IIRC, Don Johnson took to the 4506, after his Bren Ten. I guess he could not get mags for the BT.

I've seen and handled 4506s, but have never seen a 4505, though I've heard of them. Very nice example you have there.

Personally, never was a fan of the 3rd gen S&W semi-autos. Something about the grip shape. Tried a provided 5906 at a training course, but opted to use my 92FS instead. Was always intrigued by the 4586, though.

God, I miss my 4506. It was a police trade-in I picked up back in 2003 for $350. Like a fool I traded it away for an Auto Ordinance 1911 because I just had to have a 1911. It is probably the one gun I truely regret parting ways with because I haven’t been able to replace it.

quote:

Originally posted by henryarnaud:

Personally, never was a fan of the 3rd gen S&W semi-autos. Something about the grip shape. Tried a provided 5906 at a training course, but opted to use my 92FS instead. Was always intrigued by the 4586, though.

Well... Right now I am shooting the Glock pretty well... however, I still kind of desperately cling to an old school "blue steel and walnut" ethos. For all the good it does me!

Bill R

Not just any basket weave leather.... Safariland!

I carried those Cor-Bon 200 grn ashtrays in my Ruger P-90 and later, SIG P-220 when working security in Birmingham, AL.

I still have my 4546 that I carried and graduated from the Police Academy with in 90-91. Carried as my duty weapon many years after. Still a great pistol, and enjoy it to this day.

I got that beat. I bought a 1006 first chance I got. Holster (IIRC) was the Safariland O70 Level 3. 170gr Norma JHP.
Like a dumbass, I sold it.

Remember them? I'm still using them!

Beautiful 4505! Congrats!

I carried the 4506 on the job for several years and then went to the 4566 and 4513TSW.

Today my "back up" 4506-1 gets carried regularly when I work in a LGS on the edge of Indian Country. Fine guns that have not been surpassed by anything, for me. Enjoy that fine 45! Regards 18DAI

That's a beauty! I had a 645. What a boat anchor. No recoil though even with SD loads!

RMD

Great guns. Hartford CT PD used to carry the 4506 (i think it was the 06-it was the 5" stainless, might have been the 4516) but i when i worked down town they were in all the cops holsters. Now you see plastic.
Sadly, this photo reminds me of a bygone era, one in which the PC was filled with professionals who took real pride in their work, where you would drive up at lunch time with a pistol for repair, they would have me wait in the lounge while they worked on it, and it would come out like new and with new nite sights for no charge as a thank you gesture.
I tried tio explain to a friend who just got into guns how it used to be and he was incredulous.

I carried one of those boat anchors for years. when we started thinking about a switch to a semi-auto, there was little to choose from at that time. the Beretta 92, a Sig import and the newly released S&W 659.

After a lot of discussion trying to convince our then Chief, I put together a deal with a large NJ gun shop to buy 80 of them. We paid $215 per unit.

A bit rough but they worked well except in the later years when we did find a few frame rail cracks. At that point S&W would no longer service them so they were scraped. We transitioned through into the newer 3rd. generation until the line stopped production.

Still have a few of them in the safe.

quote:

Not just any basket weave leather.... Safariland!

They had most of the market back them. But their leather weakened to the point of after a while it flopped around. their change to the synthetic type helped. Back then a security holster had a thumb snap.

The first .45acp pistols I ever shot were a 4506 and a P220 that I rented at a range back in 1990. I forgot how popular S&W semi autos were back then.

Yup, good friend introduced me to shooting for the first time around 1990 with his 5906 and 469. Wow, that was a long time ago.

I carried the earlier 645 for about 4 years on the job. Then full size H & K 45 USP. Both pretty big chunks of steel.

Still one of my favorites

I can recall visiting Rays Sport Shop in NJ in the late 90's and their gun Dept Manager, Dwight, had probably a HUNDRED, used 3rd gen Smith autos for sale. I looked at a 1006 or 1076 with 4 mags and they were like $300.

Now the mags are a hundred a pop!

The 3rd gen autos were surely under loved , except for those of us who carried them, or were Armorers. They were built like a Tank!

A guy in my police academy class had a 4506, while almost everyone else had Glocks. He got a lot of ribbing from the instructors about his "boat anchor".

I fondly remember them, unfortunately never carried one on duty. I was issued a S&W model 28 "HIGHWAY PATROLMAN" when I started in 82. The Chief had a brain fart and traded them in around '85 for Ruger Security Six's. We tested several Semi autos at the time- Sig 226, S&W 659,and Beretta. Then he was talked into Glocks in 1987 after he knew he made a mistake with the Rugers. (We had alot of Rugers go down due to timing issues and spitting lead with .357 loads)

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
A guy in my police academy class had a 4506, while almost everyone else had Glocks. He got a lot of ribbing from the instructors about his "boat anchor".

Just out of curiosity, do you remember how he did compared to the others?

I have a couple milk crates full of the older metal sw mags.I did not know they had gone up that much in price