S&W decided in the early 90's to attempt to make a "value priced" 3rd Gen pistol... save some of the extras, cut a couple corners where possible all with the goal of dropping the price and hopefully selling MORE pistols. This attempt was the 915 (9mm) and 411 (.40cal) and these were made only two years but in heavy volume. The 915 especially is quite easy to find. In their short run, God knows how many they made but it was a lot.

However, that's not the whole "value line" story -- apparently S&W figured they missed their goal with the 915/411 because they didn't cut costs enough.

This is where the 910/410 came in. These guns further reduced manufacturing costs and these are cheaper guns. So while the 915 is certainly "less" than the 5903 it was modeled after... the 910 is FAR less.

915's and 411's remain a fantastic value even today, a quarter century after S&W debuted them.

So yes, great gun a 915 -- but it's still lesser a gun than a 5903 and most definitely a 5906. But you can definitely find some good buys on them. Gunbroker currently has fourteen gujillion of them (I just counted them. )