Today I picked up a new to me, but far from new 1978 vintage Model 59. She is well used, but the action felt reasonably smooth and tight, with a little wiggle between the slide and frame. For the low, low price of two unwanted guns traded, it was worth taking home. This is not my first classic S&W semi-auto, having owned a 39-2 and a 5906 previously, and I am fairly familiar with them inside and out. The one thing that strikes me as odd is the coloring of the slide. As can be seen in the photos below, the frame is anodized black, and the slide looks almost like bare steel, however there is a small amount of bluing color left, as any holster wear spot shows brightly as opposed to the rest of the slide that has a very faint dark hue. What I am curious about is what causes the bluing to fade like this? I have other S&W guns of the same age, that don't show this level of fading, so there must be another factor rather than just age. I don't see any sign of an attempted refinish, nor abuse with steel wool, so that does not look like a reason either. Also, there does not seem to be any sign or corrosion, so I believe there is some finish left that is protecting the steel.
On inside of the gun one can truly see its age. The aluminum frame shows wear through the anodizing along the rails with only one spot of concern to me: The tops of the front rails are worn in deeper, and each has a couple of burrs where the wear marks end towards the rear of the rails. Would my analysis be correct that this is caused by the unlocking of the barrel from the slide under recoil? I feel no hanging up in the action, in fact it is as smooth as any other S&W semi-auto I have owned. On the subject of frame wear, is there a hard limit to how many rounds a 59 frame will take before failure? To try to slow the wear from my use, I keep most of my firearms a bit more wet with oil than most folks would, however my guns are strictly range guns, seeing mostly clean indoor environments, as well as being subjected to regular comprehensive cleaning and lubrication.
One other observation: The magazine that came with the gun, a non S&W brand 10-round mag (no markings on it so I don't know who made it), shows a wear spot just behind the cutout for the slide catch notch as if the slide rides against it under recoil. Has anyone seen this before? Personally, I have not on any other gun S&W or otherwise.
The bottom line on this gun is, despite not being the best looking gun in my collection, she is at least a damn fine shooter. I did make a poor choice in ammo for my afternoon range trip, leading to some feeding issues, however otherwise all in all, she is a great old gun.
Here she is, Cleaned up for a second time today, once before the range, and once after mostly to look for any signs of trouble. I have a thing for old well loved guns and this one certainly fits the bill:
As I said, she shoots nicely. My grouping was fairly tight, granted this was at around 10 yards. The stragglers below my target area and to the right should not reflect on the gun's performance, but rather mine. Having shot striker fired guns almost exclusively over the last couple months, I found myself anticipating the break a little sooner, thus throwing me off a bit. Generally, she performed well.
I even scored a free holster for her. It is not original to the gun, but is an old DeSantis 5900 series holster, lightly used, but broken in prefectly.
On inside of the gun one can truly see its age. The aluminum frame shows wear through the anodizing along the rails with only one spot of concern to me: The tops of the front rails are worn in deeper, and each has a couple of burrs where the wear marks end towards the rear of the rails. Would my analysis be correct that this is caused by the unlocking of the barrel from the slide under recoil? I feel no hanging up in the action, in fact it is as smooth as any other S&W semi-auto I have owned. On the subject of frame wear, is there a hard limit to how many rounds a 59 frame will take before failure? To try to slow the wear from my use, I keep most of my firearms a bit more wet with oil than most folks would, however my guns are strictly range guns, seeing mostly clean indoor environments, as well as being subjected to regular comprehensive cleaning and lubrication.
One other observation: The magazine that came with the gun, a non S&W brand 10-round mag (no markings on it so I don't know who made it), shows a wear spot just behind the cutout for the slide catch notch as if the slide rides against it under recoil. Has anyone seen this before? Personally, I have not on any other gun S&W or otherwise.
The bottom line on this gun is, despite not being the best looking gun in my collection, she is at least a damn fine shooter. I did make a poor choice in ammo for my afternoon range trip, leading to some feeding issues, however otherwise all in all, she is a great old gun.
Here she is, Cleaned up for a second time today, once before the range, and once after mostly to look for any signs of trouble. I have a thing for old well loved guns and this one certainly fits the bill:
As I said, she shoots nicely. My grouping was fairly tight, granted this was at around 10 yards. The stragglers below my target area and to the right should not reflect on the gun's performance, but rather mine. Having shot striker fired guns almost exclusively over the last couple months, I found myself anticipating the break a little sooner, thus throwing me off a bit. Generally, she performed well.
I even scored a free holster for her. It is not original to the gun, but is an old DeSantis 5900 series holster, lightly used, but broken in prefectly.
