m645 & m1006

These are great guns and I'm sad they don't make these kinds of pistols anymore. Magazines are crazy expensive these days. I really like shooting them. There is interesting history about these guns. I'd like to hear any stories about these guns and theyre use.

I never had a 645, but did have both fixed and adjustable sighted 1006s, and some other S&W 10MMs. Fine, reliable, robust pistols all. All handled the "real" factory and reloaded 10MM ammo with any issues whatsoever. No dual or extra heavy recoil springs, buffers, etc. required. Excellent 10MMs IMHO.

Tomi said:

These are great guns and I'm sad they don't make these kinds of pistols anymore.

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I will have to heartily AGREE with you there!

Magazines are crazy expensive these days.

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Kind of a mixed bag there... you can use any 4506 magazine with the 645 even though the original 645 mag is somewhat different. I know folks complain about the rising cost of 4506 magazines but the reality is that there's like a BILLION of them in circulation.

The 10xx magazine situation is certainly a different story altogether and some of us have no excuse if we don't have magazines and we've owned one of these guns for a long time. They are definitely nutbar in price these days, but I've owned my 1006 since 1996 (I think that's when I bought it from my buddy) so I have no excuse if I'm still searching for magazines.

I really like shooting them. There is interesting history about these guns.

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I like shooting them also, but if I read what you said correctly -- you are suggesting that YOU have some interesting history specific to your two examples...? If that is indeed what you are saying, SPILL IT! Cause I love to hear interesting tales about guns that I enjoy!

I'd like to hear any stories about these guns and theyre use.

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My 1006 was the first S&W semiautomatic that I ever owned! Flip the clock way way way back to 1992 and I was a hardcore (young!) gun guy and I had a S&W 686-3 and an AMT Hardballer Long Slide and I had a buddy who knew I was knee-deep in to guns, shooting and handloading and he wanted to buy his first ever handgun, and he wanted suggestions from me.

I suggested a .357 Magnum revolver of course. .38 Specials, .357 Magnums, full range of utility, accuracy and power? Seems perfect! But nope, he wanted a semiauto. Remember this was 1992. So I suggested a good .45, maybe a 1911, maybe something from S&W instead? He said yeah maybe, but he really wanted POWER! So I suggested that maybe 10mm was his answer, and it was going to have to be a 1006 because I did not think at that time that anything on the market compared well up against a 1006.

And that's what he chose, a brand new 1006, I think I still have the receipt, I want to say it was $592? And this was in 1992 dollars, so this was no small purchase at that time.

Fast forward a couple years and new baby on the way, his wife wanted that thing outta the house (insert facepalm here) but hey... I'm always around to help out a buddy. He suggested $400, I snapped it up. Hell, I had been handloading the ammo that BOTH of us were shooting from it, along with four boxes of factory ammo to get us a supply of brass.

These days I don't shoot it as often as I should. I will rectify that!

I have no personal history with these guns but I know that the m645 specially was liked in the 80s. Lots of LEO carried it and liked it. Of course the Miami Vice connection also comes to mind.

The FBI tested pistols in 1987 and the m645 came as a winner though was not ever issued (TFBTV). FBI chose later the m1006 cousin, m1076.

Both of these pistols have great ergonomics and fit in the hand very well. Shooting is instinctive, recoil is not a problem.

In about 1986 the Portland Police Bureau (much to my astonishment) authorized the Sig P220 and the S&W M645 as duty guns. We had to buy our own guns and leather gear. Week-long transition school, department-supplied ammo. The guys went for the Sig 2:1 over the Smith, mostly due to "feel," trigger pull, and the Sig name. I chose the Smith, and found it to be stone-ax reliable (it would feed any bullet profile, and even empty cases) and very accurate. It was measurably faster out of its Ernie Hansen inside-paddle thumb break than the previously-issued Safety Speed holsters carrying our K-frame Smiths. Having found Masaad Ayoob the most cogent LE trainer and writer out there at that time, I felt the safety was important in a uniform duty gun. A few months later a huge and insane man crumpled one of our officers up and tore his 645 from the holster; stuck it up under the officer's armor and pulled the trigger multiple times; safety was on, gun wouldn't fire. Cavalry arrived and, ahem, restored order.