Smith & Wesson Sigma Series Trigger FIX!!! (SW9VE, SW40VE)

[KCOLLINS18]

I received my S&W Sigma (SW9VE) about a 6 weeks ago, It came with the case of course (4) High Capacity Clips, Warranty papers and Slide lock, all for 370.00 (that's including shipping and transfer of title). 2 weeks ago I shot it, the trigger is a bit tough to squeeze but I have gotten used to it and now its not bad at all, I actually prefer this type of trigger over the Springfield XD. All around the Sigma I think is a good gun for someone who wants a nice cheap gun that performs excellent.

 

[n7kme]

OK, Since I'm brand new here, and YES I found this thread by doing a Google Search on SW9VE, I'll take a few lumps as the FNG.
I bought a Sigma 9 VE from a guy that was selling everything he owned so he could move out of state to move he and his wife and their 4 kids in with his in-laws. (kind of thought he might use it on himself instead), but he sold me the 9 with two hi cap mags and a case and 50 rds of FMJ and 50 rds of HP for $175. I have as yet not had a chance to go out and shoot it, but my youngest son (26 years old) took it out last week and was impressed with the groups. He put 4 rounds rapid fire into a 3 inch group at 10 yards. At 10 feet the rapid fire group was more like 2 inches. I've heard all the bad crap about this little gun, but I have yet to actually find anything I dont like about this one.

 

[yongxingfreesty]

been posting here for a while, use to talk down on sigmas but they are pretty good guns. shot my friends and they shoot just as well as my glock/xd

 

[cchris]

Trigger pull is fair grounds for a complaint, but I still haven't heard a legitimate reason from Glock owners who criticize me why it's not a good gun in a reasonable price range. Those critics seem to always fall back on the trigger pull argument.

As for the accuracy, the last time I went to the range I fired one round at a 50 yard paper target (8.5x11) and managed to hit just a little high of the center. Of course I lined up the sights with the top of the paper and it may have been just lucky, but any gun that can hit good left to right at 50 yards is fine by me.

This same outing, my friend had his last excursion with his Hi-Point. He experienced a lot less jams that last time (75% of the rounds fired), but ultimately it was the inability to hit bullseye from 5 feet away and the metal shavings inside the gun when he took it apart that made him sell it - to some ricer kid who gave him $300 in car parts in exchange for the gun.

Out of curiosity, what result will not placing the coil spring back in the bottom of the sear assembly have? It was a pain to get back in there, so I gave up on it and dry fired a few times just to see if it would still fire.

 

[MikeBoyd]

The final resolution

I bought a Sigma .40 from Academy last winter and had a horrible time with the 12.5 pound, rough trigger. After much reading I sent it to Mr. Smith at LSG for warranty service and he replaced the trigger assembly with a new one, that now measured a little under 9 pounds and not quite as gritty.

after much research I purchased a polishing wheel and some fine jeweler's rouge for my dremel, disassembled the weapon and polished the metal parts of the cam ramp to a high luster, then lubed it light with some molybendium disulfide lubricant, wiped off the excess and reassembled it. Still a little over 8 pounds, but much smoother. After some more research, I removed the pigtail spring from the holding pin and reassembled it, still with the two original trigger springs in place. Now it pulls verrrry smoothly at less than six pounds and my groups are now where they used to be for me with the old M9 and 1911 I qualified with in the military. My 13 year old grandson and I put more that 100 rounds through it tonight with nary a FTF or FTE, even rapid firing. It feels better than a friends G23 I shot a few weeks ago.. As we cleaned it tonight, we both agreed, IT IS A Keeper after all.

I was very reluctant to remove any springs, but was at the end of patience with this weapon, now I love it and it will be my primary carry over my Cougar 8000 .40 or Bersa .380.

I found a site with pictures of the mods elsewhere, but was unable to relocate it tonight. I think it was the Smith and Wesson Forum, but am not absolutely sure. The light moly grease is much much better on the plastic to metal sliding friction than gun oil and will stay in place much longer and reduce wear increasing the life of the gun.

I now love my Sigma and will carry it lightly with confidence!!!

 

[S&Wsigma]

Just got a Sigma

Hi everyone,

I got to this site via GOOGLE as well. I have a Glock 30 and with the price of ammo on the 45's, my visits to the range were just getting too expensive. I didn't want to lay down another 500-600 dollars.

So I decided to start looking for a inexpensive 9 or 380. I saw the usual out there, HI POINT, KELTEC, JIMINEZ, etc. The 380 ammo is so scarce now...so I narrowed my search to mainly 9's. I did some research and for what you are getting with a SIGMA, there is no comparison.

I too heard the complaints on the trigger pull. Rented one from a local range when I went down with my GLOCK. I fired the weapon for several 100 rounds at the range. No problem. It is different from my GLOCK. Which has a very light pull. But with some adjustment, you can get use to it. I was pulling most of my shots to the right in the beginning. But its zeroed in...and I am getting tight groupings. Recoil is light compared to the 45.

It was an easy adjustment for me. It may not be for you. My suggestion to anyone on the fence is to go down to a local range that has a SIGMA and rent it for the day. I am going to send it to S&W for fixing to see if there is a difference. I will keep you guys posted.

Enjoy you shooting!

 

[jakobe]

I too found this thread on Google

I wanted to chime in
I have owned several revolvers and a small.22 semi auto pistol.

I always wanted a larger caliber auto pistol
I ran into and old friend who is a prison guard/cop here in town
we got to talkin and he mentioned he had this gun for sale for 200 bucks

a brand new (only fired 2 clips) Sigma 40ve.

after I bought it, I did a ton of research about the gun and was rather dissappointed at what I found, I thought I had bought a junk gun.

until I shot it
Yes the trigger is hard

but I have run at the very least 2000 rounds through this gun, with only a handful of fte or ftf

decently accurate

blazer
remington cheap stuff
remington gold sabers
generic range ammo
winchester
federal
corbon

fmj's
hollow points

I have run it all though the gun

I have not done any mods to the gun cept keep it clean.

I did add:
a laserlyte rail
ebay tac light
vented pachmyar grip

I dont like the trigger, and will have it lightened as soon as I find a gunsmith in town who can do it.

but I dont feel like i have to be all walkin on eggsshells when I handle it, I know the trigger is a safety feature and I trust it.

but for all the negative talk about this gun you might as well rip up the Glock too, as it is a dang Glock clone!

Glock even sued them over the design because it was dam near identical.

it is the same machine, with a few improvements over the Glock model it was cloned after, better sights, better grips and a better magazine eject.

I do see room for improvements, but you can always improve on anything from cars to guns and even women, that doesnt mean the one you have is a POS.

its a good gun for a good price.

 

[kindkrimynal]

sw40ve easy trigger fix

i own the sw40ve. all i have heard about this weapon since my purchase was trigger stiffness this and gritty feel that. okay it is true, the trigger is tough and can be gritty. as you have no doubt read, this is done on purpose. the bottom line is this. 72% of gunshot wounds are not fatal. this is do in large part to the inexpeirience of shooters and the conditions of "battle". in the same breath, the human brain is incredible and chances are, the one or two times over your entire life span the average individual needs to draw and fire thier weapon in self defense, the entire action will seem to be a blur. this is because once adrenaline hits the blood stream the brain becomes less responsive to concious desire and more reactive to the situation. in short you don't think about it you just do it. which brings me to practice and preparation. the more you go to the shooting range and put rounds on targets, the more accurate you will become. the more you practice drawing your weapon from whatever position you usually carry it in, aquiring a target firing a round or double tap and returning the weapon to holster, the faster you will be. and the more you sit at home with an UNLOADED gun and pull the trigger until your forearms burn, the easier it will be for you to pull the trigger without moving the tip of the barrel. practice practice practice. there is absolutley no substitute for practice. and the one time you need to shoot in the real world, your brain will take over and put all of your practice into motion. no matter what weapon, no matter what the trigger pull weighs in at, knowing your weapon and being well practiced at firing are the two things that will matter. now if you absolutley need a 5lb. trigger on your sw9ve or sw40ve, there is a way to achieve it without sending your weapon off or taking it to a gunsmith.(while the following methods can be used at home by almost any compitent individual, i still suggest taking it to a professional. especially if you have a history of taking things apart and putting them back together with pieces left over!!) there are a few ways to lighten or smooth out the trigger pull on your ve. i will start with the easiest and end on the more ill-advised approach! keep in mind, most of these allterations are permanent and parts will need to be replaced should you screw up. also opening your weapon past the piont of fileld stripping may void the manufacturer warranty which would suck! the first thing you can do is file the pin retention button on your slide. that would be the silver button pushing out of the slide towards the back. if you notice, the transfer bar has a small knob sticking up that depresses this button when you pull the trigger. the knob on the transfer bar should be slightly filed as well. you do not want to remove a noticable amount of metal. you only want to leave smooth surfaces. next field strip your weapon. looking at the frame, you will see two pins one on the frame just above the trigger and the other on the frame just below the slide grips (or where they would be if the weapon was assembled). these two pins can be pushed out with a small flathead screw driver or a gun pin tool. back pin first paying attention to the direction the pins come out. (the forward pin should only come out in one direction without extreme force) two pieces will slide away from the gun frame. the hammer block assembly and the trigger assembley with the transfer bar attached by a small spring. once the trigger assembley is removed the slide lock will also fall loose. pay attention to how these pieces come away from the frame and do this very slowly. a small black bar should also fall away from the hammer block once removed this bar holds the block in place by way of the assembley pin. don't lose it! on the back of the hammer block assm. there are two visible springs held in place by two pins. the springs are arranged one over the other. carefully remove these tiny pins and the assm. wil come apart. measure the outer spring. stretch the spring out about 1/8 to 3/8 of an inch and then clip the spring back to the original legnth with wire cutters being careful not to warp the spring with your clipping tool. reassemble and dry fire about fifty times. you will not feel the final results until you have actually fired a live round but the way it feels now is about what you get. finally field strip the weapon. holding the slide this time slowly remove the plastic retaining clip at the very back of the slide. do this by prying down on the clip with a small flathead screwdriver. do this slowly as the extractor spring and pin sleeve will try to fly out. pull apart the slide. first pull out the extractor pin, then the extractor, then the firing pin sear and striker whatever. and finally remove the pin retainer(silver button) and it's tiny spring. stretch and cut this spring just as with the hammer block outer spring making sure not to stretch more than about 1/4 of an inch. clip back to original legnth. reassemble and dry fire. after firing a live round the difference will be very noticable and the comparison from factory to present will be night and day. if done correctly this trigger job will last the life of your pistol or at least of you. if over stretched, your springs may fail and will have to be replaced. this gun is pretty fool proof. i have done work on sigs(not that sigs need any work but why the hell not) glocks, kel tecs, taurus, and quite a few other weapons and i assure you, there is more room for error here than with almost any other make and model. have fun and be safe. if you need in depth instructions on dis or re assembley or would like to see video of me breaking down my sw40ve and using proper terms instead of eye to ear terms, e mail me at [email protected] and i will make a new post.

 

[DasFriek]

HOLY paragraph abuse Batman!

 

[kargo27]

HOLY paragraph abuse Batman!

LOL!

I'm glad this thread exists because I love my Sigma 40 but don't particularly like the trigger travel and pull, either.

Edited to Add: I bought mine used from a pawn shop and it looked like no rounds had been fired through it. It was in pristine condition.

The only problem I had was a failure to feed the last round. It would lock open and I'd be staring at the last round thinking "***?". If anyone has this problem just lube your magazine. I dunked it in some Ed's Red and wiped it down. It cured it and I've had zero issues with it after that fix.

 

[DarthCalvin]

I bought my Sigma .40 new back in August of last year and have put almost a 1500 rds through it since then. I didn't buy mine for a target weapon. I bought mine for CCW. The sigma fit my hands better than the Glock which is what I originally intended to buy. But the price of the Sigma and it's fit finally sold me. The only problems I have had with it was 2 rounds failed to feed when I first bought it.

I had more problems with my service 1911 than I have "ever" had with this Sigma.

 

[resq330]

LOL!


The only problem I had was a failure to feed the last round. It would lock open and I'd be staring at the last round thinking "***?". If anyone has this problem just lube your magazine. I dunked it in some Ed's Red and wiped it down. It cured it and I've had zero issues with it after that fix.

Hey kargo27,

I too have experienced the failure to feed the last round with one of my magazines. I was about ready to just toss it. Can you enlighten me on how to go about cleaning it or lubing it? Take it easy, I'm a newbie.

 

[QUICK_DRAW_McGRAW]

i have the 40CE Allied Forces edition. have had it for a few years now, bought it used form a pawn shop. ive since got 3 more mags for it. i can easily make a 3inch group with 28 rounds at 21 ft.

i carry it EVERY day in a grandfather oak kydex IWB holster and trust my life with it. i am 23years old and grew up shooting DA revolvers so the trigger is nothing for me. i love it and am currently looking for another so i have a matching pair.

here is mine.

 

[KCOLLINS18]

I have found that Remington 9mm bullets are a hair longer than the Blazer Brass 9mm bullets, the Remington always like to get jammed in my Sigma. Usually I can find the Remington ammo at Dick's Sporting Goods which are more expensive than the Blazer Brass of course. My dad has the 9mm XD and again the Remington ammo gets jammed in his as well so its definitly not the gun. Does anybody else have the same problems with the Remington ammo?

 

[tdt91]

The knife looks like a Kershaw1670TBLKST, correct?

 

[hondian]

Where to get trigger job?

I saw in post, from several years ago, where to get a trigger job, but could not contact them. Anyone know where to get it done now? The name of the smith was Tom Novak? At that time cost was $105.

 

[fxstchewy]

I have a S&W 40VE that has probably 800rds through it, i cleaned it the other day and noticed the Firing Pin Safety plunger button has some of the chrome or whatever it is plating coming off of it, it is metal on metal contact so i guess this would be normal? the gun works perfect, is this anything to be concerned with? Thanks.

 

[dogspit]

Trigger Trigger Trigger

Wasn't that Roy Rogers Horse not a firearm?:banghead:

 

[jakobe]

okay update y'all

I have a newer sigma 40ve


the trigger was terrible and actually got worse
way too heavy and too gritty..I worked this guns trigger every chance I got for months
It never lightened up.

I was constantly off target
my shots were always low to the left..(I'm left handed)
I have shot thousands of rounds through this gun

soo....I was gonna trade it in but could only get about 225 for it

I decided to read up on some trigger mods

I removed my sear assembly in the body of the gun
and used my Dremel to polish every single surface to a mirror finish.

used a combination of the RED INK flat paper disks, the wire wheel, the polish pads and compound and also the plastic wisk.

took about 3 hours

I polished everything
including the plastic surfaces, the pins the pin race and all inner surfaces of the brackets

(BTW the metal "cam" had deep machine marks and even a "gouge" in the surface of the cam.)

PAY ATTN TO THIS:
contrary to popular belief the cam is not the only thing that causes grittiness. It is also the inner race of the metal cam part the part that the two pins are in

..this inner race has the same sloppy machined lines..polishing the inner oval slot was the hardest...but well worth it.

I also completely removed the big outer spring and the pigtail spring

lubed it up real well with some Dupont grease, designed for metal to metal or delrin plastic to metal contact.

polished the feed ramp to a mirror finish
polished the sear plate and the upper firing pin sear plate

then lubed the entire gun and wiped clean

re-assembeld


trigger is at least 50% lighter and silky smooth
I have heard from many that this mod will cause the sear to not reset

so I took it to the range today and popped off about 200 rounds
no one single jam or fail to reset...NOT ONE.
slow fire..rapid fire..sideways fire..works perfect
used basic Remington and Wolf target ammo and then a few rounds of Golden Sabres

and my gun barrel was generally dirty because although I cleaned and lubed the mechanicalls I dint feel like cleaning it completely

so this performance was improved even on a filthy gun

and now the gun fires extremely smooth and accurate
I will be permantely replacing my springs with the Wolf springs
but this will do for now.


and during this trip to the range I also was in the market for a .380 or single stack 9mm


so I shot these

KAHR pm9 - no jams in 100 (very nice and accurate but way over priced)
shot a KelTec pf9 NO JAMS in 100
Taurus 709 slim NO JAMS in 100

RUGER LCP .380..Jammed or failed to eject every 5th round
I actually broke the guns internals somehow
they are cheap dont buy one.

ended up buying both the Taurus 709 slim and the Kel-tec pf9 both to be used as CC

 

[PincheOgro1]

I'm not sure why the Sigma is still in production with the advent of the SW99? I've personally never even seen someone with a Sigma.

Brasso,

I just bought a SW40VE last month. I'm a new gun owner. Only been to the range once, so far, but I had no problem with the trigger pull. I think it's a "safety" issue anyway. There's no manual safety on the weapon. I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase.

 

[jasonuscg]

I'm yet another person who used Google to get here.

I bought a Sigma .40 S&W back in '99 I to knew about the 12.5 lb pull before I bought it. I had never shot DA guns before. At the time the only handgun in my possession was a Browning Buckmark - Camp Model "Slab side" (I love that gun). It took me a few boxes and a few hours at the range to get a feel for it, when it came it was like a light came on. I like the "safety" of the pull, hence the lack of a safety and also diminishes liability when putting holes in hostile soft targets.

I was active duty Coast Guard from '01 to '07, I spent quite a few hours qualifying, re-qualifying and carrying the Beretta M92F. Every time I picked up, loaded, holstered, drew, fired, emptied, etc the Beretta I wished for my Sigma. I don't like SA/DA or the need for a safety. The Sigma is simplicity, affordability and reliability.

I'm not a big man and I'm an IT (computers) by profession so no one else should have an excuse about the factory 12.5 lbs trigger pull.

I unfortunately parted with my Sigma in '06 due to a desire to purchase a plane ticket to visit then at the time my fiance. I pawn loaned that and my Buckmark for $250, gawd why did I do that?! Needless to say the day I was to bail them back out to myself she called me as I was just leaving my unit. I told her I had to cut it short and then I could call her back in 30 minutes, that did not happen. In the course of the "conversation" I completely forgot why I had to cut her short. I missed the pawn shop close time by an hour and that was the last day to make a payment or bail them out for that month I had gotten paid that day and was going to get them back. I defaulted on the loan. I was sick.

I tried to plead with the shop owner but he was a total arsehole and told me to shove off in so many words.

Anyway that is water under the bridge.

Now I'm in the market for another Sigma. I'm going to get another .40 S&W model. I'll get one from a local chain farm store called Farm King for $389. I was with my previous Sigma going to get a .357 Sig barrel for it, does anyone know of seller that has any at all? I found 3 or 4 places online back in '03-'05 that had either the S&W or an after market one. I really prefer .357 Sig over the .40 S&W.

While I was using Google to get here I found this.

$50 Mail-in Rebate or Two Extra Magazines!!!!
​

I was like, "No freaking way!!!" I'm have to get one again, now.

Anyway someone please, if you know where to find the .357 Sig barrels for the .40 S&W, R.S.V.P. here.

 

[Teale]

I have myself just bought a sigma 40 cal and would like to know where you can get the trigger job done and for what cost. i would also like to know kind of accessiroes there are for these guns.

Thanks

 

[martialartsblackbelt]

i just baught one too orderd the 2 high cap mags.
you can send it to s&w and thell do it for free.
personally id love for it to be DA then SA
and id be find with the trigger pull.
my only complaint is double tap. im still getting a 4 inch grouping though
perhaps i just need to get used to it,
and as a CCW and home defense weapon i perfer the glock style finger on trigger
safety

 

[ccsniper]

talk about a thread that won't die

 

[martialartsblackbelt]

^^buy a sigma you elitist ^^