I have two, a blue Model 59 that is stone stock, and a nickel plated Model 59 with an aftermarket adjustable rear sight. They're both good guns.

When I was rangemaster for our department, about half the Deputies carried Model 59's and half carried revolvers. We had roughly 300 Model 59's in the field at that time. About 1978 or '79, S&W came out with some upgrades to the guns, which entailed replacing the extractor & spring, guiderod, barrel bushing and magazine followers. Any Model 59 that has the upgraded parts will have a punch mark on the front of the extractor, towards the muzzle. The improved magazine followers have four legs on them, which the early followers didn't have.

As mentioned, ammunition was problematic back then. The early guns wouldn't even feed S&W 9x19 ammunition, but it was actually made by Fiocchi anyway. We used Winchester 100 grain Soft Point in the early years, and when Winchester introduced their excellent Silver Tip 9x19 ammunition, we immediately adopted it. The Silver Tip bullets expanded as advertized in all our shootings....

Hope this helps.

Fred