New to Me: 5946 NYPD, Bent Sideplate?

[kbm6893]

Howdy. Congrats on the LNIB NYPD 5946 find.

Without being able to actually handle and examine it, I can only offer a couple speculative thoughts on my experience with a lot of other 3rd gen guns.

First, the sideplate being allowed to flex slightly outward might have more to do with the way the grip fits on that side of the frame, meaning allowing some extra room for the plate to stand proud from the frame. Sometimes a grip might not fit snugly against the left side of the frame.

Secondly, as long as the front of the plate isn't sticking so far outward that it allows the slide stop lever's plunger to slip off the plate, to the inside, and no longer support the plunger, it wouldn't worry me overly much.

I've seen my fair share of 3rd gen guns where the front arm of the side plate stood out a little proud from the frame (due to the way the grip wasn't snug). The guns ran just fine in normal operation.

However, can you grasp the top and bottom edge of the front of the side plate with your finger tips and GENTLY try to wiggle it up and down? Does it have excessive movement up & down, or is it stationary against gentle finger tip pressure to move it?

Usually when a side plate is damaged (improper grip installation), it's the little rear prong, of the pair that snaps over the sear pin head, that gets bent (to the rear) or broken off. This allows the front end of the side plate to lift upward, which causes the loss of proper tension between the side plate and the slide stop lever's plunger. The angle of the front of the side plate is what keeps the slide stop lever in the 'down' position until the force of the mag follower and mag spring lifts it upward on an empty mag.

Just to show how subtle a change in the front plate's angle can be, here's a couple pics of the older and newer 4506/1006 side plate angles. They increased the angle just a bit to better help keep the slide stop from rising under recoil.




Just some thoughts.

No movement up and down. I can press it in towards the frame and it will move in and then back out when I release it.

The grip not being flushed is not the answer, I don't think, because with the grip off the plate still juts out a bit.

I might pick up a couple of sideplates, just to have them. This is now my 3rd 5946, and I also have a 5906. I assume same part number. Couldn't hurt to have them on hand. And I'm eventually gonna take a ride down to the outdoor range and have the guys look at it.

 

[gmborkovic]

What a piece of **** part. A solid pin with a sheet metal slide stop attached? Do all the 3rd gen guns use this part?

 

[Fastbolt]

What a piece of **** part. A solid pin with a sheet metal slide stop attached? Do all the 3rd gen guns use this part?

The pressed pin in the heavy gauge stamped body is an arguable design improvement over the pressed stud in the frame of the early design. It's pretty robust ... unless someone doesn't pay attention when replacing a factory grip.

The primary risk of damaging the 3rd gen side plate is when someone doesn't pay proper attention when installing the factory grip, and snags the bottom of the front extension with the left/front edge of the grip, and puts improper upward pressure on the extension. That's what can cause the prongs (around the headed sear pin) to become tweaked, warped or broken).

The other major source of risk of damaging a side plate is from someone making a mistake trying to remove or install a side plate, meaning either by inattention, or lack of knowledge in how to properly do it.

Sure, I've seen the rare side plate assembly where the pressed pin had become loose in the side plate body, but those were in old duty guns that had seen many years of use. I only noticed it when inspecting a gun, not because the owner/user was reporting any functioning problems. I replaced the side plates where the pins had become loose enough to turn in the plate body because they were no longer in original factory spec, and we kept a (very) few of them in our spare parts.

We used 3rd gen guns from '89-16, which included both early production 3rd gen guns, and then their late production TSW replacements. Approx 1000 guns over the years, because we weren't a particularly large agency as far as West Coast agencies go. The number of side plates I saw replaced during all that time was less than the fingers on both hands, and those were mostly due to someone having not paid attention when replacing grips, or not knowing how to replace the factory grips.

I'd not rule out one of our 'less attentive' or 'less experienced' armorers on-staff causing damage to one of them now or again, either. Not everyone who goes through an armorer class is there because they want to be there. Sometimes it's just another assignment where someone thinks they can get by investing the least amount they think they can get away with doing.

I've actually met the occasional cop student in an armorer class who said they were there out of punishment, and they had virtually no interest in doing anything more than needed to pass the class. Let's be charitable and just say that over the many years of armorer classes I've attended, there were quite a few of the people in the classes I'd not have wished to ever service or repair a gun upon which my life might rely.

Just my own thoughts.