Over the years of taking S&W classes and talking with many of their people, I've also been told that when Kimber was first getting into the 1911 business, S&W made some forgings for them for a while.

I was also told they made barrels for Colt (for their Model O Pistol, aka-1911) for a short while.

A couple other gun company names have surfaced now and again, benefiting from S&W's extensive manufacturing capabilities, too. Other gun companies, and some other contracts which are covered by NDA's.

I decided not to take a recent M&P 15 armorer recert, so I may have missed some current details, but in the last couple of the S&W classes (I've been through 5 AR/M16 armorer classes) I did hear some trivia mentioned in the class.

In one of them we were told that the company had acquired the necessary equipment to enable them to now have the capability to make ALL parts that may be needed to produce the rifles, but that it would require curtailing other production capabilities for other gun. So, it was something they could fall back on in a "worst case" scenario where the usual major vendors were unable to provide some of the vendor parts and assemblies (think an impending federal ban and a scarcity of parts occurring overnight). In the meantime, meaning normal conditions, they still chose to use some of the established "common" outside vendors who made AR parts for gun companies.

We were also told that they had started forging their own uppers and lowers.

They were making one of their BCG's themselves, but were still contracting to have another version built by a major vendor. (I can't remember whether it was the DI (gas) or the Piston BCG being out-sourced, sorry.)

They'd decided it was better to acquire the equipment and be able to do their own Magnetic Particle testing, too.

After they acquired the barrel manufacturing equipment from their purchase of T/C Arms, they started making many (all?) of their own rifle barrels.

They make a lot of the small parts, but still outsource others, to save on their own manufacturing capabilities in-house, so they can use their manufacturing capabilities to support their other firearm lines.

Several years ago I only learned by accident (during a call to locate some parts) that the 3rd gen manual safety/decocker assemblies were stainless MIM, made by a contract vendor, but which still received in-house machining and finishing. He'd been around for the AIP (Auto Improvement Program), leading to the 3rd gen's, and even he could keep track of when all the little changes in manufacturing and production had occurred. It all blurs together.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer

Replacing a sear release lever to restore decocking timing is a relatively simple repair for a gunsmith familiar with the S&W Traditional Double Action pistols. The lever is a stamped piece of steel that comes from the factory with the correct angles (end-to-end and side-to-side) already cut on the foot.

The smith just has to slowly file the foot (maintaining the correct angles) until the right "timing" is obtained. This can be a bit tedious, as the older guns, with "more generous" manufacturing tolerances, can sometimes require a lot of filing of the lever in order to reach the right spec. Checking for the right decocking timing requires assembly of the gun, and then disassembly to do another 1 or 2 (maybe) file strokes, and then reassembly to check, etc. etc.

Get too anxious and make "one too many" file strokes, and the lever is now too short (again, which was the problem you were trying to correct, in the first place) ... and you start over with another new lever.

In older classes armorers were taught to "eyeball" the decocking point, but nowadays they can use a set of 3 numbered metal drill bits, positioned in a certain spot, using the non-cutting ends as Go/No-Go gages. Faster to learn to use.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer

Have a 5906 that kept jamming , had to replace extractor , all inside springs and parts etc. , finally even the barrel itself to correct this . Had to send to a parts house to get all the interior parts and barrel . After all has been done it shoots now without jamming . This gun was a stainless Police trade in , I Like the gun and to me was worth fixing

Thanks Fast bolt. I ordered two, I'm going to give it a try myself. If that fails I'll take it to the shop.

I don't know either, but an article is floating around this web site which shows inside the S&W factory after WWII, perhaps in the 1950s. One pictures shows a service guy performing repairs, and on the bench rack, awaiting service, is an original Schofield! And they were servicing it! Those were the days.

I'll give you $50 as is?:-)

$405 is about the price at Buds, where it ships free. You'd have to pay for a FFL transfer though.

I've encountered this kind of deal before. Manufacturers work off of list price and think they're doing you a favor, which in most cases is ridiculous.

Disassembling the 5906 may take some out of their comfort zone. YouTube has a 4 video series titled: GUNSMITHING THE S&W 3RD GENERATION PISTOL by Blubelly2. These videos are great and may instill enough confidence to make the task comfortable.