Finally! Got a SA-35 UPDATE: Range Report

[Grayfox54]

I've known I had to have one of these from the first moment I heard of them. Been looking hard for over year and nobody has had any one in my area. :mad:
This morning I called all the LGSs and still no luck.  A couple of days ago Chucktshoes that he had seen one at Cypress Creek Outdoors in Dyersburg.  So just on a whim I called to see if it was still there. It WAS! 
With nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, I jumped in my truck and headed North.
I'm now the proud owner of a brand spankin' new Springfield Armory SA-35! BTW: price was MSRP at $699. 
Not being a fan of heavily checkered grips, I put a nice set of smooth Houge Pau Ferros on it. Looks great!
I hope to get it to the range next week. Range report to follow.

And here's an updated family portrait.

Thanks Chuck! 

BTW: that's a very nice store. Everything an outdoorsman might need. Very friendly people too. Had a nice chat with the saleslady while I was there. If you're in the area, check it out. 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Grayfox54

[Garufa]

I am totally jealous and happy for you!

[Choatecav]

Congratulations to you!!

Enjoy.......

[Chucktshoes]

@Grayfox54Glad you made the trip and got it. Though I’ve since moved to Jackson, Cypress Creek is still my LGS of choice. Best way I can describe it is a locally owned Bass Pro/Cabela’s. Love that place. 

[xtriggerman]

Looks like nice clean Browning-esk edges for the most part except for the extra chunkiness around the mag catch both sides. A range report coming from one so familiar with real Brownings would be of most interesting content! 

[Tom B]

Nice to see that someone else likes smooth wood grips on their guns. I do that to all my shooters.

[Erich]

Congrats on the add. Fits right in. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a detective version. Great to see a pic of one

[A.J. Holst]

I know it's brand new, but when you manipulate the actions and dry fire, what are your initial impressions when compared to your originals?

[Moped]

Finally someone got one! Glad it was you! 

[BJB]

That is a Sweet looking family you have there. Congratulations on the find

[DJTC45]

Looks good with those grips. That would make a great base gun for Novack to work on. Enjoy I've been on the search for one myself, let us know how it shoots.

[Grayfox54]

Range Report :

Disclaimer: I'm old  and not in the best of health. So don't expect precision shooting. 

I got it to the range today. Beautiful day. temps in the mid-70s and a light breeze. I decided that rather than just stand there and punch holes in paper that I'd take it to the action range. There I could draw from the holster, shoot steel and move around. Give it a good workout. ;)

Here's the range bay as I set it up. 9 targets ranging from 10 to 25 yards. 

Ammo was mix of what I had on hand.
Winchester White Box 115 & 124 gr FMJ
Remington Golden Sabre 124 gr.
Handload 124 gr LRN
Handload 124 gr plated FP. 
All told I put about 300 rounds through the gun. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with the gun. Its no tack driver, but plenty combat accurate. The trigger is a bit heavy, but Hi-Powers generally are. It is quite smooth though. 
The sights are excellent. They give a well defined sight picture and are easy to pick up. 
I really love the shape of the thumb safety. Positive clicks on and off, big enough to easily work, but not so big as to be bulky. Springfield hit a home run with this design. 

I did have three malfunctions. Two failure to fully eject and one feed ramp jam. All of these were with my reloads, so I suspect it was the ammo at fault. 

Generally I started from the draw and just ran the targets until the mag was empty. The steel was easy at all ranges, just couldn't miss. I got good A & B zone hits on the silhouettes at all distances Although they were scattered about a bit. Here's the paper target which was at 10 yards Bear in mind that this was with several types of ammo. It does seem that I need to adjust the rear sight slightly right. 

I also manged to chase an empty Dr. pepper bottle around the range a bit. 

Conclusion: Its a Hi-Power with all the desired upgrades.  I like it! 

[DJTC45]

Great report, looks like a keeper. I'm going to have to find one.

[Choatecav]

24 minutes ago, Grayfox54 said:

Range Report :

Disclaimer: I'm old  and not in the best of health. So don't expect precision shooting. 

I got it to the range today. Beautiful day. temps in the mid-70s and a light breeze. I decided that rather than just stand there and punch holes in paper that I'd take it to the action range. There I could draw from the holster, shoot steel and move around. Give it a good workout.

Here's the range bay as I set it up. 9 targets ranging from 10 to 25 yards. 

Ammo was mix of what I had on hand.
Winchester White Box 115 & 124 gr FMJ
Remington Golden Sabre 124 gr.
Handload 124 gr LRN
Handload 124 gr plated FP. 
All told I put about 300 rounds through the gun. 

Overall, I'm very pleased with the gun. Its no tack driver, but plenty combat accurate. The trigger is a bit heavy, but Hi-Powers generally are. It is quite smooth though. 
The sights are excellent. They give a well defined sight picture and are easy to pick up. 
I really love the shape of the thumb safety. Positive clicks on and off, big enough to easily work, but not so big as to be bulky. Springfield hit a home run with this design. 

I did have three malfunctions. Two failure to fully eject and one feed ramp jam. All of these were with my reloads, so I suspect it was the ammo at fault. 

Generally I started from the draw and just ran the targets until the mag was empty. The steel was easy at all ranges, just couldn't miss. I got good A & B zone hits on the silhouettes at all distances Although they were scattered about a bit. Here's the paper target which was at 10 yards Bear in mind that this was with several types of ammo. It does seem that I need to adjust the rear sight slightly right. 

I also manged to chase an empty Dr. pepper bottle around the range a bit. 

Conclusion: Its a Hi-Power with all the desired upgrades.  I like it! 

Good report and the variety of ammo that you used, as well as the targets, were really a good test.  With mine, I used some premium boxes but the bulk of the diet was Winchester white box.  I too was very pleased with how quickly I could pick up the white dot on front site as it did not compete with anything on the rear.  Also, I loved the trigger feel.  Better than I expected.  A wonderful feel in the hand, for sure.

I don't have to tell you to keep an eye on the failure to ejects.  It was well into my first 175 rounds before I experienced two although I did notice that the ejection was not kicking the brass out very far.  I decided to err on the side of caution and I sent mine back to SA two weeks ago.  I had heard that they were now routinely replacing the ejector with an actual BHP ejector and most reports have been good.  I am hoping for same with mine and hope you don't even need to send back.  

I am curious as to where your serial number fell as I also understand that they have been catching some before they go out the door.  Mine is HP22XX in the sequence so it is probably older than yours.

Enjoy.....

[gregintenn]

Dang it! You got me wanting one again.

Thanks for the report!

[Grayfox54]

5 hours ago, Choatecav said:

I am curious as to where your serial number fell as I also understand that they have been catching some before they go out the door.  Mine is HP22XX in the sequence so it is probably older than yours.

My serial number is in the 65XX range. I hope they got the bugs out before mine was made. 

I also suspect that SA is using a bit stronger recoil spring or at least it feels that way to me. The two failures I had, the case cleared the chamber, but was caught on top of the mag. 

Anyway, I'm happy! 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Grayfox54

[Erich]

Appreciate the review. 

Could you elaborate on the accuracy, I wasn’t sure if you expected better relative to your  HP’s, if those were better shooters (never owned one to know), versus combat accuracy is what is hoped for.

I expected with the longer sight radius and being a modern SA it might have very good accuracy .

[Grayfox54]

Erich, I wasn't really trying for groups. Plus read my disclaimer in the review.  So maybe, I'm not the best to speak of just how accurate these guns can be. I can say that I'm more than pleased with the accuracy as a self defense firearm. The 10 yard target shows that. I can say its on par with my other Hi-Powers. 

I am certain that in steadier hands and with better eyes, the gun is capable of shooting much better than I did. 

[Erich]

10 minutes ago, Grayfox54 said:

 I can say its on par with my other Hi-Powers. 

That’s what I was curious about. Never shot a Bhp and couldn’t get a sense of a comparison in that regard. read the disclaimer, but suspected  you did a bit better in reality from the full text and steels. 

To explain If that wasn’t put well, the second part was trying to get a read for a sense for accuracy, even if you technically aren’t trying. If this makes sense, a return on effort investment. Like results came easier than they should. But I get ya if you feel you don’t feel you could judge that fairly at the point.  

Appreciate the extra info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Choatecav]

8 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

My serial number is in the 65XX range. I hope they got the bugs out before mine was made. 

I also suspect that SA is using a bit stronger recoil spring or at least it feels that way to me. The two failures I had, the case cleared the chamber, but was caught on top of the mag. 

Anyway, I'm happy! 

That is considerably newer in manufacturing than mine.  

Thank you for the reply and I am really glad for you.  

[JustEd]

Looks great.  Glad you like it.  BUY MORE AMMO

[ken_mays]

I finally got a few rounds through one of these and was pretty impressed with it.  The trigger was something I could work with, and the sights and safety were a big improvement over even the MkIII standards.    Accuracy was good too.

[BJB]

I ran into RK today and noticed they had the SA-35 ammo. So I figured I would check out the pistol. No luck.  
Great report though. 

[DodblD]

Deciding between this and the new FN High Powers

[Choatecav]

9 hours ago, DodblD said:

Deciding between this and the new FN High Powers

Cost aside, the answer to this basically comes down to how closely to the original Hi Power you want it to be.  The FN seems to be a very well made pistol, but is not nearly as close of a clone to the original as the SA-35.