Specs on the Gun which was detail stripped and cleaned thoroughly before the start of the test as well as being well oiled using Prolix Xtra T Dry lube formula.

S&W SD40 VE Aprox 1100 rounds through it before test begun
Apex SD Carry/Duty spring kit fresh springs installed for test
Apex Action Enhancement Trigger
Ameriglo Tritium Night sights.

2 SD factory magazines
1 Sigma factory magazine
1 Sigma factory magazine with apex +3 extension
1 15 round SW40F magazine


I begun my 2000 round test by firing 384 rounds today.
200 Winchester White box 165 grain
150 Blazer brass 165 grain
34 Remington golden sabre 180 grain

I wish I could say it went flawless but alas I cannot, I experienced 10 stoppages today.
The list of Stoppages is below. No malfunctions to report as of yet.

On the 16th shot I had premature slide lock (PSL) with a factory SD magazine.

124th shot PSL Sigma magazine

161st shot PSL SD magazine

280th shot had a nose down FTFeed Sigma magazine with Apex Extension

333th shot FTFeed nose up Sigma mag Apex extension

(Note: the following Stoppages wre experianced with Remington golden sabre 180 grain JHP)
357 FTFeed nose down Sigma mag Apex extension

360 FTFeed nose up Sigma mag Apex extension

363 nose up Sigma mag Apex extension

382 PSL SD factory mag

383 PSL SD mag

Here are some pics of the stoppages





At some point today I also lost the white ring around the tritium in the front sight.


And one showing how dirty the muzzle got


The gun will not be cleaned until I reach 2000 rounds. I will not oil again unless I encounter more frequent stoppages.


So far we have 10 stoppages out of 384 rounds. That is way more than I expected. I also need to replace the front sight.

I need to do more testing on the apex mag extension however I found it odd that the only failures to feed I had that could be attributed to the magazine was with the mag extension.

All other stoppages were PSL which may be due to a weak slide lock spring., the first one may have been my grip but all the others were after I made sure my thumb was not anywhere near the slide lock.

384 rounds fired 10 stoppages
Overall failure rate of 2.6%
97.4% reliable

I will update this thread ofter each range session.

Keep them coming doesn't sound bad so far

Not sure what your "test standards" are, but by mine you've already failed and need to fix the problems.

One major USPSA match will eat over 300 rounds, and 10 messups would be a disaster. I won my class in one state match because the next guy had 4 FTF in the match and I had none; I won by one second.

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Science plus Art

I agree.

Right now its a two fold test.
Testing the firearm along with the mag extension.

As far as repair of the firearm I will be contacting S&W to see if they will send out a new slide lock lever as I believe the spring on mine is weak. I see no other reason why it would lock open under recoil. I guess its possible I was limp writing

Its to early in the mag extension test to say but that was the only mag that gave me any FTfeed issues. OF course with the 1100 or so rounds put through it prior to the test that could also mean it needs a new recoil spring. I am not sure at this point.

My biggest surprise however was the Night sight failure, Ameriglo machines the sights and Trijicon puts the tritium in for them so I was very surprised and quite upset really to see that it had failed.

I've put more than 3000 rounds through my sd9ve and have not seen any noticible change in the recoil spring so I would be surprised if yours needs to be changed.

Bill

I'm curious-did you spend any time polishing the feed ramp or the breach face of the slide when you first acquired your pistol?

I'm not saying its something that should be required of a new owner to do but to me some of the pictures look like the kind of failures that can be corrected by a polished feed ramp and breach face.

Just curious.

I did not polish the feed ramp or the breech face. Prior to the start of this test I did not experience any FTFeed issues just the slide lock issue.

Addressing the slide lock issue I called S&W to order a new slide stop assembly and recoil spring. The CS agent asked if it was not functioning properly and I explained the issue. He stated that the recoil spring should be good up to 5000 rounds so he would hold off on replacing that however he said he was sending me out a new slide stop assembly free of charge under warranty.

I also called Ameriglo to ask about the front sight issue, they stated they have had several calls recently about the M&P models losing the white dot around the tritium. He asked me to send it in and they would replace it free of charge as well.

So as a recap
We are 384 rounds in with 10 stoppages and I am replacing the slide stop assembly and front sight.

Not the greatest start to the test. We will see if the new slide stop helps.

That's great that they are sending you the slide stop in stead of having you send the pistol in. I hope that they are willing to do that with other parts as well.

Bill

Yes I was a bit worried about that myself. He did mention it will take a few weeks as they are behind on shipping roughly by 2 weeks. But he made sure I knew the part would be covered under warranty and no charge.

i would like to inform everyone that after this past weekend and last night im at a "counted 6,300 rounds. i would guess with the rounds i didnt "count it would be over 7000. i havent purchase a new recoil spring yet and it still functions like new, although at 8,5k i will change it as i do on all my weapons

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please care, use hollowpoints

Sweet. You should do a 2000 round test. Take as long as you want dont clean the gun between sessions and report any and all stoppages(even if user induced). It would make a great comparison to my test.

I will be sure to do so next time i shoot a good amount of ammo. This past weekend my friend and I purchased 2100rds of Hornady 124grn Critical Defense that was on a local classifieds listing for $375-which we thought was a steal.
We videotaped most of it and it took around 4 hours to shoot it all and we didnt have any "field supplies" and my gun was lightly lubed with REM oil. To tell you the truth we have never brought cleaning supplies or lube or parts with us when we've gone to "our" range. On the video, which I watch in my spare time and pretend im still out shooting I counted 32 jams, most of which seem to be from light strikes...possible apex striker spring issue mixed in with the grime and ****. The jamming doesnt seem to start until 3.2 hours into shooting, in my estimate I must of been around 1200 rounds. But in the video I would half-rack and pull and then it would fire so it may be ammo or striker spring related. the last 200rds is where the most jamming occured (FTFeed's lightstrikes, and stovepipes) but remained accurated and compared to my gsg-5pk, still reliable.

After cleaning it down With clp it looks like it was never brought out, god damn this thing is going to last forever!

Thanks EBK for showing me the error of my ways

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please care, use hollowpoints

So was it Hornady or Federal.

Hornady, i dont understand why i mix those up constantly. I think its becuase i think Of F.B.I. Testing and the FEDs....

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please care, use hollowpoints

Right now I am working 12 hour shift until we find a replacement guard for 3rd shift also I am still waiting on the replacement slide stop assembly from S&W and the replacement Front sight from Ameriglo.

Test will be put off until these parts arrive.

10 stoppages in 384 rounds doesnt sound bad?



Glad Smith and wesson is taking care of your issues for you OP. Keep it up and keep us updated!

Still waiting on parts to show should be any day now then I can get back to the test

Been on hold for 40 minutes waiting for customer service, trying to find out if the part has shipped yet or not.

Jesus man Im surprised its taking this long, usually s&w are top notch and waiting isnt a problem

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please care, use hollowpoints

Okay just got off the phone with CS and the slide stop assy. has shipped I am hoping to have it by the end of the week or begining of next week.

Good for you EBK, glad theyre sendingbthem out and not having you send it in...hope someday we could just go to brownells or midway for parts

Make sure u update us when ur parts arrive and you start testing again!

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please care, use hollowpoints

Got the slide stop assembly in the mail today. I Hope to resume testing next weekend.

Here is a comparison of the new and old slide stop assembly. The old one is on the left and new one is on the right.

Its no wonder the slide was locking open under recoil.

I am still waiting to hear back from Ameriglo on the Tritium front sight til then I will be using the factory front sight for testing.

Wow is it my eyes or is the one on the right thinner and longer? The one on the left seems to have more meat on it in a few places and is shorter. Im glad to see youve recieved your parts-now get out and shoot!!

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4

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please care, use hollowpoints

Because I'm too lazy to look through the original posts I am curious about the testing method being used and have questions...

If you removed from your failure count ALL of the failures that occurred in anything other than the standard issue magazine, I'd be real curious to see those numbers.

It seems that I remember lots of failures in Sigma mags, extended mags etc. How do the numbers look with the stock mag?

During the test I Had 5 failures to feed with the extended mag base from apex*

The other 5 failures were due to premature slide lock across all mags.

*For the record I am not blaming the Apex extended mag base for the failures yet it could be that magazine I will be using a different body and spring next range trip.

Its just your eyes the parts are the same with the exception of the spring which is obviously weak on the old slide stop assembly.

Ahhh the side by side picture illusion...

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4

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please care, use hollowpoints

How many of the "other 5 failures" happened while using the actual factory mag in its stock configuration?

4 All premature slide lock.

Don't know if this will add any info for you from a troubleshooting perspective but I took a few pics of my pistol.

The first is showing the "finger" of the slide stop engaging the mag follower.

The second shows the slide stop angle when the mag is not fully inserted (no pressure applied by follower.

The third is with the mag fully inserted.

Hope it helps.

Attached Images

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	IMG_1040.JPG (168.2 KB, 158 views)
	IMG_1041.JPG (202.1 KB, 153 views)

One more thing-is it possible that the "finger" on the slide stop is hitting the rear portion of the cutout in the follower?

I noticed that the finger is very close to the back portion of the cutout in the follower on my pistol-maybe yours is hitting it occasionally?

Heck, disregard as I'm assuming your hangups happened BEFORE you shot the mag empty!!! Oh well, it was just a thought...

That is correct. The slide locked open with ammo still in the magazine.

I have determined that the slide stop had a weak spring as I posted a comparison picture of the old Slide stop assembly and the new one a few posts above.

I just tried to call ameriglo again and got the voice mail once again. I left a message, that makes three. The tracking # states they recieved the sight on october 18th.

Not looking good.

Well, I was thinking about buying one of these guns, but not anymore.

To Aim Higher:
Don't make a decision to not buy this gun only on what's in this thread. My SD40VE has never had a stoppage of any kind.

EBK, interesting test. I would like to see you take the magazine with the Apex extension out of the rotation for the remainder of the test. You've already had enough failures with it to blame the mag and not the gun. I see no point in keeping it in the test.

i think he was also testing the mag extension out for apex. he may have been one of the lucky ones who got it as a test product

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Fugitive Recovery Agent

Aimhigher, not buying or buying ANYTHING based on one positive or negative thing is deffinitly not the way you should go about doing things...how many other problems has anyone had with these guns? Not many, this is one of the first ive seen and its a odd ball. So you could be selling yourself short on a great gun becuase you saw one bad incident.

If thats how you do things Im sure your apartment is bare and you walk naked to work

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4

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please care, use hollowpoints

hey now my apartment is bare and i walk naked to work......

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Fugitive Recovery Agent

Well then i have great respect for your wife

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4

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please care, use hollowpoints

The Apex magazine extension was the main reason for the test. I am evaluating it for APEX along with other members from this forum. The base will be swapped to a different magazine, if I still experience failures then I will say the base plate is the problem. I am not prepared to make that statement just yet.

Every company puts out a lemon from time to time.

If you read the begining of this thread I had roughly 1100 rounds through the gun before the test started. around the 800 mark I started to have the slide lock issue due to a weak slide lock spring ( I originally thought it was my grip). Smith and Wesson sent one out free of charge. If this Minor problem is enough to steer you away then I am not sure there is a company that makes firearms you would be happy with.

Probably 10,000 rounds shot through my model 19-4. No malfunctions whatsoever. My comment was more to do with pistol vs. revolver. A friend wants to sell me his BNIB Sigma .40SDVE, and I was thinking about it. But your tests reminded me that when it comes to my life, I'm not going to risk it on a machine that is subject to malfunctioning -- even once in 1,000 rounds. This is the very reason that LE organizations were slow in adopting autos. It was the reliability factor.

Which ever you choose I hope it serves you well.

Duh. My bad.

What exactly does this accomplish??

Gives a good idea what to expect function wise should you be unable to clean your firearm, forget or if you are just one of those people that cleaning your gun is not a priority.

Still no word from Ameriglo. I have left 2 Voice mails and as of today I sent an e-mail. They have had the front sight Since October 18th.

I was stuck working OT last weekend so no shooting was done, hopefully I will be able to get out this weekend and put another 200 or so down range.