Just wanted to share my new purchase, a used S&W 915.
My first S&W ever, seemed like a great deal.

I've read some good impressions on these models, I was initially looking for the stainless 5906 for over a month and this popped up on Armslist. $340 for the gun and 15 round mag.

The insides look perfect like it hasn't seen many rounds, the outside is around 80%. Some nicks on the aluminum alloy frame that I could do without, but nevertheless the gun has character. The slide has very minor markings in a few small spots, hardly noticeable. Most of the wear is on the frame. Ordered some new straight stock grips from Midway, which should clean up the appearance a bit as these are a bit worn. How can a gun look so worn on the outside but new on the inside?

Taking it to the range tonight, picked up 200 rounds at Wally world to put through her. Range report soon.

Here she is - photos taken in bright sunlight, may make it look faded, color is still good:

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Anything else one might do to improve this thing?

Thanks,

Wes

Congrats! It's hard to improve on the 915. The whole point of it was to be simple and awesome right out of the box. If you like big fat sticky grips you can add Hogue grips to it and they still make night sights that fit the 915. Otherwise the 915 is pretty great as is.

Congrats, you're going to fall in love with it. It doesn't need anything except more ammo.

I think you will be as satisfied with your 915 as I am with mine. The balance is excellent as is the way it fits in my hand. I've mentioned in other posts that the recoil is easy on the arthritic joints in my hand. I've had mine for several years and really enjoy it.

Congrats on a great gun! A fresh recoil spring, $2 from Midway, may be in order but there's probably nothing you need to do immediatly. If you have any feed issues, swap that recoil spring and they should disappear.

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Looks nice. I have been eyeing the 915/910s that have been showing up for reasonable lately. Seems like many are around $250 or sometimes less coming from Israel police/security trade ins. Lots of guns are carried more than shot, probably explains why yours is excellent inside and a little more wear on the outside. Nice score. Enjoy it.

Very nice.

I just bought one from an auction site and am waiting for it to arrive.

BTW you're also not the first to immediately jump on Midway's website and order a fresh set of grips for yours. The factory Delrins are comfortable, but they sure do get banged up easily.

(This post was originally held back pending the mentioned “range report” – see below – in case there were any mechanical issues to discuss as a result but as that report has been delayed, I figured that I would just submit this response to your question today.)
“Wes440”

In regard to your just-obtained Smith & Wesson 915, you mention that you just “Ordered some new straight stock grips from Midway” and were wondering if there was “Anything else one might do to improve this thing?”, I am in complete agreement with “dsk” (above) in that “It doesn't need anything except more ammo”.

The 915 was an early 90’s attempt to offer a quality, high-cap 9mm at a price lower than had been previously associated with the then-current 3rd Generation metal guns in order to compete more readily in the retail sporting goods/personal defense market that had already been affected to some degree by the lower-priced polymer Glock. Obviously, there was some hope to boost LE sales as well.

The issue was that only so much could be done in regard to stripping costs out of the gun while retaining those features, ergonomics, and trigger “feel” that the customer had come to expect in the 5900 series line. Additionally, there was only so much that could be done in regard to the parts and labor required to build anything within that family (even if it was stripped down).

To be honest, about all that was noticeably “removed” were the Novak rear sight, some additional profiling in the dust cover area of the frame, and the higher polished finish of the original (standard) gun (the 5904).

I like Wayne’s sights a lot (and so must many others for you see originals supplied by the factory from several manufacturers these days) but the sights on your gun have what to me (and a growing number of people in this business) is a really good concept: a single white front dot! I won’t get into the argument as to why I (and many others) believe that three dot sights are a gimmick and things like today’s XS Sights single Big Dot or Wayne’s own recently-offered option of a single bead front combined with an all black version of his rear sight are a faster and better idea. But I will tell you that while Smith backed into this combination in an effort to save money (by paying no royalties to Wayne on these guns), its benefits weren’t lost on at least some of the people who were there at the time and it was, in fact, touted as something effective on a fighting (as well as a target) gun.

The dust cover area was different than that seen on the other 5900 and 4000 series pistols but that didn’t affect performance, holster selection or how the gun “felt” to the shooter. And while I am as much of a traditionalist as you can get, as this was designed to be a “work gun” for just about every application imaginable, all things considered, the Matte finish is certainly acceptable to me.

So what you’ve got is pretty much what people who were buying its sister gun, the blued-carbon-steel-anodized-aluminum 5904, were getting. And as opposed to the later, and also mentioned in this thread, 910, the 915 wasn’t subject to the (to me anyway) less-pleasing-to-the-eye-on-this-gun (maybe not on others) slide treatment. For your gun still maintains the conventional Smith pistol appearance and cross-section in this regard.

It also maintains most, if not all, of the mechanical features and metal components of the 5904; something else that differentiates it from 910, which was truly a part of the Smith Value Series [the 915 was a forerunner of that concept and was offered before that name (Value Series) and concept was adopted across the board].

There’s nothing wrong with the 910; especially if it can be had for the right price but the 915’s are the real sleepers in the line. For while inexpensive 5904 LE Trade-Ins have lowered the price of those guns a bit for now, the price on those standard production models will go back up over time as those trades dry up. (The same is true currently for the 910.) However, the 915, which was retailed for less to begin with, has been and I think will continue to be, offered for less in the used gun market as well. That is, until people finally figure out that it (as opposed to the later 910) is basically the same gun as the 5904 and with those sights, might even be a faster gun to employ under certain circumstances on the range and on the street.

By the way, one thing you “might do to improve this thing” is try out the Factory, curved backstrap grips that will fit on to your gun. If you are happy with the straight (flat) backstrap version, fine. But as the tendency is for the rear corner of the butt to rotate upward as the trigger is pressed rearward during the longer double action stroke, some people find that the wider-at-that-point curved backstrap version resists that movement more effectively (for the same reason that the arched mainspring was adopted on the 1911a1 to resist the low shooting seen – for a variety of reasons in the 1911) than when firing guns fitted with the original flat design. Just a thought.

I also agree that with “carbuncle” that you needn’t even change out the recoil spring if the gun runs as is. Fact is, if the gun is running fine (NOTE: Again, this Post is being made before receipt of your range report), the last thing you want to do is start swapping out parts and upsetting the balance of the existing components that is giving you that service. A good case for “leaving well enough alone”.

This was a good pick and I think that you will really like the gun.

I usually like the grips on my pistols to be as small as possible, but I may have to get a curved set just to try out. I defnintely didn't like the feel of the aftermarket Hogues that the last guy put on my 915, as they made the grip impossibly fat.

“dsk”

Grips are obviously a very subjective thing. Probably the most subjective part of the firearm as it is the first thing the user “experiences” when he or she picks up the gun.

But I think that a lot of people overlook the potential that the original curved backstrap style for the full size, double column 3rd Generation guns offers to the shooter.

Do they “work” for everyone? No. Do they even feel “right” to everyone? No. But they are really worth checking out because of where they came from.

All of the 2nd and 3rd Gen metal Smiths were derived from their original Model 39 that was developed back in the early 50’s. And nobody even tries to deny that a good deal of that gun was “inspired by” (“taken from?”) things that the engineers of the time saw in the German guns from the 30’s and 40’s. Usually people point to the double-action trigger (function not design) and the hammer-dropping, slide-mounted safety, while they overlook the gently sweeping, flared-at-bottom, backstrap profile, which was something else that was seen on many of those earlier guns.

Granted, some of that shape aids to overall “pointability” (in most cases, not a bad thing itself) but if you look at the full size (P38), police size (PP) and pocket size (PPK) Walthers and my personal favorite, the Mauser HSc (which carried the idea to its logical extreme), one gets the impression that shape was also developed to resist the rotational movement of the gun in the hand when pressing the trigger back against the longer and heavier (first shot) double action “pull”. Another foreign design from the period that exemplifies this concept (and probably needs to because of its Double-Action-Only trigger mechanism) are the two models of a Seecamp-like .25 Auto made back then by CZ. I firmly believe that its backstrap contours exist to stabilize the gun in the hand because of the potential for rotational movement when pressing the longer DA (revolver-like) trigger for each and every shot.

It was always disappointing to me that the later-day crew at Smith in the late 80’s and early 90’s didn’t recognize this matter when they came up with the flat-backstrap-only profile for the otherwise wonderful 3913/3914/3953/3954 family of single column compact 9mm’s.

If you are looking for something to “try out” as you say, you might want to see if somebody local to you has a used 5903 or 5904 (best case) or 5906 with their original curved grips installed and see how they feel in your hand. That way, if for you they are obviously the wrong choice, you won’t have wasted your money. That said, even if they “feel” good, you might find that if you do invest in a pair and shoot your gun with them they still might not be what you want (me, I like them and the way they also drive my hand up into the area under the tang) but experimenting and trying things out to better ourselves is a big part of what this is all about.

Good Luck to you and I hope you find them worthwhile and helpful to your shooting.

Congrats Wess, I just did the same thing. Could not resist $300 OTD.

Only 1 hiccup in 275 rounds. For some reason, the WWB 115's shot like a LASER, but I had 1 bad round. Good primer strike, no detonation. Went Boom second time around.

Am Sure it was the primer.

May you only ever use it in jest!

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