Originally Posted by 1/74SIS

This thread is in response to a forum members request regarding S&W .45 use,

In the summer of 1985 I was assigned to a twenty man surveillance unit[SIS]. Prior to this I had spent nearly eight years as a SWAT operator and tactical firearms instructor.
The surveillance teams primary handguns were S&W .38 revolvers. SIS had experimented with the Colt 1911a1 .45. Several members told me they didn't feel comfortable carrying a handgun "cocked and locked". Besides my full time duties as a surveillance detective, I became the SIS firearms and tactics instructor. In late 1985 or early 1986 I obtained a prototype S&W Model 645 for testing purposes.
One or two training sessions later "almost everyone" agreed this was a .45 pistol they wanted to carry! Permission was granted by the "brass" and 18 members of SIS purchased S&W Model 645's for duty use.
Members of the unit went through an intensive training and qualification process before the weapons were deployed in the field.

Sidenote: SIS had "flirted" with the 1911's because no one felt the .38 special was an adequate caliber if your primary job was to confront armed criminals. The shotgun got used alot!

The first field use of the Smith .45's was in November of 1986. SIS confronted several armed kidnap suspects-one went the hard way, the others were captured and the victim was recovered. After this incident everyone had night sights installed on their guns.

SIS continued to carry the various models of S&W .45's-645,4506,4566 and 4516's until about 2003 when they switched to Glock .45's.
The various smith .45's with one exception worked very well. Members of the unit were required to fire 100-200 rds per month in training. The only model we had regular problems with was the 4516. S&W replaced the original 4516's we had [approx. 10 guns] with new ones. We had fewer problems with the second batch, but they still didn't function as well as the other models.
We had only two shootings with the 4516's, that I recall. In one incident the gun worked fine and the other the gun malfunctioned. We had several shootings with the 4" and 5" guns with no problems.

The S&W stainless .45's served us well for many years.

Stay safe, John Helms