The 915 and the 411 were Smith & Wesson's first attempt at their "Value Line" series of pistols. The idea was to lower the cost of the 3rd Gen, produce them in high volume at lower cost, lower the MSRP and sell a ton of them.
They took the 5906 and 4006 and they:
--gave it a slimmed alloy frame without the stepped sides and gave it a low-cost black finish rather than stainless
--gave it low cost, non-Novak rear sight
--gave it a single sided decock lever
That was all they did and it can be assumed that S&W "failed" to accomplish their goal. They must not have lowered their costs enough and these two models were scrapped after only two years. By 1994, the next series of Value Line guns truly did get cheaper and they made many more cuts to the cost and the quality of the pistols.
The 915 was made in extremely high volume for a gun that was only produced for a couple of years. It's been my experience that far less of the 411 were made.
The finish on the 915/411 is no manner of durable and shows wear quickly but except for that, these are fantastic guns that don't act "cheaper" than their alloy framed front-line 3rd Gen models, the 5903/5904 and 4003/4004.
After years of wanting one, I finally snagged a 411 last year. Very good pistol!
