My First FTF - Sigma .40

[smhbbag1]

Been shooting about a year, and carrying for about 6 months. Total rounds in this gun ~2000. No previous failures of any kind. It's been cleaned and lightly lubed every 100-200 rounds.

My S&W Sigma .40 (carry gun) has always had the absurdly long/hard trigger it is known for. I grew to adapt, and dealing with it improved my overall technique.

Today, however, my gun has me steaming mad.

Shooting plain ol' WWB, which has worked flawlessly. The trigger pull maintained the same feel as always, but I bottomed out the trigger with no click, and no boom.

Tap, rack.....no bang. Tap, rack....no bang. Switch ammo. Still no clicks and no bangs when the trigger is pulled.

I set the gun aside for the day. Cleaned it again and didn't notice anything unusual.

So I dry-fire with snapcaps. Still no click telling me it would fire.

What might it be and what should I look for? Learning laws, carry strategies, and shooting has taken much more of my time than internal gun mechanics.

Any ideas? I find this totally and completely unacceptable. I've cared for it well. And unless there is some clear, obvious, reliable fix, this gun is gone. Its job is to save my life should I need it. And it's laying down on the job.

 

[Rxster]

Did you do any mods?
If not call S&W and send to them to fix. That way you know it is done right.
My guess would not get you very far, could be a number of things.
Kinda sounds like the trigger isn't resetting.

 

[smhbbag1]

No modifications.

I thought about calling S&W and still might.

But I'm viewing this almost as if a woman cheated on her man. You can send her off to a S&W therapist who promises to make her better, but can you really trust her with your life again, regardless of how good the therapist is?

Is that an over-reaction? I bought this gun because it was $200, and a knock-off of the gun I really wanted (G22/G23). I've actually really liked it so far.

 

[Nushif]

For 200? I'd send it back. no sense in wasting a perfectly good gun you got for that cheap.

I know we're always pounding on reliability and the term "lifesaving equipment" but let's put this in perspective ... Army parachutes are still made by the cheapest bidder and even the best Piton ever can still break while climbing.
It sounds like the gun is truly broke and not chronically useless. There is a difference, I think.

 

[Lonestar49]

...

Does the trigger, itself, have tension during the pull.. ?

If not, return trigger spring

If it does, then IMHO, it leaves me thinking, no bang, then firing pin is gone/broke (or its spring went south)


Luck,


Ls

 

[wally]

Call S&W, they will give you a number to have FedEx ship it back to them for free. You are only out your trip to the FedEx depot. You have your gun back in perfect working order straight to your door in probably 10 days or less.

No point messing around with it when S&W will take care of you.

Stuff breaks. Get it fixed and move on.

 

[Steve C]

First thing I'd check if a round doesn't go off is to see if the primer has any firing pin strike and if it does how good of a hit did it have. If there's no pin mark or its a light hit then look at the firing pin and see if its broken or otherwise jammed up with crud. It could also be that the firing pin block isn't releasing. Its best to know what the problem is before you send it to S&W or gunsmith if you can't repair it yourself.

If there's a good deep hit on the primer and it didn't go off its an ammo problem. Factory ammo seldom has problems but its not impossible.

 

[mostholycerebus]

Why even mess with it? Lifetime warranty, S&W will pay shipping both ways and get it back working in a week. See what the work order says is broken, and worse case you can sell it and get back what you paid.

 

[smhbbag1]

Thanks, guys.

I'll call S&W tomorrow, but I'm not sure if they'll take it. I bought it NIB from my CC instructor who bought it new and never got around to using it.

I don't think the warranty is transferable, and I wasn't the original buyer...even though I was the first one to fire it.

Some on other sites say they might fix it for free despite that. But, if they're going to charge me for it, I think I'll just spend more money and get the G23 I wanted anyway.

 

[GLOOB]

No click? Definitely not anything to do with a broken firing pin.
It could be a broken trigger return spring. This can happen in most any gun. Or maybe some foreign object is blocking the sear from releasing.

I've broken a trigger spring in one of my guns, while dry firing. It was most unpleasant. I imagine I felt the same way you do.

But I did some searching, and this was not a common problem for that gun. So I replaced the spring and still carry it. I think I'd feel better fixing it myself though. Otherwise you will never know exactly what happened, whether there's a real design compromise, or just a freak material defect. Knowing how, where, why goes a long way into restoring trust. S&W will probably tell you what was wrong, but it will still just be words.