Striker broke in less then 2 months 😕😥😩

[S&W Rover]

There is a lot of personal philosophy in this gun thing. Everybody's thoughts being a little different, we end up with different solutions. The only thing that can really be wrong is that you don't practice, review, test, and rehearse the application of your personal philosophy. It has to work for you, and you have to have strategies to deal with the weaknesses (and capitalize on the strengths) of your particular approach and weapon choice.

The examples in this case being 1) do I trust S&W pistols? and 2) do I prefer a revolver to a pistol? Personally, I think SD's are reliable and trustworthy, but agree with the statement someone made earlier in this thread that you have to use them to test them for flaws and weaknesses. The Op's SD had a bad striker -- but that was revealed through use. The replacement striker is as reliable, or as prone to failure, as any other striker made by any other company.

When Sig started supplying M11's (P228/9's) to the government, they had a small number have frame problems. Knowing their reputation was on the line, they quickly started magnafluxing every M11 frame before providing it to the government, to pull out of the line any with hidden metallurgical problems. Great idea, but companies cannot do this for all of the guns they produce because it is too expensive. We have to find the flaws in our guns by shooting and testing them ourselves!

Which means shoot a bit, but not so much that you wear them out.

As for revolvers vs. pistols -- that's a Chevy vs. Ford, 9mm vs. .45 type of argument, about which there is a lot of good commentary on the web. Suffice it to say either can work in the self-defense role; know the threat, then have a philosophy for how to use the weapon you chose, and then build your tactics around that.

 

[Mister X]

The SD series are competent and sufficient guns for self-defense.

You don't need to buy a Lamborghini, to get a safe, reliable ride.

Perhaps they are, but how much Police and Military use has it seen?

It could be argued that civilian self-defense simply doesn't rise to that level, but I feel much more confidant in a weapon that was deemed durable and realiable enough for police and military service, because I for sure would not want what happened to the OP happen to me in a life and death defense scenario.

My auto of choice is a Glock. Not exactly equivalent to a Lamborghini.

 

[Arik]

But it still happens. Even with airplanes. A part thats meant to last 50000k hours breaks at 30000. There is no way to test for that. Otherwise every part would need to be tested to the point of wearing out. They could have tested your part but were 300 rounds shy of its breaking point. NOTHING IS GUARANTEED, NOTHING.

Absolutely every gun ever made has had problems in its manufacturing life. Even revolvers

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[Steve912]

Perhaps they are, but how much Police and Military use has it seen?

Doesn't matter.

Police & military purchases take into account MANY factors that have nothing to do with an individual's personal selection.

People have had broken strikers on Glocks, including police departments.

 

[S&W Rover]

It is important to note, too, that police many times carry a back up gun (BUG). It may use the same magazines as the primary (e.g., the Glock 19/26 combination) or may be something totally different, like a small revolver.

Military personnel rarely carry a pistol as a primary weapon, but often have a pistol as a backup to their primary (which may be a rifle or a crew-served weapon).

Both of these patterns of use recognize that you can be separated from your primary weapon, or the primary weapon can be broken or jam, so that having a backup is prudent.

As civilian users, we have to take this into account. Our primary weapon is usually going to be our only one; it is important to have one that we know works. Like I said before, there are a lot of valid choices, but I personally stay away from 1) small automatics and 2) cheap brands with bad reputations. The few guns in my private "collection" (a term which may dignify it too much) are all accurate and all have a history of reliability; all get shot regularly with the loads I would expect to use in self-defense situations. One of my pistols in a SD9.

So the debate about SD's -- are they reliable? -- is best answered by each person's own experience. Experience shooting hundreds of rounds. With today's semi-autos, I would not depend on a gun that has had any kind of issues in at least the last 500 rounds. YMMV.

 

[Rpg]

Ive never experienced this sort of failure in a Colt 1911, nor have I heard of one.

That's over the last 50 years or so.

I'm pretty skeptical about the Tupperware guns Smith turns out in great volume and at great speed.

They have great price points, but lack much of a track record for reliability over the long haul.

Quickly produced, high volume guns are more likely to be problematic.

Your choice: pay for quality or buy some uncertainty.

Probably better to have a gun that might not work than nothing at all.

 

[kctgb]

The Beretta 92 has had it's fair share of problems after being adopted by the U.S. military. My son is a marine officer and he prefers not to carry one, his comments about them are not nice. The 1911 design has been around for over a century, I don't of any police department ever adopting it as their side arm. The 1911 is one of the best selling pistols ever designed. Don't use the criteria for buying a pistol based on if it was ever adopted by the military or a police department. A lot of weapon systems the military procure is often times based on politics and logistics, the 92 and the 6.62/308 sniper rifles are perfect examples.

 

[Arik]

The Beretta 92 has had it's fair share of problems after being adopted by the U.S. military. My son is a marine officer and he prefers not to carry one, his comments about them are not nice. The 1911 design has been around for over a century, I don't of any police department ever adopting it as their side arm. The 1911 is one of the best selling pistols ever designed. Don't use the criteria for buying a pistol based on if it was ever adopted by the military or a police department. A lot of weapon systems the military procure is often times based on politics and logistics, the 92 and the 6.62/308 sniper rifles are perfect examples.

A lot of those Berettas in service have been rebuilt several times. This is the same problem as the 1911 had. Many old guns worn out and fixed as needed. The gun itself is quite capable but nothing lasts forever. This is the reason for the new Sigs. Politics or not the military never picks weapons that are not capable of holding up to use. The Beretta had entered service in 1990. It's getting up to 30 years of use and I don't mean use like you and I use guns. The avg reliability of the Berettas in actual use is 17,500 rounds without stoppage. Most of these guns have extremely high round counts. They start to fail....It's what happens.

I would say that my criteria IS to buy based on military adaptation/acceptance. Because it shows that the gun IS capable. In 1987 the Navy experienced its first slide breakage at 30,000 rounds of high pressure MG ammo. There were two other guns that had the same issue at 30,000 rounds. Five guns had the issue at over 20,000 rounds. All shot with machine gun ammo.....much hotter than NATO ammo. In later testing 129 weapons were successfully fired to the 30,000 round mark. This was on top of the rounds these individual weapons had already fired. 
Four receivers were tested beyond the 30,000 round mark.  Failure occurred at 30,520 rounds, 36,988 rounds, 32,500 rounds, and 43,000 rounds.

Four slides were pushed beyond the 30,000 limit.  They averaged 75,250.

This criteria gives me a good idea of what I'm carrying and what to expect. As opposed to buying something that's never been tested outside of a few YouTube videos.

The 1911 has been around for a long time but I know of only one thats over 100k rounds with documented replacement parts. I'm not saying it's a bad design or a bad gun but being around for a century is NOT the same thing as hard use/lots of shooting.

By the way there are/were police departments that issued/allowed officers to carry a 1911. Albuquerque NM allowed it until recently. I've seen Vagas PD with 1911s.


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[Mister X]

Doesn't matter.

Police & military purchases take into account MANY factors that have nothing to do with an individual's personal selection.

People have had broken strikers on Glocks, including police departments.

Reliability, quality and durability don't matter?

I don't know precisely what level of quality the SD is, but I do know it is priced much cheaper than the M&P and I have to assume there is a reason for that. Police do operate under a different directive than a civilian defender and that in itself can sometimes allow for differences in suitable weapons(i.e. snub or lower capacity weapon being acceptable as a primary, ), but otherwise there are no differences in the need for a high quality weapon.

A Glock or any firearm is by no means infallible, but a Glock has a very long and widespread track record of proven reliability, which a gun like the SD simply does not have. I myself would always choose to put my trust in the more proven weapon.

 

[Steved13]

The SD series are competent and sufficient guns for self-defense.

You don't need to buy a Lamborghini, to get a safe, reliable ride.

I agree with the first part, and I would add an "entry level" should still be reliable, and trouble free...Even just from a marketing sense, it's a companies reputation, and otherwise customers may never graduate from the entry. And we are talking about a firearm.

But I don't think I've ever seen a Lamborghini being praised for safety and reliability before.

 

[hostler]

Ive never experienced this sort of failure in a Colt 1911, nor have I heard of one.

That's over the last 50 years or so.

I'm pretty skeptical about the Tupperware guns Smith turns out in great volume and at great speed.

They have great price points, but lack much of a track record for reliability over the long haul.

Quickly produced, high volume guns are more likely to be problematic.

Your choice: pay for quality or buy some uncertainty.

Probably better to have a gun that might not work than nothing at all.

Wow, I just had a flashback to 1990 when I bought my first Glock. It was the first "tupperware" gun anyone in my circle had seen. It was surely going to "blow up in my face", "melt", "bend", "snap in half", "wear out", "the only thing a plastic gun is for is to sneak onto airplanes".

I know, that's not what you meant, I'm just busting your chops a little because your post did bring back memories of the **** I took over that gun.
I've still got that gun and none of the above has happened, yet.

EDIT, Really, carp gets the star treatment? Isn't that sweet.

 

[Steve912]

But I don't think I've ever seen a Lamborghini being praised for safety and reliability before.

Hey, at least I didn't say "Jaguar"

You get the point, tho. Bottom line is the SD's are competent, and decent evolutions of the original Sigma of twenty years ago.

It's a tool, not an icon of masculinity.

 

[Steve912]

Reliability, quality and durability don't matter?

glock recalls - Google Search

 

[shawn mccarver]

glock recalls - Google Search

In all fairness to Glock, a "recall" by a police department is NOT the same as a manufacturer product recall. There has been no reliable information on what, if anything, was discovered when the Indianapolis PD Glock 17Ms were returned back to Glock.

 

[Steve912]

In all fairness, there's not a pistol, truck,
or food product that hasn't had some problems
at some point in time.

Edit: and in all accuracy, the recalls on that list were by Glock, not by
the various police agencies, for defective pistols. And there's many recalls
for other Glock models, besides those sold to the Indianapolis PD.

Would be a strange idea for a police department to "issue a recall" of
it's own duty weapons...recalling something you already possess, eh?

 

[kctgb]

Taurus hasn't been bought by anyone. Their last major changes were when they bought Rossi in 1997. They didn't hire anyone from Colt unless maybe the janitor.

The reviews left on sites like Buds are mainly BS. Written by Taurus employees. If you look at reviews for every other firearm and compare it to Taurus reviews you'll see it's fake. It's the only gun to have over 300 reviews and not one single bad one. That's fake. Take a look at Palmetto State Armory. I clicked on a dozen different Glocks and got a total of 7 reviews. Several different M&Ps and had 22 reviews with 12 going to the M&P22.. One sig had 3 reviews. FN, one review, Ruger 380, 36 reviews. CZ 75 a whopping 4 reviews. But the PT 111 had a massive 205 review and ALL positive.

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I believe Taurus changed hands in 2015, they were bought out by copanhia brasileire de cartuchos. They are one of the largest ammunition manufacture's in the world. After Taurus changed hands the new owners fired all U.S. management, they replaced the president of U.S. operations with Anthony Acitelli, he was senior vice president of colt and one of their leading engineers. They have also hired a number of other top U.S. firearms engineers. CBC owns many sporting divisions along with Magtech and Seller & Bellot.

 

[S&W Rover]

Reliability, quality and durability don't matter?


A Glock or any firearm is by no means infallible, but a Glock has a very long and widespread track record of proven reliability, which a gun like the SD simply does not have. I myself would always choose to put my trust in the more proven weapon.

Thousands of S&W SW9VE pistols (essentially a SD9VE) are serving in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were chosen by the US Army for issue to our partners because they are simple, inexpensive, and robust. I can find reference to five major contract buys and recall the total number was over 100,000 pistols. The SD design, which in fact is so close to the Glock design that S&W lost a lawsuit over it, and such that some parts are interchangeable between the two guns, is a fine pistol that has proven to be up to the task.

 

[kctgb]

Thousands of S&W SW9VE pistols (essentially a SD9VE) are serving in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were chosen by the US Army for issue to our partners because they are simple, inexpensive, and robust. I can find reference to five major contract buys and recall the total number was over 100,000 pistols. The SD design, which in fact is so close to the Glock design that S&W lost a lawsuit over it, and such that some parts are interchangeable between the two guns, is a fine pistol that has proven to be up to the task.

I believe S&W has to pay glock $9.00 for every SD they sell.

 

[Mister X]

Thousands of S&W SW9VE pistols (essentially a SD9VE) are serving in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were chosen by the US Army for issue to our partners because they are simple, inexpensive, and robust. I can find reference to five major contract buys and recall the total number was over 100,000 pistols. The SD design, which in fact is so close to the Glock design that S&W lost a lawsuit over it, and such that some parts are interchangeable between the two guns, is a fine pistol that has proven to be up to the task.

If pointing to use by 2nd and 3rd World countries makes you feel more confidant in it's quality, more power to you.

The Brazilian armed forces issues Taurus, but I would never recommend one for serious use.

I'll still stick with my 1st World, Tier one guns when it comes to defending the life of me and mine.

YMMV

 

[Papa_D]

1300 rounds and a **** ton of dry fires through my SD9 VE. No issues with any of it so far. I know that is nothing compared to some people with 10s of thousands of rounds through a gun with no issues, but the reputation of the SD9VE is pretty solid. If you are a tier one operator, then cool beans bro. If you are a tier mall operator, go ahead and play with your "gun" and stop trolling. Truth is the Sigma, SW, & SD series is a Glock Clone. It costs what the Glock is supposed to have cost and what it does cost when sold to a police dept. There are much better guns out there than both of these, but seriously guys, the glock is the Honda Civic of the gun world and the SD VE is the Toyota Corolla. Both as good as the other. But one has much better marketing.