S&W 5906

Recently cleaned the old work horse and remember the happiness when my shots punched the paper all where I wanted.
My arched grip felt perfect, mag released little tiny thing forced me to use as a range toy mostly.

One of my favorites. I have half a dozen third gen guns. Rugged, reliable, and beautiful to look at.

JJFitch said:

What's a flip up safety?

Are you referring to the decock lever?

Smiles,

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I also never did well with transitioning from DA to SA. The S&W 3rd gens just seemed a combo of bad features for me personally. I already owned an HK P7M8 and guns like the 5906 just confirmed for me how good the P7M8 was for me personally.

My main range and carry gun for years and years was a 5946. DAO version of the -06, steel. Heavy but a good holster makes it no big deal. Shoot it like a revolver and the trigger is no big deal, and it's a smith: they can do smooth DA triggers alright.

A classic, and for the time practically a compact. A bit smaller than the early SIGs (229 and so on caught up to the size) and practically petite compared to Beretta.

I shot it far later than apparently I should have. Broke the extractor somewhere over 10,000 rounds and it was super hard to get a replacement. Decided that I better upgrade and now am M&P 9, which has led me to WML and RDS and THAT... has led me to still shoot. Eyes bad enough if I was just irons I would shoot a lot less as I was getting so bad at it.

I love the 59xx too much to send it off to be cut on to install the same, but sometimes I think it would be fun to do that to it. Maybe someday I'll find a cheap PD trade in and get it filed on. Maybe.

Back when CT required its citizens to register their high capacity magazines, my dad gave me his 5906 that he bought from a cop.

Mine is the first-gen third gen, with the squared off trigger guard and the hood around the rear sight. Some people dislike these features but I think it looks great. I'm not a fan of the slide mounted safety, but I don't use it so it doesn't matter. The first round is a long trigger pull and that's safety enough.

Ditto what everyone has said about them being reliable and tanks. Mine is my garage gun- lives out in the garage in case I need one when I'm out front.

What's not to love? They are all stainless steel (At least the ones I'm interested in are), and they will feed empty cases!
I have a 5906, 6906, and a 4506. All PD trade ins. Most expensive one was $400, the 4506.

armedwalleye said:

A bit on the heavy side, but I would get one if it came available, or a nicer 5903, or another 5904, or another 5946, or another 6906, or another 6904, or even another 908.....

The full size stainless 5906's, again, are a bit heavy, but the sweetest range shooters you'll ever meet.

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Yep. It’s a 9mm. Perhaps over-engineered for the round, but solid and reliable. One can’t go wrong with the 3rd Gen models. I like mine and have no plans to part with it. To me, it’s way classier than anything polymer today.

gnappi said:

I never read an account of a real life shooting where the officer or civilian survived and complained about the trigger.

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Because the detractors didn't survive their shooting in order to complain?

I carried several 3rd Gen. during my career (5946, 4046, 6906, 4506), starting in '93. At the time, I didn't think the triggers were all that bad. I recently reaquired my 4506 from my dad and took it out to the range.

Cripes! I've been spoiled by the tigger on modern striker-fired handguns, especially my current duty gun...CZ P10C. I forgot how long and heavy the triggers were on those Smiths and other DA guns I carried (P22x Sigs, 96/96 Berettas, etc.).

The third gens were about as good as gun without a cylinder can get. I never had a 5906 but I had (traded off years ago) a 1006 a 4006, and a 4506. Never had a single malfunction with the 10 or the 45. The early 40s had magazine issues. The 4506 would feed anything including empty cases.

For the club (range) my 5906's heavier weight meant nothing.

I sold mine because of what was often reported about the 908 (it's also a 3rd. Gen.?) and 6904.
Bought both last December, really like them , and they are more convenient for carry than my previous 5906.

Also- the two (possibly three...who cares...) tiny plastic parts on the very slender 908 have Not cracked or broken. Really enjoying its single-stack grip.

My twice weekly classes in Krav Maga (Israeli-style) self-defense for people who have Only two legs, two hands to fight back -- for a typical physical assault where we are are a bit too "busy" to reach for a gun.
Luckily most people feel that they have the skills of Jason Bourne.

Had the stainless version back in the day; stone reliable, but the grip always felt like a 2X4; can't imagine what the PP's example with thicker wooden grips was like.
Had a star crossed 4506 as well; ringed the barrel, stolen twice after it was traded, and fished out of the river. That thing would cycle empty cases; it was a big SOB.
Have a LNIB 439 currently; always thot' those felt good in the hand. Late state cop buddy had one as his duty gun, and thot' well of it.
The only real issue with those Smith autos was the high bore axis.
Moon

I've got a 915 and a 5906 with round trigger guard I've purchased over the last 6 months. Only thing I've done to them is replace the Hogue rubbers that came on them with stock delrin S&W grips. I've since purchased a bunch of Mecgar mags. They're my around the house guns. I sold or traded a 457 a while back. Stupid Stupid Stupid

It is necessary to pay attention to the safety lever, even if one carries off-safe, when carrying a holstered weapon. Things can brush against the safety, changing its position. While walking forward, through vegetation, for example, that safety lever can be moved to the down-most position.

As the old saying goes, “don’t get caught with your Dingus down.” Another way to remember this is to orient safety so that it points toward the enemy. (Of course, the AR15/M4 selector is notable in that semi-auto “fire” is with the lever pointed downward, which caused me no end of cognitive dissonance.)

There is a universal thumb placement-and-movement, that minds the safety lever or most pistols. GRIZZ22 already mentioned this. This is important stuff, for defensive carry pistols, so I am talking about it, again.

Levers and buttons, changing positions, is not conjecture, on my part. One reason I really started disliking ambidextrous safety levers on 1911 pistols, for example, is that I found mine to have been brushed off-safe, more than once. I have found shotgun cross-bolt safety buttons having changed postions, countless times. I found the heel-clip magazine release, of an older-version SIG P220, to have snagged things, causing a partial mag drop, three of four times. And, in the days that I bought holsters, without paying attention to such things, some holsters will tend to press against a push-button mag release.

Rexster said:

It is necessary to pay attention to the safety lever, even if one carries off-safe, when carrying a holstered weapon. Things can brush against the safety, changing its position.

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I'm not sure how much of a "brush" you're talking about but in the several variations of Third Generation Smith autos I'm acquainted with, to move the safety lever inadvertently almost takes "malice aforethought" to have happen. However, in my experience, it's not unusual to inadvertently move the lever from "fire" to "safe" when clearing a stovepipe malfunction (accomplished by sweeping the hand over the the ejection port to rid the offending spent case). Thankfully, these pistols don't have this malady happen often and training will obviate the problem on the rare occasion it might.

SwampWolf said:

I'm not sure how much of a "brush" you're talking about but in the several variations of Third Generation Smith autos I'm acquainted with, to move the safety lever inadvertently almost takes "malice aforethought" to have happen. However, in my experience, it's not unusual to inadvertently move the lever from "fire" to "safe" when clearing a stovepipe malfunction (accomplished by sweeping the hand over the the ejection port to rid the offending spent case). Thankfully, these pistols don't have this malady happen often and training will obviate the problem on the rare occasion it might.

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Mas Ayoob wrote of a case, in which a police officer’s pistol was moved to the on-safe position, during a physical struggle, in which the pistols fell from his grasp. When the officer recovered the pistol, and tried to fire, he found himself pulling a dead trigger, as the weapon was on-safe.

I do not recall Model 3913’s safety/decock lever ever being knocked or brushed to a different position, but, I still regard it as a best practice to be mindful of the safety’s position, regardless of the weapon. (This was in the early-/mid-Nineties.)

Shortly before the pandemic started, I found a well-preserved 3913 TSW, at a nearby gun store, and bought it, to potentially serve as a lefty gun. (My right hand is not aging so well.) I look forward to visiting shooting ranges again, to vet this new-to-me pistol. I have been doing plenty of drills, to become comfortable with the operation. The ambi levers act as nicely convenient slide-rackers, help my gimpy right hand run the slide. I like that the long-stroke DA first shot so closely imitates a revolver trigger. Life is good.

Positively the most reliable gun i ever owned. Heavy but recoils like a baby. They are getting more rare as people have collected some of the finer models.

Magazines are a little harder to find, especially right now.

Scanned and COBd my 5946 back when it was my primary piece:


EDC kit in 2010:


Around the same timeframe, took the kids for a range day, firing lots of stuff. Here's one slingshotting it after a reload. Steel frame is easy shooting.

My dad is retired police officer. His 5906 was the first handgun I ever fired. Sentimental attachment for me lol

.455_Hunter said:

15 rounds is limited capacity?

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Mec-Gar also makes (or made) OEM-quality 17-round magazines for the 5906. I used to own a police-trade-in 5906 and I bought several of the 17-rounders for it, and they functioned flawlessly.