5904 pistol question.

[Savage_zr2]

Welcome to the Forum,
Nice pistol, congratulations.
Your magazine is from the post ban era when S&W marked the magazines with the script "Restricted, Export, Law Enforcement. Your's will hold more rounds when the post ban civilian magazine holds 10. You can obtain a historical letter from S&W that will detail to who, to where, and when your pistol shipped from the factory. It may have gone to a Police Dept, but since magazines are consumable, they are easily swapped, broken, misplaced, so there's no telling if the magazine is original to the pistol.

Thanks for the reply, sorry for getting back so much later. How do I go about obtaining the historical letter? I think that's exactly what I'd be looking for.

 

[Savage_zr2]

Welcome to the S&W Forums! For $400, especially these days, I think you did well. The Model 5904 is part of S&W's third generation metal receiver semi-auto pistols. These are the best of the breed. First thing you want to do is field strip it and give it a good cleaning and proper lubrication. Also, replace the recoil spring, you have no way of knowing how many rounds have been through that pistol since the current spring was placed in it. Stick with the factory rated spring, which is 14 pounds. I'd recommend using either genuine S&W springs or those from Wolff. Make sure you clean any accumulated gunk from the extractor and the extractor cut in the slide, inspect the extractor hook for damage.

That's actually one of the first things I did when I brought it home was field stripped it and cleaned every part and oiled it good. I haven't replaced the spring yet, but you make a good point so I will plan to do that soon. Thanks for the tip!