Author: oddball

When looking for a new gun, it’s fairly common to come across the advice of “you should spend a little more and buy x instead of y.” Especially if you’re a new shooter or looking to pick up something outside of your normal field (you’re a rifle guy looking to get into pistols, etc). Sometimes it’s because the firearm in question really is a bad choice, sometimes it’s because the person giving the advice, and sometimes it’s somewhere in between. One thing I’ve noticed is that the person giving the advice often has what I would consider a strange notion of what “a little more” is.

One great example is my first pistol purchase.  I wasn’t making huge amounts of money, and I wasn’t real sure I was going to like pistol shooting.  So, I didn’t want to brake the bank on something that may collect dust in a drawer.  I started looking around and saw that I could a HiPoint 9mm or .40cal for under $200 and, via extensive research, shouldn’t explode in my hands.

One thing I kept reading was “don’t buy that, spend a little more on a Glock, 1911, Sig, Beretta, etc.  The cheapest on that list?  The Glock at roughly 3 times the amount.  I kept being told “oh, you can get one super cheap through police a police trade in, etc,” but I never figured out where this mystical land of half priced slightly used firearms were (and still haven’t).

I ended up finally go down to the local gun shop to buy my HiPoint, with the thought of buying one  of their carbines down the road to match (and still spending less than for one “brand name” pistol).  Got talking to the guy behind the counter and he told me that I’d probably wear out the HiPoint fairly quickly if I was hitting the range on a regular basis, and that he wanted to show me something.

He pulled out a Bersa Thunder .380.  I loved the look and feel of it (instantly recognizing the resemblance to the Walther Bond carried), and it wasn’t dramatically more expensive than the HiPoint. (I think $225 at the time)  After more research, I came back and bought it.

That was 7 or 8 years and thousands of rounds ago.  The slide release recently became worn down to the point that it needs to be replaced.  Oh, and I think I’m more accurate with it than I am with my Berettas, XDm or 1911, and it’s just as reliable.

The point of the story is to consider what the person is looking at already before giving recommendations.  Chances are it’s going to be difficult to convince them that it’s worth dropping $600 when they could drop $150 (as was my case).  It becomes even more so if they’re looking at dropping $600 and you’re recommending they drop a couple grand (as I’ve seen with rifles and shotguns).  On the other hand, from $150 to $225 or $600 to $800 is a lot more likely.

First off, just want to thank Wizard for letting me play in his sandbox. I’ve been lurking around a number of gun blogs for a couple years now, yadda yadda yadda…

Ok, now that that’s over with, on with the actual post.

Back in January, I picked up a Springfield XDm compact in 9mm for when I finally get my rear in gear and get my carry permit. I enjoy the gun. The only complaint I really have is that, since it’s such a new model, it’s damn near impossible to find magazines for it besides ordering from the factory. I can find the full-sized mags in some shops, but none of the grip extension sleeves. Oh, and Springfield ran a special right before and right after I bought it where they would give you 3 more mags… grr.

Anyways, I was shooting it a few weeks ago at a shoot after a hacker con here in town. No problems other than my usual bad aim when I pull the trigger and the report felt and sounded wrong, plus my face was sprayed by… something. I froze as I waited for my hands to start letting me know that something was wrong. Fortunately, there was nothing to report. Next was “did I have a squib load?” no… I saw the bullet strike the target.

I finally actually inspected the gun. The slide was forward, but jammed up tight due to the slide release being on the wrong side of the slide. The RSO saw me wrestling with it and came over to investigate. Between the two of us and some percussive maintenance, we got the slide open to find this:

Apparently I had a round with a weak casing, which blew out. This was a new manufactured Monarch brand (Academy’s bargin brand) round. I’ve shot thousands of this brand of various calibers, so I think I just got the one in a million bad round.

After getting the slide off, I was able to get the slide release back in it’s channel and working. I reassembled the pistol, and the RSO and I both inspected the pistol for damage. It’s probably a sign of something that I was then willing to try some more rounds through it. So far, I’ve put about 100 rounds through my gun without incident since then. I guess I would say that’s a pretty good indicator of the quality of the XDm!