For the resident 4506 experts and collectors ….

I have a 2nd Gen 645 but not a 4506. One popped-up local and I got wind of it early and now have a chance to buy it.

I’d rate it in good condition externally (some holster scratches) and VG-to-minty internally. 3-line laser etchings. Serial # prefix is ‘BDK.’ It has a rounded trigger guard, black hammer, black trigger, and fixed Novak tritiums (burned out). Barrel looks clean. Crown is intact.

Comes with three mags. Two of the mags have yellow followers with the “Must Have” warning on the mag body. The other has a black follower and no warning about the follower color. No box or papers.

The owner said it was a “police trade-in” gun he bought in the early 2000s.

What’s a reasonable (non-GB) cash price for a late model, police duty 4506 in the above condition these days?

Thanks in advance!

Prices for those things are all over the place. I’ve seen everywhere from $600 to $1400.

What are they asking?

But that was three or four years ago. They are not very popular in this area. Which is fortunate for me as they are excellent pistols. I have a bunch of them. If you are comfortable with the price, I would tell you to go for it. Magazines are still pretty available not like the 10mm magazines.

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What interested me - from what info I could find online - is that this gun appears to be from the last run of 4506s built for the police market. It has the black (MIM) hammer and trigger as well as the "3-line" lasered markings on the left side of the frame. It says "MOD 4506," but I think it's technically a last revision 4506-1 R4. No?

It does sound like it though the SN# seems different, off the top of my head, than the SN# range what most had.

This thread should tell you more than what I remember.

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4506-1 (R4) "dash 3"

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Waiting for the break of day

For an 80%er, I'd say $625 to $825 depending on your location.

There are offerings at higher price tags, but value buyers are letting those go to the deep pocket folks.

Thanks for the link. But I didn’t see any “3-line” lasered guns in the thread.

The SN # on this one could be keyed to the PD that ordered them. Unfortunately there’s no box with it to verify any Spec. Ord. code.

I have a late production 4506 with laser etching.. Mine was made in 2001 I believe. I had the exact date at one time. The late guns were marked 4506. The -1 was dropped towards the end of production. Mine was ordered by an LAPD officer thru the department store LAPRAC. My serial is VJC01XX...

Does your gun have the lasered 3-lines?

The seller of the 4506 I’m looking at said he bought it from a well-known “police trade-in” store in Illinois in the early 2000s. They had taken in a bunch of 4506s from a city PD in Ill. that had switched over to some other gun.

But that is what it sounds like, similar to the 4506 that I have.

Based on your description, I would think it is from the last (and most desirable) generation of 4506.

The BDK prefix would most likely be a 2006 product. A 4046TSW BDH9851 was dated by SW as 7/2005 and I have a 5946TSW dated by SW as 3/2006 and all (12) box ends I have seen with BDK prefix have 6xxx Codes. Easiest way to date is to email complete info to SW at [email protected] - they normally respond M-F only. And if you ask for 6 digit Product Code which might give you a clue to provenance, you may or may not get it depending on who responds.

As to magazines, as I recall, the first 4506 had orange followers and after reported feed problems on some pistols, the internal geometry and the mags were tweaked to the 4506-1 configuration to address the problem. The new 4506-1 mags had yellow followers and most were marked "for 4506-1 only" as well as "must have yellow follower". There were still some feed issues and the mags further evolved to the black follower with no use restrictions.

The 4516 had similar issues. .45acp Magazines

Based on the configuration and presumed date, I would assume the correct mags would be the late mags with the black follower.

Others have reported no problems mixing and matching mags in the various 4506 configurations with no problems, but personally I would try to secure some more late mags with black followers and reserve the ones with yellow followers for range use.

With respect to price, condition, box, correct mags, location, and provenance would all add value while sellers knowledge and length of time on the market would potentially decrease value. I would not count the "incorrect" mags for much but "correct" mags go for $50+.

Local avoids shipping and Private Party probably avoids sales tax. For $600-700 out the door I would grab it. For $800+ it would stay where you found it. But thats just me - if you want it, make an offer.

Thanks for all the info and that link. I will shoot them the serial #.

I'm comfortable the two yellow-follower mags can be "upgraded" with black followers and Wolff XP springs and still run reliably even if the mag body is somehow different from the final generation of 45XX 8-rd mags. I've done that upgrade before with a few mags that came with a 4566 back about 2010. If I have any issue with a mag, it'll get tossed into the "range-only" mag box.

I'm going back on Monday for a final look and negotiation (cash).

Thanks!

My understanding is black followers (circa 1993) can be retrofitted to earlier metal shells but there are subtle differences in the top end geometry - I tried to show in pictures of the 4516 mags further down in referenced post - but if you get 2 yellow and one black you can make that comparison in person.

Good luck negotiating.

All of the third gen S&W 45s are great firearms. I wish I bought more of them when I was buying guns. Newbies and veterans alike enjoy shooting my 4506. I have seen them going for around $750-$850. They do not make them anymore.

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Mine does not have 3 lines ...My 4506 has a dubious past.. I was told that the LAPD officer shot someone with this gun, then he was terminated..He sold the gun to a pawn shop, where I got it.. Looks like he was reinstated at some point. I was current law enforcement at the time and talked to around twenty officers to see if anyone knew him to no avail. I was able to find out that he qualified with the gun at their academy range as they did have record of the gun/serial. I did call S/W and they gave me the build date on the gun.

I also have 2 4506's that are marked Fresno Sheriff and a 4566 Fresno Sheriff. I have a friend that was their armorer and was able to tell that one of the 4506's was a court deputys gun and was shot only to qualify, minimal use. The 4566 was assigned to a patrol deputy that also shot minimum required rounds. The other was an over run gun and never went to the Sheriffs dept.

Yes my 4566, mentioned above, is also an ex-L.E. gun although it lacks any Dept/Agency markings. Thinking I got it earlier than 2010, maybe 2008. It had exterior scratches on the slide near the muzzle, clear signs of holster wear. The barrel, crown, bore, breech-face and the internals were all unusually pristine. So clearly one of those many L.E. 3rd Gen guns that was carried much and shot very little … except at qual time. The slide-mounted lever is a ‘decock-only’ type. I re-sprung the gun with Wolff springs and acquired a bunch of black-follower 45XX mags.

Later on, I found I liked it so much that I sent it off to Tripp Research for a full hard-chrome job (back when Tripp still offered that service). It came back looking like a new frickin’ gun! It still shoots great and is in my current carry rotation.

Obligatory pic attached ...

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It has the black hammer and trigger. I have been told that this was part of an upgrade, not really sure about that though.
As for magazines I also have a 645 and two 4566s. They all take the same magazine and I have a dozen or so of them to include the early steel floorplate mags, yellow followers, white followers, and black followers. I use them interchangeably between all the guns with no issues to date.

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I bought my Mod 4506-1 in 2013 from GB for $525. It was manufactured in 1999, as far as i can tell, and it has the black trigger and hammer. It has two lines of lasered wording. If I only had one .45 acp, it would be this model.

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Inconsistently consistent

That’s a very nice 4506-1, but in the attached picture the two lines on the frame appeared to be stamped, not lasered.

Yet once again, changing the followers doesn't upgrade anything. The color change was a quick reference feature to denote the last generation mags. The changes lay in a redesign of the upper portion of the mag tube. Dropping in black followers won't change anything.

Agree significant differences in metal geometry at top. It is also worth noting there were 2 variations (at least for the 4516-1) with the yellow follower, the original with the D shaped indent at the back and the AcuGlide without the D but with different, more severe lip geometry. I dont have mags in front of me, but based on pictures I took for previous post in the referenced thread, I believe there may be subtle changes in followers, potentially very minor changes in the ramp angles. Still the metal changes stand out.

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Wow, that’s a lot of mag variation in that fifth pic.

Those are all 4516 mags and obviously there must be at least 1 more - the original 4516 with orange follower but with no restrictive markings before the "problems" surfaced.

For the 4506, I can account for at least 3 top variations (shown), but presumably the evolution follows the 4516 plus the one(s?) with metal baseplate.

Presumably the TSW variants all should have the black followers since they were made after the introduction of the 4516-2 with the black follower mags circa 1993.

But you have to wonder about the 4505, 4526, 4536, 4546, 4567 which came out in 1991 presumably with earlier (Yellow?) followers since the restriction notes only mention the 4506, 4516 variations.

As an aside the 457 and 4513TSW 7rd are the same as the black follower 4516-2 mags and the 6 rd 4513TSW (1997-1999) top is similar to the final 4506/4516 top (1993 and later) with the black follower - but the CS45 6rd adds one more wrinkle in that it has an additional vertical notch at the top which is not present on the 4513TSW 6rd which otherwise appears identical.

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Finally found time to update this thread. $600 cash sealed the deal.

This 4506, a three lasered line ex-L.E. gun, came with 4 factory mags, no box and no papers. Ser. # BDK51XX

Black MIM hammer and trigger. Dead tritium night sights. Only a few, very slight exterior scratches. Extremely clean and shiny bore. Little to no visible wear on the breechface.

Two of the mags are the later type with black followers; the other two are the early ones with yellow followers and the warning on the side.

The previous owner said he purchased it from a “police supply” FFL in Illinois who had taken in a bunch of these guns from a small suburban Illinois PD after they switched to M&Ps.

In my view, this 4506 is actually in better condition than the aftermarket rep suggested by most “cop trade-in guns” - in that they appear to have been carried much and shot hardly at all except at qual. time. Maybe this one was the Chief’s personal gun.

When my gunsmith looked it over, his first reaction was: “It looks brand new. Did he [the previous owner] ever shoot it?”

Don’t know. But I sure will.

I’ll post three pics separately ….

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Second pic ….

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Third pic ….

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Personally I think you got that one for a great price. I currently own a 645 and a 4546. Both are terrific guns. I have read about all the different magazine options, but my two guns have NEVER malfunctioned no matter what variation I use. If I come across a gun like your’s, with the rounded trigger guard, it will cost me some money. I much prefer that look.

Congratulations on a great purchase.

Dan

That’s a real nice pistola right there.

You gonna tote it in a old school leather shoulder rig?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thanks for the comments!

Yes, that’s been my experience too with the .45 mag variants. They’ve all run fine in my 645 and 4566.

LOL!

Well, that’s certainly possible since I already have a well-worn, mid-‘90s Galco SH for my S&W 1006. Both being 5” guns, fitment shouldn’t be an issue. Same for the mags, I assume.