Thanks folks! It's funny, I was halfway expecting it to malfunction some, a little (I'm sorry to admit) because of its reputation in some quarters (which I believe may be based largely on the early experiences of police departments and private buyers used to revolvers and shooting wacky '70s JHP 9x19 ammo) but mostly because of the old springs and hurried cleaning and lubrication. However I was really surprised by how easy it was to hit precisely and fast with it. I was expecting and would have been happy with merely acceptable results. Dry-firing it before I took it to the range, the trigger sure felt great but with live ammo I was shooting it as well as I used to shoot my German-made P226 ten years ago with ten-years-younger eyes, vastly superior sights, and thousands of rounds downrange on that particular pistol.

I know the S&W and Mec-Gar 5906 and 459 magazines are backwards-compatible with the 59 - is this true of their springs as well? I'd like to have at least one functional original factory magazine just for appearance's sake and the one I have seems fine other than perhaps its spring. Thanks again for the kind words and advice!