Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob315
I own and love a 9-45. It's been discontinued and hard to find info on. Does anybody know why they stopped making it? It was very popular while they did. Is it dangerous or is there anything I should know about it. I shoot reduced loads and haven't had any problems.
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Questions you asked...
1) There are a few scattered articles out and about on the 'web about the 945, but yes, as far as information goes, the 945 is "less than mainstream." However, here is the good news. There in one single solitary place in the entire existence of humankind that is with no argument
THE single best source of information on any, every and all 945's ever made,
EVER, and you have found it.
This forum is the single best resource for the 945, bar none. Anyone who claims otherwise is wrong. So exercise the search engine here and if information exists in written form, you'll find it here.
2) Why they stopped? Well, there was just more money to be made in plastic guns and 1911's and the true Performance Center works took time, expertise and money to make, and were being offered with high price tags so they were not huge sellers. The 945 itself wasn't shut down and ended so much as the entire Performance Center was dismantled and ended. Any S&W made and sold today with the classy PC logo is just another gun from the (high) production line, maybe offering some unique features and odd visual effects. Unlike the true PC which ended circa 2010-2011, today's "PC" marked guns have absolutely zero increase in quality or hand-fitting, they are just mass produced and at the typical quality of today's S&W product. (lesser than)
3) Anything dangerous? Absolutely not. These guns were fantastic,
all 945's were. There was never a recall no a service bulletin that I've ever heard of.
4) Anything you should know about? Well sure. The first 945's with no-dash did not use a firing pin lock of any sort. It could be argued that they are thus "not drop safe," but I would highly suggest to not drop any handgun. The dash-1 models of the 945 employ a Swartz-style firing pin lock, this is to say that the grip safety is linked to a finger that protrudes upward from the frame to actuate and unlock the firing pin.
Care must be taken when re-assembling the pistol after a simple field strip so that you do not accidentally shear this finger off when putting the slide back on to the frame. If you hold the frame in such a way that the grip safety is not squeezed, the finger will stay hidden in the frame and out of harm's way. Also, all of the PC guns that employ the Briley titanium spherical bushing can be tricky to get back together when putting the barrel back in after a field strip. The tolerances are extremely close, exercise patience.
Perhaps the other item that can really be worth knowing about is that the 945 was made in a near dizzying array of offerings, some only very slightly different than others. That has made some of them very sought after as they can be extremely scarce. The market for the 945 is an odd and interesting one compared to many of the other PC guns as these guns typically don't bring prices nearly as high as others, which I continue to find very curious.
It doesn't make the others way too high in price -- it makes the 945 a ridiculously great buy at a lower price. Consider that in 2007 and 2008, the original MSRP for the 945 was exactly the same as the 952-2. And the market for the 952-2 has these pistols selling for roughly $1,000 to $1,500 more than most of the 952's tend to sell at.
Performance Center 9 - 45
Linear Mode
