sd40ve was great...till I loaded PMCs

[BBauer927]

I was having a great experience with my sd40ve until the last round at the range. put 250 rounds of federal fmjs through it flawlessly. shot like a dream, love the gun. But last round i went my range changed to PMC bronze bullets. Session started out great because my first clip i shot off was hollow points. Just bought a stockpile of those for the home storage and wanted to put a round through for some test firing. What a difference a high quality (non-range) bullet has. Everything was smooth as anything and dead on accuracy, put the whole clip right around the heart. So i was stoked seeing that was going to be the performance if the SD ever had to come out in an emergency with a clip full of hollow points.

But then I loaded the Pmcs. and everything did a 180! FTFeed on initial load. and even worse it FTF'd in the middle of the clip, multiple times. ***! And i noticed the chamber that was normally rather clean seemed to get a heavy black residue during the session rather abruptly and seemed to be right before it started FTF'n.

hoping a good cleaning and lubing (1st one since initial opening) will do it some justice. Or do I seem to have an actual issue. Seeing about a 50/50 score on these guns on the forums. 50% have had not one glitch, and other 50% are having major failure to feed and failure to fire issues. Mine was working great until this last round at the range with the PMCs

 

[speedyquad]

it almost sounds as if the ammo was the problem and not the gun itself.

 

[BBauer927]

Yeah I agree and hope that's it. So hopefully a good cleaning, and staying away from PMC bronze will keep that from happening. Atleast I know the hollow points work amazing in the gun. That's what really matters

 

[panther]

I bought a Ruger SR9 when they first came out. That was during the last ammo shortage and the only 9mm I could find was PMC Bronze. The SR9 acted just like your SD, jammed all the time, very unreliable. I took it back to the shop, thinking it was going to have to go back to Ruger. He had an indoor trap set up and some Winchester ammo. It shot the Win. flawlessly.
I posted about it on some sites and was told that the PMC is a low recoil round and some guns just don't feed it well. Maybe true, maybe not, but I stay away from PMC now.

 

[jackh]

I had the exact same issue as you except that I started with PMC Bronze and had a FTF about 2-3 times per magazine. See here:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-sigma-sd-pistols/266249-new-sd40ve-owner-fail-feed.html

I switched to Winchester WBB and my FTF has practically gone away.

Just thought I would share....

Jack

 

[BBauer927]

Thanks guys!! Big relief to hear its definitely just a garbage bullet. I was skeptical when the range person brought them out. Now i know on the way to range a stop to walmart to grab some federal or Winchester will have to happen. Price was only a dollar cheaper for the "range bullets" anyways so might as well go with the good ****!

Thanks again for your input. Happy new year everyone and happy shooting!

 

[Jim NNN]

Here's my strategy: When trying out a new brand of ammo, shoot some "old reliables" first to make sure the gun is working right, then shoot the new ammo to see how it works. This is what the OP did, BUT make sure you save a few of the "tried and trued" rounds for AFTER your maiden run with the new brand.

If you have problems with the new brand, but none with the usual brand you use at at the end of your shooting session, it's almost certainly the new ammo.

 

[BBauer927]

Ok broke her down and gave her a good cleaning and lube. Purchased the new hoppes complete cleaning kit which was a nice all in one package. She is already looking and feeling smooth and sexy again. Can't wait to take her out to the range hopefully tomorrow and see If she resumes her righteous ways!

Ps if anyone has some specific cleaning and lubing tips then throw them my way. Not sure how thorough or correct my amateur cleaning session was.

I gave it an initial wipe down with a dry silicon cloth. Then hit the barrel lug and slide with hoppes #9 solvent. Used cloth to wipe down and clean slide. Then used phosphorus brush to clean out barrel, then took small cloth patches and slotted end tip and cleaned out inside of barrel until patches came out clean. Then I dropped my oil onto the 6 spots pointed out in manual. Reassembled. Racked the slide a few times. And wiped her down with the cloth again. Let me know if any of this is wrong, appreciate everyone's help and advice

 

[VaRecon]

Some guns are finicky.
My FNP 40 shot PMC terrifically and was my plinking ammo of choice.
My advice, try out a variety, see what it likes and what it doesn't.

 

[jlb070]

My SD9 VE had the same problem with PMC. I changed and it feeds everything else well. Actually I like the PMC 9mm, but my S&W does not.

 

[rwsmith]

PMC

My experience with PMC ammo hasn't been favorable. I've found them to be rather dirty, too. Is the firing pin hitting them properly?? Sounds like a bad batch of most everthing.

 

[gtmartin69]

i cannot recall ammo, all i know is i buy 40 and shoot them. but my SD40VE jams as well and is much better after i've taken it apart and cleaned it as you have. the only issue i'm having now that is a real concern is the trigger pin coming out only during firing.

 

[Arik]

wow. First time i read where PMC had so much problems. I run it in everything, along with steel cased ammo, and never had a problem. Glocks, M&Ps even my all steel 5946 eats them up. Just this Sunday i put 250 through my G19.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ruger Nut]

When I owned the SW40VE and SW9VE I shot hundreds of PMC rounds through them with NO issues at all. I just recently bought a 5906 and have yet to use PMC in it,but I will.

 

[stringpicker]

When I owned the SW40VE and SW9VE I shot hundreds of PMC rounds through them with NO issues at all. I just recently bought a 5906 and have yet to use PMC in it,but I will.

Your 5906 should love PMC. I've run over 4000 rounds of PMC through mine, without a problem.

 

[stev32k]

I also had a problem with some ammo not feeding well in my .40 sigma and got the same advise - change brands. But I decided that the gun should feed any commercial ammo and other people did not have feeding problems so something must be wrong with the gun.

I sent the gun back to S&W and they cut a small champer in the leading edge of the feed ramp and another where the feed ramp joins the chamber. Since then the gun will feed anything. I've fired over a thousand rounds of all kinds without a single problem.

Here is a thread I started last Oct when I was having the problems. Scroll down and there are some pics of the modifications by S&W.

P.S. I have fired several hundred of the really cheap steel and aluminum cased ammo without any problems.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-sigma-sd-pistols/268662-getting-lot-misfeeds.html

 

[BBauer927]

Ok great news. Took the sd40ve to the range yesterday and put a 100 rounds of federal white box through it with no issues. She banged away the whole time. Racking the slide still a little gritty but ten times smoother than out of the box. So Im concluding that PMCs aka dirty birds where the problem.

Towards end of session found a grip/stance that worked real well with this gun. Produced multiple bullseye hits Starting to get the accuracy down of this bad boy. Most of my previous shots kept going lower left corner. Bad guys better watch out for those kidneys. Lol. But again towards the end was grouping all in the center. Can't wait till next session to work more on that accuracy now that I got the FTf problem out of the way.

 

[stringpicker]

For some reason, and this is with the my SW9VE only, if I shoot with my left leg slightly ahead of my right, my right arm straighter than my left, my shots are consistently good. The results of this stance aren't the same with my other handguns.

 

[BBauer927]

For some reason, and this is with the my SW9VE only, if I shoot with my left leg slightly ahead of my right, my right arm straighter than my left, my shots are consistently good. The results of this stance aren't the same with my other handguns.

That's amazing cuz you described my stance to the T. Right arm locked for stability against recoil. Left armed slightly bent. And it worked great. Any other stance I seemed to try to over compensate for anticipated recoil and was dipping my barrel as I was pulling the trigger.

For some reason when I changed stances my mind didn't feel the need to compensate and there was no last second sub conscious movement. Bullets flew straight as an arrow. And grouped all around and in the bullseye

 

[BBauer927]

Funny thing is. Just went to the range with my new G23 and it blazed through 100 rounds of that same PMC bronze flawlessly.