S&W SD9 VE vs Ruger 9E

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I'm not a big 9mm fan, I prefer .40 pistols and if I want to shoot 9mm I'll buy a conversion barrel, but I can't deny that the budget 9mm pistols have a draw to them.

The two budget 9's that interest me the most are the S&W SD9 VE and the Ruger 9E. Not factoring price in at all because they're both so cheap that it's irrelevant to me, which pistol would you choose and why? What do you like about them and what don't you like?
 
i briefly owned an SD9VE and was very happy with it. the trigger mechanism is similar to a glock in terms of how the sear and striker interact, although the striker is more at rest thus the trigger is much more "DAO"-ish. with a few apex springs and their striker plunger the trigger becomes quite nice. if you like a shorter trigger travel then it's not the gun for you.

years ago I had an SR9 and i would describe that as another ruger design that was fundamentally solid but poorly executed. Had ruger ditched all the nanny features including the thumb safety and focused on production quality, they would have had a real winner.
 
The thing about the 9E is it doesn't have that stupid loaded chamber indicator and the mag disconnect is easy to remove. I'm seeing them used for under $200. Comes with fixed sights, which is fine for a nine.
 
Owned the SD9VE and have to say that it did shoot very well and ate everything but hated the trigger. It was for the Wifey and ended up with a Canik TP9SF for her and she loves it .
 
And you know what I just thought of for the 9E? Since it takes the same mags as the SR9's, I could chop the grip back to where it will take the 10 round SR9c magazines and have a nice carry pistol with a longer barrel for under $200.
 
It does to some extent, but since I just thought about shortening the 9E grip to take shorter magazines and make it more concealable, unless there are SD9 magazines that are short like the SR9c magazines are, I think the 9E is the better pistol one can buy.

While it may be a mod, it's a damn good mod to do to make a pistol more concealable.
 
I think the 9E is the better pistol one can buy.

then why start a thread asking which pistol people prefer? buy the 9E. buy three of them. sorry but i would rather carry a pocket full of rocks than a ruger 9E. at least the rocks can be thrown reliably.

and good luck shortening the grip. if it's like the SR9, the backstrap is held in place by a pin.
 
Because when I started the thread I wasn't thinking about the SR9c mags being compatible with the 9E by cutting the grip.
 
then why start a thread asking which pistol people prefer? buy the 9E. buy three of them. sorry but i would rather carry a pocket full of rocks than a ruger 9E. at least the rocks can be thrown reliably.

and good luck shortening the grip. if it's like the SR9, the backstrap is held in place by a pin.
Couldn't you just drill a new hole through the frame and backstrap? You could even do that before chopping the grip, so the backstrap would be held in place by the old pin.
 
then why start a thread asking which pistol people prefer? buy the 9E. buy three of them. sorry but i would rather carry a pocket full of rocks than a ruger 9E. at least the rocks can be thrown reliably.

and good luck shortening the grip. if it's like the SR9, the backstrap is held in place by a pin.
Is the 9e really plagued with reliability issues? My only ruger is my lc9s, but it has gone bang every time.
 
Is the 9e really plagued with reliability issues? My only ruger is my lc9s, but it has gone bang every time.
Idk what his deal is with the 9E. Apparently he had an SR9 that wasn't good and/or he didn't like and he thinks another gun in the SR9 family that costs $100 less is even worse on part with that of a Jennings. From all I've been reading, the 9E is pretty good.

However, I have watched and read some things of people that have had issues with their SR9's. Those problems arose a year or two after the SR9 launched, so these reliability issues may have been with early models. The 9E came out in 2014, long after all the issues I read about.

So far I have heard or read nothing bad with the 9E. Have with the SR9 tho.
 
I have an SD9VE beside me as I write this and I highly recommend it. It shoots great, has had zero malfunctions and feels great in my hands.
 
i owned an SR9 and SR9c. neither were reliable. ruger production quality is straight awful. just look at the machining quality on an SR9 slide. i could make a long list of greivances w it. for one the slide serrations on the R side are obscured by the extractor. the serrations are too far forward. this makes the slide difficult to grasp unless one has a perfect grip on it.

both guns had extraction problems and (like all things Ruger) required at least a trip back to them. the saddest part is that the SR9 design is inherently solid. the searing mechanism is simple ala glock. i like the striker living in half cock position as opposed to fully cocked. it's all very nice but execution is piss poor from the quality of parts, machining to the festooning of the gun with "safety features" that nobody wants. now how about those ruger factory magazine springs that feel like a gummy bear after a few hundred rounds. GMAFB. the 9E is the same gun with a few of these "features" removed.

as a whole S&W production quality isn't a whole lot better but their SD9VE seems to be consistent build quality. the one I owned was an excellent pistol. i'm sort of pissed at myself for selling it.

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maybe 4 years ago the SR9 had a place, but nowadays the price is too high to justify purchasing something of such low production quality. there are so many fine options for a bit $$ over an SR9/9E or SD9VE such as the Canik TP9 which is an excellent pistol. on grabagun the Canik is like $20 over the 9E and it comes with two mags as opposed to the 9E's one mag. the SR9 on grabagun does for like over $400 and Carl has them for like $430 cash price. so even from the cheapest sources i do not find such a pistol worth that $$.

-carl has VP9's with night sights and 3 mags for $150 over the SR9 price. i mean come on one would need a head injury to buy the ruger over an HK and i'm not even a VP9 fan
-grabagun has an FN 509 for $500 shipped (with their graba-quote) or canik TP9SF's for under $350
-there are plenty of other options the above are just a few

the ruger semi auto's are still priced like it's 2013. all this being said it's whatever floats the boat. if a 9E gets you excited then go for it. i've owned weird guns over the years because i just like them. not everything has to be the most reliable and "best" pistol to achieve a gun boner. i mean hell i've kept my hi point C9 pistol.
 
I sent my SR9c back twice and decided to sell it after feeling a weird pinch when I pulled the trigger after the 2nd time it came back. Ruger was great at taking it in though with no issues
 
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