I'm asking this question because of something a so-called Internet gun "expert" said.

This guy said that at 4,000 rounds you should expect to see parts failure on the various SDs.

Personally.........I don't see why that should be true. But I have only 1500 rounds thru my SD40 VE which is shooting great.

This "expert" didn't explain what to look for or why it would happen.........he just kept saying 4,000 rounds was where things wore out.

I would be interested to hear the experiences of high volume shooters with high round counts on their guns.

I don't have that many rounds through mine, but expect my SD-9 to last as long as any other pistol.

Springs are probably the most noticeable parts to "wear out" in any pistol, in their case just getting gradually weaker, so it makes sense to replace the recoil spring assembly, the trigger spring, and magazine springs around 5000 rounds. (5000 is an arbitrary number I read on the internet, but seems reasonable).

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S&W Rover

If X is an unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure, then an expert is an unknown drip under a lot of presume.

There are too many so called self styled "experts" on the internet.

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View from down under

There was a guy that posted in here pretty regularly, a year or two
ago. He was running a .40 or 9mm without any cleaning, and had
the a pretty good round count, without any malfunctions. CRS his
name...

Haven't found the thread, but this guy says >20,500...

Round count

I can believe it......would love to see his comments.

I have 3000 on my sd9ve. The only thing I've evey done is clean it and shot it!

Until a recent surgury, when my shooting had to stop temporarily, I've put apx. 6,300+ rounds through my SD9VE !!! My only "issues" are the slide not locking back on an empty magazine, which seems to happen to some folks !!! Other than that, I haven't noticed any specific wear or lots of looseness between the frame & slide. Since I switched to 124 gr. bullets, the accuracy, at all distances has improved.

I seem to remember a guy who worked and made videos for the major company that makes guide rods for SD's (sorry I can't remember the name) who stated that the gun would be deadlined by 3,000 rounds. I have zero idea if this is true or not, but lots of folks on this forum have 3K+ rounds with no issues !!! YMMV !!!

Hmmm...would that company be the one that made the
RSA that broke the polymer frame?

Gotta love them aftermarket "upgrades"...

Good point. That steel RSA was a bit out of spec, and pounded the frames. There was a long thread on it here, and some folks did a great job figuring out the problem. The company, Galloway Precision, apparently re-engineered the spring to make it work better. But it led a lot of us to the conclusion to not use a steel RSA in a SD, or if you do, to check it often for hammering of the frame.

Something like that would lessen the life of a SD pistol, but I'll hold by my original thought that they should wear, in general, more or less like any other polymer pistol.

Anyone have any data that says differently?

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S&W Rover

That's the kind of info I was looking for.
Seems like your SD is holding up well.......which is what I would expect.
Seems our "expert" on the Internet is blowing smoke.

I have a nodding familiarity with the conclusions of
that thread.

Cherish that conclusion and keep it close, on
all forums...and 'upgrade' parts peddlers.

3,000 rounds? Never heard that before. Maybe small parts breakage here and there but major components IE frame, slide, barrel.... no. Not unless there is some major defect in manufacturuing. The frame themselves hold up to 40s&w pretty well so I doubt 9mm is going to go down in that time frame.

Internet is full of all kinds of BS reguarding guns in general. Sigmas/SD have a long history of breaking or not working along with claims of innacuracy and trigger pulls that are just so difficult that makes the pistol unshootable.

Meanwhile those of us who have extensive experience with them find the opposite.

Early models might need some slight tweeking IE fitting extractors, smoothing triggers, polishing feedramps etc. But the design is sound and they are durable pistols. Dont dry fire them... or any other gun for that matter.... any they will work for a long time.

Steel guide rod assemblies are fine just make sure there is enough room for the spring. All these wrecked frames were a result of too much spring length. The guide rod just sits in place. Its not going to move back and forth hammering your frame every time the pistol cycles.

The main damage metal guide rods do on some designs (mostly sub compacts) is eggholing the slide due to a lack of flex in a short and violent slide action. I have never seen or heard of slide eggholing in any sigma... ever. Subcompact guns such as keltec p11s ... yes. Sigmas/SD... not that I can remember.

people have been using the steel guide rods for years whithout problems. The fact that one maker screwed up early on and used too long of a spring which damaged the tabs doesnt change that. From what I understand the mistake has been corrected.

Personally I use the wolff solid rods with the traditional style spring as there is no way I see it failing when the pistol is in use. I also like the ease at which you can change out the spring weights. I have had the OEM RSA come apart during shooting. I have also had brand new ones dissasemble themselves in storage as well. Its a weak area of the sigma/sd in my opinion.

I suspect where these parts-sellers get their info from, but in the real world, . . . .something else.



I have an SW9VE with over 7500 through it, and it looks and shoots like new. Nothing has shown any excessive wear or breakage, and I DO regularly inspect it. There IS a shiny patch about .120" x .200"on the top of the chamber where the recoil lug drags a bit, but it has just polished off the satin finish.

All I ever did was to do a minor polish on the feed-ramp, nothing excessive, because I don't intend to shoot any kind of wadcutter in it. Feeds and fires without fail, just about anything I have managed to load/buy.

I had close to 30K thru my Glock 23 when I retired. The only part I ever replaced was a recommended update (the slide lock spring, which I had seen break on other pistols. Also, I rarely did more than field strip it, wipe it down, run a patch through the barrel, and use the five drops of oil recommended every year or so. Every three years it got a complete disassembly, so that would be five year cleanings . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Been a while since I've been here or been able to shoot, but I expect to have to change the rsa at the recommended 5000 round count when I get there. Maybe change the striker and trigger springs eventually too.

Sent from my Vivo XL4 using Tapatalk

,
Hi Papa D, same with me I was here looking at the safety thing on the 15-22.
Had to put up my SD9ve because of arthritis, it had just over 2400 rds runs like new & looks it. Only the stock guild rod is buggered a little.

Oh man, sorry to hear about the arthritis. Mine was more time and money, or a lack of both for a while.

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I had asked this same question in Jan 2019, and it came back that the
internet expert (representing a major aftermarket seller) was simply
full of it. Sure, there maybe some problems in individual pistols, but for
the most part, the SD9VE is a solid reliable pistol and will exceed the
"expert's" claim of failure around 4000-5000 rounds. Member's responses here (in the forum) prove it.

Once you get used to the stock trigger, it shoots as well as any other polymer pistol. For the "expert" at a major aftermarket parts seller
to make such a statement with no foundation is simply ludicrous.

As you might surmise, I don't believe in aftermarket parts myself,
If the factory doesn't see a problem, then neither do I. A lot of these aftermarket sellers
seem to be making money improving problems that are perceived or non existent.