Impressions of the XDE-45 3.3?

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

...Don't mean to sound flippant but I'm not new to this. In 39 years of carrying concealed I've never had to even show my gun. I hope I never do. ...

I have found that there is a good way to take advantage of this great Forum. Though I don't mention it... I have been carrying and shooting handguns longer than 39 years. I have had to bring a firearm into a confrontation a few times. I have had to resolve troubles with other weapons, also. I have been full time in the Martial Arts for 53 years, am a high level Grandmaster and train people in violence avoidance and resolution. This does not include military service in dangerous roles. I study this subject a lot.

I leave all that in the background when I get on this Forum. I come looking to see what I can learn from the experience of others. I read to learn. I don't interact to show what I know nor why I think I am right. I take it all in and absorb what is useful, while trying to understand the rest and find what I can learn in it. I prefer this approach and find the Forum members to be very helpful and caring. It is an important subject and sometimes emotionally charged, that is a good thing.

One thing I like is that people with guns be people that are not easily provoked, patient and deescalating.

[HCM]

I have bags of holsters that I've collected over the years. I've tried most every type I've ever seen with a few exceptions.
I know the JM4 holsters are not the best but until and unless I buy one that is form fitted for the XDE it's what I'll use. They're also far from the worst.
I do not know yet if I will keep this gun long term. If I do I may get a better holster but even if not I'll feel comfortable carrying in it. Don't mean to sound flippant but I'm not new to this. In 39 years of carrying concealed I've never had to even show my gun. I hope I never do. On the off chance that I do, re-holstering my gun will be the least of my worries, especially since I practice re-holstering with all of my carry guns and holsters. But to that point, it is probably the primary reason why I don't own any striker-fired guns because most do not have a manual safety. And there is no hammer to thumb during re-holstering. I recently bought an M18 but sold it after reading and watching many posts and videos, some of which were on this very board, about its inherents (old and potentially continuing), problems. I bought it because it had a manual safety but I still did not trust it enough to hang onto it. I do have some Kahrs with their long DA trigger pull, but no longer carry them, with the exception for my P380 in it's kydex pocket holster because it's a no excuses option when no other gun is practical. But anyway, thanks for the advice

Some of those posting here have had to draw point and shoot guns at people in the real world, or do things like kick a dude to buy time to re-holster. Sone of us know good guys who were shot by responding officers who saw them with a gun in hand after seating someone at gunpoint, the ability to reholster one handed is a necessity, not a luxury. Some of us have also seen and treated NDs resulting from poor holster choices like soft holsters, SERPAs etc. along those lines, thumb checking a hammer during re-bolstering is a very valid technique.

Some of those lessons are ones you don’t want to learn first hand.

[Greg]

My impression of the XDe 45 3.3 is it’s a total Derp gun.

[Wise_A]

Reholstering matters for all sorts of fun reasons, literally too numerous to list. Outside of things like responding police, what are you planning to do with your gun if you have to so much as point it at someone? What's your plan if you have to shoot someone and then apply first aid to a bystander or family member?

If I might suggest, a lot of the holsters people around here would recommend are all in the same $60-$90 price range as the JM4 you've already bought. The hard part is going to be finding one for your new gat. Hence why a lot of people tend to be very conservative in their carry guns--it's easy to find a great holster for a G19, and significantly harder (or impossible) to find one for this month's Blastomatic 9000.

[Jared]

Not to belabor the point too much beyond the other folks here....

You can buy a very high quality JM Custom Kydex IWB3 for a very reasonable price. That model is available for damn near every gun worth carrying last I checked. There may be a few solid choices of available in that holster, but not very many. I’d even go so far as to say that if your gun isn’t supported byJMCK in the IWB3, it may be a clue.


Now, as to what BehindblueI’s said about safety....

Safety isn’t binary. It isn’t t strictly on/off. It’s actually analog, like having a sliding dimmer switch on your living room lights. There’s a ton of things you can do along the way to make things safer. One of those is to carry in a holster that doesn’t collapse when the gun is removed from it.

[Joe in PNG]

My usual response to the purchase of a potentially sub-optimum gun is to shoot the crap out of it, and let us know how it's working.

You'll also want to shoot at least 200 rounds before you start to carry it, and that should include a few mags of your preferred carry ammo. Some guns can be picky about ammo and load, especially the smaller ones.

And you are really going to want a more rigid holster. Think of it as a safety feature- one of the most dangerous things we do as shooters is putting a loaded gun into a holster. A rigid holster helps keep unintentional loud noises and unneeded holes to a minimum.

[Hambo]

My use for this will be condition one carry.

In that case, I think you'd be better served by an Officer's Model. Almost the same weight, same capacity, but with endless holster options. Short 1911s have their issues, but you're beta testing the .45 XDE.

When I see a drool worthy new pistol design, what usually stops me from buying one is: no spare mags available, spare mags cost a fortune (Staccato, I'm talking about you), no holsters.

[HeavyDuty]

My impression of the XDe 45 3.3 is it’s a total Derp gun.

Can you quantify that statement?

[45dotACP]

Don't mean to sound flippant but I'm not new to this. In 39 years of carrying concealed I've never had to even show my gun. I hope I never do. On the off chance that I do, re-holstering my gun will be the least of my worries, especially since I practice re-holstering with all of my carry guns and holsters.

I also don't mean to sound flippant but there's dudes been carrying for longer than you who fuck it up on the reg.

Believe me when I tell you the "I been shootin for years" crowd is usually the bunch that's muzzling me with a loaded gun when I feel like tempting fate and going to a public range.

Not trying to jab at you personally dude, but carrying for a specific amount of time typically doesn't mean a thing and people only drag that qualification out in the absence of actual expertise.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[Bruce in WV]

I have had about 5-6 of them, shot them plenty, they were all fine. The 5" XD-45 I sent to Springer was really nice, the friend that sent his out when I did still shoots it as his primary and he shoots plenty and it performs well.

Me too, and they never failed me except for a non-SA magazine that developed a vertical crack at the top of the back plate and failed to feed reliably. They weren't like my Bob Day 1911, but they were a lot cheaper.
Still keep one that went through the SA custom shop for their reliability package before delivery in 2003, with 5 or 6 spare mags and an ammo can of ball. Replaced a pin or two, put in a Powder River trigger, and switched to a flat wire recoil spring at about 3,000 rounds.
Hasn't been shot much since I switched to Glocks about 10 years ago, but if I lost every one of those I'd feel OK pulling it out of storage.