Smith and Wesson SW40VE

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I am looking at the Smith and Wesson SW40VE for my wife. Does any one have any experience with this gun?? The only thing that I have been able to find about it is people complaining about a heavy trigger pull, which I am sure can be rectified. Any input (positive or negative) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the help you guys have provided to me so far being the "new guy" to open carry. It's been great!!!

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S&W currently has a $50 rebate plus 2 free mags.

I haven't heard of any reliability problems, just the crappy trigger.

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I haven't heard of any reliability problems either, but the trigger will be difficult to master. Make sure she likes the .40 cartridge first, too, as many women (and some men) find it to be too snappy for comfortable shooting and quick follow up shots, so a 9mm often ends up being a better choice. Check out the SW9VE if that is the case, but for about the same money, take a look at the Stoeger Cougar. It has a lot nicer trigger, great ergonomics for smaller hands, and recoils very little due to the rotating barrel recoil system. It is also available in 9mm and .40.

But, above all, let her decide what she wants, this works the best. After all, you wouldn't want her buying your next vehicle for you w/out your imput, right???

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FWIW, the closest thing to a compliment I have ever heard about a Sigma is, "it's not as bad as people say." It seems that it's only redeeming feature is that it's cheap.

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I saw the Sigma in action, side by side with its little-big brother the M&P, both in a .40 S&W. And you know what? I don't see what the uproar against it is about. Seems like a great gun, just not for me (since I'm a lefty). It does have a longer trigger pull, but I saw someone who mastered it and he has hitting them headshots and 10x like nobody's buisness.

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The problem is the trigger it's so heavy I couldn't hit where I aimed I got rid of mine after a few months but it was utterly reliable and pleasant to carry.

If you can get used to the trigger or have it lightened one way or another then it would be fine. For instance I've heard it's possible to remove a spring in the trigger somewhere which lightens it up. I'm not sure if that would do it or you need a professional to work on it.

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Same thing -- my first pistol was an SW9VE... the VE series are very reliable; however, it literally is a 12 or 13lbs trigger pull and it came to the point where I was always hitting 7 o'clock of target because of that pull. The first time I picked up a Springfield XD (with a real 4-5 lbs trigger pull), I put my first four shots over top of another at 21'.

If you can spare an extra $100 and pick her up an XD, I highly recommend it over the Sigma. It'd be worth it get do that than buy a gun you have to get modded before you're even going to shoot it, ya know?

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A guy at the range invited me to have a go on his SW9VE, and as pointed out by other posters, the trigger pull was atrociously heavy. I guess the guys at S&W reckoned, on their first foray into polymer, "oooh, no external safeties, best make the trigger pull nice and heavy to prevent unintentional discharges."

Other than that, yeah, nothing obviously wrong with the weapon, but you have to wonder why they tend to come cheap. Law of supply and demand, I reckon; low demand leads to lowered price.

And sure, a competent gunsmith could probably lighten the trigger pull, but that's going to cost money, which is going to negate the one advantage, namely low price. If you're tempted by the "$50 rebate and two mags" offer, that applies to the entire M&P series as well, so you might want to consider those. Wynder's suggestion of the XD series is a good one as well.

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Euromutt wrote:

I guess the guys at S&W reckoned, on their first foray into polymer, "oooh, no external safeties, best make the trigger pull nice and heavy to prevent unintentional discharges."

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I know that they shipped the VE's over to Afghanistan for allied forces to use them -- I wonder if the weapon was, in general, designed for the combat field and had an appropriately heavy trigger...

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Wolf Spring Company offers a spring which makes the trigger much lighter. I have this spring in my Sigma 40 and it works great with a very smooth trigger pull. A gunsmith did the installation. Wolf has a web site and is located in the Philadelphia area.

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A guy I know has one and loves it. He says the heavy trigger pull suits him fine for it being a carry gun, and it's as reliable as a hammer. For the money, if Glockish guns are your thing, it's a pretty nice option.

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I have a SW9GVE that I'm very pleased with....100% reliable to date with around 2k rnds through it and the trigger gets better after a few hundred rounds of "break-in" time.
The trigger is easily lightened at no cost other than a few minutes of your time...assuming you're comfortable taking it apart a tad further than a "field strip"....

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400180&highlight=sigma

I did not touch the sear springs...(the ones in red circle)...I only did the polishing and removed the "pigtail" spring (the one in the green circle)....I have had 0 failures since the work was done about 1500 rnds ago.
This brought the trigger from about 12 lbs down to about 7.5 lbs and made it smooth as glass.

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Wynder wrote:

I know that they shipped the VE's over to Afghanistan for allied forces to use them -- I wonder if the weapon was, in general, designed for the combat field and had an appropriately heavy trigger...

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I doubt it. The Sigma first came out, what, mid-1990s or so? So well before there was a need to supply pistols to the Afghan army, police and border patrol. It's not like S&W has racked up much in the way of military sales in the past several decades, either, so I'm more inclined to think the Sigma was designed primarily with law enforcement in mind.

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Euromutt wrote:

Wynder wrote:

I know that they shipped the VE's over to Afghanistan for allied forces to use them -- I wonder if the weapon was, in general, designed for the combat field and had an appropriately heavy trigger...

Click to expand...

I doubt it. The Sigma first came out, what, mid-1990s or so? So well before there was a need to supply pistols to the Afghan army, police and border patrol. It's not like S&W has racked up much in the way of military sales in the past several decades, either, so I'm more inclined to think the Sigma was designed primarily with law enforcement in mind.

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Right, but this is also the third incarnation of them... I wonder if there are any differences between the versions in the triggers.

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Wynder wrote:

Euromutt wrote:

Wynder wrote:

I know that they shipped the VE's over to Afghanistan for allied forces to use them -- I wonder if the weapon was, in general, designed for the combat field and had an appropriately heavy trigger...

Click to expand...

I doubt it. The Sigma first came out, what, mid-1990s or so? So well before there was a need to supply pistols to the Afghan army, police and border patrol. It's not like S&W has racked up much in the way of military sales in the past several decades, either, so I'm more inclined to think the Sigma was designed primarily with law enforcement in mind.

Click to expand...

Right, but this is also the third incarnation of them... I wonder if there are any differences between the versions in the triggers.

Click to expand...

Yes, there are differences...I don't know all the exact differences but, it is my understanding that the current system was redesigned to make the trigger/sear system more "positive" (read heavier and maybe even longer LOP)
There are discussions about it on the S&W forum... http://www.smith-wessonforum.com/

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Well, I have been pretty satisfied with this gun so far. It seems fairly accurate "out of the box" with the only adjustment needed being the rear sights moving slightly to the left. I am consistently shooting a 2-3 inch group at 25 feet, and the wife (never having shot before) is now hitting a 4 inch group pretty consistently. I can fire over a hundred rounds without the trigger pull affecting my shot, so I am not to worried about the trigger pull at the moment. Just thought I would give my thoughts on the gun so far.

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I've got a SW40V (the original, not the VE)... I bought it new in 96 or 97 for $299 and have put at least 2,000 rounds through it. I carry it everyday in an IWB holster...

One part replaced last year... the recoil spring shot off the guide rod while I was cleaning it. A new one cost me 5 or 6 bucks from Brownell's...

The only problems I have had with it feeding or firing is a stovepipe problem that I found was due to using the original (10 year old 10 round Brady Ban, I now usually carry with a newer 15 round mag) mags that I had left fully loaded for a couple of months... Since I started rotating my loaded mags every couple of weeks, I have not had the problem...

I will admit that the heavy trigger pull makes me go down and to the left if I am focused on it, but I still put every shot well within the kill/stop zone on a target at 30 feet... Headshots sometimes wander into the neck/chin area...

Great gun for the money, but I would suggest moving up to the M&P... That's my next gun... It basically improves upon every aspect of the Sigma... and there are more accesories and holsters available for it...