Hello,
So I recently bought a 5946 in GB, just received today. Can you tell me the history of this item? Born date, police issue, etc. That would be really helpful. Thank you for your time and expertise.

SN# VHM0923
It's my first SW semi-autos. All metal pistol. Sweet.

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Hmmm, the 5946 was produced 91-99, and page 492 of SCSW 4th edition shows the ship date of 1998 for prefix VHN. I'm guessing it's a typo and should read "VHM". That would be during the 1994 Crime Bill era and would have shipped with 2-10 round magazines, unless it was for police use.

The only mention of specific police use is page 387 stating an "NYPD Contract Model - reported as special order 9162, product code 198569, s/n of example was TDM18xx". Of course that's a Special Order specifically for that dept. Any police organization could have issued the standard model 5946. The seller may know more about the history, or you could pay for a letter from S&W's Roy Jinks to know for sure.

You've got a nice one! Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Added: the finish and grip wear does make me think of a police-issued gun

On the right side of the slide, is it stamped “Will Fire With Magazine Removed”? NYPD 5946’s were stamped that way. I have one of those and a standard 5946 with the mag disconnect that is marked Garden City Police Department. That’s an affluent neighborhood on Long Island, just outside of NY City.

It does. After looking for it, it states the "caution" message on the side.

Still gotta clean it up. Not too much, it's my home defense gun, but my plan is to polish it up and get new Hogue grips for it.

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Could be an NYPD gun. Don't know if other departments wanted the mag disconnect removed. Most chose that gun for the mag disconnect feature. The NYPD also authorized the Glock 19 and SIG Sauer 226. Neither of those had the mag disconnect so i think they were just staying constant with training for all three guns.

Gotcha.

Thanks to all for the insight!

I would order a new recoil spring from Wolff. It will come with a firing pin spring too. There’s a great video on YouTube of how to change out that spring. You’d be surprised at the gunk that might be in the firing pin channel. Order some mag springs from Wolff also and you’ll be all set for another 20 years of service.

My NYPD 5946 is off at Trijicon getting the 20 year old night sights re-lamped. I changed out all the springs already and it will be back in service when it comes back.

This is one of my VERY favorite pistols...ever! I probably shoot this pistol as well as any I have-it is a tremendous choice for your first S&W pistol; congrats!!

Sam