When I first got it there was some checkering missing on the right side grip panel but kudos to Springfield support they shipped me out a replacement pair no charge and they are sitting in the box for the next owner. A couple weeks later the fiber flew out of the front sight. Called support again and no problem they shipped out some replacements in several colors, again no charge! Support for that kind of stuff has been great.
I don’t keep track of round counts but I have shot this gun often so if I had to guess somewhere between 1.5K and 2K rounds.
What’s bothering me is the observable wear on the rails and under the slide lock lever:
On top of that my gold pinky ring is enough to wear the finish
When I asked support about it they said I could ship it in to be refinished but they charge for that and would be over $200.
It still shoots just fine but I can tell the slide to frame is loosening up a little. It just doesn’t seem to me that this is going to hold up as well as other stuff I’ve had for 20+ years. Berettas, Kimbers whatever I have looks nothing like this and have at least as many rounds and in some cases thousands more without this kind of wear.
What’s your experience with Springfield pistols? Is it just this having an aluminum frame it just won’t last? It’s eating itself alive. Fragile finish on top of soft frame… so it seems.
I certainly hope it will be functional after I’m gone. The finish wear isn’t so much of a concern. However the gouging of the frame by the slide lock has me a bit worried. Never seen anything close to this on any pistol I’ve had.
I guess if totally eats itself and starts causing some malfunction I can ship it to Springfield for service but I hope it doesn’t come to that. It’s a fun little pistol and I enjoy shooting so hopefully it holds up.
Anything I can do to lessen the wear under the slide lock where it’s digging into the frame (or is this normal and I’m freaking out over nothing?) I have tried several lubes/grease. It appears to get deeper every time I go to the range. Thanks!
The slide stop lever is a MIM part… wonder if there’s some burring on the back of it that’s digging into the softer aluminum frame? If that were me I’d be taking the rear of that slide stop lever and stoning it nice and flat, and/or replacing it with a machined part.
So I don’t know. I’ve also tried all kinds of lube in that area but nothing seems to help. It just seems to be progressively getting deeper every time I take it out. I’ll keep my eye on it maybe reach out to Springfield to see what they say about it.
Oops… with my jewelers loop I do see a fine line but it goes across the entire part. I can feel it if I drag my finger nail over it. Not sure that’s it but still going to smooth that out and see if it helps.
Looks like the top edge is the culprit rather than the seam. But being that its a MIM part, it likely isn’t perfectly flat. Especially with an aluminum frame, the slide stop lever is still likely harder, causing the increased wear.
I agree but still going to smooth it out. I can’t figure how the top edge is digging in like that. Maybe it’s getting torqued around when firing digging itself in there.
I have the 4.25 Ronin in .45acp, the only wear, if you can call it wear is some discoloration on the frame rails, after a range trip there will be some additional discoloration but it cleans up with slip2000. Nothing resembling what you are seeing, my slide is still tight, no wear to speak of, have maybe 1k rounds down the barrel. I wipe it down with slip2000 EWL and use slip2000 grease on the rails.
I have had great experiences with numerous Springfield pistols. I have had a Mil Spec 1911, 1911 Operator, Champion 1911, XD45 Compact, XDM 45 Compact, XDS and SA35. All have been awesome. I have had no reliability issues with any of these guns.
