Thanks Erich for your informative and exhaustive review. I bought my 40ve a couple of years ago. I bought it because of the price. I wanted something new and there it was. Also went for the 40 because I wanted something larger than a 9. This may have been a small mistake due to ammo prices, but oh well.
I love it. Trigger is stiff, but I think that is good in a DAO. A trigger job on mine would probably reduce it a little, but I haven't sprung for that yet. Accuracy is fine at short distances as you say. Although I can't seem to manage quite your results. I suspect that is not the gun's fault though.
There are a lot of people on this forum. Some you discount, some you take with a grain of salt, some you tend to believe, and a select few who when they write something you sit up and open your mind. I consider you to be in that last category. Thank you for this thread and your contribution to this forum.
Shaun