Pictured is my SW9M pistol. This is listed as Model SW9M: Sub Compact 9mm. It was released in 1997 and also available in 1998. The Product code is 120120.
It is a straight blow back action and came with one 7 round magazine and a take down tool. They were very problematic. I sent mine back to the factory for warranty work and it was returned to me. A few friends also bought this model and had to return it to the factory, but they were not returned to them.
The factory offered another model as a replacement. I didn't fire this much after getting it back from the factory and just put it away.
I think it also came with the magazine loading tool pictured but don't remember for sure. I thought this would be a good carry pistol when I bought it.
I wonder how many were produced and how many are still out here.

Attached Images

	SW9M a.JPG (130.2 KB, 245 views)
	SW9MM c .JPG (149.8 KB, 188 views)
	SW9M .JPG (152.0 KB, 170 views)

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Ken

I think maybe this was the pistol that caused Glock to sue S&W on a design infringement? S&W ended up paying a settlement I think.

How many are out there?..... Too many!

They were not exactly the high water mark of Smith and Wesson pistol designs.

BTW, If you don't know already, thre was a .380 A.C.P. version that was probably even worse.

It's the first one I've seen. The .380s must have been more plentiful.

If many made a one-way trip back to the factory, no telling how many survive today. Maybe years from now an advanced S & W pistol collector will pay big money to fill that hole in their collection?

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Too bad. That's about the best looking black gun I've ever seen.

They are all over Afghanistan. We furnished the Afghan police and military with them, possibly the Iraqis too.

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213th FBINA

This gun is like Star Wars episode One is to sci-fi nerds. Yeah, its there, but lets pretend its not. Its like the Colt All-American 2000 pistol but at least it was spared the distinction of being the WORST handgun made by a major manufacturer and sold. Colt has that with the 2000. And its not even their design. They got the rights to make and sell the gun after trading all their transferable full-auto M16's to the designers, at least thats the story I've heard.

IIRC, for sure the .380 version came with some sort of zinc-alloy slide that Smith marketed as having a limited service life. IDK about the 9mm version. AFAIK, the Glock suit was in response to Smith's orginal full-size Sigma model. The two little compacts came along later.

How do the sights work on that? Looks like there's just one long trench?

RufusG,
You are correct about the sights on this.

Attached Images

DSC00556.JPG (138.4 KB, 36 views)

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Ken

If you're think that it's going to be worth something someday, you can relax. While the SW380M and SW9M are notable for being perhaps the worst pistols ever made by Smith & Wesson, they're neither rare nor sought after. In fact, they show up in Pawn Shops and Gun Shops from time to time, often selling for around $150 because they're basically S&W's polymer-framed take on the old Ring of Fire guns turned out by the likes of Bryco/Jennings, Raven Arms, Phoenix Arms, and more recently Jimenez, only less reliable, possibly even less durable.
Yeah, they were only in production for a short while, but they were so quick and easy to make thanks to their injection-molded ZAMAK (a Zinc-Aluminium Alloy) Slides that in that time Smith & Wesson turned out a lot of them. I don't know the exact number, but there seems to be no shortage of them, despite the fact that nobody likes them, they break in short order, and Smith & Wesson seems to want to erase them from existence.

Honestly, the only good thing about them is that Smith & Wesson is apparently so ashamed of them that they want to wipe them from the face of the earth, and will thus trade them in for firearms of substantially higher quality and value like the M&P Shield.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Seriously? It looks like the slide is made from pot metal! I recall the Colt 2000, and the S&W Sigma, both ugly as sin. This one, I do not remember at all.

Reminds me of a handgun this fellow showed me at a roadside mini flea market, maybe 30 years ago. I'd stopped because I'd seen a couple of old single shot shotguns on a table (turned out to be junk). I happened to ask "Do you have any more guns for sale?"

He grinned a toothless grin and sort of secretly waved me over to the cab of his truck. He proudly said "Hee hee, I just traded a Marlin 30-30 for this here BLOCK!" I said "A what?". He handed me a black handgun, that looked sorta like a Hi Point, only worse, and I promise you, stamped in the surely pot metal slide, were the letters BLOCK!

He was so proud of the deal he'd just made, for what I assumed he thought was a Glock. I also assumed, he'd never seen a Glock, or knew how it was spelled. It was worse looking than the SW9M, by a long shot.

An SW9M might bring some good money eventually. That one is in really good condition too. You should probably hang on to it. Makes you wonder why your buddies didn't get theirs back.

A Glock and a Hi- Point rent a cheap hotel room...

Bowm-chikka-bow-bow...

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