I bought a Sigma 40F when they first came out in the 1990's and just put it away as an investment. Ha!

So some two decades later I have decided to shoot it. I will be sure to clean and lube it first. But I am unsure about the type of ammo to use and hope the experience of others may be useful.

I would just as soon try some reloads first (like from LAX) to make sure it functions properly. But maybe I should start out with something like Winchester white box or Federal American Eagle.

While looking over the gun today, I noticed the barrel hood sank about an eighth of an inch when manually depressed . Problem or normal? The gun has never been loaded, fired, or had the factory-supplied, orange barrel plug removed, except to cycle the action.

Any tips for shooting the SW40F for the first time after purchasing it a generation ago?

I promise not to limp wrist it.

Everything to me sounds fine with your gun, I would definitely clean it real good and lube the slide rails and the rails on the frame as well, lube the outside of your barrel to and the top of the inside of the slide where your barrel sits, just don't over lube it to much. If I were you I would stay away from reloaded ammo, go get some factory ammo like federal or winchester in my opinion. Have fun and be safe.

Can you post some pics of it, please?

I had a Sigma .40 that ran 100% when fed Federal 180gr.
Sold it as a complete rig with holster, mag holders and 5 extra factory mags.

Last I heard the guy who bought it had "improved" it until it was unreliable.

So my best advice is either shoot it as is, with good US ammo, or sell it if you don't like it the way it is. It is what it is, long heavy trigger and all.

__________________
Science plus Art

I wouldn't shoot it at all. Assuming you have the original factory box and all contents (including original pre-AWB mags) and the gun is truly unfired and not deteriorated in any way, I would sell it. Believe it or not, some people will pay extra for an unfired S&W handgun put away for the last 20 years... even a plastic gun!

But if you do want to keep it, I sure as heck wouldn't start off by shooting reloads. God forbid that something is wrong with the gun... you may have just blown the lifetime extended warranty.

Well thank you very much to earthtone and TTSH for the excellent advice about lubing the Sigma and using only factory ammo. Quite honestly, I would not have lubed it beyond the frame rails unless the factory manual stated to do so. So I am very glad to get your comments, earthtone, and will follow them exactly.

And I did not think about the effect reloads would have on the warranty, TTSH. So you can bet that I will only use factory ammo for the first visit to the range. I am a reloader and will eventually load up my factory brass.

TTSH, you made a comment about the desirability of selling the gun, since it remains to this moment new in its factory case. However I tried to sell the piece on this site and Calguns.net and got not one inquiry. Not even a low-ball reply.

For Disabled1 and anyone else interested, the gun can be seen on this site. Just click on my avatar name, libertasdon, in the upper left corner of this thread and then click on the option to find all libertasdon's posts. The 3rd or 4th post, the title that says, Moderator lock up this post, is the one that has the pictures. I forget how much I wanted for the gun, but it was not more than I paid for it.

The Sigma is very much a lightweight. It will be interesting to experience its recoil with factory loads.

I just read your expired WTS thread. The biggest problem I saw is that you are in California and you say that any in-state buyer of that gun would have to be a LEO. Ouch!!! Finding a California LEO who happens also to be a collector of early S&W Sigmas is one very tough challenge. LEO's can buy just about any plastic gun they want at dirt cheap "blue label" prices.

I don't know what you were asking for it, but I would have been very interested in it if I could have imported it into MA at a reasonable overall cost. Unfortunately, it is not on our MA EOPS list.

It also appears that you posted your pix a little too late and without a bump. I'm sure that didn't help.

I'd try again to sell it, but that is just me. If it were local to me and priced reasonably, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.