Particulary models 3914 or 5904? I think they would need to be melonited though. What say you?
C4
Grant, I carried a third gen Smith for a lot of years. I never had a problem with the guns but I’m not sure I see a market for the 5900 series gun at this point. The 3913-14 might have a niche and I could see some guys liking the manual safety especially for AIWB carry but with the market for single column compact pistols being so crowded right now how many would they really sell?
I think a melonited version would do well. If you remember this gun that S&W did specially for us, it was received well: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?23997-One-of-a-kind-S-amp-W-3953
C4
I think it would have as much chance as anything at the moment. I would say that some of the fudds would jump on it, since it is metal, and S&W, and both are supposed to be superior to plastic and none S&W guns, at least in some circles. I also know a few who continue to swear by the guns, some even are able to shoot them kind of scary well. I’m talking being able to hit 3 liter bottle at 100 yards without too much hassle. Granted I can do pretty well at the same distances with a 92, but still impressive feat.
With the older segment of shooters, probably. Newer/younger shooters, no way. Strikers, plastic and high capacity rule the interest of newer/younger shooters. I’ll even go out on a limb(read: talking out of my ass) and say that the 1911 will be all but dead and a boutique pistol in the very near future. If it isn’t already closer than I suspect.
People have been saying that about 1911’s for a long time. WC has some kind of crazy 4-6 month wait for their 1911’s. We sell as many Colt M45’s in the ($1800 dollar range) as we can get our hands on.
Classics will always sell well.
C4
Maybe it’s an old guy type of thing to want metal pistols, but I would be interested in both models. Frankly S&W can keep their M&P, Sigma and their other polymer crap.
I absolutely would. I will be giving AIWB a try for the second half of the year, and when I spec’d out my gear requirements a 3rd Gen Smith likely would have gotten the nod if they were still in production. I would almost certainly pick up an all steel, compact 9mm in either single or double stack 6906 or 3906) if it could be had for under $600. A big plus would be decocker only, since I’m pretty firmly against slide-mounted safeties.
There is definitely a market for a hammer-fired all-steel (or aluminum/steel) pistol like the 3rd gens; I’m just not sure exactly how large that market would be if you were charging buyers current retail(ish) pricing vs. what people are paying for plastic guns vs. the secondary market prices for original 3rd gen Smiths. You also have the open question of how much parts support you would get from the factory. At present, it does look like parts supplies are drying up. The unavailability of 10mm mags has witnessed recent eBay sales of said mags for ~$150 per!
If we are taking requests, I think a TSW 4566 with integral rail, melonite finish, no mag and decock only safeties would be a keeper. This is the current contract duty gun for the WVSP and that might open an opportunity to tag on a planned production run with a smaller commitment from you (just speculating here). A smaller 45 like the light 4513 would likely have its takers too. The 3913 or Lady Smith (same gun with angled dust cover) would be the classic for many. I actually prefer the balance of the aluminum framed 5903 to the needlessly (IMO) heavy all-steel 5906. The smaller 6906 would be a better carry gun size wise, much the way a G19 is the ‘just right’ proportion. Definitely think the melonite would be popular on any model here.
For me, the decock only safety (slide mounted) was the best variant in the 3rd gen line. Hate the riveted rails and billboard etching of the TSW series, but the boxed rails and better fitted slides and barrels were an improvement over the standard guns. A spherical Briley bushing (ala Performance Center variants) would be the cat’s meow.
A new 3913…yes, that would be interesting.
I would love a updated version of the 3913. Melonite it with night sights and a decocker. I would also like to see the full size .45s and 10mm again.
Grant, Yes on both (preferably without the TSW type logos and bolted on rails). Hope you are successful. Also, below is a great idea as well:
Yep, I’ve had two integrally-railed 5906s pass through my hands and have had two of these although I only have one left - Melonite integrally-railed 5946:
Everyone craps on DAO but they’ve likely not tried S&Ws first iteration of it which is just about perfect.
If they look like this, then yes I’d be for it!
I would love to have a 5904 with or without a rail.
I’m on month 4 of 24 for my railed Springfield Professional Sooooo, Yea. Classics will continue to reign IMO.
x2. If it’s that I want it. Now
I should correct my post - the integrally-railed 5906s were TSWs - had the same machined rails as the 5946 pictured above and IIRC had lanyards and were decock-only but not positive on that last part - it’s been a while. At the dealer where I’d found the two 5906TSWs, I also found a 5904TSW and a 3914TSW both with OD green billboards - these two were not integrally-railed, they had the bolt-on. He had a direct line to Lew Horton’s and got some really great S&Ws towards the end of his run a few years ago.
I’m a huge DAO fan and when I found out about the 5946s I really wanted to find one but knew it was going to be tough. One came up on GB and nobody bid. The guy was from the S&W forums so I hit him up there and he accepted my offer. Then a couple/three years later I’m looking at the above described dealer’s site and it has listed a “5946 w/ rail” so I called and asked him couple of questions. He knew who I was so he said “oh yeah, you’d like this one, it’s black and not your normal 5946”. I asked him the first three letters of the serial # - BDX - BOOM! I drove down there so fast you could hear the sonic boom.
We (myself and members at the S&W forums) believe we’ve figured out there are 5 of these in existence. S&W won’t give exact numbers but would tell me that production based on the product number was in the single digits. Four were identified prior to me finding my second one at that dealer’s. It was one number off on the product code and had a “U” stamped on the frame which S&W does to identify guns they’ve taken back in and resold.
Here’s a picture of my pair (used one was sold at the forums shortly after this was taken):
Close-up of the used one:
The letter on the one I bought as new (mind you it says only 5 shipped - to me that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more but with what S&W told me and having identified all the owners at the forums - 5 may be a real possibility):
I found a pic of the 3914TSW:
I carried a 4506 for years as a duty pistol. It would chamber a rock if you could get it in the magazine. Having said that, I do not think I would go back to one as a duty weapon, but I would sure be interested is one of those 3914 TSWs as an off duty gun.
Yes. A 4006 is the only .40 gun I’d be interested in. Ditch the magazine safety, add adjustable fiber optic sights, integral rail, and melonite finish, and it would be a heavy, awesome gun.