DirtDiver75
Inactive
I'm a Veteran of 17 years with 8.5 years of Contracting in the Mid and Far East and have been a firearms instructor for 30 years. As such, have been party to a lot of mechanical failures, but this current contract I, and a couple associates, find myself working in Saudi Arabia, is presenting a lot of new issues so I thought I would share and reach out to see if others have experienced similar.
One of the major problems we are having at the "Top Gun" Shooting event (1st ever in the KSA) is certain firearms are developing major issues at a very quick rate. On one of the Pistol lanes, we use a Springfield XD, no bells an whistles and the M&P 2.0. Trouble is, after opening in October, when the host company reordered 9mm ammunition, they bought out of China and wound up with over 8 million rounds of Norinco, Copper Wash casings. The stuff claims it is non-corrosive... but we all know that's not saying much. The big issue is the copper, being a softer metal, deforms, even though it is over a steel base and may be rough in extracting. Last week, one of the female RSO's reported her weapon was failing to extract at all and on inspection, I discovered that the "tooth" was chipped off the extractor completely. After replacing the extractor with a spare, only two days later, the same issue with the same firearm, occurred.
Did an inspection on ALL the XD's used on the line, and found two more that had nearly the same level of damage to the extractor. Replacements are about 35$ but, saw a company called Springer Precision that supposedly makes a better quality extractor for $50 and was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and if so, what was your fix. My concern is that the ammo may be the root cause and if causing damage to the chamber, that it will continue to be a hard extraction, over stressing the extractor and causing the same issue.
As for number of rounds shot, we usually put about 350 rounds thru a pistol, daily. These pistols have only been in used approximately 55 days... so I know the XD can handle more than what's been put thru them.
One of the major problems we are having at the "Top Gun" Shooting event (1st ever in the KSA) is certain firearms are developing major issues at a very quick rate. On one of the Pistol lanes, we use a Springfield XD, no bells an whistles and the M&P 2.0. Trouble is, after opening in October, when the host company reordered 9mm ammunition, they bought out of China and wound up with over 8 million rounds of Norinco, Copper Wash casings. The stuff claims it is non-corrosive... but we all know that's not saying much. The big issue is the copper, being a softer metal, deforms, even though it is over a steel base and may be rough in extracting. Last week, one of the female RSO's reported her weapon was failing to extract at all and on inspection, I discovered that the "tooth" was chipped off the extractor completely. After replacing the extractor with a spare, only two days later, the same issue with the same firearm, occurred.
Did an inspection on ALL the XD's used on the line, and found two more that had nearly the same level of damage to the extractor. Replacements are about 35$ but, saw a company called Springer Precision that supposedly makes a better quality extractor for $50 and was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences and if so, what was your fix. My concern is that the ammo may be the root cause and if causing damage to the chamber, that it will continue to be a hard extraction, over stressing the extractor and causing the same issue.
As for number of rounds shot, we usually put about 350 rounds thru a pistol, daily. These pistols have only been in used approximately 55 days... so I know the XD can handle more than what's been put thru them.