A friend asked for my impressions of shooting the XDm .45 Compact v. the Glock. He’s thinking about replacing his Glocks with XDm (s). What is the plural of XDm?
I put about 70 rounds through the XDm today including: Win White Box 230gr FMJ, 230gr Gold Dots, Corbon 185gr +p JHP, 230gr Hydra-shocks, and three very very old silvertips.
I also fired 19 rounds through the G36.
No malfunctions.
Trigger
- The XDm trigger breaks cleanly, better than the Glock or the XD.
- There is not too much take-up on the XDm or the Glock, about the same amount of travel. The XDm take-up is smoother and ends with the trigger coming to rest on the second stage. The Glock take-up is clunky and culminates with the trigger impacting the second stage with an audible thud.
- The amount of felt creep is also about the same as the Glock but the G36 has a lot of stack toward the end of the stroke. The XDm trigger does not stack at all!
- The XDm reset stroke is shorter than my old XD and similar to the Glock’s. The XDm reset comes without that “reverse stack” push that I get from the Glock trigger right as it resets. That should help with trigger slapping.
- Over-travel was about the same feel for both.
- The shape of the trigger on the XDm is flat across the pad of the finger. The XDm trigger safety also recesses flush into the trigger. The Glock trigger is convex across the pad and the trigger safety does not recess in to the trigger. It’s almost as if it were designed to be fired by the crease of the distal joint.
Recoil
- Recoil is handled very well by the XDm springs. The 3.8″ length gives you a duty sized barrel in a compact gun. The recoil springs really do a good job of minimizing slide impact. I’d say they really are about on par here except for the obvious issues related to the narrow grip of the Glock 36.
- Muzzle flip was minimal. The bore axis is higher on the XDm than the Glock, looks like about 3/32″. I couldn’t tell a difference shooting them.
- Having no hump at the bottom of the grip does allow more even distribution of recoil forces to my hand. All Glocks give me a bit of a sore spot right where than radical hump is after extended shooting sessions.
- The XDm is probably the softest shooting .45 I have ever shot. Corbon +p rounds are a bit snappy in the G36 and every 1911 I have shot them in. Not nearly so snappy in the XDm 3.8
Sights
- I have the standard 3-dot sights on the XDm and the Standard Glock sights on the G36.
- They’re both highly visible in daylight. The Glock front sight dot is larger and it is not recessed in the post, this makes the G36 front dot more visible.
- The sigh radius on the XDm is longer but I don’t think it makes much difference.
- The rear sight outline on the Glock is a little distracting to me. It is brighter than the front sight. This is the opposite of what makes for a good sight picture.
- The XDm rear sight is more of a novak style 3 dot with a target style line stippled blade.
Accuracy
- Aimed fire is dead on for both. Nuff said.
- Reflexive fire, point shooting, and other sightless aiming techniques is what makes me truly love the XD(m) over the Glock. This is all about the grip angle and my training and experience with handguns. The XD, XDm, Sig, Ruger, 1911, etc all use that instinctive grip angle that works well for me. Glock does not and I would have to retrain myself to use the Glock as well as I can use others.
- YMMV
