Acceptable level of reliability

Two ftf's in 500 rounds doesn't sound that great, but it's not that horrible. I'm inclined to not carry it, but keep it as a back up. What do you think?

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I would carry...only if I had nothing better. Carrying a gun with a 2/500 failure rate is better than carrying no gun.

I bought a new DA revolver recently. I had a few FTFs in DA, and noted the DA primer strike was WAY lighter than the SA strike.

It is at the manufacturer's right now. Even though it is not going to be a SD gun, 1) you never know, and 2) FTFs that are clearly due to mechanical problem are not acceptable. Bang every time.

Unless you're on a hostage crisis hit squad, or something to that effect, you should be ok with 99.5% reliability as long as you practice with what you carry. I'd rather that than to carry a gun that I haven't yet shot 500 rounds out of.

The Sellier and Belloit is pretty good quality FMJ (124 gr I think usually) from my experience and from speaking with others @ my Gun Club. It is my preferred practice ammo from my local Sports Authority outlet ($11.25/box). Have been shooting it for the past 4 years error free from 2 HKs, 2 Glocks, a Sig and XDm-only poor aim from the shooter .

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I can speak from experience with a Sigma, for whatever reason Sellier and Belloit ammo was the only ammo I couldn't consistently use. It would have about 1 in 100 light strikes. Not saying anything about the ammo brand, I just know from experience my Sigma did not like it. Anything else, it was fine. That one, no good. Also, for what it's worth, it was Sellier and Belloit that I purchased from Cabelas. I would hope the same purchase location is just a coincidence.

Sellier and Bellot is very good quality, but very European, specifically very Czech ammunition. That frequently means harder primers than we may normally see on U.S. ammo.

I mite upset a glock fanboy. But my glock 30, 36, and 26 had about 10-12 jams for the first 100 rounds. I think the 26 had low. I dont know alot of the sigmas. But maybe a long break in period.

Just my .02

http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?9-2-000-Round-Challenge

I want my competition and defensive guns to get through the 2000 Round Challenge without any malfunctions. That should be a pretty easy standard for a quality pistol - I have three from different manufacturers that have managed it.

-C

Did you ever calculate the odds on having to really shoot at another human being in self defense and could you really do it?

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Perhaps you would demonstrate the calculation for us?

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I've Sigma VE in 9mm and .40S&W neither have ever failed in any way. I shoot pretty much 100% my hard cast reloads or Wolf steel cased FMJ, except for Winchester 180gr Ranger-T when I use the Sigma .40 as a car carry pistol. I've nothing but confidence in mine, the trigger is not the "best" but it won't being going off unless I really mean it to!

I'd try some Federal American Eagle and if you get any failure to fires I'd send it back to S&W again.

Occasional (2 in 500 qualifies) light strike failure to fires with cheap practice ammo is no big deal, as a little tap-rack-bang practice is not a bad thing. But if you're getting light strikes with quality "self-defense" JHP ammo there is a real problem with using the gun for anything but a range toy.

Did the failure to fire rounds go off with a second strike? If not the problem is clearly the ammo (duds happen, especially with the cheap stuff).

Like a few other posters, I can't quote on the Sigma side of things, but I have used S&B quite a bit for CC qualifications. I didn't have any malfunctions, but I noted it wasn't quite as accurate as Speer Lawman, for example. I'm more of a hammer-fired pistol guy myself, but in the striker-fired world, light primer strikes are fairly frequent in the Glock world after the gun is heated up. The easy fix is a good cleaning and swapping out the spring.
And, as the OP noted, it could be a jacked up firing pin slightly out of alignment. Either way, I'd put this gun on the sidelines until you can clear 1000 consecutive rounds without a malfunction. My advice only, but if you get in a tight spot and need it to go bang when you pull the trigger, I'd rather not have that tickle of doubt in the back of my head that my weapon has xx chance of a malfunction when I need it to work 100 percent.