Book just says pre 39. But didn't S&W call it something?

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No life story has happy end.

Jam-o-matic

It was just named the 9mm Automatic Pistol. Other documents refer to it as the 9mm Automatic Pistol Airweight and the bottom of early boxes often have "DA" and "Airweight" written on them.

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Kevin Williams SWCA1649 HF208

That was the Model 59

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

I'm reasonably sure the jamming issue was in large part to shooter inexperience. Pistol shooters brought up on revolvers tend to limp wrist (ride the recoil) of an auto. Untrained (skittish) shooters also tend to do this. Some modern autos are a lot more forgiving of this.

But enough of theories. How 'bout a S&W 9mm Automatic Pistol?

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Psalm 27:2

It was named to 9mm Automatic. No Smith & Wesson was ever called Pre anything.

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Don Mundell

You can’t call something pre anything until the post thing has been invented . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

"You can’t call something pre anything until the post thing has been invented . . . "

Even pencil barrel models?

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No life story has happy end.

My Model 59 (that I purchased new in 1977) never had any problems. It was recalled twice and I did send it back but I never could tell any difference. I still have that pistol, never made any modifications, even has the original grips.

I have a S&W 9mm Automatic Pistol. As a matter of fact I have several. So do most of you!!!

And growing up these were definitely called automatic pistols, not semi-automatic. The over the top brouhaha concerning "assault weapons", another stupid misnomer when the rifles are truly semi-automatic, brought the term semi-automatic to pistols. Very annoying to old people.

Okay, one picture is required:



I'll never take that police tag number off until it burns off. It amuses me....

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Come and take it!!

Dunno.

But back in the day I knew a cop, now long retired, who carried one off-duty.

He called his, 'Blammo.'

Don't know why.

In the boardroom, it might have been called "the army rejected it, sure hope the public will buy them".

The Model 39 did sometimes have feed reliability issues with hollow point and flat point bullets as it's feed ramp was slightly humped, like that of the Browning Hi-Power.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

You mean standard barrel, right?

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Prior to 1958, every S & W firearm was named something. After 1958 everything still was named something but we got lazy and used the model numbers.

The exception seems to be the plastic guns. They may have model numbers but everyone uses their names.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Makes me sound pretty old - but recall when there were very few choices in 9mm ammo.
Most of what you saw was FMJ ('ball'), and much of it was foreign and CHEAP. (that really helped sell the Ruger Blackhawk .357/9mm convertible - that 9mm cylinder provided very cheap shooting)
!24 and 115 gr. was about it.

My first 9mm was a Browning Hi Power (mid-70's) and recall Remington had just come out with a 115 gr JHP that had a profile that came about as close to mimicking a FMJ bullet profile as possible.
It was popular as it fed in most pistols that balked on much of the other JHP's.

The 90 gr. hot number produced by Super Vel seemed to choke many a 9mm pistol.
Speer had a 125 gr JSP that was a RN, but that soft exposed lead on the tip gave problems in many guns also.

Sorry - just reminiscing......

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

The original 9x19 Parabellum was loaded with a truncated cone bullet of approximately 124 grains in weight, but that was changed to the rounded ogive just before WW I. The round nose bullets were reliable feeders in just about any pistol of reasonable quality.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

In 1955, my Dad was gifted a 9mm auto by a patient.
Dad and I referred to it as the "neat 9" and would shoot
it at the farm on the wknds. Now resides on my brothers desk in the box.

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

The feeding problems were caused by the magazine lips, they were made to feed round nose bullets, then came the hollow points and stuff and they had to modify the magazines so the would feed the new shaped bullets. Got this information from George Maynard, worked on the design of the Mod. 39. Good man, glad to have been able to meet him.

Kwill1911's (post#3) picture of the manual that came with the gun says it all.
They were not called the model 39 until 1957/1958. That little green manual is quite collectable in it's own right. They only came with the guns up through sometime in 1958 as I recall. So there were probably less than 5K-6K printed. Considering most were thrown out or lost they are very scarce and quite collectable in their own right.

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

A few hundred before mine. Sweet.

Attached Images

Screenshot_2020-11-10-21-39-21_kindlephoto-7828813.jpg (24.1 KB, 14 views)

14 after mine. Yes, sweet.

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I'm gonna grow fins.

Is yours part of the shipment of 20 to the Armed Forces PX system?

I ask because mine was.

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Psalm 27:2

Sorry I made an error in my post. My serial is 1539 and certainly isn't one of the shipment o 20. Thanks for getting my attention.

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I'm gonna grow fins.

The first booklets are hard to find. I think this is the next instruction sheet:

followed by this one:

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Kevin Williams SWCA1649 HF208

I have serial number 1373