I just bought a 439 in great shape with wooden grips and 2 original mags. What can anyone tell me about this model?

They are great guns but be aware that some of them were subject to a recall - http://smith-wessonforum.com/139617057-post5.html

To me the Model 439 is like a 2nd Generation Model 39

I have one with adjustable sights. Looks a lot like that one^
They are great shooters and are becoming more valuable lately. I was on a crazed search for a 539 and settled on a 439. I have found that I like shooting it a lot. Crazy accurate and soft recoil. Nice pistol. Show us some pics of yours!

I will post some pictures as soon as I find out how to post photos.

I have a 439, blued, fixed sights. I won't say it is crazy accurate, but mine is certainly combat accurate and has been perfectly reliable.

The IL state police replaced the Model 39 with the 439 in about 1980. They replaced the 439 with the 5904 in about 1990 or so.

The 439 is precisely the 2nd Gen version or evolution of the 39/39-2. Like the 39-2, it has an alloy frame and blued steel slide, is a single stack that shipped with a 9-round single stack magazine.

Differences/upgrades from the 39-2 include a new rear sight that is both windage and elevation adjustable and has the stout protective wings. A fixed sight 439 is a true rarity in my experience. The 439 also had the option of an ambidextrous thumb decock lever. Perhaps the biggest difference in the 439 is that it has a passive firing pin lock and is thus "drop safe."

It would be a safe bet that most any 439 will not have as smooth, clean or light a trigger as most 39-2's, but that can be subjective of course.

It's been my experience that no S&W 2nd Gen DA/SA pistol as shipped will have either a double action or single action trigger than can compare to a 39/39-2/59. As a cary or defense gun, it could be argued that a 2nd Gen is a safer or perhaps better choice for the role.

If it is for shooting fun and pride of ownership, I believe 39-2 edges the 439. Far less of the 439 made, if that were a question.

Thanks very much for the information. I assume that I should avoid plus p ammunition. The serial number is A807xxx.

In addition to the wonderful trigger, my experience has been that the 39-2's reset is simply amazing.

One millimeter or less, and a positive tactile and audible "click" is the definition of perfect reset for me. 39-2 does indeed have this, but the 439 and 639 can be made to have just as wonderful triggers with very little work.

The single action reset of the S&W metal receiver pistols is truly spectacular. It is very short and there is an audible click and it can be felt. This is something that is lacking in many other semi-auto pistol designs.

Practicing with regular loads, and then function checking and carrying +P loads should be fine. I called S&W when I got my 439, and they wouldn't flat out tell me that +P was fine because it wasn't within SAAMI specs. But from a reputable manufacturer in limited numbers should be fine. S&W is conservative about their reccomendations.

9mm+P is actually one of VERY few so named +P rounds that actually does indeed have a real SAAMI recognized standard.

S&W's official answer might be dependent on whoever happens to answer the phone that day, but the pistol should likely handle it.

Hilarious to me that people now talk about the "reset" in the 1st and 2nd Gen S&W pistols.

Since NO ONE shot that way until someone started short-stroking the Glock and calling it "shooting to reset," while claiming the biggest advance in pistolcraft since the "modern technique" codified by Jeff Cooper, it is obvious that the "short reset" in the 1st and 2nd Gen pistols was not designed in to accommodate the current strange method of shooting.

When you have trainers like Ken Hackathorn and Larry Vickers saying that shooting to reset, or short-stroking the pistol, is a "training scar" and a bad habit that needs to be corrected, and you have shooters like Jerry Miculek and Rob Leatham who do not use the method (no one ever accused either of them of being slow or unable to hit the target), it is clear that shooting to reset is a bad idea.

One thing people don't think of is the effect it has on shooting other types of firearms that are not designed to be shot that way. In revolver shooting, short stroking will lock up the action "tighter than ole' Dick's hatband."

So, while I love the 39-2 and the later generations, it is certainly not because of a supposed short reset, which I have never noticed. I have gotten along quite nicely for 50 years of shooting without needing to shoot to reset, thank you very much!

Actually my dept was training on shooting the short reset with our Model 39s back in the 1970s well before Gaston made his first pistol. We weren't the only dept training on the short reset altho not a lot of depts. were issuing autos back then.

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183rd FBINA

My grandfather (career Army from 1942-1964) taught me to ride the reset of 1911 pistols when I was a little kid, so not to burst your bubble, but at the very least 10th Mtn Alpine Mountaineers we doing this before Glocks existed.

I won't agree or subscribe to dogma. Each of the four men you name dropped are totally distinguished in their field(s) and I have absolutely no need to pretend I can do what they do nor would I have any desire to laughingly compare myself to any of the four of them.

In exactly the same way, I also have completely different goals then these four gentlemen.

It often seems like some folks in gun forums believe that all handguns are life & death tools for this 'survival of the fittest death match' we call life.

I carry a handgun and I have confidence in my ability with it and the awareness I have in my surroundings. I would like to be better but the other 96% of the handguns I own are for enjoyment and I will work the trigger exactly as I see fit and I won't make apologies for it. In the same way, I don't ask anyone to do it my way, but it's lunacy to tell folks that they can't enjoy one facet of their prized handgun "because they are doing it WRONG."

Nonsense! Gun forum dogma and nonsense.

And just because this seems to keep happening (specifically on the S&W forum), PLEASE don't take my response personally, I typically love the posts your drop, including the one I read earlier with an explanation of Zander's and TALO. Great stuff!

I don't know, I had 1911 types and S&W autos years before there was such a thing as a Glock. As an FN/Browning Hi Power owner too, I much preferred the short reset of the 1911s and S&Ws over the HP's long, indistinct, trigger reset. Later I began using SIG DA/SA pistols, and experienced another pistol that, like the Hi Powers, had a long trigger reset. I remedied that when SIG introduced the Short Reset Triggers. I installed several of those, which produced a trigger reset much like our S&W DA/SA semi-autos. I guess I'm doing something wrong, but I continue to prefer the short reset triggers. I don't have a You Tube channel, website, or published articles like some of those fellows, but did put in 30+ years in LE, sometimes carrying S&W, Colt, or Glock semi-autos with short reset triggers. Never experienced any issues at all with having a short reset. I continue to view a short reset trigger as an asset in a semi-auto pistol......ymmv

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

I would never take it personally. Everyone has a right to an opinion, even if it is different. That is the beauty of it - an open discussion and everyone takes what they like that is good, and leaves what they don't like. Totally cool!

Several have said they were taught shooting to reset before Glocks, and that is fine, I just recall it becoming a "thing" after Glock. I've been doing this so long that sometimes I forget things, but I doubt the military unit and the ISP published much about their training back in those days, or if they did, the general public wasn't made aware of it in the "gun press."

Anyway, for me, shooting to reset or "short stroking" the action is just not for me. If it works for everyone else, have at it. It's just not for me. Sooner or later, perhaps under stress, the release doesn't go quite far enough, and then you get a click instead of a bang. Bad in a match, and worse in a serious encounter. Serious encounters are my interest. That usage is not for everyone, but that is my interest.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Thanks for the comment!

If one was to believe the Glockfans nothing tactical was done before Glock was made. Glock invented everything tactical. Before Glock made light we were just floundering about in the darkness.

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183rd FBINA

Worth a couple of likes, ispcapt.

Well said! LOL!