wmg1299
Professional
I ran about 100 rounds through my new SA-35 a couple weeks ago with failures to extract on round 3 and round 53. The guys at the range wanted to try the SA-35, so they put another 25-50 rounds through it with 0 failures. I wrote off the two early FTE's as break in issues and left the range happy.
I read killerford's post listing the issues he experienced with his new SA-35. I got a little suspicious because it sounds like our guns shipped from the factory about the same time, and I believe that we live in the same region of the country. I thought it would be odd for his to be the only dud in a shipment with known extractor issues. I took my SA-35 back to range and immediately started experiencing multiple FTE's per magazine.
I experienced 3-5 FTE's per magazine when shooting Winchester White Box 115 gr. FMJ. I've never had problems with Winchester White Box, but I've heard of many shooters getting less than stellar performance from WWB, so I switched ammo just to confirm. Shooting a mix of FMJ from my bag of spare rounds, the SA-35 had one flawless mag, but four mags with 1-2 FTE's each. My spare loose ammo supply was exhausted after 5 mags, but I experienced enough failures to conclude that something was wrong.
I've been patient with break-in periods in the past, but that was when ammo was less than half of the current price. After 300-350 rounds my SA-35 is experiencing an average of 1-2 FTE's per mag. While I find it interesting that spare loose ammo that has been sitting in my bag for who knows how long fired more reliably than a fresh box of WWB, neither performance was what I expect from a new gun in this price range. I hate to say that I now have to send back my first Springfield product. Over the years, I believe that I have owned 15 Springfields, and this is my first problem child. It's a sad day and I'm hoping that Springfield can get things right with the SA-35 extractors before they ruin what would otherwise be a fantastic pistol.
I read killerford's post listing the issues he experienced with his new SA-35. I got a little suspicious because it sounds like our guns shipped from the factory about the same time, and I believe that we live in the same region of the country. I thought it would be odd for his to be the only dud in a shipment with known extractor issues. I took my SA-35 back to range and immediately started experiencing multiple FTE's per magazine.
I experienced 3-5 FTE's per magazine when shooting Winchester White Box 115 gr. FMJ. I've never had problems with Winchester White Box, but I've heard of many shooters getting less than stellar performance from WWB, so I switched ammo just to confirm. Shooting a mix of FMJ from my bag of spare rounds, the SA-35 had one flawless mag, but four mags with 1-2 FTE's each. My spare loose ammo supply was exhausted after 5 mags, but I experienced enough failures to conclude that something was wrong.
I've been patient with break-in periods in the past, but that was when ammo was less than half of the current price. After 300-350 rounds my SA-35 is experiencing an average of 1-2 FTE's per mag. While I find it interesting that spare loose ammo that has been sitting in my bag for who knows how long fired more reliably than a fresh box of WWB, neither performance was what I expect from a new gun in this price range. I hate to say that I now have to send back my first Springfield product. Over the years, I believe that I have owned 15 Springfields, and this is my first problem child. It's a sad day and I'm hoping that Springfield can get things right with the SA-35 extractors before they ruin what would otherwise be a fantastic pistol.