If you’ve been living under a rock, you may not have heard that Smith & Wesson is now going to offer a third line of polymer framed, striker fired pistols to fill the huge gap between their $350 Sigmas and their $550 M&Ps.
Called the SD9 and SD40, these pistols come with a front-only tritium sight (great for competition, not so great for the self-defense role the guns are supposedly built for) and… well, to be honest I’m so completely disinterested I couldn’t give you all the details.
Caleb at Gun Nuts has done a full write-up on all the info that has been released so far, and you can be sure he’ll have an even more detailed write-up once he’s had a chance to handle the guns in person at the upcoming NRA Show.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Disinterested is an understatement.
Exactly when did the Boycott end???
http://actionamerica.org/guns/swbetray.html
Not I. Personally can’t wait till S&W joins Enron in the trash heap of American business traitors.
Have a nice day! 🙂
The management group that was in charge of Smith & Wesson when they entered into the deal with the Clinton government is long, long gone. Since that time S&W was shold to another company, re-organized, and put under new management. They support a myriad of programs in the shooting sports and the right to keep and bear arms, but I guess people would rather cast stones for a decade old sin than get on with supporting a company that does tons of work to support our right to keep and bear arms.
/rant
What the hell is a finger locater and why do I need it textured?
If these were a replacement to the Sigma I’d be impressed. As a middle ground I’m confused. It’s like loading up a Nissan Altima to the point where it’d actually be cheaper to buy the base level Maxima.
No need to hate on S&W though Stephen. They make good guns.
Caleb is spot on, of course. The current management of S&W is among the most pro-gun, pro-American group in the firearms industry. No one from the old regime (the ones that got in bed with Clinton) is left. It is, literally, a different company now.
So Smith is entering the “gun of the Month” agin?
Is it and updated Sigma or an Undated M&P?
“Personally can’t wait till S&W joins Enron in the trash heap of American business traitors.”
Yeah, THAT’ll really help the gun industry in America and 2nd Amendment Rights in general.
S O R R Y !
Just kiddin. I really like Bob Scott, and I respect his “sand” from bout 10 years back.
Just wanted to make this article interesting…. and see if my SWHC could close above $4.25!!!
And that, my red-blooded friends, is NOT a joke.
Seeing as I can find M&P’s around here for $450 OTD, I just don’t see the point of these things.
I can’t see the point in doing 1/2 the things S&W does anyway, though, so that’s not exactly news.
Here is my question: If the gun is made to the same quality standards of the M&P, why does it cost less? In other words, what does one give up with the SD9/SD40? If the answer is nothing more than removable backstraps, then why buy a M&P? Moreover, if that’s the case, why not just lower the price of the M&P?
Umm…what’s the point?
I think someone at S&W has way too much time on their hands.
Perhaps the thinking is to get more shelf space for S&W in your friendly neighborhood gun store case?
i know it’s completely foolish but one thing i didn’t like about the meat & potatoes was the name itself. i am neither military nor police and i didn’t care having my firearm branded as such. i was awaiting the M&C (medical examiner & coroner) series but it never came to fruition. it looks like an XD and a sigma had a breeding session. it seems to be marketed towards the newly permitted CCW purchaser, it has all the gimmicks in one ugly design.
It looks like a nice update to the Sigma, IMO. I’ll still be recommending M&P’s to those who will listen, but if this helps bring a few more people into the S&W fold I’m all in favor of it.
Now, where’s that G19-sized M&P I’ve been waiting for?
yeah I gotta call a giant fail on this one too. Perhaps if they’d gone with a single stack it might’ve met some segment of the market, but it’s price point and lack of features makes the M&P look much more desirable. It’s like someone found these sitting in a storeroom somewhere and decided it was time to sell them.
oh, and what the hell? a stainless rear sight? who cares? seriously is rusting such a big issue on rear sights? and besides, their stainless slides rust, and easily, so I imagine this sight will too.
Ugh…..
Its looks make me think an M&P and a Sigma got drunk together and woke up having done something they regret.
Do. Not. Want.
So this thing will not be replacing the Sigma? Is there really a big market demand for a gun that’s somewhat better than the Stigma but not as good as the M&P?
As a replacement for the Stigma I can get it…but as a mid-line between the Sigma and the M&P this thing makes absolutely zero sense. I’m hoping somebody at S&W has some significant market research to demonstrate that this is a good move.
I’m with JW777 on this. Smith should have dumped the Smigma long ago and hopefully, this is the move that does it. We all know you don’t pay retail prices for vehicles or guns so the actual price point will be considerably lower than what they’re announcing for MSRP.
Yeah, after thinking it over a bit more I bet this gun *will* replace the Sigma (which they’ll end up phasing out in a few years). S&W is probably trying to disassociate the negative history of that gun with a lower priced model polymer pistol.
I’ve *heard* that Glocks are very cheap to make. If this gun shares some of the M&P’s parts (the extractor looks the same at first glance) and it has the same, simple frame that the Glock has then I’m sure they can sell them at the $400 range and still make some money. The M&P targets the military, LE and competition markets; this probably targets everyone else – especially those who don’t shoot much (which is most of the gun-owning population).
I hope it turns out well. If they take what they learned from the M&P and apply it to this gun then it could end up being a functional, reliable, mid-sized carry gun. I wouldn’t have a problem owning one if it does – especially with S&W’s customer service backing it up.
Actually, foreign militaries make up a substantial percentage of Sigma sales. It’s the gun Smith offers to countries that don’t want to pay for the M&P. The Afghan government owns quite a few, for example.
while i won’t be buying one i bet they will probably sell fairly well. they seem to be marketed towards the person(s) buying a gun for home / self defense who may read a page or two on the interwebs about gun selection and see words like “night sight” or “steel sights”.
when this person goes shopping they will see this gun which “has it all” PLUS the name they remember from sudden impact and plop down the cash. the gun will then spend the rest of it’s life in the drawer of the nightstand next to the maglite with dead batteries.
40 years later it will be cherished as a mint condition wartime relic which grandpa brought back from the war after taking it from a dead enemy combatant. OR it will be his service pistol he was issued during his brief, albeit heroic stint as a secret service agent in the CIA-FBI-DEA-SEALS team as an elite team fighter.
Reply to @Todd on May 7,2010
If the gun is made to the same quality standards of the M&P, why does it cost less?
I think it uses plain nylon 6,6 instead of Zytel. No frame reinforcement with steel chassis. In a way, M&P is over-engineered to eliminate most of the failures experienced by Glock even though the probabilities of such failures is extremely low.
S&W charges a premium for eliminating such failures. But, not everyone can/is willing to pay the premium.
baryon — Good points. From where I stand, it sounds like a substantially less capable gun for not much less money. Given the issues S&W is having with its M&Ps right now, I think they should have put more time into perfecting their flagship than developing a lower-tier option to compete for the bottom of the marketplace.
S&W rep at the armorer’s class at IALEFI said the Sigma will not be offered as of next year, so these SD models will serve as the replacement “entry level”.
If the new guns are offered at the same price point as the Sigma, it’s a win. But I can easily see that cannibalizing some M&P sales. The solution is to offer the guns for a price closer to the M&P, but then you risk losing the bargain buyer. No one will cry about the Sigma going away, though.