Thanks Tacklenut.
I got two Powder River Precision trigger kits with the Black Friday deal and installed them earlier in the week. It wasn't very difficult even though there aren't a lot of videos on how to detail strip the Gen1 XD-S. I found one 11 year old vid that was really good (3 parts,
here ,
here and
here ), but the grip safety spring was very different (pre recall maybe?). I eventually found a second 6 year old video (
here ) that showed how my grip safety went back together. Having a second pistol for comparison helped too. Once I did the first one, the second one was easy. I like how these guns are assembled. It's a good design.
After I finished the first pistol, I compared the PRP trigger to the OEM trigger side by side. The PRP kit is definitely an improvement. The take-up feels slightly shorter, the creep is gone, the break is crisp. It feels just as good as my 1st gen S&W Shields now (My Performance Center M2.0 Shield feels smoother, but now I actually think it's too light and like the PRP XDS trigger better). This upgrade was well worth the time and money, especially with the Black Friday deal.
I took both pistols to the range for testing, along with my S&W Shields, a CZ P-10C and CZ P-07. Both Springfields worked perfectly with no hang-ups. The XD-S with the red dot and my P-07 actually got the best groups of the day while I was zeroing them off a rest at 25 yards. I'm really impressed with the accuracy of this little pistol, and I was even using 7rd flush fit mags.