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Old 04-21-2009, 11:58 PM
imtoph imtoph is offline
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I live in the wonderful town of Barstow, Ca (Not by choice, I might add). A local store is selling a S&W99QA .40 for 1350! The store owners say they bought it from S&W 4 years ago (roughly) and say it is 1 of 6! The pistol is black, no special markings what-so-ever that i can tell.. I asked other stores a little closer to Los Angeles to double check the story, knowing nothing about these type pistols and pretty much got laughed at and was told that the QA was mass produced and that was a rediculous price. I guess im asking if any one has any input/heard of any rare SW99QA ever produced. Any help would be great.
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Old 04-22-2009, 01:31 AM
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I'm pretty sure they are lying and trying to steal your money.
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Old 04-22-2009, 03:06 AM
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The SW99 line can be a little confusing.

If you look at the SW99 Manual ... http://www.smith-wesson.com/wc...pload/other/SW99.pdf ... you can see where S&W originally planned on producing their licensed version with models similar to the Walther P99 series, meaning a SW99 (TDA - Traditional Double Action w/decocker, what Walther now calls their Anti-Stress, or AS); a SW990 (actual Double Action Only model similar to the P990); and the SW99 QA (Quick Action w/reduced sized decocker button).

S&W produced a limited run of their SW99's for the NJSP, named the SW99NJ, with the Walther TDA/AS sear housing block but without a decocker button (the 990 DAO slide). There's a lot of weird info floating around the internet about this model, but that's another story. I still have the SW99/SW99NJ Armorer Manual I received at a SW99/P99 armorer recert class which I'll keep as a keepsake and for any potential collector's value.

Anyway, S&W later started to produce a model they called the SW990L. Just before its release it was being called the SW990 Lightning by at least a few folks from the company.

Anyway, it was essentially a QA-type pistol but with a 990 DAO slide, meaning no decocker button. This S&W model differed from the Walther P99 QA model in the respect that the Walther had a reduced size decocker button on the slide and their pistol could be decocked without having to pull the trigger. The SW990L had to be decocked like the Sigma, meaning that the trigger had to be pulled on an empty chamber in order to field strip the pistol. I never got a definitive answer from the various folks who I asked about why this was done, but a common opinion was that it made it possible to treat the SW990L (and SW990) like the Sigma when it came to field stripping. Consistency in manipulation across a couple of their model lines, so to speak. Maybe so.

S&W has always been known to make limited numbers of various guns for their own reasons. Sometimes they weren't a regularly cataloged item and preceded a similar production model, or sometimes they've been prototypes for possible future production. (For example, the limited run of Sigmas made in .357SIG, the MSW357V, are popular with collectors.) They've also been known to occasionally sell off these pre-production, prototype or just limited production guns from time to time to their distributors and stocking dealers, which makes them very popular with S&W collectors.

Colt is like this, too. One of the standing jokes about weird Colt models is to never say they've never built some weird model, because some engineer may have done it just to do it ...

Now, I've never asked how many of the SW990 & SW99 QA guns they may have built. Although the models were (and are) listed in the owner Safety & Instruction Manual, they were only mentioned in passing in the 3 armorer classes I attended (which I attended before the 990L models were put into production). In the classes we were left with the impression that S&W would make the 990's & QA's for an order, like a LE contract or large distributor order, but hadn't decided when (or whether) they were going to start producing them. Dunno. I never inquired further about them.

There are some differences between the TDA (AS) and QA models. If I remember right the QA model has a heavier striker spring and a different trigger bar guide, for example.

You could always call back to S&W and ask to talk to someone familiar with the SW99 series, making mention of the specific SW99 QA model you've come across and asking for some info about it. Since the SW99 series isn't in regular commercial production anymore the folks that used to make them are probably assigned to other things, so it might not be a question anybody could answer just off the top of their head.

I'm certainly not an expert on these things, but I followed the SW99/P99 line for a while as an armorer supporting a number of them and as an owner of a couple of them.

Let us know what you find out, though.
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Old 04-23-2009, 05:42 PM
imtoph imtoph is offline
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An update:
I went in to the shop to confront the sales person about the two other dealers informing me of the SW99QA "dime a dozen" situation...

The dealer picked up the phone (later he told me the person he was talking to was the S&W Sales Rep for the Western U.S.) and began to talk "Hey, ______ you remember the SW999QA you sold me about four years ago, the one you told me they only made 6 or so of? Yeah well I have a customer interested in buying and wants to know the specifics/history of the gun."

After the short conversation on the phone, he told me that they were made for the Orange County Sheriff's Department (California) but the Sheriff's Department didn't want them.

The pistol has the Walther Logo engraved on the ejection port, right side as well as the ser no. Also on the right side towards the tip of the gun it has engraved "Carl Walther blah blah blah (something in german)". On the left side it has the Smith & Wesson Springfield, Mo engraving on it. With the typical SW99QA.It also has Trijicon Night Sights installed on it. I do believe it had a test fire shell enclosed in a small manilla envelope sealed and signed with an individuals name/signature on the Seal.
I have the ser no now and have written S&W.

Any one have input?
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Old 04-23-2009, 07:42 PM
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10mm Sonny 10mm Sonny is offline
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I don't care what it is. $1,350 is too much for any SW99.
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Old 04-23-2009, 11:17 PM
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Orange County was one of the early agencies which adopted the SW99 chambered in .40 S&W. Last I heard from someone there they were going to transition to G22's.
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Old 04-24-2009, 06:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by 10mm Sonny:
I don't care what it is. $1,350 is too much for any SW99.
I'll take it a step further and say no mainstream polymer framed pistol (and here I am excluding things like the HK Mk23) is worth $1350.
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Old 04-24-2009, 09:23 PM
torrejon224 torrejon224 is offline
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You can buy two for that price and I doubt there will ever be any real collectors value attached to them as very few agencies adopted them thank to the New Jersey State Police not listening to S&W's engineers. I have several Walther and S&W 99s in 9mm and 45acp and while there one of my absolute favorites due to the ergonomics, I never paid more than $550 for any of them new.
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Old 04-25-2009, 08:01 AM
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It doesn't matter if it was the only one ever built. The SW99 in any form will not be a "collectors" gun. You will never recoup $1350 on it. The gun as a collectible will only bring a premium of $100-$150 over a standard SW99.
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Old 05-02-2009, 04:58 PM
shawn mccarver shawn mccarver is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fastbolt:
The SW99 line can be a little confusing.


Anyway, S&W later started to produce a model they called the SW990L.

Anyway, it was essentially a QA-type pistol but with a 990 DAO slide, meaning no decocker button. This S&W model differed from the Walther P99 QA model in the respect that the Walther had a reduced size decocker button on the slide and their pistol could be decocked without having to pull the trigger. The SW990L had to be decocked like the Sigma, meaning that the trigger had to be pulled on an empty chamber in order to field strip the pistol.

I never got a definitive answer from the various folks who I asked about why this was done, but a common opinion was that it made it possible to treat the SW990L (and SW990) like the Sigma when it came to field stripping. Consistency in manipulation across a couple of their model lines, so to speak. Maybe so.
The actual reason was that S&W feared that some ill-trained cop would press the button and decock his 990L (QA) pistol in the holster leaving it not capable of firing just when the officer needed the pistol in a gun fight.

In light of some of the recent posts on here about officer issues with firearms and malfunctions, and knowing that most cops are not "gun people" and all have rather limited or lackluster training compared to the hobbyist, I think S&W was correct in putting the 990 slide without the decocking button on the slide of the QA or L pistol. If the QA pistol is decocked, the slide must be retracted a little to re-cock the pistol and this is just too dangerous for the men and women in blue or brown, as the case may be, apparently.
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Old 05-28-2014, 07:35 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imtoph View Post
I live in the wonderful town of Barstow, Ca (Not by choice, I might add). A local store is selling a S&W99QA .40 for 1350! The store owners say they bought it from S&W 4 years ago (roughly) and say it is 1 of 6! The pistol is black, no special markings what-so-ever that i can tell.. I asked other stores a little closer to Los Angeles to double check the story, knowing nothing about these type pistols and pretty much got laughed at and was told that the QA was mass produced and that was a rediculous price. I guess im asking if any one has any input/heard of any rare SW99QA ever produced. Any help would be great.
I was a Springfield Police Officer in Springfield Mass. We were issued sw99qa in 40 S&W. There were about 600 issued to our Dept. The 1st ones issued were made completely in Germany I believe. Later issues were hybrids, frames made in Germany and uppers made in Springfield Mass. Maybe there were somet made between the all German and the hybrids? The German guns have white lettering and no serrations on the front of the slide. I believe the Hybrids are all black and have serrations both front and rear of the slide. I think the place to look is at the serrations. I think I saw a black one w/o front serrations but I'm not sure. Hope this helps.
Why not ask the guy what is so rare of a gun issued by the hundreds to PDs both all German and hybrids?
KW
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Old 05-28-2014, 10:26 AM
Guevera Guevera is offline
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I always heard Barstow was a special kind of place, and now I am beginning to understand why.
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Old 06-16-2014, 12:33 AM
Airbrake Airbrake is offline
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Greatgazoo,
How did the SW99 perform for your Department?

Thanks,

Airbrake
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45acp, commercial, engraved, polymer, sigma, springfield, sw99, transition, trijicon, walther

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