Comments on S&W SD40 VE

buddah4snow · July 18, 2012, 08:15 AM

Looking for comments. Not terribly fond of fixed sights but I assume that is something that can be "corrected"? Thanks!

cocojo · July 18, 2012, 03:19 PM

Excellent pistols, love my two sd's 9mm & 40. No issues at all. These are real sleepers and gems.

willmc33 · July 18, 2012, 03:30 PM

Mine was terrible. I had over a 50% (103 out of 200) failure to feed ratio. I handled one that still had heavy tool marks on the slide and bought one anyway. Will not buy one again. I have alot of 3rd gen Smiths that are flawless and a Shield9 that has been flawless but the SD40VE was my worst experience with a gun to date. I was lucky enough to have a stand up LGS.

Leejack · July 18, 2012, 03:31 PM

You'll find allot more positive reviews than negative.

There's always a lemon out there.

cocojo · July 18, 2012, 05:40 PM

Willmc33 you know the more I thought about it with that many malfunctions 103 out of 200 could you have mixed 9mm in with 40S&W. I have seen this on the range many times, very common problem considering there is only one millimeter difference. Would they have been any chance you had a box of 9mm in there by accident. I had to separate the ammo to different tables the issue got that bad. It's an easy mistake to make. This will cause the exact type of problems you had. No offense to you it's just a thought. Some guy did this on you tube and talks about it.

willmc33 · July 18, 2012, 05:48 PM

Negative. It was an unopened 100 round pack of 180 grain Federal Champion and 2 50 round boxes of 165 grain Winchester White Box.

cramax3 · February 20, 2013, 12:06 PM

sent my sd 40 back on January 28th and as of today Feb 20th they still have not looked at it, rep said they are 4-6 weeks out on repairs. How can there be that many returns? Obviously Smith is going in the wrong direction with quality. My SD 40 was shooting 10 inches low at 20 feet, no it wasn't me I had other try it. The brass had a huge bulge almost to the point of cartridge separation and the trigger retaining pin would not stay in. I used 4 different brands of ammo the results were the same. This gun sucks and when I finally get it back i am not keeping it let alone buying anything smith again. Spend the extra 100 bucks ang go with something else.

LockedBreech · February 20, 2013, 12:18 PM

While there are definitely quality control hiccups, the good ones seem to be extremely well made for the price point.

kahrguy · February 20, 2013, 12:54 PM

buddah4snow The sdseries is a solid handgun with way less problems than the more costly M&P line. Only down time for some is trigger pull weight and with a low cost APEX trigger spring kit its much improved. Can't do better for 300dollars. Oh for those trigger whinners BUY a sig with a da trigger. Triggers are no better.

william if you pay attention to failure to fire treads the two brands that are all most 100% behind the problem are wwb and federal champion. Both are bottom grade ammo. Allways have atleast one premuim grade of ammo to try befor assuming it the handgun. We all know assumming does to us all.

loose_holster_dan · February 20, 2013, 01:45 PM

stay far away

MercyfulFate · February 20, 2013, 02:09 PM

I never heard great things about them, but this is 2nd and 3rd hand information so take it with a grain of salt.

LockedBreech · February 20, 2013, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kahrguy

buddah4snow The sdseries is a solid handgun with way less problems than the more costly M&P line. Only down time for some is trigger pull weight and with a low cost APEX trigger spring kit its much improved. Can't do better for 300dollars. Oh for those trigger whinners BUY a sig with a da trigger. Triggers are no better.

william if you pay attention to failure to fire treads the two brands that are all most 100% behind the problem are wwb and federal champion. Both are bottom grade ammo. Allways have atleast one premuim grade of ammo to try befor assuming it the handgun. We all know assumming does to us all.

Wait, the SD series does not have "less problems" than the M&P.

Don't get me wrong, OP. the SD-series are solid entry level guns, but they're not at the level of the M&P/Glock/Sig/Beretta. They aren't service-quality.

Kreyzhorse · February 20, 2013, 03:49 PM

My buddy has one. Decent, very reliable gun. I shot it very well and found it very accurate.

Terrible trigger though, long, gritty and sponge like. If you can deal with the trigger, it is a decent gun.

Technosavant · February 20, 2013, 04:24 PM

I've not dealt with the SD series yet. I have an SW9VE... I've heard the SD trigger is a bit better out of the box but still not great. I put the Apex springs in mine- they helped, but the trigger pull is still pretty poor. Crisp and consistent, yes. It's also still very heavy and difficult to handle easily.

As for the sights, I don't know if anybody makes adjustable sights for the things... I put night sights on mine and I probably wouldn't recommend that somebody do that. It just didn't really do much for the gun.

It's a decent and reliable firearm, it's even reasonably accurate. But it is also inferior to the guns that don't cost all that much more.

willmc33 · February 20, 2013, 07:34 PM

Actually it was 100% gun related. The ammo was fine. The slide was machined uneven and it was causing the malfunctions.

loose_holster_dan · February 21, 2013, 11:41 AM

here's a guy trying to get rid of the sd's predecessor. notice how's he's looking for any offer or anything at all in trade for it?

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=517153

Mr_Jumper · February 21, 2013, 11:51 AM

^Yes, you can feel the unhappiness through his sell post.

Quote:

two brands that are all most 100% behind the problem are wwb and federal champion. Both are bottom grade ammo. Allways have atleast one premuim grade of ammo to try befor assuming it the handgun. We all know assumming does to us all.

I have to respectfully disagree. Yes they are range ammo, but most quality (and even some not-so-quality) should have ZERO problem with range ammo. I can only imagine a gun that only shoots premium ammo. Yikes.

LockedBreech · February 21, 2013, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Jumper

^Yes, you can feel the unhappiness through his sell post.

I have to respectfully disagree. Yes they are range ammo, but most quality (and even some not-so-quality) should have ZERO problem with range ammo. I can only imagine a gun that only shoots premium ammo. Yikes.

I agree with this. Of the 4,000+ my Beretta PX4 has put down range over the past 4.5 years, I'd say at least half has been Federal Champion and at least a quarter Winchester White Box. Never a problem. Ditto the 1,500 or so my LCP has fired.

While I don't doubt the occasional quality control slip, as they are budget ammo, if a gun can't eat them I generally think the gun is crap. If my $300 LCP and $450 PX4 can eat them, other guns ought to be able to.

Heck, to go even further with it, I shot an absolutely filthy SR22 at a rental range. 400 rounds of the most sketchy, bargain basement .22LR I have ever seen. Zero issues.

An occasional bad load from range ammo? Sure. Consistent issues? It's the gun. A good gun can be fed cheap ammo.

lapetrarca53 · February 22, 2013, 07:21 AM

Love my SD9 VE. Over 500 rounds without a hitch!

BuckRub · February 22, 2013, 11:56 PM

Great gun, good feel, nice weight, high capacity, awesomely accurate, high capacity but hard trigger. You can adjust to it very well though and best warranty in the business.

cramax3 · February 23, 2013, 08:36 PM

I am glad you seem to enjoy the SD but I must say a warranty should only be needed as a just in case. Most people would like the gun they choose to be reliable and certainly do not want to wait for up to 6 weeks if they do need to use the warranty service. As far as the best warranty as you stated, hi-point has the same but people don't like the reliability in a hi-point and they don't like sending them back for repair. This is how I feel about the SD, why should I own it if every time it is used it has to go back and then you wait for 6 weeks and then it starts the process again, shoot it then ship it.

BuckRub · February 23, 2013, 08:48 PM

As far as warranty goes, any gun out there may or may not need warranty. I once had to send a gun back to S&W. the overnited me a box with a shipping label. I put gun and note in box and overnited gun to them. They called the next day and said they got gun and went over the problem. Called in about two days later and said gun will be overnited to me next day. It was delivered. No cost to me and then worked flawless from then on. Love their guns and their service. Ps- I wouldn't own a high point!

Tarus owner · August 3, 2015, 09:17 AM

Disappointed that customer service told me that you they were well aware of the issue that their SD40VE pistol's had an issue of causing the brass to buldge near the rim which their engineering decided to ignore. This makes all brass unreloadable as this weakens the case. I've never owned a gun which does this, I was told they did replace the barrel on my new SD40VE, but that they usually just send them back to sender. I sent mine in on 7-1-2015, called today 8-3-2015 as I had not received confirmation it was in their system. Usually this buldge is due to too much metal taken out in chamber where buldge is occurring. Yet Smith doesn't seem to care! Quality and quality control and don't care you can't reload brass shot from their pistol is bad customer relations in my book! I will see if new barrel does same to brass if so, I told customer service I'd sell it and not buy another Smith and Wesson. I thought Smith was a better quality gun. I also know all manufacturer's have some issues even glocks, I bought a Taurus PT145 mellinium pro, it would not rack bullet in chamber, and it would fail to chamber every second or third round, sent it in 6-16-15 spoke to them third time today 8-3-15, have to call back this Friday to see if the replacement a new 24-7 which is backordered is in pallet in warehouse. They said they open pallets for inventory last week of month and first week of new month to see what they got in, hopefully they have 24-7 they would send me one if in pallet. So yes they all have issues, my brothers glock had an issue he was almost ready to get rid of it but after about 1,000 rounds shot better grouped better etc... So there's a issue out there somewhere someone has a gun from even a top manufacturer which has an issue. I have a Taurus pt111 which is accurate and shoots great no issues, just bought it about same time as others mentioned, also got an Arcus 98 DAC it shoots great and accurate, I'd recommend it as it has same day sign as 1911's everyone seems to love and its all steel not cheap plastic. Main issue with this post was Smith has an issue they refuse to fix, reloading in this day and environment makes it even more critical for being able to reload spent brass. You should let smith know this is not acceptable their customer support number is 800-331-0852. Tell them we expect more of a valued name gun manufacturer. Not cheap junk especially when it is not a hard fix. Thanks!

Targa · August 3, 2015, 11:14 AM

No complaints with the one I had, sold it a while back for no other reason than I just didn't need it any longer.

Blindstitch · August 3, 2015, 12:19 PM

The only problem I had with it was the trigger. After replacing with apex springs and trigger it works just fine. I don't reload 9mm but didn't notice a bulge in the brass when sweeping it up.

I think i'm at 800 rounds and the only failure was a limp wrist when I let a friend use it.

July 18, 2012, 08:15 AM	#1
buddah4snow Member Join Date: September 26, 2011 Location: U.P. of MI Posts: 42	Comments on S&W SD40 VE Looking for comments. Not terribly fond of fixed sights but I assume that is something that can be "corrected"? Thanks! __________________ Man's got to know his limitations - H. Callahan

July 18, 2012, 03:30 PM	#3
willmc33 Senior Member Join Date: May 25, 2012 Location: Mobile,Al Posts: 473	Mine was terrible. I had over a 50% (103 out of 200) failure to feed ratio. I handled one that still had heavy tool marks on the slide and bought one anyway. Will not buy one again. I have alot of 3rd gen Smiths that are flawless and a Shield9 that has been flawless but the SD40VE was my worst experience with a gun to date. I was lucky enough to have a stand up LGS. __________________ "Perfection is the enemy of good enough"

July 18, 2012, 05:48 PM	#6
willmc33 Senior Member Join Date: May 25, 2012 Location: Mobile,Al Posts: 473	Negative. It was an unopened 100 round pack of 180 grain Federal Champion and 2 50 round boxes of 165 grain Winchester White Box. __________________ "Perfection is the enemy of good enough"

February 20, 2013, 12:06 PM	#7
cramax3 Junior Member Join Date: January 29, 2013 Posts: 2	SD 40 VE sent my sd 40 back on January 28th and as of today Feb 20th they still have not looked at it, rep said they are 4-6 weeks out on repairs. How can there be that many returns? Obviously Smith is going in the wrong direction with quality. My SD 40 was shooting 10 inches low at 20 feet, no it wasn't me I had other try it. The brass had a huge bulge almost to the point of cartridge separation and the trigger retaining pin would not stay in. I used 4 different brands of ammo the results were the same. This gun sucks and when I finally get it back i am not keeping it let alone buying anything smith again. Spend the extra 100 bucks ang go with something else.

February 20, 2013, 12:18 PM	#8
LockedBreech Senior Member Join Date: July 6, 2009 Location: Rocky Mountain West Posts: 3,395	While there are definitely quality control hiccups, the good ones seem to be extremely well made for the price point. __________________ 16 Pistols, 5 Rifles, 1 Shotgun, no time to shoot them

July 18, 2012, 03:19 PM	#2
cocojo Senior Member Join Date: December 23, 2000 Posts: 500	Excellent pistols, love my two sd's 9mm & 40. No issues at all. These are real sleepers and gems.

July 18, 2012, 03:31 PM	#4
Leejack Senior Member Join Date: November 15, 2007 Location: The Alamo! Posts: 2,056	You'll find allot more positive reviews than negative. There's always a lemon out there.

July 18, 2012, 05:40 PM	#5
cocojo Senior Member Join Date: December 23, 2000 Posts: 500	Willmc33 you know the more I thought about it with that many malfunctions 103 out of 200 could you have mixed 9mm in with 40S&W. I have seen this on the range many times, very common problem considering there is only one millimeter difference. Would they have been any chance you had a box of 9mm in there by accident. I had to separate the ammo to different tables the issue got that bad. It's an easy mistake to make. This will cause the exact type of problems you had. No offense to you it's just a thought. Some guy did this on you tube and talks about it.

February 20, 2013, 12:54 PM	#9
kahrguy Senior Member Join Date: October 1, 2012 Posts: 561	buddah4snow The sdseries is a solid handgun with way less problems than the more costly M&P line. Only down time for some is trigger pull weight and with a low cost APEX trigger spring kit its much improved. Can't do better for 300dollars. Oh for those trigger whinners BUY a sig with a da trigger. Triggers are no better. william if you pay attention to failure to fire treads the two brands that are all most 100% behind the problem are wwb and federal champion. Both are bottom grade ammo. Allways have atleast one premuim grade of ammo to try befor assuming it the handgun. We all know assumming does to us all.

February 20, 2013, 01:45 PM	#10
loose_holster_dan Senior Member Join Date: April 5, 2011 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 2,461	stay far away __________________ Favorite range gun for the money - CZ 75B or STI Spartan V 9mm Go-to carry setup - Walther PPS or PPQ in FIST kydex holster 1AK Favorite semi-auto design - HK P7 "A Sig is like a lightsaber - not as clumsy or random as a Glock."

February 20, 2013, 02:09 PM	#11
MercyfulFate Senior Member Join Date: February 14, 2013 Posts: 138	I never heard great things about them, but this is 2nd and 3rd hand information so take it with a grain of salt. __________________ Massachusetts Native (Tough to be a gun owner!) Owner of: S&W Model 10-5, Beretta 92fs and a Mossberg Maverick 88 "Security" Shotgun

February 20, 2013, 03:49 PM	#13
Kreyzhorse Senior Member Join Date: April 12, 2006 Location: NKY Posts: 12,463	My buddy has one. Decent, very reliable gun. I shot it very well and found it very accurate. Terrible trigger though, long, gritty and sponge like. If you can deal with the trigger, it is a decent gun. __________________ "He who laughs last, laughs dead." Homer Simpson

February 20, 2013, 04:24 PM	#14
Technosavant Senior Member Join Date: May 29, 2007 Location: St. Louis, MO area Posts: 4,040	I've not dealt with the SD series yet. I have an SW9VE... I've heard the SD trigger is a bit better out of the box but still not great. I put the Apex springs in mine- they helped, but the trigger pull is still pretty poor. Crisp and consistent, yes. It's also still very heavy and difficult to handle easily. As for the sights, I don't know if anybody makes adjustable sights for the things... I put night sights on mine and I probably wouldn't recommend that somebody do that. It just didn't really do much for the gun. It's a decent and reliable firearm, it's even reasonably accurate. But it is also inferior to the guns that don't cost all that much more.

February 20, 2013, 07:34 PM	#15
willmc33 Senior Member Join Date: May 25, 2012 Location: Mobile,Al Posts: 473	Actually it was 100% gun related. The ammo was fine. The slide was machined uneven and it was causing the malfunctions. __________________ "Perfection is the enemy of good enough"

February 21, 2013, 11:41 AM	#16
loose_holster_dan Senior Member Join Date: April 5, 2011 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 2,461	here's a guy trying to get rid of the sd's predecessor. notice how's he's looking for any offer or anything at all in trade for it? http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=517153 __________________ Favorite range gun for the money - CZ 75B or STI Spartan V 9mm Go-to carry setup - Walther PPS or PPQ in FIST kydex holster 1AK Favorite semi-auto design - HK P7 "A Sig is like a lightsaber - not as clumsy or random as a Glock."

February 22, 2013, 07:21 AM	#19
lapetrarca53 Senior Member Join Date: September 10, 2012 Posts: 108	Love my SD9 VE. Over 500 rounds without a hitch!

February 22, 2013, 11:56 PM	#20
BuckRub Junior member Join Date: October 3, 2012 Location: Central Texas Posts: 1,046	Great gun, good feel, nice weight, high capacity, awesomely accurate, high capacity but hard trigger. You can adjust to it very well though and best warranty in the business.

February 23, 2013, 08:36 PM	#21
cramax3 Junior Member Join Date: January 29, 2013 Posts: 2	Buckrub I am glad you seem to enjoy the SD but I must say a warranty should only be needed as a just in case. Most people would like the gun they choose to be reliable and certainly do not want to wait for up to 6 weeks if they do need to use the warranty service. As far as the best warranty as you stated, hi-point has the same but people don't like the reliability in a hi-point and they don't like sending them back for repair. This is how I feel about the SD, why should I own it if every time it is used it has to go back and then you wait for 6 weeks and then it starts the process again, shoot it then ship it.

February 23, 2013, 08:48 PM	#22
BuckRub Junior member Join Date: October 3, 2012 Location: Central Texas Posts: 1,046	As far as warranty goes, any gun out there may or may not need warranty. I once had to send a gun back to S&W. the overnited me a box with a shipping label. I put gun and note in box and overnited gun to them. They called the next day and said they got gun and went over the problem. Called in about two days later and said gun will be overnited to me next day. It was delivered. No cost to me and then worked flawless from then on. Love their guns and their service. Ps- I wouldn't own a high point!

August 3, 2015, 09:17 AM	#23
Tarus owner Junior Member Join Date: July 24, 2015 Posts: 1	Smith and Wesson SD40VE buldge in brass near rim Disappointed that customer service told me that you they were well aware of the issue that their SD40VE pistol's had an issue of causing the brass to buldge near the rim which their engineering decided to ignore. This makes all brass unreloadable as this weakens the case. I've never owned a gun which does this, I was told they did replace the barrel on my new SD40VE, but that they usually just send them back to sender. I sent mine in on 7-1-2015, called today 8-3-2015 as I had not received confirmation it was in their system. Usually this buldge is due to too much metal taken out in chamber where buldge is occurring. Yet Smith doesn't seem to care! Quality and quality control and don't care you can't reload brass shot from their pistol is bad customer relations in my book! I will see if new barrel does same to brass if so, I told customer service I'd sell it and not buy another Smith and Wesson. I thought Smith was a better quality gun. I also know all manufacturer's have some issues even glocks, I bought a Taurus PT145 mellinium pro, it would not rack bullet in chamber, and it would fail to chamber every second or third round, sent it in 6-16-15 spoke to them third time today 8-3-15, have to call back this Friday to see if the replacement a new 24-7 which is backordered is in pallet in warehouse. They said they open pallets for inventory last week of month and first week of new month to see what they got in, hopefully they have 24-7 they would send me one if in pallet. So yes they all have issues, my brothers glock had an issue he was almost ready to get rid of it but after about 1,000 rounds shot better grouped better etc... So there's a issue out there somewhere someone has a gun from even a top manufacturer which has an issue. I have a Taurus pt111 which is accurate and shoots great no issues, just bought it about same time as others mentioned, also got an Arcus 98 DAC it shoots great and accurate, I'd recommend it as it has same day sign as 1911's everyone seems to love and its all steel not cheap plastic. Main issue with this post was Smith has an issue they refuse to fix, reloading in this day and environment makes it even more critical for being able to reload spent brass. You should let smith know this is not acceptable their customer support number is 800-331-0852. Tell them we expect more of a valued name gun manufacturer. Not cheap junk especially when it is not a hard fix. Thanks!

August 3, 2015, 11:14 AM	#24
Targa Senior Member Join Date: March 20, 2014 Posts: 2,084	No complaints with the one I had, sold it a while back for no other reason than I just didn't need it any longer.

August 3, 2015, 12:19 PM	#25
Blindstitch Senior Member Join Date: April 14, 2013 Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Posts: 2,691	The only problem I had with it was the trigger. After replacing with apex springs and trigger it works just fine. I don't reload 9mm but didn't notice a bulge in the brass when sweeping it up. I think i'm at 800 rounds and the only failure was a limp wrist when I let a friend use it.

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