I like the 9mm's and 45's. I find the compacts to be supremely accurate, as reliable as their bigger siblings, loaded with standard features that would cost hundreds on "custom" pistols, undervalued and look good doing all that.

I also shoot them more accurately than I do the full size guns.....or....they shoot more accurately than the full size guns do.

My favorites are the 3913 and 4513.....especially the Shorty 45.

Discuss........ Regards 18DAI

"Discuss".......

YES !!!

You are correct on all points..........



Regards bam-bam....LOL

I have a 457, 469 and a CS9 compacts. I like the 2nd gens as well. I have tried a lot of guns and keep coming back to the Smith autoloaders. Whether compact or full size I can't get enough of em.

I'll choose compact 9mm 3 gen over full size, as the perfect pistol for self defense.

1. Reliable as their big brothers.
2. Very accurate at self defense encounters range (and more).
3. Considerable fire power (and you can always carry extra magazine)
4. Easy to conceal.
I love the slim figure of the 3913/3914/908.
The size is as small as possible without hurting the gun ergonomics and shooting experience (recoil...) .


I guess that at shooting range, the 4" barrel and the heavier weight of the full size is an advantage.
But ,for me, a big and heavier pistol will be left at home, and we all know that the first rule in a gun fighting is to have a gun

I like the 6906. Just picked up two and having one cerakoted since the frame was in bad shape. This will become my EDC. Bought my wife a 908. She loves it. Have CT grips for both ordered.

I am the same its just my wallet cant keep up with my wants.And I still want an M&P in the tan color.

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The Lord cometh and right soon

I like the 6906 and the 908S. I'm planning to pick up a couple more 6906's and single stacks this summer. They are great guns.

My 6906 is one of the most accurate 9mm handguns that I have ever shot. Even my longer barreled Glock 34 does not put them in a smaller circle.

Funny, I was at another forum where the resident experts spoke of the "worthlessness" of single stack pistols. I am soooo undergunned.

Beware of "experts" who make such proclamations. Odds are they have not even held, let alone shot, a single stack 3rd generation pistol.

I usually avoid these experts by not using the internet from 3pm till 9pm. This covers the time when the experts get home from school till their moms put them to bed. Regards 18DAI

18DAI... it's interesting that you shoot the compacts better than their longer brethren, it kind of flies in the face of the "conventional wisdom" that's seen so often in the gun magazines about shorter tubed guns being less accurate than the longer ones.

I have a 4516-1 that I struggle with, but I recent got a 4566 that I can do better with, than my 4506-1.

Maybe it's due to less mass hanging out in space that one has to support/control causing less wavering while aiming/shooting than an inherent accuracy difference between the guns??

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

I've seen the same stuff...8 rounds isn't enough when you pray and spray...but I hit what I'm aiming at...lol. I'm sure you do too.

If you can't gitter done with 7 + 1 of .45ACP then plan B needs to involve a 12GA.

4536

You found CT grips for 6906? or are you cutting down the 5906 grips? If you found them, where?

Thanks.

I have carried a 908S for years and shot countless rounds through it with absolutely no hiccups. I didn't think I would find a gun I liked more until recently purchasing a CS9 from a fellow forum member. It is fantastic. It tags along most everywhere I go. I am going to pick up a CS45 when the funds allow for a tad bit more stopping power. I don't think you can go wrong with any single stack 3rd gen handgun.

What's to discuss?

No disagreement here.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer

I've always been fond of compact .45s, probably for the same reasons that I like large caliber snubbies. There's just something aesthetically appealing to me about them.

To be honest completely honest, being a revolver guy I only purchased a 457 and CS45 because they were NIB and the price was great. I had half a mind to keep them mint as trade fodder to get more wheelguns (I've owned nothing but revolvers for a while!).

Then I made the mistake of firing them... Now I'm thinking about going down to the gun shop to see if they've still got any .45s left.

I am a new fan of the 3rd gen. S&W, after 30 years of shooting pistols I just got into the 3rd gen and love them, have a 908s and a 6906, soon will be looking for a CS9, to bad they are getting tough to find and the prices are going up.

I love my 6906 and 6904s. I shoot my 6904 with square trigger guard and the old sights IDPA. tonight at gander mtn I looked at two 5906s one with silver hammer and trigger and the other they were black.one was nice and one really worn alot. both $500 are they crazy.I wouldnt pay that for one.Id like to get a beater 5906 but not for that price.

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God save the SOUTH

I like the compacts,also.My favorites are the 3913 and the 4516. I also seem to shoot better more consistently with compact pistols.I would say that it might have something to do with older eyes and a shorter sight radius,but the fact is more than 60% of my shooting is point shooting,so I guess that's not it at all.
They feel more natural in my hands,even though I don't have small hands This even translates to revolvers and to Glocks. I have a lightly customed G26 that outshoots every othe 9mm Glock I have. Is it me,or is the pistol? I honestly don't know,I just know what works for me.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

SR,I am negotiating on a nice 6906 currently. This will be my first one of these if it works out.I hope it do.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

Can someone tell me how the grip size of the 4513 and 4013 differ, if at all? I really liked the feel of the 4513TSW I held. I didn't have what the LGS was asking for it at the time and now have a lead on a 4013.

I've owned the 469 , cs9D , cs40 and the 4046TSW. These are top quality weapons. The point that changed Smith & Wesson was the glock. Its lighter weight and cheaper manufacturing cost were hard to compete with. Thus came the M&P line. The 3rd generation pistol is still higher quality and I believe more durable. I've contacted S&W to release a line of classic pistols. When you can mention it to them.

Still running an old 669 myself, the thing kicked a gen 4 Glock back omits box at the range too! It likes Federal 9BP, for it's accuracy load and gets a diet of either those or 124+P Gold Dots for general use.
And yes, the little bugger will stay with my SIG P226 regularly!!
If I may: SMITH AND WESSON, BRING BACK THE THIRD GENERATION! Dale

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"Long live the S&W 3rd. Gen.!"

Congrats, it will not be your last, you will absolutely love it. They shoot better than most full size guns. Hope you are well and have a great evening.

Thank 'ya sir.Hoping to close on it tomorrow.The owner is leaning toward my offer,I think he'll go.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

I find my 5904 to be my most accurate 3rd generation pistol, ... followed closely by my 4566. My 3913 & 3914 are lagging slightly because my hands/fingers are just a bit too long for a totally comfortable grip on them. ... but why don't you ask me next month as they're so close, that, on a given day, I could change my mind.

Jerry

Hi Gunhacker,

Yes I was surprised as well. I was not alone though. Out of 16 of us qualifying last year with full size duty pistols and compact off duty/BUG guns, in the same caliber, six of us who regularly shoot in the top ten, shot perfect scores with our compacts.

In fact all six of us had identical scores 98 day 98 night with the full size duty pistol. 100 day 100 night with the off duty compact.

The qual is 50 shots day, 1 to 25 yards and 50 shots night, 1 to 15 yards.

While discussing it during the smoke and joke afterwards, we came to the conclusion that the shorter slides were an advantage in point shooting as was the shorter distance to the front sight in forming a snap sight picture. Some also opined that the added effort needed to shoot a small pistol well, forced us to focus on the basics harder - thus improving our performance. Dunno..............

There have been threads about this.....phenomena...on other boards. Apparently lots of shooters are more accurate with their compact 45's than with their full size guns.

I'd be interested in y'alls opinions on this topic. This thread is as good as any to discuss it. Regards 18DAI

Good luck Stu Honea!!

Once upon a time I had a 4516 and a 4506 at the same time. I shot the 4516 better, and not because there was anything wrong with the 4506. My feeling was that the 4516 had a whole lot of mass close in to your hands, and as a result tended to move around less and get back on target sooner. Something along the lines of "polar moment of inertia" coming into play. Or I could be completely full of it.

I wouldn't say the same thing about the 9mms, because I don't have a steel compact in that caliber. I'd say I shoot full size and compact nines about the same.

I agree. I had a full size 1006, and a 1013 (4013 converted to 10mm) and my accuracy with the 1013 is amazing when compared to the 1006. And being an alloy, it is amazing to carry. I would bet the only gun I have that is as or more accurate is my LW champion Springfield. Now that gun makes me look good

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God, country, family.

Interesting.

The best group I have ever fired with a sixgun was six rounds out of an eight and three eigths 629. At 25 yards it was about and inch and three eigths.

The best group I have ever fired from an auto is from my Shorty 45. Eight rounds at 20 yards into a group that would completley hide behind a US quarter (a quarter is just under one inch).

The barrel on the Shorty is less than half that of the 629, and of course the sixgun had a trigger that no auto can equal, even a Shorty.

The sixgun group was center to center, the Shorty's outside edge to outside edge so the Shorty's was smaller by almost half.

I'd never really thought about it before, how interesting!

Other than a Glock, the Shorty is the only auto to never, ever let me down. And that's with Keith semi-wadcutters in the Shorty, ball or hollow points in the Glock. The Smith feeds empty brass from the mag, the Glock won't.

Taking all these traits together it's sorta hard to figure why Smith quite making the 3rd gen, don't ya think?


Cat

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Think for yourself.

My performance center shorty 40. It is the smoothest DA pistol I have ever owned.

What sort of problems with the 4516-1? My interest in that I've been agonizing over one I'm looking at and was curious about your problem with it.

I have a difficult time managing the shorter grip frame with the size of my palm/hand, it just doesn't feel like I have a secure grip so it distracts me. My 4566 is built on the same full sized frame as the 4506's, and that along with the shorter slide/barrel is a combination that really clicks with me.

The 4516-1 is a great pistol, no complaints with it mechanically or it's accuracy potential, it just a matter of ergonomics and my meaty (sounds better than fat) palm.

I've been trying to figure out how to adapt a longer grip to it where the back of it extends down to where it's level with the bottom of the mag floor plate and then glue a filler block in it behind the mag well.

Then my palm will be fully supported and I won't feel like I'm always about to drop the thing.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Gunhacker, have you tried the Hogue rubber or wooden grip for the 4516?

I felt the same way you did using the factory Xenoy grip. The rubber Hogues made it a completely different animal, for me. Regards 18DAI

Thanks for the well wish,it worked. I snagged the 6906 today and think it will fit in well.It's like brand new.

I think everything you mentioned in the quoted post has something to do with the compacts being such surprisingly good shooters. Especially with fast point shooting.The benefit of easier carry and negligible performance loss from the shorter barrels with modern ammo just puts the icing on the cake.
I plan to shoot the 6906 tomorrow after church,with a variety of loads to see which weight is the most accurate.I'm hoping it's the 147 grainers.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

I have a brace of 6906s and 5906s. I use the 6906 with the longer magazine with a mag adapter to fit the longer mags into the shorter butt frame. I usually carry only one extra mag. Some of the "kids" point this out to me(they usually have 2 or 3 extra mags). I tell them that when I started as a patrolman I carried a 6 shot .38 special and only 6 extra rounds in a dump pouch(more was prohibited as the chief did not like the "cowboy look" of all that extra ammo). This means that I have 4 more rounds in just the one mag than I packed entirely back in the day. Of course no one really believes that a police chief could be that stupid-LOL.
The 3rd generation Smith autos may be the best series of semi auto handguns ever built by antone-ever.
The 6906 shoots better (for me) than the 5906, I think it has to do with the compactness of the gun and the more weight further back in my hand, also the shorter sight redius seems to service my older eyes than a longer radius-but maybe its just me-but who cares they all shoot very well.

Congrats Stu Honea!!

How did she shoot?

My 3913 is most accurate with 147 grain rounds. Winchester Ranger series has a nice 147 grain carry round too.

Enjoy your 6906!! Regards 18DAI

I have my 3913 and CS9 and now looking for 3914nl. Great Guns.

I love my 457!!!

I hadn't considered Hogues for the 4516... I put a pair on my 4506-1 and did not like them at all (I'm starting feel like a freaking Goldilocks, this grip was toooo...), they added just a bit too much girth for my tastes and what I ended up with is a set of the FBI Palmswell grips for a 1076 on it.

But those are now in serious jeopardy of being yanked off of the 4506... a few months back I lucked out finding a 1076 for sale in my local area, which was quite the feat being in such an unfriendly handgun state as California has become.

You can't buy them anymore from S&W and those FBI grips just have to be mated with the 1076.

But... I had one of those "well, duh" moments after thinking more about trying to adapt a 4506 grip to the 4516 frame.

KISS, keep it simple stupid... I bet I could fashion a filler piece from 1/2" ABS sheet to fit behind the magazine and use some epoxy made for plastics and glue the little sucker to the bottom of the factory grip and then shape it to match the contour.

I'll mess around with it this weekend and post pics if I'm successful.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Gunhacker is that the 10mm with the frame mounted decocker? If so, PM me your address. I'm pretty sure I have a set of those grips floating around. I'll look this weekend and send them to you next week. Regards 18DAI

Gee, maybe I'm not crazy. I also shoot more accurately with my compacts than my 4" and 5" 3rd Gens. But only in the 7 to 15yd area. With the exception of my CS9, have a bit of trouble with it for some reason. Plus what puzzles me is that I group better with my 4513TSW than my 3913. I figured it is because of the tighter specs of the TSW. But my favorite at the range is the 3rd Gen that got me infected with this disease, my 5903, the first S&W in my collection.

I really don't like 3rd generations...

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18DAI,

I too share your views about the efficacy of the smaller S&W autos. For whatever reason, they are VERY accurate for guns their size.

With that said, I have had great luck with all of my 3rd Gens. They are all accurate, but for the size to accuracy ratio, i'll got with the 3900-series.

My custom 3914 (just received back from S&W) is one heck of a gun! The wife likes it, so I guess it'll become hers (wait, ALL of my guns are HER'S!).

Jim Rae at Smith and Wesson Performance Center and his Team there did the following to 'finish' the 3914:

--Decocker modification
--Witness Hole in barrel

After I oogled over the 3914, the FedEx truck arrived with my grips from ROBAR. They complete the gun and make it more 'shootable' to boot!

Very cool. How much for the decock only conversion and the witness hole? I have the decock only feature and witness hole on my 4006TSW and love those features.

regards

That is one really nice 3914. I like the grips, too.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer

Mike/FastBolt,

It cost me Nada, Zip, Zero. S&W was more than generous. I have my 4003TSW Rail Gun there now. That'll cost me about $200. They did a wonderful job. I am more than pleased.

-Greg

I have a 3913 and enjoy shooting it. I just wish my rear sights were adjustable but they are not so I have to hold high as the pistol shoots low for me. Yiogo

Maybe change ammo would bring that group up...124 gr instead of 115 gr, for instance. Faster moving light projectiles usually print lower.