Local store has them on sale for $279. Worth it for that price?

You get what you pay for.

Nobody likes them.

They are a $300 pistol with a terrible trigger.

That being said, they work. In my opinion they are a very good full-size $300 pistol.

Had one about ten years ago... traded it away first chance I got.

Go this route. Other than the trigger and lack of a standard rail not a bad gun, but much better options out there including the SD.

I was issued an early, Gen 1 SW40F Sigma when I joined the PD. I decided to keep track of the rounds I put through it and any problems I had in an attempt tp get the Chief to get new pistols. That didn't work since I had just over 8000 rounds through it, mostly my cast bullet reloads, and I had only one FTE. I heard everyone complaining about their reliability problems, but my malfunction was the only one I ever even witnessed on the qual range for the whole department in the 4 years we had them when I worked for that department.

The grip is one of the most comfortable out there. Very ergonomic.

Gen 1 and 2 Sigmas had two weak points. One was the dust cover cracking and the other is the loose tolerance chisel tip strikers breaking. I never experienced the striker issue, but I did have four Sigmas crack their dust covers. S&W stands behind their products and replaces the entire Sigma with a new one with the improvements.

The currently manufactured Sigmas have a closer tolerance round striker system that solved the breaking issue. S&W added the light rail to strengthen the dust cover which solved the frame cracking issue. The mistake S&W management made was making it a propriatary rail instead of a standard rail. The engineers argued against it, but management wouldn't listen.

One weak point of them is the magazine baseplate. They do sometimes crack, especially if you are doing mag changes and drop them on concrete. The magazine bodies, springs and followers are well made and durable, though.

Over the years when I was issued them, I had an SW40F, SW9F, SW357V (yeah, they made a special run of 1500 in .357 Sig), SW9V, SW40V, SW9G and SW40G. I shot them all a lot. The way I looked at it, I was issued a Sigma and forced to carry it on duty, so that's what I shot all the time.

People can complain about the triggers, and yes, they do leave something to be desired, but if you are good with a DA revolver, you can shoot a Sigma well. I never shot less than a perfect qual score with my issued Sigma. In fact, a friend of mine was trying out for the MA State Police STOP Team. We set up their qual course so he could practice. I always shot a perfect score on the STOP Team qual course, too.

Yes, I can shoot the Sigma very well. I'm issued a Glock now. I don't own any Sigmas anymore.

I second the suggestion that you spend a little more and buy a used Glock.

thanks for the info. looked like a decent price, but I think I'll wait a bit

Snowballs are more reliable weapons. I gotta agree with you.

The sad thing about all the Sigma hate is that it was totally avoidable. The engineers working on the Sigma design fought upper management, telling them the testing and design changes were nowhere near complete. If you ask any of the original project engineers, they will all tell you the same thing. The non-gun upper management team assigned to the project forced what was essentially an early prototype into production. They had grand ideas about winning back the LE market which Glock had taken over by a combination of excellent marketing and superior product design.

From my statements here, you may have guessed that I knew several of the individuals involved, although I have not seen most of them in years now. If the non-gun upper management just turned the engineers loose to do what they were good at, and let them take the time needed to properly test and redesign the product, S&W had the potential of releasing a pistol which would have been more like an M&P instead of the early Smegma which resulted. Imagine how the LE market would look today if the M&P was released back in 1993-1994.

Friend has one in .40. I'll give it this, it went bang every time.

Other than that...woof. The pull was absolutely dreadful. Until I came along, he also missed 9/10 shots, and that's because it's placing about 18 inches up and right from POA. He bought it new.

As a throwaway gun, I'm sure it gets the job done.

Damn, used glocks are $450 around here....when you can find them

I have bought several in the $350-375 range over the years locally (most of them Gen2)

Still I would rather pay $450 for a glock than $350 for a Sigma

Better aftermarket support, magazines can be found anywhere, and a much better trigger

Great value gun. I just can't get past the trigger.