The 5943/5946 models were geared squarely towards law enforcement. Many departments started the switch from wheel guns to semi autos in the late eighties into the early nineties (believe it or not), and many specified a DAO pistol to make the transition easier (draw, point, fire), and the vast majority made by S&W were sold to law enforcement. The 5943 was simply a product of weight saving, and was carried by many LE officers (myself included) until their eventual replacement by (mostly) "tupperware" pistols. Both the 5943 and 5946 are excellent pistols, and stood up to steady diets of +P and +P+ duty ammo, in fact, we qualified with our duty ammo (Federal Hydra shok 124 gr +P+ at the time), and then were issued new duty ammo upon completion. When our 5946 and 5943 models were replaced by Glock 19 and 17 models we were able to buy them for a hundred bucks, which I gladly paid, even though my 5943 had more than fifteen thousand rounds through it with only spring changes. Even though the model 5943 was only catalogued in 1991 and possibly 1992, S&W continued to make them at least until around 2000 (LE contract pistols). I currently have a fellow officers 5943 which needed springs, and he gave it to me in the original box, which is dated 1998, and they were being issued new until 2004 (non TSW models). Pics are of my (now retired) 5943 currently.
Last edited by grif684; 09-16-2013 at 03:09 AM.
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