This is kind of a long story, but I hope y'all will be able to help me out here. The best place to start is at the beginning I suppose.
I am fairly new to the world of handguns, having done most of my previous shooting with a rifle. I purchased my first handgun on December 27, and it was an SD40DE. I love the way the gun fits my hand, I love the way it shoots, basically, I love everything about this gun. Now, on to the part where I am disappointed.
2 weeks ago, on the 10th, I went to the range and put about 60 rounds through the gun, so that brought the total to about 300 rounds through the gun since I bought it. I noticed an odd swelling toward the back of the casing, as well as a crease. We are trying to get into reloading, and that's why I was looking at the brass. I broke the gun down, and looked down the barrel, at which point I saw something that concerned me.
There was a "divot" or crater, whatever you want to call it, in a half moon shape that corresponded to the swell and crease in the brass. I called Smith and Wesson, and explained the situation to them, in order to try and get the weapon fixed. The person that I talked to was extremely abrupt, and unhelpful, and his only course of action was to send me a shipping label so that I could send them the gun to test. I wouldn't normally have had a problem with that, except that I had to qualify for my CHL last Saturday, which would have been less than 2 weeks from the time I sent it to them.
That aside, the reason I purchased a Smith and Wesson was because of their reputation for customer service, and reliability. So, I called back the next day, talked to another representative, and he agreed to ship me another barrel overnight so that I would have it in time to qualify with. There wound up being some confusion with the shipping department, and I didn't get my new barrel until Thursday the 17th, as opposed to Tuesday the 15th, which was what I had originally been told. Not too much of a problem, except that the barrel was incomplete. Literally, it was not finished. I installed it in the gun, and when I tried to jack a round into the chamber, the gun jammed, because the chamber was 1/8" too short for a round. I called that day, got the same, rude, abrupt, unhelpful customer service representative again, who proceeded to give me a lecture as to why .40 S&W rounds expand some anyway, and to tell me, despite the fact that both barrels I had were defective, and he had not seen them, and didn't know how bad they were, to qualify with the gun anyway.
I got extremely frustrated with this guy, and decided to call back the next day(having now been trying to get a good barrel for a week and a half) and wound up talking to the guy who had originally sent me a barrel. He was very nice, and apologetic, said he would overnight me a barrel, and that at the latest I would have it on Monday the 21st(this was on Friday the 18th, and I had to qualify on the 19th). I wound up having no choice, and qualified with the gun anyway, with very few problems, aside from poor feeding, which I attributed to my trying to shoot PMC ammo. I got the second replacement barrel today, which is the 24th. I installed it in the gun, and went to the range to test it. Within 25 rounds, it was exhibiting the same symptoms as the original barrel that came in the gun.
This is now the 3rd barrel I have tried in this gun, and all 3 seem to be functioning improperly. I will be adding pictures in the next few minutes to show y'all what I'm talking about, but my question is this: Is this type of thing normal, or have I just had really bad luck with this?
If any of y'all have any info on this, please don't hesitate to inform, educate, etc. At this point, I am extremely frustrated and disgusted with Smith and Wesson, to the point of not wanting to buy another one of their weapons if this cannot be resolved.
Sorry for the long post, but it's kinda hard to do in short.
I am fairly new to the world of handguns, having done most of my previous shooting with a rifle. I purchased my first handgun on December 27, and it was an SD40DE. I love the way the gun fits my hand, I love the way it shoots, basically, I love everything about this gun. Now, on to the part where I am disappointed.
2 weeks ago, on the 10th, I went to the range and put about 60 rounds through the gun, so that brought the total to about 300 rounds through the gun since I bought it. I noticed an odd swelling toward the back of the casing, as well as a crease. We are trying to get into reloading, and that's why I was looking at the brass. I broke the gun down, and looked down the barrel, at which point I saw something that concerned me.
There was a "divot" or crater, whatever you want to call it, in a half moon shape that corresponded to the swell and crease in the brass. I called Smith and Wesson, and explained the situation to them, in order to try and get the weapon fixed. The person that I talked to was extremely abrupt, and unhelpful, and his only course of action was to send me a shipping label so that I could send them the gun to test. I wouldn't normally have had a problem with that, except that I had to qualify for my CHL last Saturday, which would have been less than 2 weeks from the time I sent it to them.
That aside, the reason I purchased a Smith and Wesson was because of their reputation for customer service, and reliability. So, I called back the next day, talked to another representative, and he agreed to ship me another barrel overnight so that I would have it in time to qualify with. There wound up being some confusion with the shipping department, and I didn't get my new barrel until Thursday the 17th, as opposed to Tuesday the 15th, which was what I had originally been told. Not too much of a problem, except that the barrel was incomplete. Literally, it was not finished. I installed it in the gun, and when I tried to jack a round into the chamber, the gun jammed, because the chamber was 1/8" too short for a round. I called that day, got the same, rude, abrupt, unhelpful customer service representative again, who proceeded to give me a lecture as to why .40 S&W rounds expand some anyway, and to tell me, despite the fact that both barrels I had were defective, and he had not seen them, and didn't know how bad they were, to qualify with the gun anyway.
I got extremely frustrated with this guy, and decided to call back the next day(having now been trying to get a good barrel for a week and a half) and wound up talking to the guy who had originally sent me a barrel. He was very nice, and apologetic, said he would overnight me a barrel, and that at the latest I would have it on Monday the 21st(this was on Friday the 18th, and I had to qualify on the 19th). I wound up having no choice, and qualified with the gun anyway, with very few problems, aside from poor feeding, which I attributed to my trying to shoot PMC ammo. I got the second replacement barrel today, which is the 24th. I installed it in the gun, and went to the range to test it. Within 25 rounds, it was exhibiting the same symptoms as the original barrel that came in the gun.
This is now the 3rd barrel I have tried in this gun, and all 3 seem to be functioning improperly. I will be adding pictures in the next few minutes to show y'all what I'm talking about, but my question is this: Is this type of thing normal, or have I just had really bad luck with this?
If any of y'all have any info on this, please don't hesitate to inform, educate, etc. At this point, I am extremely frustrated and disgusted with Smith and Wesson, to the point of not wanting to buy another one of their weapons if this cannot be resolved.
Sorry for the long post, but it's kinda hard to do in short.
), push through your brass after resizing (or you can to the finished rounds) and don't worry about it 
.
