Originally Posted by marcodo

New to handguns in general. During a NRA basic pistol class I got to shoot the instructor Glock 19 and a compact glock 9 mm (??Model). To a novice shooter the compact was way to small for my hands and seemed difficult to control. The 19 felt better and seemed to shoot great but for the 100 rounds my son and I put through the gun we had several (perhaps 5) episodes of failure to loads...as it turns out both my son and I were hitting the mag ejector during normal firing and releasing the mag. I think my grip was ok as the instructor was watching. My question is, is this a problem with this gun...my grip..or just not the right model for me? Will this be better on a bigger model (17 I think?). Anyone know if the XD (which is the other model I have narrowed the search down to for my first gun) has a similar issu e?

Making contact with the slide release shouldn't cause failure to feed. It should only cause the slide to go forward instead of going into slide lock after the last round of the magazine is fired. Commonly with Glocks (and other guns), failure to feed can be caused by "limp wristing" the gun, that is, not gripping it with enough force. Because an NRA instructor didn't see anything wrong doesn't mean a great deal. If you are thinking of buying either a Glock or XD, best is to compare them head to head by borrowing or renting the two guns in question. I suggest you look at your grip and if you are placing a thumb or finger on the slide release, try repositioning your finger or thumb so it is not doing so. Also, try gripping with a little more force to see if this corrects the problem of failure to feed.
I bought a G 34 (competition model 9 mm Glock) for my daughter as a college graduation gift. The first time we took it out, she was having a lot of failure to feeds but when I shot the gun, it worked flawlessly. The second time we shot it, she gripped the gun with more force and it was jam free for about 200rds.

Both the Glock and XD are good guns and I don't think you can go wrong with either gun. They have somewhat different ergonomics so trying them out side by side may help you to decide which gun to purchase. Good Luck.

I recently shot a glock 17 and didn;t have any problems with the grip. I never hit the mag release and it had a very nice grip that fit great with my hands

The OP said he was hitting the mag release, not the slide release. Releasing the mag would certainly cause a failure to feed!

This problem is easily cured by shooting with your thumb high rather than low, which is how most of the better shooters grip their guns anyway.