by Rich Grassi Now the question comes, "Is the model designation by Smith and Wesson of the SD9 really mean Super Duper 9?" I know the idea was "Self Defense." The objective was to make something not as deluxe as the M&P while making it more appropriate to the current market than the Sigma. Sigma's gotten a bad rap but it hasn't always been a bad gun. A couple of things that keep it back are the trigger - long, heavy and gritty in later examples - and the proprietary dustcover rail. On the SD guns, the industry standard accessory rail appears and, on most examples, the trigger pull is less than classic. Enter Apex Tactical Specialties. We'd received a prototype duty/carry kit for SDs some months back. Except for some excitement in assembly, it worked fine and brought the trigger pull down almost to six pounds. The reset was still long and indistinct. Recently, Apex rolled out their factory standard trigger pull kit. Scott Folk sent it along. Meanwhile, as the tritium in the front sight was AWOL from the day the SD arrived here, I sought to order up some new-fangled sights from a trendsetter in luminous sights - Trijicon. The sights are Trijicon HD sights. Designed to assist in one-hand manipulations of the pistol, it had tritium front and back - something of which I'm not a huge fan and a color paint job in the ring on the front sight - orange. I finally saw what Dave Spaulding had been carping about all those years. I've gotten to the point I can see orange now better than in my youth. Shooting partner Mike Rafferty did the honors in installing the new gear. He used the UNI-200L Universal Sight Mover, thoughtfully provided by Brownells, to do the sight change. While he determined a few changes he would make in such a device to make it more usable, he made quick work of the installation with the Universal unaltered. It was considerably easier than driving them out with mallet and post. The Apex SD kit is clearly well made. Installation was hampered only by design of the pistol. He considered it "a bit of a chore." It's good to have a third hand and magnifying glasses as well as an uncluttered work area. The instructions were provided and made the effort less as there was no guess work. I went out and checked firing function with the use of some years-old Glaser Safety Slugs. Why? It's what I had available to do an initial function check. Light as they are, they chugged through the refitted-SD9 like they were made to go together. That was the only handgun shooting I'd done in months and it was unaimed function fire. Days later, when I got to the gun club, I stapled a B-8 repair center (Champion Targets, ATK) up and loaded with 10 rounds of assorted Winchester 147 grain JHP loads. I sought to shoot Hackathorn's "The Test" - 10 rounds in 10 seconds from 10 yards, at low ready or Sul starting position. The object is to keep all ten bullets in the black part of the NRA bull's eye target. The picture shows the result. It doesn't show the time which was just under a second more than I needed to take. The pull, now down to five pounds, is still rendered through a long trigger pull with a mushy reset. Still, I clearly saw the sights faster than I could run the trigger - something that'll come with practice. The three high rounds in the 9-ring were my only points down, making the target score 97/100 - from a value-priced gun with a little low-cost monkeying around on the trigger and sights. If I deducted another five points for the second over, that leaves me with 92/100 and still puts me in the running. I'm convinced some practice will help me keep the point score as the only one that's relevant. Stapling up a Champion B-21 silhouette, I did some skills drills. The speed of sight acquisition due to that orange front ring around the tritium was greater enough than my control of the trigger that I threw some rounds out. Continued work will get those two functions closer together. The SD9 is quickly becoming a favorite carry piece. It has functioned 100% so far, fits most M&P holsters, and is clearly more accurate than I can handle. (Thanks go out to Smith & Wesson, Apex Tactical Specialties, ATK, Brownells, Trijicon, and Winchester for their assistance in this project.)