New to me Model 469 with a question?

[olivehead1]

Hello. The cat was away so I found myself in the local Cabela's Gun Library where this Mod. 469 had been sitting for 18 months. $329 OTD. Pretty good shape (the blems you may see near the muzzle in the first pic are just fingerprints and I was too lazy to retake the pic; the slide's finish is pretty close to perfect, so much so that I wonder if it was refinished-if so they did a great job). The guy who'd been running the place for maybe the last 2 years might have done even a little better, but turns out he's gone as of last Friday. Another mysterious disappearance from that store, which has only gotten worse since Bass Pro corporate starting calling the shots. He probably gave one too many a customer an extra $5 off a gun that had been sitting there for a couople years. But I digress.

Question for the B&B of the forum: Look at the third and forth pic. See that gap between the frame and the backstrap? The first of those pics is the gap "at rest" and the second is with my putting pressure on it towards the frame to close the gap. Can't say I really noticed that much of a gap before I bought the gun, and since then I've given it a thorough cleaning and cut the front strap off and sanded the edges of the Pachmayr one-piece it came with to make it a two-piece. I took out the grip pin, disassembled, and reassembled everything several times to try to close the gap but it kept coming out the same.

Is this "gap" normal for a 469? I pulled up some pics online and most seemed to have a gap of some degree, with only a few pics showing a pretty tight and flush fit. But did I do something to make this gap bigger or is something still not put together quite right? And should there be that amount of play in the backstrap vis a vis the frame?

A small thing but thought I'd ask.

Thanks for any info.

p.s. One other thing puzzles me: The rear sight is Novak-style (front and rear are black, not 3-dot, etc) and so far I haven't been able to find a pic of a 469 with this style of sight. Maybe the slide was refinished and some aftermarket sights put on there?

 

[jsbethel]

Previous discussion - http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-...5023-squishy-469-a.html?515023=#post139549229

It does appear that the slide has been cut for the Novak sights - very nice.

 

[jdeuser74]

I dont personally have a 469 yet in my collection but have seen a few and dont remember them having gaps like that I do have 465 and couple of the 5 series and they are tight

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[jpage]

My 469 has the same gap. Factory sights were a white outline drift-adjustable rear with a non-adjustable front, with yellow stripe

 

[jbtrucker]

Are those Pachmayer wrap around grips ? my 459 had tight fitting back strap with plastic panels , the replacements were really cheap and thin. Numrich has a back strap $44 but no checkered panels just the pebble grips

 

[olivehead1]

Are those Pachmayer wrap around grips ?

They used to be wrap arounds. I turned them into grip panels since I may not want to go any deeper into this gun $-wise.

 

[Merc6]

I have a gap in my 469 but it's not to that extreme.

 

[spad124]

Nice 469. I had a 669 for a while, an early one. I didn’t notice a gap in my 669, but I had the original grips only. I think the original grips may have covered that area.

IMO you’re much better off with the Novak sights. The originals were very small and hard for my old eyes to pick up. If I had kept the gun I would have either had Novak’s put on or bought a 6906 slide.

 

[dogzebra]

I have two 469s. Many had this gap and one of mine is the same way. Before I super glued a piece of O-ring to fill in the gap of the back strap and frame, the grip had a weird squishy feeling to it. Now it's all better.