The pistol in question kicked off an interesting discussion between myself and Jeremy Stafford, veteran LAPD officer and Handgun Editor at Guns & Ammo
Any time you post a pic of a vintage piece like this on on social media, gun nerds (like myself) can get a little blinded by nostalgia. Stafford turned a garden hose on some of the more... er, enthusiastic ...responses by pointing out that there are, to put it charitably, much better choices for carry on the market these days, especially from a durability standpoint.
I referenced that they all weren't that fragile, linking my experience recently with that 5906.
He wrote in reply:
He wrote in reply:
"[I]t’s a 2nd Gen, which were even spottier on our department. You’ll still see the occasional gummer rocking one, but it’s usually shot twice a year at old guy quals. Likewise the “legendary” LAPD 4506, carried in drop swivel by dudes that maybe put 100 rounds a year through it, 300 if they bring it to a divisional training day where it will most likely malfunction due to decrepit magazines and weak springs.And he's definitely not wrong; Lord knows that LAPD has massive institutional experience, especially with the big single stack .45 Model 645 and 4506.
The rebuilds were nearly always spring and trigger related. Sear release, sear spring, etc. there was also that weird copper piece that would break off. The CHP just ended up removing those in their guns. In the 45 series guns, the recoil spring was lucky to get to 2k. I’m stoked that yours is a workhorse, it just wasn’t my experience seeing hundreds of them. They were crazy accurate though, especially the bushing guns that Smith built for the Firearms guys.
Seriously, for every 10 purchased, 5 would have to see the armorer and 3 of those would have to be sent back to Smith. My experience with the Smith auto loaders, working the Firearms Unit for many years over two tours was not particularly positive. Going striker was the best thing to happen to us, until of course the great Glock 22 debacle of 2005, which I’m sure Erick Gelhaus and Chuck Haggard remember.
Best thing about my Smith was that a boot bought it and my Hoyt from me for 1800 bucks so he could look like an OG."
My response:
"Yeah, the 2nd Gen guns wouldn't be my first choice.
In my experience the Third Gen Smifs are like any pistol, in that the farther away you get from the original basic spec, the worse they are. The 59xx/39xx guns are about as good as any other 9mm pistol of their era. The big bore single stacks, the 45xx and 10xx guns, are way under-engineered if you ask me.
Like you noted, they have a voracious appetite for all manner of springs and break that little copper trigger tensioning dingus so often that it might as well not even be there (and like you said, the fix was to just leave it out since the gun works without it.)
The all-stainless 40x6 duty-size double stacks are the only .40 of their era worth a damn, IMO...but that's because the competition was the Beretta 96, which fell apart in a shockingly small number of rounds, and the Gen2/Gen3 Glock 22, which was its own sort of disaster.
I'd toyed with spending a year shooting/carrying my 3913...but like I wrote in a column, it's because I've got backup guns and plenty of springs, so unless one is really committed to the bit, they should be a normie and go buy a current-production plastic strikergat. It'd be a bit of an affectation, like toting a 1911 or revolver in 2023."
