VERY Interesting...A 13 round 6906 magazine!

I

imarangemaster

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
523
Reaction score
1,102
Location
N California Sierras
I mentioned before the S&W factory Model 59 magazine with the unusual factory follower. Instead of four equal corner legs like early 59 mags, or 2 long 2 short corner legs like 469/6906 mags (and later orange 5906 mags, it had two center round feet that went inside the spring coils like Browning High Power magazines.

It is from a factory mag (S&W 9mm and A on the base, and the top half is virtually identical to 4 leg mag followers. The feet are a bit shorter than the 469 legs.

With that in mind, I put it in my 6906 mag that I have the flat base plate on, and used an early flate sheet metal base plate lock from a 59 mag (about 1/32" thinner than the plastic lock plates on late S&W mags.

The result was a 13 round Model 6906 magazine. It even allowed plenty of compression still to insert the magazine effortlessly. A function check shows it works flawlessly!

I now carry my 6906 with 14 rounds on board, with a flush fitting magazine! Thats almost twice as many rounds as my Shield 40, even with the 7 round magazine.

293TcgN.jpg


8PvZL8Z.jpg
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
8gBmGTX.jpg


Left to right:
Model 59 follower (early)
Model 469/6906 follower (all)
Model 59 follower (apparently late)
Model 5906 Follower

I actually found a second "Late" follower in another one of my 59 mags just now when I opened it up to replace the spring and follower with orange ones. There is a slight difference in the spring for the two center feet. It is the same length and same number of coils, though in both mags with it, the top half of the last spring coil that engages the follower is tipped up at an angle from about mid-coil.
 
imarangemaster said:
8gBmGTX.jpg


Left to right:
Model 59 follower (early)
Model 469/6906 follower (all)
Model 59 follower (apparently late)
Model 5906 Follower
Click to expand...

The two followers on left look remarkably like the followers in
Kel-Tec's P-11 magazines. Likely *not* a coincidence, as
Mr. Kelgren designed the P-11 in 1995, around the S&W
Model 59 magazine (and also to be the smallest, lightest 9mm
that would hold 10 rounds, in observance of the impending
AWB), as S&W service pistols were quite popular with LE,
at the time.

It's been a 'thing' in P-11 world to cut down the four legs on
the follower, giving an extra round--a very quick & simple
mod, to make a "P-12". A more challenging variant is cutting
the legs further, and relieving the base of follower to allow it
to settle down into the top loop of the spring--that ups mag
capacity by two rounds (a P-13! :D), but is a bit riskier in
execution.

Seeing as P-11's readily accept & function with S&W Model
59xx magazines, I'd be a dollar to a donut that getting 14
rounds into a 6906 mag would be entirely "do-able", at
least with the far left follower. :)
 
There were at least a couple of revisions among the 15rd orange 59XX followers, too.

I have orange followers some from the earliest 15rd mags shipped, as well as the last "current" (to my knowledge) 15rd follower. I just went out to my bench and parts to make some quick pics of 3 different versions. I wiped them off a bit to hopefully make the differences easier to see. ;)

In this pic you can see all 3 versions. It's hard to see in this light from my magnifying FL lamp, but the ones on each side (outside) are a darker orange. The one in the middle is a lighter orange, and matches the last revision I received of them.


Note where the pin punch is pointing in this pic. It's pointing to a revision of the profile of the front of the follower, with more of a sweeping arc that extends all the way to the L/side, above the slide stop tab notch.


This pic shows 2 brand new (and clean :) ) late revision followers, bracketing the oldest orange 15rd follower (middle). Not the way both sides of the follower are much more rounded over, and lower on the L/side. I only have 1 of these left, but they came from carry mags that were received just as the company was beginning to ship new 15rd mags. It fed everything ever tried in the gun used by the then-head instructor back in those days.


In this pic of the 3 used followers, you can easily see the lower side height of the oldest one on the right.


Now, S&W being S&W, sometimes a change in color (of plastic parts or paint on springs) might indicate a revision of the design, a change of the materials used (or a specification used by either S&W or their vendor), or even a change in the vendor (according to what they've told me over the years, so who really knows ;) ).
 
Last edited:
It just occurred to me that I didn't include pics to show what I thought was an interesting, but subtle, difference between the dark orange (earlier) revision and the bright orange (late) revision 15rd followers. So, I just took another couple of pics.

This pic is taken from the rear of the older (right) and newer (left) followers. Note the slight upward curving swell, or lift, on the L/side of the top of the older dark orange follower, before it reaches the outside corner. Note how the latest revision (left) lacks the "lift" in the curve, and is just a sweeping single curve up to the outside edge.


Yes, the bottom of the legs also received a beveled edge on the outside in the latest revision.

For comparison, in this pic I included the oldest (dark) orange follower, on the right. See how the upward lift in the top of the follower's curve is much more pronounced, not to mention more rounded and lower on each side?
 
Last edited:
imarangemaster said:
I mentioned before the S&W factory Model 59 magazine with the unusual factory follower. Instead of four equal corner legs like early 59 mags, or 2 long 2 short corner legs like 469/6906 mags (and later orange 5906 mags, it had two center round feet that went inside the spring coils like Browning High Power magazines.

It is from a factory mag (S&W 9mm and A on the base, and the top half is virtually identical to 4 leg mag followers. The feet are a bit shorter than the 469 legs.

With that in mind, I put it in my 6906 mag that I have the flat base plate on, and used an early flate sheet metal base plate lock from a 59 mag (about 1/32" thinner than the plastic lock plates on late S&W mags.

The result was a 13 round Model 6906 magazine. It even allowed plenty of compression still to insert the magazine effortlessly. A function check shows it works flawlessly!

I now carry my 6906 with 14 rounds on board, with a flush fitting magazine! Thats almost twice as many rounds as my Shield 40, even with the 7 round magazine.
Click to expand...

Jim Mele still sheriff?
I was one of his undergraduate professors.
 
CH4 said:
Jim Mele still sheriff?
I was one of his undergraduate professors.
Click to expand...

Not sure, I haven't been back down there in a LONG time. Last time was after the Yosemite murders of Carol Sund and Pelosso. I went out on Disability leave just before that, but came back to give some info to the task force since Stayner was a suspect in a homicide I worked in 1996 or 1997. Interesting fact was that Stayner was the brother of the boy who was abducted and raised by a pedophile. It was made famous in the movie "I think my name is Stephen."
 
imarangemaster said:
... but came back to give some info to the task force since Stayner was a suspect in a homicide I worked in 1996 or 1997. Interesting fact was that Stayner was the brother of the boy who was abducted and raised by a pedophile. It was made famous in the movie "I think my name is Stephen."
Click to expand...


Isn't it just awful the way some families seem to have a **** magnet following them around? Sigh.

Edited: Well, I used the much more polite word, rhyming with "rap", and it got censored anyway.
 
Last edited:
My victim was chopped up and burned in a burning barrel (similar to SUnd Pelosso) , then dumped off a cliff about 1/4 mile from where Stayner put Sund and Pelosso. We looked at Stayner early on, but other than circumstantial evidence of casual acquaintance, could not get any physical evidence. His brother had been killed in a motorcycle accident 10 years before, in 1989.
 
Last edited:
Okay, since this is a 6906 thread, and I was already moving some stuff around in the garage, I decided to grab some of my older 12rd double stack 9mm mags. Their productions period varies.

The 69XX and 59XX followers are different, but looking at some of my older 6906 mags, there were apparently some revisions that occurred with them, too. I remember being told by one of the guys at the factory, many years ago, that they'd had to revise their 69XX followers to accommodate feeding with the faster cycling of the shorter & lighter 69XX slides. Probably not surprising, considering those were the days when LE were using the hotter +P and +P+ loads, too.

Anyway, I pulled the followers from some of the older mags. Some were old enough to have black or dark green paint on the springs, and some had Wolff Extra Power 5% springs. I'd ordered those back when I was still carrying an issued, early production 6906, since I was using +P+ and +P+ duty ammo at one time or another. It's been too long to pretend to remember what color (if any) mag springs were that I replaced with the Wolff springs. :o

Note how some of the followers have a slight upward rise that began just left of center, before they reached the L/side, and some had an even slope rising from the right side to the high left side. Like the orange followers for the 59XX guns.


Dunno when they revised them in the 69XX line.

I can't even remember which came first, the black or dark green mag spring paint (although if I had to wager, I'd think the green was the later revision spring, since the last current recoil springs are dark green ... but never say never with S&W. ;)

Just some trivia. :)
 
Last edited:
The followers in the early Model 59 "Non-A" magazines have aluminum followers. They have the two legs that go into the spring like the follower in Post 4 above. Mine will hold sixteen rounds without modification!
 
I messed around last nite with the modified Kel-Tec followers and the
6906 mag tube. Looks like the big limiter in the 6906 tube are the
indents at lower end; they prevent more than 13 rounds, even without
the base plate on. The Kel-Tec mag can hold twelve (even though it's
much shorter) because it has no indents.
 
imarangemaster said:
Good info, thanks! 13+1 in my 6906 gives me a warm, safe, fuzzy feeling...Much more than 8 rounds of .40 in my .40 Shield!!!!!!
Click to expand...

No problemo :D

I'm sure I could take a carbide burr in the Dremel, and
rout out the indents--and get 14 in there...but...:o
 
imarangemaster said:
My S&W 59 mags all take 15 rounds when using the 469/6906 followers, or the orange 5906 followers and orange springs.
Click to expand...


My older S&W Mags I also changed out the follower to the later 3rd Generation Orange followers, and they now hold fifteen rounds
 
What was the OEM capacity on 59 mags?

I picked one up somewhere--well, figured it was a 59 mag, "lazy &"
between S and W on floorplate--and it holds 15. It
has no indents at lower end of tube.

The 59 mag appears dimensionally identical to
a Beretta "92 series" mag, which hold 15.
 
MecGar makes 15 rd flush fit 92 compact magazines BERETTA 92 COMPACT 9mm 15 RD AFC FINISH MGPB92C15AFC [MGPB92C15AFC] - $25.95 : Greg Cote, LLC, and 18 round flush fit 92 full sized mags Beretta 92FS, M9, CX4, 92a1, EAA Regard 18 RD 9mm MGPB9218AFC [MGPB9218AFC] - $25.95 : Greg Cote, LLC. You can cut a mag catch notch and use them in a Smith. And they are now making a +1 magazine base that keeps them flush fit-ish. So 19+1 in a 5906 MEC-GAR BERETTA OR TAURUS PLUS 1 SET P1-SET-BER [P1-SET-BER] - $12.95 : Greg Cote, LLC

Early 59 mags were 14 rounds.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Magazine Identification--469/669/6904/6906
Replies
5
Views
516
jtduford
J
E
2206 magazine
Replies
4
Views
89
Tom S.
Tom S.
1775usmarine
AIP 6906
Replies
6
Views
765
1775usmarine
1775usmarine
C
1076 magazine prices
Replies
8
Views
220
ACEd
A
N
Model 669/6906 hybrid.
Replies
9
Views
658
demkofour
demkofour

Latest posts

Back
Top