Questions for owners of the Springfield SA-35

Mine refused to shoot groups at 25 yards. It would occasionally put them all in 4 inches, but usually there'd be two or three in as many inches, with the others making the group anywhere from 6" to bigger than the paper.

I returned it to the factory, and a few days ago I got it back with an invoice saying they had refit the slide and frame and tuned the action. They included a target with a pretty little 1.25 inch group. When I read the data on the target, I found that the group was fired at 11 yards with ammunition that sells for a dollar a pop.

I shot ten groups with five different ammos, and if there was any improvement I couldn't see it on the target. I repeated the same series with my Glock 19. In spite of its various handicaps, it did better with every load. I repeated the drill with my wife's SIG P-320 compact. With one handload and one factory load, I got groups under two inches. With another two, they were around 3".

I'm thinking I got a lemon. My questions are:

Have any of you had better results with yours?
What ammo did you use?
Do you know of a gunsmithing firm that can accurize Hi Powers?

I don't own one. Used to own a Hi-Power--terrible trigger pull. Cylinder and Slide is known for Hi-Power accuracy jobs.

DG

I recently sent back one of their 9mm 1911's for the same thing. Wouldn't group at all.

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I'm sure you are aware that some 9mm pistols have bullet preferences. Some like heavy, some like lighter. Maybe try some 147 grain rounds and see if there is any change? That's if you haven't yet of course. Sometimes you have to experiment.

I did some measuring and comparing on mine vs my Browing Hi Power and posted here in a thread called: New SA-35 vs BHP Mark III Standard. Post numbers 7 and 9 explain why mine groups poorly. Sloppy barrel to slide fit.

Mine is pretty sloppy, too. At both ends. I've often read about gunwriters who "shoot their groups with their typewriters ." I was surprised to see Brian Pearce review an SA-35 in this months Handloader. Most of the reviews came out shortly after the gun did several years ago. I have to wonder if it took SA this long to send him one that would actually shoot a group.

I finally got it in a Ransom Rest. The best loads beat 3", but again it was usually one flier that kept it from being much smaller.

What was interesting was, the RR owner brought his brother's Hi-Power to try in my adapters. It was an SA-35 too! With the factory fmj in the gun the first group had 3 in 2" with the other 2 making it about 14". He loaded it with his competition handload, and got a 2" group with 4 in less than 1".

I'm hopeful that the flier problem will abate as the gun breaks in.