I was at one of the local shops today and saw a matte S&W 3rd Generation gun. I had never seen a matte 3rd Generation auto so I asked to look at it more closely. It is a 4006 with the S&W adjustable rear sight. It had three very interesting features.

1) The entire gun, including the internals, appears to have been bead blasted. The resulting finish is a very nice matte gray. It is somewhat reminiscent of the bead blasted LadySmith and Lew Horton three-inch revolvers. Even the sight ears and base are matte. Barrel exterior as well. Looked interesting to me. The factory markings were very crisp, and I did not see any signs of blasting to cover corrosion or pitting. Could this be factory or did some one bubba the gun? The reason for that question is item 3.

2) The adjustable rear sight. I just do not see many 4006s with that sight. Very nice sight picture.

3) The safety was very easy to activate and decock; however, flipping the safety off was a bear. I needed two hands to move it. Any ideas here? Is this an indicator that the gun has been in the hands of a Dremel jockey?

Thanks for any help.

The asking price was too high in my opinion at $429, but I think there was room to negotiate and inflation seems to be everywhere today. Thoughts on a good price?

__________________
Scott

I was at one of the local shops today and saw a matte S&W 3rd Generation gun. I had never seen a matte 3rd Generation auto so I asked to look at it more closely. It is a 4006 with the S&W adjustable rear sight. It had three very interesting features.

1) The entire gun, including the internals, appears to have been bead blasted. The resulting finish is a very nice matte gray. It is somewhat reminiscent of the bead blasted LadySmith and Lew Horton three-inch revolvers. Even the sight ears and base are matte. Barrel exterior as well. Looked interesting to me. The factory markings were very crisp, and I did not see any signs of blasting to cover corrosion or pitting. Could this be factory or did some one bubba the gun? The reason for that question is item 3.

2) The adjustable rear sight. I just do not see many 4006s with that sight. Very nice sight picture.

3) The safety was very easy to activate and decock; however, flipping the safety off was a bear. I needed two hands to move it. Any ideas here? Is this an indicator that the gun has been in the hands of a Dremel jockey?

Thanks for any help.

The asking price was too high in my opinion at $429, but I think there was room to negotiate and inflation seems to be everywhere today. Thoughts on a good price?

__________________
Scott

That's the way they came from the factory.
Regards,
BM1

Hmmm... The give away is your comment that the barrel exterior was bead blasted. How about the trigger and hammer?

I purchased a 5946 from CDNN that was categorized as VG - EX. Someone had bead blasted it, put on new Novak sights and put on new grips. However, there was significant gouging, as though the gun had been dropped, on the front of the slide, the bushing and the beavertail. The ENTIRE gun had been bead blasted with 800 grit media - barrel, trigger, hammer, internals, you name it. Whoever did it did a good job, but it was obvious that the gun had suffered some abuse before being refinished. I would recommend you give it a good look over for signs of deep scratching, rounded edges and scrapes that couldn't be removed by bead blasting.

Now, this is not to say that a refinished 3rd Generation is not a good buy. I've bought several 'basket case' guns that I stripped, had bead blasted (though not the barrels!) and put back together with new springs and they shoot like champs!

Edited to add: I re-read your post and noted the comment about the safety being hard to manipulate. This could indicate that the manual safety plunger was installed backwards (easy to do), a situation that is easy to remedy if you know how to get the safety body out. I guarantee the plunger didn't go in backwards at the factory, so my guess is that someone has had the gun apart to refinish it and put it back together wrong.

Is the price good? I don't think so. It's been refinished, someone has had it apart and put it back together wrong, and CDNN sells 'VG - EX' grade 4006s all day for $300 plus shipping. The dealer would have to come off the price at least $60 to get my attention.

bwh,
This is not meant to get into a pissing match with you but,
I have more than a few "third generation" S&W's in Stainless Steel and
all the NIB ones that I have, the barrel has been glass bead blasted.
When I took the tour of the Smith and Wesson plant earlier, at the end of last year (10/26/2007)
and saw the 3913's ("Lady Smiths"), CHP 4006's, 5946's, and the CS45's, being made,
besides a few that I do not remember the model numbers,
but they were all the third generation Stainless Steel slide models types.
The barrels were all being put into an automated glass bead finishing machine, (i.e. blaster).
I even spoke to the girl operating the machine for awhile,
asking about the grain size of the glass bead media, she did not know.
Next to her was a similar machine finishing a the big PC revolver frames.

BTW, Smithscott,
I know a place that is selling them local for $299.95, but that will probably do you no good,
but other people will read this also.
Like BWH asked, "was the trigger and hammer glass bead blasted",
if not it gives it more indication that it probably has never been touched.
The factory markings on the slide should be shinny in the letters if it was roll marked (i.e. Stamped),
if it is not a laser etched version.
The roll markings in the frame are done before glass bead blasting and will be
of a satiny finish IN the numbers and letters.
Another is: if it is a satin finish on the barrel bushing face and around it's diameter that protrudes out from the slide (i.e. bushing head), then it's been bead blasted,
that bushing is pressed in just before final assembly, when the barrel and other parts are fitted.
Regards,
BM1

No worry. I was just offering a second opinion.

I'm from Georgia too, and a lot of 3rd Gen pistols are starting to show up in dealer's cases. Many are Atlanta PD trade-ins, and I'm not sure of the retail source for them but they are way over priced (one dealer near me has two in 'good' condition for over $500 each). Some retailers obviously don't check the current market value for these 3rd Gen pistols before putting a sale tag on them. I told the local dealer that I could buy the same pistol from CDNN (without the 'Atlanta Police Department' engraving) for $200 less than he's asking. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Oh well, some one will buy them."

Well, I went back to the dealer and took a look at it again. The serial number prefix is TFL, dating the frame to 1989 or 1990. The trigger and hammer have not been bead blasted; they appear to have been flash chromed. The hammer is bobbed, and the action is TDA. The barrel crown is shiny, not bead blasted. The rifling and barrel ramp are bright and shiny, but the ramp is not as shiny as other 3rd Generation guns. The barrel bushing is matte, not satin or polished. I have never seen one like it before. The factory markings on the slide are shiny in the letters and have nice contrast to the slide flats.

I also took the gun apart at the dealer's and compared the internals to a 40xx (alloy-framed but I cannot remember the model) marked with "Atlanta Police" markings that the dealer was also selling. The PD gun was marked at $359, so someone thought the 4006 was worth more. The matte finish of the 4006 was remarkable compared to the PD gun. The 4006 slide, for example, was a much darker gray than the PD gun. However, the internals looked very similar. The safety issue turned out to be a collection of lint and dirt combined with no lubrication. If someone outside the factory did the blast work, they did a heck of a job.

The box, on the other hand, is more confusing. Instead of the cardboard box I expected, it was packaged in a new plastic box just like the one my M40-1 arrived in. The box did not have an S&W sticker on it with the details. It had a white sticker with the information on it generated by a laser printer in the location S&W applies the sticker. The sticker says "Custom finish". I am guessing this is a distributor sticker as the dealer mentioned it came from Davidson's.

To make a long story short, there was some dickering and it came home with me. Even if someone did the finish aftermarket, it is an excellent job. I need to take some pics.

__________________
Scott

Scott,
Look on the left side of the frame near the triggerguard.
If there is a "U" stamped in the area, it is a S&W used rework.
I had a 5946 once which was reworked and rebeaded by S&W and it was not the same finish as a new one.
The matte bushing is a definite sign of a refinish by someone.
Don't forget the pics

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PC semiauto collector

Smithscott,

Sounds like you did good! Don't worry about the 'color' of the feed ramp - it'll shine up just fine after a few hundred rounds.

That is the key. I found a small "U" on the left side of the frame above the trigger guard. A refinish makes sense as the red safety dots are bright and appear new.

Camera is charging.

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Scott

Smith auto keep going up and up in a lot of areas. The 4006 was the gun in its day .

I still see them in some state park and some small police dept holsters .