Just wanted to share this experience with you guys considering this gun:
I have a friend who has never owned a handgun and wanted to get started so he approached me about it. I tried to steer him toward a Glock. Not because I think Glocks are the best guns, but because I think they are the simplest for a beginner and easy to get rid of if he finds he doesn't like it.
He didn't like the "feel" of Glocks, commenting that the grip was too big for his hand. We went to the last 1500 and after visiting each table, he found that he liked the feel of the SW SD40. I had never heard of this gun before. I wasn't sure about what I should tell him. Needless to say, I was very hesitant to recommend it. I looked it over and it seemed fairly well made. It was sub $400 brand new and he was so set on it, I thought well, it might be a good place to start, i.e. if it breaks, he's not out that much money and if he doesn't like it, he can probably sell it for $300 or so and then he'll know what he really wants in a gun. So, purchase was made. He also purchased a Fobus holster, mag pouches and a streamlight TLR-1. And 4 extra magazines.
We've spent 2 days on the range with it yesterday and today. The gun had never been loaded, much less fired. He didn't oil it or anything, just pulled it straight out of the box and started yesterday morning. I ran him through dozens of drills. We were out there from 0900 to 1900. Fired over 900 rounds yesterday from all different positions, about 25% of it one-handed (support hand and strong). Kneeling, prone, fighting up from being on your back, slow-fire, double-taps, shooting and moving (going through 4 mags at a fast rate of fire), shooting from retention position, etc.
Not one single malfunction. He didn't oil it, clean it, or even break it down to look inside it.
We stayed until after dark so he could do some night firing with and without his TLR. Again, zero malfunctions with the light on (that's a nice light, by the way!)
Today, we went from 0900 to 1400. He fired over 300 rounds today, again from all positions, different rates of fire, both hands, strong hand and support hand. Didn't clean or lube it today either.
Again, not a single malfunction. Gun was not intentionally dirtied but it was in the dirt a few times.
Summary:
--Over 1,200 rounds fired
--Not a single malfunction of any type (failure to feed, extract, fire, whatever)
--Ammunition used: Cheap Federal stuff from Wal-Mart, Winchester White Box, Remington UMC, Federal Hydra-Shok, Remington Golden Saber, Winchester Ranger JHP, Speer Gold Dot.
--All magazines function perfectly
The above is my personal, factual observation of the gun. The following is my opinion:
---Good quality for the money
---Trigger pull is exceptionally long, but technique trumps feature with enough practice
---Gun comes standard with a front night sight ONLY. This is obviously to keep the price down but the front sight is the most important one and my friend shot just fine with it at night at short distances (7-10 yards)
---It is a relatively new release and the holster selection is rather thin. Fobus claims that the MP holster fits this but I found the fit less than optimal. I am encouraging him to look at Raven making one that will fit perfectly with his TLR.
---Very durable and very reliable. We didn't baby it at all.
---Simple to operate: no external hammer, safety, decock, etc. It is very much like a Glock
---Chamber indicator is visual ONLY via a tiny hole on the top of the slide. In the dark, it's not possible to check by feel. The extractor does not have a chamber loaded indicator.
---I really like the slide serrations. They are wide, deep and on the front and rear of the slide. (The front serrations make press checks easy.) Obviously, they can start to tear up a new shooter's hands after 1,000 rounds but you can't buy muscle memory, you gotta earn it.
Would I recommend it? It doesn't do anything that other guns out there don't already do. But, it is cheaper than most good guns and if there is someone out there who is interested in buying one because they like it, I don't see any reason they shouldn't go for it.
I wouldn't bother even writing this up if he just fired a box or two through it. As I've said before, I can get a Lorcin .25 to get through a couple of boxes of ammo, that's not an indication of quality. But in my mind, 1,200 rounds of various ammo in 2 days with no maintenance starts to give some sort of indication of how it might continue to function.
Hope this helps someone with their decision making.
I have a friend who has never owned a handgun and wanted to get started so he approached me about it. I tried to steer him toward a Glock. Not because I think Glocks are the best guns, but because I think they are the simplest for a beginner and easy to get rid of if he finds he doesn't like it.
He didn't like the "feel" of Glocks, commenting that the grip was too big for his hand. We went to the last 1500 and after visiting each table, he found that he liked the feel of the SW SD40. I had never heard of this gun before. I wasn't sure about what I should tell him. Needless to say, I was very hesitant to recommend it. I looked it over and it seemed fairly well made. It was sub $400 brand new and he was so set on it, I thought well, it might be a good place to start, i.e. if it breaks, he's not out that much money and if he doesn't like it, he can probably sell it for $300 or so and then he'll know what he really wants in a gun. So, purchase was made. He also purchased a Fobus holster, mag pouches and a streamlight TLR-1. And 4 extra magazines.
We've spent 2 days on the range with it yesterday and today. The gun had never been loaded, much less fired. He didn't oil it or anything, just pulled it straight out of the box and started yesterday morning. I ran him through dozens of drills. We were out there from 0900 to 1900. Fired over 900 rounds yesterday from all different positions, about 25% of it one-handed (support hand and strong). Kneeling, prone, fighting up from being on your back, slow-fire, double-taps, shooting and moving (going through 4 mags at a fast rate of fire), shooting from retention position, etc.
Not one single malfunction. He didn't oil it, clean it, or even break it down to look inside it.
We stayed until after dark so he could do some night firing with and without his TLR. Again, zero malfunctions with the light on (that's a nice light, by the way!)
Today, we went from 0900 to 1400. He fired over 300 rounds today, again from all positions, different rates of fire, both hands, strong hand and support hand. Didn't clean or lube it today either.
Again, not a single malfunction. Gun was not intentionally dirtied but it was in the dirt a few times.
Summary:
--Over 1,200 rounds fired
--Not a single malfunction of any type (failure to feed, extract, fire, whatever)
--Ammunition used: Cheap Federal stuff from Wal-Mart, Winchester White Box, Remington UMC, Federal Hydra-Shok, Remington Golden Saber, Winchester Ranger JHP, Speer Gold Dot.
--All magazines function perfectly
The above is my personal, factual observation of the gun. The following is my opinion:
---Good quality for the money
---Trigger pull is exceptionally long, but technique trumps feature with enough practice
---Gun comes standard with a front night sight ONLY. This is obviously to keep the price down but the front sight is the most important one and my friend shot just fine with it at night at short distances (7-10 yards)
---It is a relatively new release and the holster selection is rather thin. Fobus claims that the MP holster fits this but I found the fit less than optimal. I am encouraging him to look at Raven making one that will fit perfectly with his TLR.
---Very durable and very reliable. We didn't baby it at all.
---Simple to operate: no external hammer, safety, decock, etc. It is very much like a Glock
---Chamber indicator is visual ONLY via a tiny hole on the top of the slide. In the dark, it's not possible to check by feel. The extractor does not have a chamber loaded indicator.
---I really like the slide serrations. They are wide, deep and on the front and rear of the slide. (The front serrations make press checks easy.) Obviously, they can start to tear up a new shooter's hands after 1,000 rounds but you can't buy muscle memory, you gotta earn it.
Would I recommend it? It doesn't do anything that other guns out there don't already do. But, it is cheaper than most good guns and if there is someone out there who is interested in buying one because they like it, I don't see any reason they shouldn't go for it.
I wouldn't bother even writing this up if he just fired a box or two through it. As I've said before, I can get a Lorcin .25 to get through a couple of boxes of ammo, that's not an indication of quality. But in my mind, 1,200 rounds of various ammo in 2 days with no maintenance starts to give some sort of indication of how it might continue to function.
Hope this helps someone with their decision making.
