Some noob (or possibly intermediate?) questions

[9mmepiphany]

Sorry, you're too far from Sacramento for me to share mine with you

[Soginator]

Sorry, you're too far from Sacramento for me to share mine with you

No worries. I appreciate that you were willing to.

[John Joseph]

JMB knew what he was doing when he designed the original 1911.
Learn to shoot it without "training wheels."

[trigger945]

John Joseph,

JMB surely did. Henry Ford did as well when he built his first car. But upgrades are a part of an item's life cycle - some are useful, some are not. I agree with you to learn to shoot without training wheels. And that will actually help the OP determine what upgrades he may want and need eventually.

OP, I am all over the forums which is why you see me answering questions and giving my thoughts. I learned a great deal from these forums and am hoping I can pay it forward. See you around.

[H K corporate assassin]

Some mags have stiffer springs than others but doesn't necessarily relate to quality.

[RobertMW]

1) Why is it my XD9 magazine is somewhat hard to load when I get to round 9/10 but my 1911/AR15 magazines are easy to load all the way through? Are there better quality magazines etc?

I'm assuming that you have CA 10rd mags for you XD9 right? They make sure that you can ONLY get 10 rounds into the mags, so as not to create legal issues. This can cause magazine feeding issues. This is one of the reasons why people will make mentions of 10-rd mags doing more harm than good. If a modification of the magazine makes it less reliable, then how is that legal?