S&W cop guns - Cop Talk

Once the undisputed premier provider of law enforcement handguns to America, Smith & Wesson found itself an also-ran in a few short years. They're back from the precipice of bankruptcy thanks to the take-over by Bob Scott's team, with Bob now chairman of the board and big business "turnaround specialist" Roy Cuny the new president of the company. S&W decision makers are beginning to look at how to take back some of their traditional turf in police handgun sales.

This year, S&W drops all its double action only autos (Models 3953, 5946, etc.) from the civilian catalog. They'll make them for police sales only. Private citizens simply didn't go for the concept. Currently the purveyors of Walther pistols in North America, they sold the entire Montreal Police Department on 9mm Walther P99s with double action only mechanisms. The RCMP uses DAO Smith 9mms, the 3953 single stack compact for plainclothes and small-handed personnel, and the full size 16-shot 5946 as the standard for the uniformed division. The latter is also the second most popular uniform pistol on NYPD. The second largest municipal PD in our country, Chicago's, finds DAO Smiths hugely popular in both approved calibers, 9mm and .45. On NYPD and Chicago PD, cops buy their own duty guns but must pick from an approved list of DAO autos.

Traditional Double Action (self-cocking after the first shot) autos are no longer trendy, but still account for a very large percentage of what US cops carry. Smith has two very worthwhile new concepts here. One is the sleek, slim Model 4040, the hugely successful Model 3913 rendered in .40 S&W caliber. Oddly enough, for some reason the big design hurdle was getting the slide to lock open after the last shot. A ball detent on the magazine follower proved to be the fix at the eleventh hour. Recoil is very manageable, and this neat little 7+1 shot single stack should endear itself to plainclothes users. Look for it soon in .357 SIG.

You may remember the days when the best buy in a service revolver was S&W's Model 28 Highway Patrolman. That concept remains today in S&W's Value Line, which is well and truly named. Encompassing full size 9mm and .40 plus compact single stack 9mm and .45 ACP all with aluminum frames, these good deals expand to stainless to augment the matte blue ones. My pick is the 8-shot 457S. At a suggested retail of $634. It functionally duplicates the superb Performance Center Shorty Forty-Five that costs well over a grand.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group