I’ve owned the Fusion Firearms XP Pro a few months now. I’ve a little under 500 rounds through it. I’ve been focusing on being familar with my EDC, the Prodigy DS Compact, which is why the round count on the XP Pro is rather low.
I shot the XP Pro a few days ago and while it still shoots good and there have been no failures, there are frustrations.
The frustrations come with disassembling the gun. A simple field strip is not a simple as other guns. Firstly, the gun requires a take-down tool (a paper clip will do). I’m familiar with using such tools and take-down on other 1911s are simple but, again, it’s not simple with the XP Pro. My XP Pro has a reverse plug that can’t be removed by hand. Each time I’ve to disassemble it, I’ve to use a punch to remove the reverse plug. I shouldn’t have to do that and I’ve never seen a 1911 that requires such a thing. I understand that gun makers sometimes want their gun’s fitment to be tight, but there’s really nothing to gain with a reverse plug being so tight that a mallet is required for removal. And, no, I do not want to have to refit that part (that’ll be a pain in the ass). I honestly don’t think that part should be that tight.
As well, I’m currently unable to remove the firing pin retaining plate. This is another item that is far too tight. I’ve tried twice to remove it and was unsuccessful each time I tried. This item is tricky to remove when the plate is so tight, because you’ve to push in the firing pin before trying to tap out the plate with a punch. Fusion Firearms has a video demonstrating how to remove a tight plate. Again, I’ve no idea why that part is so tight. I’ve never run into this issue in the past with my other 1911s/2011s. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be that tight.
Now, the firing pin retaining plate is not going to be removed all that often, so I can deal with the difficulty in removing it since it won’t be removed often, but the fact that I had to seek out a video to do such a simple thing as removing the damned plate…that’s frustrating.
What’s even more frustrating is that I’ve to use a hammer and punch to remove the reverse plug. If I’m at the range and have to field strip the gun, the tight reverse plug is a show-stopper – I’d have to wait until I got home, as I’m not going to start carrying a hammer and punch in my range bag, just for this gun (as a just-in-case).
Another thing is that I’ve noticed the chrome coating flaking off in places (most of it being along the areas where the frame and slide meet. It doesn’t appear as if it’s being rubbed off via friction…it’s flat-out just flaking without any other obvious catalyst.
As well, the chrome coating is browning on the underside of the slide and underside of the dust cover.
None of what I listed above causes the gun to fail. As far as function goes, the gun is functioning. That’s good, but the other things need to be addressed, in my opinion.
Once I reach 1000 rounds through the gun, I’ll publish a video speaking of these issues. If I have to, I can send the gun back to Fusion to see if they can make those parts easier to remove (and to see what they say about the chrome browning and flaking).
UPDATE (6/16/2025): I tried to remove the firing pin stop again and was unsuccessful. Again. As well, the stop is starting to deform and I’m not sure if the deformity will affect firing pin functionality. I did a search, searching for “firing pin stop removal tool” and saw that EGW sells a removal tool, so I ordered it. Almost certainly, I’ll have to use a mallet with that tool, as the stop is wayyyy too tight to just slide out by hand. I’m thinking it will arrive by Saturday.
UPDATE (7/1/2025): I was not able to remove the stop plate with the EGW tool. I swear, the plate must have been pressed on. It’s ridiculously tight.