S&W SD9VE Range Report

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Aahzz

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Mar 6, 2003
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OK, so I hit the range today with the new SD9VE. I LOVED the way the gun felt in my hand at the store, and spent some time last night dry-firing to smooth thr trigger out. The trigger is definitely heavier than my M&Ps, but is smooth. I'd say the published weight of 8 pounds is fairly accurate.

Once at the range, I proceeded to load the magazine. If you have an UpLula, I would highly recommend bringing it with you with this gun. Sadly, I do NOT have an UpLula. The first mag, I was utterly unable to load the 16th round. Just could not do it. The second I was able to get loaded using an old Glock mag loader I still have kicking around my range bag, despite not having owned any Glocks for years. After I fired the first two mags, I was able to get them both loaded to full 16-round capacity, but absolutely require the loader to get that last round in - and still a lot of effort. My fingers, they are sore.

OK, on to the firing. I shot 100 rounds of Remington 115gr JHP, and 50 rounds of Federal 115gr ball. All fed flawlessly, no hiccups at all. At 7 yards, which is my normal distance for defensive pistol shooting, I found the gun to be quite accurate. The targets in the picture below were both from 7 yards - 33 rounds on the left-hand target, 50 on the right. Felt recoil was a touch more noticeable than on a full-sized M&P9, but very manageable and getting back on target for quick follow-up shots was extremely easy.

Overall, I am seriously impressed with this gun. Once the mags break in I'll be even happier. In the meantime, I actually may prefer the feel of this to the M&P, and find the trigger highly manageable, and that was the real surprise. This one is going to be tapped for bedside duty - which is why it has the S&W Micro 90 light mounted on it. Just got that from woot.com as well, and had it on there today to see if the light affected the feel at all. Nope, having the light there didn't bother me in the least.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!

sd9.jpg
 
These guns are real sleepers and extremely underated. I own an SD9 and I liked it so much I bought one in 40 also. 1500 rounds through the 9mm and 300 through the 40 and flawless. I own the original melonite guns but the one you own is the same gun without the melonite, steel sights and that's about it. A gentelman on this site had a SD40 VE and stated that he had 103 malfunctions out of couple of hundred rounds. I just can't believe that this happened, he either had a real lemon or the more I thought about it the more I think he might have been shooting 9mm ammo out of the 40 caliber gun, which im finding is a common problem these day amongst the troops. I have to separate ammo on different tables it's that much of a problem. Anyway you will love this model gun I prefer it to the M&P line. I find very little difference in trigger work between my Glocks and these SD's. These are no cheap handgun by no stretch and build very close to a Glock, so much so that they look almost the same inside including barrel and recoil springs. Enjoy your pistol.
 
Cocojo, I immediately noticed how Glock-like the internals were when I field stripped it for cleaning. I see another one of these in the future for Mrs Aahzz's side of the bed....
 
Isn't that what S&W is now offering in place of the Sigma? How hard is it to find magazines for it?
It uses a Sigma mag with a flat front, rounded sides floor plate in place of the old triangular front, flat sides design. You can still use the Sigma mags, but they won't match the SD's grip contour.
 
I'm willing to bet the Sigma will be discontinued shortly, now that there's only a $10 price difference between it and the SD
 
And as of yesterday, the Sigma has been removed from S&W's website - so I think we can now safely say the SD is a replacement.
 
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