sd40 ve.... how do they do it?

I have owned a Glock 19 4 Gen and hated it the grip was just to uncomfortable for me and it had ejection and feed issues, after putting up with it for a while I sold it and purchased my SD40VE and have enjoyed it very much although I have not shot it as much as I like due to price of ammo, I did save up enough to buy a M&P 40 Shield which I carry all the time, the SD was just a little large and now is in the night stand. Point being I would have the SD over the Glock anyday, as for their high price, they have to find some way to pay R. Lee Ermey to shill for them.

R Lee Ermey and new Glock 30S - Slow Mo #ShotShow 2013 - Shot Show - YouTube
 
ika'ika said:
My question is... how can S&W produce such a fine weapon at such a low price?
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I own a SD9 and love it, but it does have its shortcomings. In addition to those already mentioned, the polymer frame isn't exactly the best. With the slide removed, I can bend it by hand about a quarter inch in every direction, which makes me dread what might happen if I left the pistol in my car with the windows rolled up on a hot summer day. :( I think the material leaves much to be desired in terms of rigidity, but it is extremely light, which makes it great for carry.

Another way the company saves money on the new VE guns is by deleting the front night sight and not bluing the slide. I consider myself lucky to have snagged one while the slides were still blued. Also, I'm happy to say that my SD9 is one of the few "cheap" pistols I've ever owned that didn't need any initial fitting or filing whatsoever. The first time I took it apart, I couldn't find a single burr, rough edge or machine mark anywhere. (My Taurus, on the other hand, required many hours of fitting before it ran smoothly.)

With the addition of a Hogue grip sleeve and a spring kit from Apex, my SD9 seems as capable as any other striker-fired pistol. I'd be happier, though, if the frame weren't quite so "rubbery". JMHO
 
My frame doesnt bend at all, i would call s&w about that. Mine feels about on par with my glocks and better then my keltecs

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4
 
Tom K said:
Actually the question is, why are most all other polymer guns so overpriced? A while ago I was listening on the radio to a review of a book that had come out called "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" by Paul Barrett. I haven't read the book so this is secondhand, but they said that Glocks are a LOT cheaper to build than what they sell for. When they started competing for police contracts they didn't price them as low as they could, just low enough to win and have made tons of money. Gaston Glock knew that a "plastic" gun at half the price of a metal one would be regarded as cheap junk regardless of its real merits, so he priced it high enough to imply "quality".
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I have long suspected this to be true, it's good to actually see it in black & white. Thanks for posting.
 
raymo2u said:
My frame doesnt bend at all, i would call s&w about that. Mine feels about on par with my glocks and better then my keltecs.
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I work out. :D I can't find it in print, but I suspect the polymer isn't glass-reinforced. It feels almost toy-like compared to my Glock and XDM frames.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't plan to call S&W unless the frame actually breaks.
 
I think you have a dud frame bud, but if you plan on using it knowing that it might fail i hope you have good insurance. I know if any gun i owned had any problem it would not be used until it was fixed or replaced, ive seen enough to know better, but your choice is your choice and if you think its ok to take it out then by all means.

They are Glass-filled Nylon frames-which i wish they were made of delrin instead but the price would be much higher

Talking to you from his Samsung Galaxy S4
 
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I don't think I have a "dud", bud, I think my frame is just like everyone else's. I'll post a video when I have time.

Meanwhile, could you please post a link to something that says the frame is made of glass-filled nylon? Thanks.
 
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I second all positive comments about the SD9VE. Mine is so reliable that it is my primary carry/home defense gun.What I love the best is that there is no safety to worry about when in harm's way. Besides, I never carry a round in the chamber, but with one quick slide pull, I'm ready for business.
Best gun for the price and is on par with my Ruger P95 and Remington 1911 R1.
 
The "strength" of a polymer to withstand critical fracturing or permanent deformation shouldn't be directly compared to it's flexural properties alone, nor should anyone take the fact that it can be temporarily deformed slightly under moderate acute stresses as a sign of weakness. Trust me, if polymers were as rigid and unforgiving as most people think they should be, they would be terrible materials for a platform with such violent vibration and torsion such as a firearm. Rigid polymers would be brittle....think of a material like graphite, its extremely hard. Anyone want to have a graphite-framed gun? What a good polymer for a gun frame has in spades is "toughness" not "hardness". They can last a long time and still retain their shape after massive amounts of shearing and impact force regardless of the time axis length and have a very high resistance to permanent deformation and impact forces.
 
Trenchcoat Vampire said:
The "strength" of a polymer to withstand critical fracturing or permanent deformation shouldn't be directly compared to it's flexural properties alone, nor should anyone take the fact that it can be temporarily deformed slightly under moderate acute stresses as a sign of weakness.
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I don't disagree with any of that, but I'd still be happier if the SD frame were as rigid (stable) as the M&P frame. I like my SD pistol and there's definitely more right than wrong with it, but I'm still leery about leaving it in my car on a hot summer day. JMO
 
GreyOwl said:
I would expect any poly frame to do that much flexing especially w/o the mag and slide assembled.
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They don't. A friend brought his M&P over so we could compare it to my SD in detail, and we both noticed that the SD frame was almost toylike by comparison.

I think a couple of folks are mistaking my observations for complaints. This isn't a SD bashing thread, it's a "how do they sell it so cheap" thread and I'm contributing. ;) Sorry if I've ruffled a few feathers in the process.
 
Surly said:
I don't disagree with any of that, but I'd still be happier if the SD frame were as rigid (stable) as the M&P frame.
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I've owned a number of M&Ps, and they are good guns, no doubt...but one thing that many of them had, and this is more pronounced in the full size guns, was that the dust cover had a very noticeable down slant to it, so that it appears slanted away from the slide. I could press it upward into alignment with no more than finger tension (and believe me, I'm no Charles Atlas.) I've also seen them that way in gun shops, so it wasn't just mine.

I think it would take a lot more than the temp that would be reached in a car on a hot day to hurt the frame. I've read that with Glocks, you could cure the infamous "pig nose" by boiling the frame until it was soft enough to bend...I don't know, I've never tried it. Boiling water is a lot hotter than the inside of a car...water boils at 212 degrees F (at sea level) so it would take that temp to heat the frame sufficiently to bend it. I doubt a car interior is going to get that hot...and if it does, a lot of the car is going to be melting too.
 
Opinions are like rectums, everybody's got one & here's mine...

Having owned GLOCKS since their arrival here in 1986/87 I feel the S&W SD9VE is every bit as well made and would survive the same ammount of high volume usage.

Gun companies (like everyone else) are in business to make a profit. If you think their profit margins are high, check out the profit margins of funiture & jewlery stores which range from 100%-1000%.

 
Must admit that I am intrigued by the SD9VE and I suspect it will be my next new S&W handgun buy. Living in Massachusetts, we can only buy the MA-compliant version from a dealer... meaning a 10+ pound trigger pull and 10-round magazine. The 10-round magazine doesn't bother me so much, but the 10+ pound trigger will have to be fixed (adding ~$100 +/- to the cost of every new handgun purchased in MA). The added cost of fixing the horrible MA trigger, via Apex kit or trusted gunsmith, makes any such gun more expensive to buy, but it is particularly harsh when the gun itself is only $300 and change. That's a 30% or more "tax" just because I happen to live in an anti-gunowner nanny state. :mad:

I just wish the new SD9VE still had a blued slide like the old SD9. Being a traditionalist, that really bugs me. I am not into the look of two-tone handguns at all. All blue... fine. All brushed stainless... fine. But mix the two together and I just don't get it. :o
 
TTSH said:
I just wish the new SD9VE still had a blued slide like the old SD9. Being a traditionalist, that really bugs me. I am not into the look of two-tone handguns at all. All blue... fine. All brushed stainless... fine. But mix the two together and I just don't get it. :o
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I agree with you on the color scheme. Most polymer handguns have a black frame, but other colors do exist in factory configuration. I remember at one time the OD green frames were not much desired and were much cheaper...now, they command a premium. Of course, you can always have a frame "colored" with an aftermarket treatment, and you can have a slide treated as well. It would be nice if S&W offered the SDVE series in both stainless and nitride slide. Ruger, for example, makes the SR series in both stainless and black slide.
 
Lol, this forum cracks me up. How dare you mention another gun brand!!! So much hate. Regardless I totally regret selling my SD9VE. And as soon as I see one under 330 I'm buying it. Great pistol!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The SDVE Series are under rated, often criticized and much better than the relatively few complaints you read, especially when you take into account how many they sell and how few complaints there are about these pistols.

In my opinion, the SDVE Series, especially in 9mm with good ammo, makes an almost ideal self- or home-defense gun for ANYONE - afficionado or not. Expert or beginner.

The SIGMA was designed to mimic the DAO Model 64 in trigger reach and the straight through 10 pound trigger pull. At the time of its development, the Glock had really caught on, but back then, many still distrusted its partially cocked striker and 5 or 6 pound trigger pull.

The SIGMA (and subsequent SWVE and now SDVE Series) were designed to bring revolver-like simplicity with a trigger more resembling a DAO revolver than a single action auto type of trigger.

The biggest complaint about the SWVE models was the heavy trigger, now corrected on the SDVE Series.

Everyone should own a few of these SDVE pistols!
 
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