The SA 35 I own crapped out at 150 rounds. FTF due to FTE. Serial number 68XX
-The gun was accurate. Shot at 8, 10 and 15 yards. The trigger was a little vague vs the Garthwaite that came with me today but was as good or better then the T series in this session. All shooting was done standing unsupported. Once I was used to the sights I was hitting a 3/4 IDPA steel target at 25 yards consistently. So even with the barrel wobble it is certainly more accurate than I am. I used the 15 round Mecgar which came with it along with older 13 and 15 round mags known to work in my other BHPs.
-The backstrap is sharper and I noticed it after about 4 mags. It was not sharp enough to cut my hand or anything like that but if I was going to have any work done on it I would have it smoothed out along with some of the other edges. The reset is similar to other stock BHPs. Not as good as it can be but right out of the box it is fine. SA should have increased the weight on the trigger return spring when they removed the mag disconnect on the stock gun. This minor change would help.
-Mags loaded and dropped free without issue. The bevel in the magwell made mags changes smooth enough. I did not run the gun hard I was really looking to test function and get a feel for the trigger and the sights.
-Thumb safety worked as it should. In real use it had a more positive click then when thumbing it on and off sitting at the bench. I still might up the spring tension on the detent spring but for now this one works for. It certainly is strong enough that there was no movement during firing.
Now for the not so good. At about 100+ rounds the gun failed to feed. Case was left in the chamber so a failure to extract. I shot S&B, Browning, Geco and my reloads. Some were 124gr some were 115Gr. Intermittent failures to extract continued with all mags and all ammo. So at that point I put it away and shot other guns.
When I go home I swapped the extractor and the extractor spring. The design of both parts in the SA 35 are different than the FN parts. The shape of the hook is a little different. It seems more rounded on the SA-35 part. The FN part is a bit more oval. I did not see any signs of damage or excessive wear. There is some wear which might indicate that the part is dragging in the channel and there is some chatter which might be showing interference with the slide serration cuts. I inspected the channel and it seemed clean. The spring on the SA-35 was different. I did not have a way to test if it was heavier or lighter than the FN part. Coils appeared thicker.
So I took the replaced the SA -35 OEM extractor with a FN extractor from the parts kit. I did not do any extensive testing but did go out back and shot 10 rounds. The brass landed in a nice little pile to my right. All cased extracted as they should. I of course will have to take it to the range and run a few more than 10 rounds before I declare it good. I believe that there is something off about the extractor or the extractor spring that is causing these malfunctions. I talked to SA customer service and of course they claim it is not a know issue and only a few pistols have come back with this problem. I image that it is true vs the total number of guns shipped. They are somewhere over 8500 IIRC at this point.
I could have sent it in but they said it would be 2-4 weeks to get is looked at and repaired. I replaced the extractor in about 20 minutes with a $12 part. Seemed like the easier route. If the FN extractor fails the pistol will go back to SA at that point. I wish I could say that SA knock this one out of the park but I can't. It is a work in progress. I will update when it gets back to the range for more testing.
-The gun was accurate. Shot at 8, 10 and 15 yards. The trigger was a little vague vs the Garthwaite that came with me today but was as good or better then the T series in this session. All shooting was done standing unsupported. Once I was used to the sights I was hitting a 3/4 IDPA steel target at 25 yards consistently. So even with the barrel wobble it is certainly more accurate than I am. I used the 15 round Mecgar which came with it along with older 13 and 15 round mags known to work in my other BHPs.
-The backstrap is sharper and I noticed it after about 4 mags. It was not sharp enough to cut my hand or anything like that but if I was going to have any work done on it I would have it smoothed out along with some of the other edges. The reset is similar to other stock BHPs. Not as good as it can be but right out of the box it is fine. SA should have increased the weight on the trigger return spring when they removed the mag disconnect on the stock gun. This minor change would help.
-Mags loaded and dropped free without issue. The bevel in the magwell made mags changes smooth enough. I did not run the gun hard I was really looking to test function and get a feel for the trigger and the sights.
-Thumb safety worked as it should. In real use it had a more positive click then when thumbing it on and off sitting at the bench. I still might up the spring tension on the detent spring but for now this one works for. It certainly is strong enough that there was no movement during firing.
Now for the not so good. At about 100+ rounds the gun failed to feed. Case was left in the chamber so a failure to extract. I shot S&B, Browning, Geco and my reloads. Some were 124gr some were 115Gr. Intermittent failures to extract continued with all mags and all ammo. So at that point I put it away and shot other guns.
When I go home I swapped the extractor and the extractor spring. The design of both parts in the SA 35 are different than the FN parts. The shape of the hook is a little different. It seems more rounded on the SA-35 part. The FN part is a bit more oval. I did not see any signs of damage or excessive wear. There is some wear which might indicate that the part is dragging in the channel and there is some chatter which might be showing interference with the slide serration cuts. I inspected the channel and it seemed clean. The spring on the SA-35 was different. I did not have a way to test if it was heavier or lighter than the FN part. Coils appeared thicker.
So I took the replaced the SA -35 OEM extractor with a FN extractor from the parts kit. I did not do any extensive testing but did go out back and shot 10 rounds. The brass landed in a nice little pile to my right. All cased extracted as they should. I of course will have to take it to the range and run a few more than 10 rounds before I declare it good. I believe that there is something off about the extractor or the extractor spring that is causing these malfunctions. I talked to SA customer service and of course they claim it is not a know issue and only a few pistols have come back with this problem. I image that it is true vs the total number of guns shipped. They are somewhere over 8500 IIRC at this point.
I could have sent it in but they said it would be 2-4 weeks to get is looked at and repaired. I replaced the extractor in about 20 minutes with a $12 part. Seemed like the easier route. If the FN extractor fails the pistol will go back to SA at that point. I wish I could say that SA knock this one out of the park but I can't. It is a work in progress. I will update when it gets back to the range for more testing.
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Sometimes if you look REAL hard for something,,,,,,, something else pops up. Karma, I guess
