3914 Ladysmith steal

1775usmarine · Jan 26, 2020

Drove 147mi one way to buy a 3914 ladysmith, 5 mags, hogue grips, and original grips for $380 plus $25 for gas on the way home. He even threw in the plastic plano ammo can. Will post pics later tonight.

Was the slide stop and safety lever shaved for the ladysmith series? If so then its got the original slide stop and safety lever. I would rate her at a 85 to 90%. I even had a new spare recoil and hammer spring to replace.

jsbethel · Jan 26, 2020

1775usmarine said:
Was the slide stop and safety lever shaved for the ladysmith series?

On the early pistols, yes.

1775usmarine · Jan 26, 2020

SWCZSIG-Vinny · Jan 26, 2020

jsbethel said:
On the early pistols, yes.

Interesting....I guess I had wrongly assumed the slide-stop and decocker/safety on my very early production 3913 NL had been shaved by previous owner. Good to know it might have been factory. It also came to me with black grips. Have to wonder if the early NL's got shipped black?? (Which I like better than grey).
With the non-ambi and shaved controls it's really nice and thin!

1775USMarine....A 3914LS at that price with those nice extras is a great find indeed! Congrats!!

1775usmarine · Jan 26, 2020

SWCZSIG-Vinny said:
Interesting....I guess I had wrongly assumed the slide-stop and decocker/safety on my very early production 3913 NL had been shaved by previous owner. Good to know it might have been factory. It also came to me with black grips. Have to wonder if the early NL's got shipped black?? (Which I like better than grey).
With the non-ambi and shaved controls it's really nice and thin!

1775USMarine....A 3914LS at that price with those nice extras is a great find indeed! Congrats!!

Thanks!
All 5 mags (4 stainless and 1 blued) have the curved base.

triaxle · Jan 26, 2020

They did come that way . The good ones are drying up and going up in price .

1775usmarine · Jan 26, 2020

triaxle said:
They did come that way . The good ones are drying up and going up in price .

Watched one on that auction site go for 500 with original box and 1 mag.

jsbethel · Jan 26, 2020

SWCZSIG-Vinny said:
It also came to me with black grips. Have to wonder if the early NL's got shipped black?? (Which I like better than grey).

It probably came with pre-recall grey grips and an owner replaced them with black. I did that once with an LS when S&W was out of grey grips.

SWCZSIG-Vinny · Jan 27, 2020

jsbethel said:
It probably came with pre-recall grey grips and an owner replaced them with black. I did that once with an LS when S&W was out of grey grips.

Great Info, Thanks! BTW, What was the recall??

jsbethel · Jan 27, 2020

SWCZSIG-Vinny said:
What was the recall??

The early 3rd gen grips could possibly crack when dropped. Post-recall grips have a dimple on the bottom.

GaryS · Jan 27, 2020

Nice pick up at a great price on a great and rare variation. That scratch on the slide lock lever and frame below it are the only blems I see. That looks like someone didn't bother to read how to field strip the gun and used something that caused the scratch. Almost like the slide was locked back and they tried to pry the lever off because it was tight.

I may well be wrong, but I thought that the grey grips were specific to the Lady Smith and the NL guns came with black grips. My NL came with Hogues, so it's just a guess.

The low profile safety and slide lock lever were early production. A couple of years ago Numrich or Brownells had the early slide lock levers for sale at a reasonable price. I bought a couple and did some swapping.

The alternative if you can't find them is to send yours to BMCM. He'll do a shave and dehorn job on them for a reasonable price. I don't have to comment on the quality of his work.

As to the grip recall, I called the factory last year when I bought a LNIB 3914 which has the pre recall grips. They looked it up by serial number and then sent me a new set of grips.

jsbethel · Jan 27, 2020

GaryS said:
I may well be wrong, but I thought that the grey grips were specific to the Lady Smith and the NL guns came with black grips. My NL came with Hogues, so it's just a guess.

My later NIB NL came with grey grips. You can usually tell if the grey and black grips have been switched simply by the color of the grip pin - grey grips used a silver pin and black grips used a dark pin.

1775usmarine · Jan 27, 2020

GaryS said:
Nice pick up at a great price on a great and rare variation. That scratch on the slide lock lever and frame below it are the only blems I see. That looks like someone didn't bother to read how to field strip the gun and used something that caused the scratch. Almost like the slide was locked back and they tried to pry the lever off because it was tight.

I may well be wrong, but I thought that the grey grips were specific to the Lady Smith and the NL guns came with black grips. My NL came with Hogues, so it's just a guess.

The low profile safety and slide lock lever were early production. A couple of years ago Numrich or Brownells had the early slide lock levers for sale at a reasonable price. I bought a couple and did some swapping.

The alternative if you can't find them is to send yours to BMCM. He'll do a shave and dehorn job on them for a reasonable price. I don't have to comment on the quality of his work.

As to the grip recall, I called the factory last year when I bought a LNIB 3914 which has the pre recall grips. They looked it up by serial number and then sent me a new set of grips.

The slide lock lever scratch is actually wear at that high point where it slopes down. The previous owner had it 6 to 8yrs and put 800ish rounds through her. The slide rails on the frame and where the slide rides shows the most wear. This little lady though will spend most of my life in the safe till my 10mo old son or any future daughter is old enough to carry.

GaryS · Jan 27, 2020

That's interesting. As I noted, my 3914NL has Hogue grips. When I have a chance, I'll take one off and see what the pin looks like.

For those keeping track, my ANIB 1989 production 3914 came with low profile ambi safety levers and a low profile slide stop.

It also came with NIP cleaning brush and rod.

It had the original pre recall grips as well and the factory sent me a new pair. It's about the only 3rd Gen I have that is too nice to shoot. It's almost a museum piece.

jsbethel said:
My later NIB NL came with grey grips. You can usually tell if the grey and black grips have been switched simply by the color of the grip pin - grey grips used a silver pin and black grips used a dark pin.

SWCZSIG-Vinny · Jan 27, 2020

jsbethel said:
The early 3rd gen grips could possibly crack when dropped. Post-recall grips have a dimple on the bottom.

Thanks JSBethel, Great info!
My early 3913NL black grips look like original 'non' dimple and have a black retainer pin too. I'm going to contact S&W tomorrow and see what they have to say about recall replacements. If nothing else, I hope to at least verify my pistol's history.

mbliss57 · Jan 28, 2020

Super nice score! Both my 3914LS and NL and standard 3914 came with black grips. Only my 3913s ever had the grey grips. AFAIK that was standard.. 3913= grey 3914= black. I would think any 3914 with grey grips would be replacement. ??

Edit: Great price and these 3rd gen 3914s in any variation seem to be selling at lower prices than in previous years.
Great news for buyers as these are awesome CCW pistols. Not so great for those who bought them 4-6 years ago at what I think was the apex of pricing. Most LNIB 39xx variations were selling for $600+ about 4-5 years ago. I know this as that's what I paid back then for a 3913NL LNIB. (It was the going rate)

1775usmarine · Jan 28, 2020

Emailed the mothership yesterday as the phone kepr ringing. Told mine was made 4/26/1990. Steve couldn't tell me how many were produced but maybe a different rep may be able to get that info.

SWCZSIG-Vinny · Jan 28, 2020

Good News. I called S&W CS today and asked about the recall on the grips for my early 3913 NL. At first the rep said probably not as they've been out of production for so long. But I was gently persuasive saying it would be 'OK' if they only had black grips to honor the recall, and offered my serial number. She put me on hold for quite a few minutes and when she came back asked for my address to ship the new black grips (didn't want grey anyway). Yeah, Baby's got new shoes com'in!!

3914 Ladysmith steal

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