The Springfield XD-9 Tactical (5″) has a “hollow” guide rod. It weighs about 0.80 oz or about 22.8 grams (I took it and weighed it on my powder scale).

PistolGear.com sells a solid stainless steel replacement guide rod. It’s listed as weighing 40.25 grams, or about 1.4 oz.

There’s a Canyon Creek Tungsten guide rod. It’s listed as weighing 3.2 oz or 90.7 grams.

Wow. That’s a lot of weight.

So… supposedly it will help with muzzle flip. But I also figure it may throw off the balance of the gun. Plus swinging the gun for target transitions, probably harder to move quickly and stop quickly. I know how it goes… there’s always a trade-off somewhere.

I wonder if it’s worth it. I don’t really have all the money in the world to play with and experiment this out. So, I figure I could think out loud here.

Being able to reduce muzzle flip and get back on target quickly is certainly welcome. But the world isn’t always about shooting at the same target. Is a solid steel rod enough extra weight to make an improvement yet not have too much degradation in other areas? I know you can’t have it all…. hrm.

Updated: Upon further reflection, I think if I went this route I’d go solid steel. The tungsten seems too heavy, and I’d be concerned about brittleness and breakage.  Now, will I get the solid steel? That still remains to be seen.

I wanted to order a couple RINGS Blueguns magazines for my Springfield XD. Why? So I can safely practice reloads with a magazine that has the heft/weight of a real loaded magazine. Trouble is, finding a retailer that has them in stock.

Google said that Alamo Tactical had them. Now of course, maybe they don’t have them in stock, but they are listed as something one can purchase through their website. And hey, they’re just down in San Antonio. Sounds good to me. I put in my order for 2 magazines.

That was 3 weeks ago.

Immediately after placing my order I received the automated email confirmation of the order.

That’s all I’ve received.

I have emailed them a week ago asking for order status. Nothing.

I have telephoned them on numerous occasions. There’s never a response. No one picks up the phone. I couldn’t figure out a way to leave a message or even if their phone system supported that.

I called American Express and while the order was authorized it has not gone through.

The only way to cancel my order? Send Alamo Tactical an email. A few minutes ago I sent them an email. But given their lack of responsiveness so far, I’m wondering if the order will cancel.

I did a little bit more Googling. Seems the company isn’t very well regarded. Here. Here. Here. I’m not sure what the deal is, and I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt. But if these stories are true, damn…. yeah maybe you’re busy, but being an asshole isn’t a great way to build your reputation and give people a desire to do business with you. And even if you are busy, the amount of time I’ve waited seems like too long to have to wait. If you’re that swamped, maybe you need to hire some help. This is not a way to succeed in business.

I don’t write this to badmouth. I write this to convey my experience, which was a poor one. I don’t know what gives with the company, but I sure hope they can get their act together.

Updated 2 Feb 2010:

I just received an email regarding the cancellation of my order:

It has been cancelled.

Sorry for the lack of service on this order. We have been forced to move
into our new location over the last few weeks or so before it was ready for
us to move into. The data and phone service has not yet been moved over
here so we are answering emails from a single laptop with a wireless aircard
that has taken a while to get setup correctly so that our emails are
actually going somewhere- and even that is still hit and miss. I sincerely
apologize for your experience.

Chris

Well, it was nice to receive a reply. It was nice to receive an explanation. It was nice that he was nice (given a lot of other things I’ve read have demonstrated the owner was very caustic and rude).

But that said, if the above is the case, why is that not communicated to customers? Why isn’t that put on your website? Why isn’t that included in the order confirmation email? Why isn’t there an automated response whenever an email is sent to the contact email address? There’s little reason to not relay such important information to customers.

This past weekend, ToddG had a student in class that shot himself (in the leg). Todd relays the story here, not to chastise but to point out to everyone the importance of having an emergency plan in place and ensuring all students in the class know where first aid materials are and how each person in the class should react should something occur (e.g. you call 911).

The reason for the discharge? The student admits he had his finger on the trigger when he went to reholster.

I wanted to relay this because while the 3 classes I helped with this past weekend went pretty well, the worst thing I saw, overall, were violations of the two cardinal safety rules. I don’t care if you follow Jeff Cooper’s rules or the NRA’s rules, the two key rules come down to muzzle awareness and direction, and trigger discipline (and keeping your finger off the trigger when it shouldn’t be there).

In terms of muzzle awareness, people get slack about awareness at “off” times. That is, when it’s time to shoot they know to point the muzzle downrange. When it’s a not-shooting time, that’s when muzzle awareness and discipline falters. People would go to rack their slides and muzzles got pointed in all sorts of directions, typically somewhere to their left (for right-handed shooters). Many times people would be in a ready position with the muzzle pointed up… not straight vertical, but enough of an upwards angle that if a shot fired from that angle it would go over the berm. Most of this was unconscious action — the student wasn’t aware they were doing it. You cannot not be aware. You must always know the direction of your muzzle, and take steps to ensure your muzzle is pointed in a safe direction.

In terms of trigger discipline, when the muzzle is properly on target and you are ready to shoot, the finger can be on the trigger. Else, the finger is off the trigger and indexed along the upper part of the frame or slide. Helping people gain such trigger discipline was probably the biggest thing done throughout the course of the class. Unless your muzzle is on target and you are explicitly going to shoot, finger must not be on the trigger and must be indexed along the slide or upper frame. That’s all there is to say.

Violation of one of these rules is bad. Violation of both of these rules is what leads to tragedy.