Originally Posted by DCW

Bam-Bam, you said (along with other blaspheme) - "The 3913/14 as the descendants of the ASP, Devel and Trapper 'chopped and channeled', 'hot rodded', customized; 39-2s of the 1980s.......which inspired the whole 3rd Gen of guns."

"What gun did Novak first work on with S&W?"

Bam Bam, as a peripheral part to a future SWCA magazine article your humble author has been working on for the last couple of months (writing is easy; research is the time-consuming part), West Virginian Wayne Novak's first serious Smith & Wesson contribution - beyond better fore-and-aft sights for Smith & Wesson guns - ultimately culminated in two highly recognizable compact pistols known to hardcore S&W types everywhere: Smith & Wesson Model 469, its first compact double-stack 9mm, and the Model 4516, which likewise was that company's first compact .45 ACP.

More so, Novak contributed more than the two compacts, according to former Guns & Ammo feature editor and writer Wiley Clapp, who was smack-dab in the thick of things when undertaken was S&W's multi-year transition to its third-generation semi-autos - from prototypes to retailer store-shelf stocking.

Besides Novak notably having "teamed up with S&W's Tom Campbell in developing the (Model) 745 (.45 ACP) for IPSC shooters," when its third generation of semi-automatics was introduced Smith & Wesson "credited the majority of the ergonomic improvements on the guns" to Novak, according to Clapp's 1989 retrospective in Guns & Ammo.

There's more - a lot more, in fact - as I'll soon be publishing the above and shortly thereafter will either wither under a rain of arrows crashing around me or triumphantly ride a chariot captained by Vestal Virgins as the throngs throw rose petals so that my sandals might never touch the ground.

Uh-huh, and I'm Johnny Cash.