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My new SA-35 Review

KillerFord1977

KillerFord1977

SAINT
Founding Member
Well, picked up the pistol today. Less than $700 MSRP
Got it cleaned and lubed.
Gathered some ammo and hit the range.
Brought my ‘91 FN Hi-Power along to compare.
Note:
- read on Mec-Gar looking for spare mags for the SA-35 that the BHP mags were one and the same.
- didn't buy spare mags as I have a bunch of BHP mags.

Used Federal, Remington, PMC, and Blazer Brass in 115gr
Used Browning and Sig in 124 gr

——————-
Review:

Good looking pistol.
Fit and finish was nice. Not BHP shiny black style, but the blueing was nice. Subdued, and a little dull in a more combat Mil-Spec 1911 kind of way.
Grips were solid wood checkering and felt really good. A tad more wide than the BHP, bit not much more .
Action was smooth. No issues with mag insertion, slides, function, etc…
Sights are better style than my BHP. I like the new sights of the SA-35. Very easy on target acquisition.
Overall great first impression on the SA-35.
It has the Look and feel of the Hi-Power .

Downside: 1 Mag …. Really ! 😡😨

Range Time:
Loaded my 4 BHP and single mag from the SA-35. Mix of 115 gr types and 124
10 rounds each mag on diff ammo

Shot very well. Good groups. Got used to the gun after 20 rounds.
Felt and handled like my BHP. Swapped a few times between guns to see differences.
Fired 7 mags thru the SA-35. Diff ammo. Diff mags. Shot very well. Got the groups smaller.
Started at 7yrds and went to 10 & 15 yards.
(Flyers were 15 yards😤🥺)
89D814C5-3CDD-48F8-B33F-49C685467C27.jpeg
1307EA63-0E5F-4001-B996-5B6C74E13C7C.jpeg
01D41D0C-843C-459E-998A-5A2CB6D9B4A9.jpeg
6CBF3C88-254E-478A-A0AC-CFA45DF3BBB9.jpeg
4AAF464E-5AFF-4F58-9D37-D7C5E09E1301.jpeg
BE811513-A464-426B-BAD2-113EF5E2630B.jpeg
BBAB247A-89FE-4612-A74D-165D44A13566.jpeg
BC5DFA19-0869-4E58-B887-FA401F3498AF.jpeg


Then it happened….. 😱😱

Failure to extract… 😡😩 ….
Again.. and again … and again.

On 8th mag, with SA mag and 115 Rem, I got the failure.
Cleared it. Put in new mag from BHP. 115 gr Federal. Failure on round 5.
Clear. Repeat. Try new SA mag with 124 gr Browning. Failure on round 8.
Repeat. New mag. Blazer. Failure round 6
And so on and so forth.

Mags 8-13 had failures to extract/feed.
Used all four mags and 4 ammo types to try to isolate mag/ammo.
Issues on all mags and ammo used.😡😡😡😡😡
The youtube reviews abound of the issue.
It persists.
Didn't make it 100 rounds before it failed.

Going to field strip it. Check extractor and move forward…

A pleasant new gun was ruined by a known issue. Such a disappointment on an otherwise great gun.
 
KillerFord1977 said:
Well, picked up the pistol today. Less than $700 MSRP
Got it cleaned and lubed.
Gathered some ammo and hit the range.
Brought my ‘91 FN Hi-Power along to compare.
Note:
- read on Mec-Gar looking for spare mags for the SA-35 that the BHP mags were one and the same.
- didn't buy spare mags as I have a bunch of BHP mags.

Used Federal, Remington, PMC, and Blazer Brass in 115gr
Used Browning and Sig in 124 gr

——————-
Review:

Good looking pistol.
Fit and finish was nice. Not BHP shiny black style, but the blueing was nice. Subdued, and a little dull in a more combat Mil-Spec 1911 kind of way.
Grips were solid wood checkering and felt really good. A tad more wide than the BHP, bit not much more .
Action was smooth. No issues with mag insertion, slides, function, etc…
Sights are better style than my BHP. I like the new sights of the SA-35. Very easy on target acquisition.
Overall great first impression on the SA-35.
It has the Look and feel of the Hi-Power .

Downside: 1 Mag …. Really ! 😡😨

Range Time:
Loaded my 4 BHP and single mag from the SA-35. Mix of 115 gr types and 124
10 rounds each mag on diff ammo

Shot very well. Good groups. Got used to the gun after 20 rounds.
Felt and handled like my BHP. Swapped a few times between guns to see differences.
Fired 7 mags thru the SA-35. Diff ammo. Diff mags. Shot very well. Got the groups smaller.
Started at 7yrds and went to 10 & 15 yards.
(Flyers were 15 yards😤🥺)
View attachment 25574View attachment 25575View attachment 25576View attachment 25577View attachment 25578View attachment 25579View attachment 25580View attachment 25581

Then it happened….. 😱😱

Failure to extract… 😡😩 ….
Again.. and again … and again.

On 8th mag, with SA mag and 115 Rem, I got the failure.
Cleared it. Put in new mag from BHP. 115 gr Federal. Failure on round 5.
Clear. Repeat. Try new SA mag with 124 gr Browning. Failure on round 8.
Repeat. New mag. Blazer. Failure round 6
And so on and so forth.

Mags 8-13 had failures to extract/feed.
Used all four mags and 4 ammo types to try to isolate mag/ammo.
Issues on all mags and ammo used.😡😡😡😡😡
The youtube reviews abound of the issue.
It persists.
Didn't make it 100 rounds before it failed.

Going to field strip it. Check extractor and move forward…

A pleasant new gun was ruined by a known issue. Such a disappointment on an otherwise great gun.
Click to expand...
Ouch. You know we were all hoping you got one that had been fixed.
 
KillerFord1977 said:
Well, picked up the pistol today. Less than $700 MSRP
Got it cleaned and lubed.
Gathered some ammo and hit the range.
Brought my ‘91 FN Hi-Power along to compare.
Note:
- read on Mec-Gar looking for spare mags for the SA-35 that the BHP mags were one and the same.
- didn't buy spare mags as I have a bunch of BHP mags.

Used Federal, Remington, PMC, and Blazer Brass in 115gr
Used Browning and Sig in 124 gr

——————-
Review:

Good looking pistol.
Fit and finish was nice. Not BHP shiny black style, but the blueing was nice. Subdued, and a little dull in a more combat Mil-Spec 1911 kind of way.
Grips were solid wood checkering and felt really good. A tad more wide than the BHP, bit not much more .
Action was smooth. No issues with mag insertion, slides, function, etc…
Sights are better style than my BHP. I like the new sights of the SA-35. Very easy on target acquisition.
Overall great first impression on the SA-35.
It has the Look and feel of the Hi-Power .

Downside: 1 Mag …. Really ! 😡😨

Range Time:
Loaded my 4 BHP and single mag from the SA-35. Mix of 115 gr types and 124
10 rounds each mag on diff ammo

Shot very well. Good groups. Got used to the gun after 20 rounds.
Felt and handled like my BHP. Swapped a few times between guns to see differences.
Fired 7 mags thru the SA-35. Diff ammo. Diff mags. Shot very well. Got the groups smaller.
Started at 7yrds and went to 10 & 15 yards.
(Flyers were 15 yards😤🥺)
View attachment 25574View attachment 25575View attachment 25576View attachment 25577View attachment 25578View attachment 25579View attachment 25580View attachment 25581

Then it happened….. 😱😱

Failure to extract… 😡😩 ….
Again.. and again … and again.

On 8th mag, with SA mag and 115 Rem, I got the failure.
Cleared it. Put in new mag from BHP. 115 gr Federal. Failure on round 5.
Clear. Repeat. Try new SA mag with 124 gr Browning. Failure on round 8.
Repeat. New mag. Blazer. Failure round 6
And so on and so forth.

Mags 8-13 had failures to extract/feed.
Used all four mags and 4 ammo types to try to isolate mag/ammo.
Issues on all mags and ammo used.😡😡😡😡😡
The youtube reviews abound of the issue.
It persists.
Didn't make it 100 rounds before it failed.

Going to field strip it. Check extractor and move forward…

A pleasant new gun was ruined by a known issue. Such a disappointment on an otherwise great gun.
Click to expand...
Congratulations.
 
I was excited to see this review and then very disappointed for you. If you're like me, you expect things to work from the box. It was really disappointing to hear of your issues after this was widely reported. I'm still waiting to find one. In the meantime, I bought a few guns and depleted my funds. I'm hoping to have them built up by the time I see one. Best wishes on a speedy fix.
 
In all seriousness I’m really annoyed at Springfield and really frustrated for @KillerFord1977. I’m an instant gratification person and if I’d dropped the dough and it didn’t even make it to 100 rounds I would be on the phone with SA scorching everyone I could. Fortunately, Killer is more mature than me (That’s right, I said it, don’t make me repeat it). What really burns me is that we’ve all heard the it fails after 800 rounds stories and the you can’t find one because SA is quietly fixing them and then bang, Killer gets a dud right out of the box and it won’t even go 100 rounds. That’s a pretty poor sample size and makes me wonder if that’s why the new FN costs a grand. Maybe the extra 3-400 dollars goes toward QC. SA’s complete and utter silence on this speaks volumes.
 
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