imported post
All guns can go kB! not just Glocks, but lets get back to XDs before I'm called a Kool Aide drinker. What steers me away from XDs is that they don't seem to have have as durable a finish as Glocks, although I have heard they have changed the finish. XD parts are not available from the factory unlike Glocks (not an issue for everyone of course).
I also don't see the point of the grip safety and I have personally seen it cause a shooter problems. In the class I took last month I watched a guy draw and present his XD45 and pull the trigger as hard as he could. Now this guy was a bit green, but we had been doing draw and shoot drills for 2 days at this point. What had messed him up was that his grip on the pistol had put the web of his hand just under the grip safety. Now it was user error for sure, but if he had been shooting a glock, H&K, Sig, etc., he could have made the shot on the first try. This guy also had a lot of other jams with his XD, I'm not sure what exactly was causing those, user error, new or defective gun, or bad ammo (American Eagle) but they were happening.
All that said, I think the XD is a perfectly good weapon. People seem happy enough with them and I'd carry one perferably in .40 S&W. As to .40 S&W propensity to kB! pistols, the .40 is a high pressure round with most loadings near the edge of pressure limits. I think the 2 major causes of kB!s are reloaded ammo, and bullet setback. The cases of reloads may be weakend by being fired in weapons with unsupported chambers which leaves a weak spot on the case, not to mention reloads from say a gunshow may have a lot less quality control so ones chances of getting an overloaded round tend to be higher. The simple solution, dont shoot reloads.
Bullet setback happens when you chamber a round and that action pushes the bullet into the case a tiny fraction of an inch. Normally this isnt a problem because modern ammo is designed to withstand being chambered twice. Due to the .40 S&W already high pressure it is in much more danger of producing overpressure from repeated chamberings. My solution is to only allow a round to be chambered once and if it has to come out I put in a box for range use.