All,
It's GREAT to see all of the Smith 'Bottom Feeders' in attendance! In the last year, I have purchased seven (7) of them, due to my gunsmith's urging. "Mama Bear" is NOT happy!
To placate her, I bought her the custom 3914 and sent it back to Springfield to have the safety changed to a decocker-only and the barrel witness hole. The upepr half and parts were hard-chromed by the previous owner. It has a Wolff RP 17# mainspring to lighten up the trigger pull.
I have 1X 645 (before pics, prior to her going to Chestnut Mountain Sports where Karl Sokol will 'modernize' her). Next up are the two 4566s. One is a 'Rail Gun' with the addition of the Novak M1913 rail and X300 with SIG P220/226 DevGroup Switch.
There's also the 4003TSWs. One is without the TSW Rail and the other is a 'Rail Gun'. The one with the rail is presently in Springfield and is getting a facelift with a refinish. If it works, I may send it back to them to have the TSW rail taken off and the Novak Rail riveted on, so it'll accept the same X300 setup as the 4566 'Rail Gun'. The current TSW rail was slightly opened up to accept the U/P latch on the X300.
All of the 3rd Gens in my armory will have the ROBAR-ized grip stippling (the 3914, 4566s, 1X 4003 and the 645 have them so stippled). The ones that are left are the 5906 and 4003 'Rail Gun'.
All of the 3rd Gens (sans the 3914) have the Ed Brown extended safety. I bought nine (9) of them for $57 on Gun Broker (thinking it was for 1/ea). Imagine my surprise when 9 of them showed up. 7 were for 10mm/.45 and 2 were for 9mm/.40 S&W. The 4003TSWs used both of the smaller units. To my happy surprise, I found that the 10mm/.45 safety fit the 5906 with a modicum of shaving. VERY EASY to wipe off the safety during the draw.
I just changed the triggers on the 4566s to the CHP Stainless triggers (from B-'Nells) from the black MIM triggers. It just looks better with the stainless set-up.
The 5906 was taken home, stripped naked and cleaned from stem to stern. She was a former San Diego PD officer's piece. She was actually pretty clean inside. I replaced her trigger with one of the MIMs from the 4566s and a new bobbed MIM hammer from Gun Parts. I like the bobbed hammer. Outside of holster retention, the spur does nothing, as the 3rd Gens have re-strike capability.
The 645 will wear a thinner .312" CHP trigger and a bobbed/serrated 6906 hammer when she comes back from a summer in Vermont. Karl Sokol will also fit a 1911 front Novak Tritium sight as well as de-horn the piece. As I stated, she will have a set of 1988-vintage S&W Nylon grip panels ROBAR-ized. She'll be gently bead-blasted to give her a nice stain look.
The 5906 is at the 'smith now getting de-horned. After she comes back with "good manners", she'll go to Springfield and be entrusted to Jim Rae and his fellow Team members at the Performance Center. There, she'll have a S&W factory Tritium front sight fitted, bead blasted, barrel witness hole and gone through to make sure she's fit for duty. She'll wear a set of Xenoy straight grips that were ROBAR-ized.
The 3rd Gens are ADDICTIVE. Their value is further buttressed by the fact that they are wonderful shooters and are built with so much redundancy. They truly are the best value in pistols.
