the last couple years. I think Hornady was trying to make it more resistant to bullet setback as it has a bit of a shoulder now. The problem is that loading that long will not work in some 1911 magazines, and some pistols. The solution is to shorten the COL, which you are doing.

They always have had a shoulder. Looks to me like they changed the taper up to the HP so they could encapsulate the lead.

2 20+ year old 200 grain XTP and 1 5-6 year old 200 XTP