I posted this over on the Kel Tec forum first, but then thought there might be some here at the XD forum who do not look at the Kel Tec forum very often, so thought I would post it here as well. Put 80 rounds of mixed .45 through the XDS, including 50 rounds of factory Remington 230 grain FMJ, 20 rounds of my favorite reload (230 grain FMJ over 5.6 grains of Unique, CCI primer), and 10 rounds of Speer 185 grain Gold Dot JHP. Had 2 failures to fire (light strike) in the first 10 rounds of Remington, but the rest of the 70 fed, fired, and extracted flawlessly. Not really surprised by the 2 early misfires as I have had similar experiences with Remington's hard primers, and perhaps the striker just needed to work in a bit also. Don't know about others, but I thought the recoil was fairly sharp, at least with the Remington ammo, and the Gold Dots. In contrast, my reloads were very comfortable. Again, no real surprise here, as this is a pretty light (21.5 ounces) pistol for this caliber, and does not have a lot of grip area. Nothing uncomfortable (the grip shape and texture are pretty good, and the hand sits high on the grip), but 80 rounds is certainly noticeable by the end of the afternoon. Still, like the PF-9, this is not a range pounder, nor meant for long sessions plinking, so I don't consider this a real problem. The trigger will take some getting used to. Not a single action, nor yet a double action feel, but somewhere in between. But overall, I really like the trigger action. The system works very well. The XDS is no slouch when it comes to accuracy either. While I could not match the groups I get from my 3 inch barrrel Cold Defender (hard to beat that sweet single action trigger), the XDS certainly does its job at defense distances. These two groups were shot at 7 yards, all shooting done two handed, slow fire with the top target 10 rounds of Speer Dold Dots, and the bottom target 15 rounds of Remington FMJs. Overall, I really like this pistol. It is everything it has been cracked up to be, and is a very concealable, carriable self defense handgun, with plenty of firepower to give even the nastiest bad guy a good series of lumps. Jim R
Although the grip is a tad short for a three finger hold, I do get 2.5 fingers on it, so am reluctant to add anything, since one of the reasons I really like this handgun is the micro size. But I may order a Pierce extension to see how I could modify it to add just a tad more length, without making the grip significantly larger. What would improve the accuracy potential I think, would be a slightly lighter trigger pull (perhaps with the after market spring kit) but again, I am reluctant to to anything to alter the factory trigger pull on a handgun which is intended to, and might someday be used, in a defensive situation due to the possible legal ramifications of such trigger changes. Such changes can be problematical, as attested to by the case files of Massad Ayoob, particularly one case he cites where he was an expert witness wherein an LEO who was involved in a shooting was subsequently charged with an unjustified shooting since he (the LEO) had lightened the trigger pull of his service Glock using aftermarket parts to reduce the trigger pull to 3.5 lbs, and a Judge ruled that this change led to the likelihood of an "unintentional" and therefore unjustified discharge of the LEOs weapon. So I conclude it is probably better just to accept the street/defensive accuracy and leave things well enough alone. Jim R
As an update to the range report, I have been getting a lot of "snap cap" practice in with my XD-s at home, and now have probably 5-600 "snaps. As with all my handguns, I like to do a lot of snap practice (always using a snap cap), as this helps tremendously in learning the trigger without the distractions of recoil and muzzle blast. Low cost of a reuseable snap cap is good too. A major side benefit is that it is a good way to "smooth" in a trigger, and with my XD-s, the trigger is beginning to feel silky smooth the more I snap it. Empirically, the trigger pull remains in the 6 lb range, but it feels much lighter now, more like a 4-5 lb pull, simply due to the smoothness. Truthfully, I would not want any lighter trigger on a self defense handgun. Jim R
