S&W 3913

[GJM]

I stumbled across a 3953 a few months back, and in an amazing feat of timing, found a guy on the S&W Forum selling nine like-new magazines the very next day.

I had a holster and mag pouch crafted, and may start carrying it... its quite a bit lighter and of course thinner than the HK45C.

What gives me pause is the trigger reset. Its a "double reset" like a DAK (although the stroke is much shorter)... buuuut... unlike the Sig, the S&W "DAO" must be released all the way to the second reset point. Stop at the first one, and... nada.

IOW, to my mind, the 3953's trigger is kind of like a P7 staplegun's; best to stay with it exclusively to prevent any double-clutching, etc., at a critical time. Dunno, maybe after I work with it a while I'll change my mind.

Really nice carry piece, though, from a practical standpoint. For sure, that genre of S&W is what killed the Devel and ASP.

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I got a 3953, and discovered the same thing. Between that and how good the SA is on a 3913, I prefer it to the 3953. With the 3913 LS, it only has one safety lever, shrinking the thinness advantage of the 3953 by half.

[LSP972]

That said, I went to the Kahr CW9 as a replacement for the 3913 for primary carry, because I knew Smith was going to stop producing parts, and magazines were getting tougher to find.
-Rob

That is on my mind as well; although I solved the magazine problem... got 11 of those puppies now.

Curious as to why you think the lighter, slightly-trimmer Kahr P9/CW9 is "almost" as good for carrying. I have, more than once, considered that option. I had a P45 and liked it, but a pal liked it more and offered me a trade I couldn't turn down.

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[LSP972]

I got a 3953, and discovered the same thing. Between that and how good the SA is on a 3913, I prefer it to the 3953. With the 3913 LS, it only has one safety lever, shrinking the thinness advantage of the 3953 by half.

No argument there; but I truly despise the necessary decocking stroke on those Walther-type safeties.

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[ST911]

The more I shoot the latest subcompact-ish single stack 9mm offerings the more I would like to see a run of new 3913s.

Though, I wonder if it would be fair to expect as much of the new 39## as older.

[Tamara]

Though, I wonder if it would be fair to expect as much of the new 39## as older.

I don't see why not; by the late Nineties they'd already taken almost all the shortcuts they could short of either starting from a clean sheet of paper or moving the tooling to Turkey or the Philippines.

[NickA]

You guys aren't making me feel good about selling my 3913 a few years ago :-(
Mine was like GJM describes, with an SA trigger that was insanely easy to shoot.
IIRC they did produce a "budget" version of that series until recently, the 908 and 910 I think. Don't know if the quality was the same.

[RevolverRob]

That is on my mind as well; although I solved the magazine problem... got 11 of those puppies now.

I am up to...six or seven if I see them for sale in ones and twos and I have the cash in my pocket I buy them. I need to buy more, so I have enough for a lifetime.

Curious as to why you think the lighter, slightly-trimmer Kahr P9/CW9 is "almost" as good for carrying. I have, more than once, considered that option. I had a P45 and liked it, but a pal liked it more and offered me a trade I couldn't turn down.

The 3913LS has a nice tapered frame and almost no square/blocky/sharp edges to it at all, even the magazine baseplates are usually flat and nicely rounded, even if they aren't flush fitting, although the longer pointed "pinky"-type do exist. It also has nice sharp checkering on the front strap. By contrast even though the Kahr is trimmer, but it has a blocky shape to it that I find more difficult to hide, especially in AIWB. The CW9 being the "cheap" Kahr (and it is pretty affordable, they are running what? About three and a half Benjamins most places) has several noticeably sharp edges that had to be stoned down on the slide. The frame was pretty slick, but I find most polymer frames are and that's readily solved with grip tape. Finally, the baseplate shape on the 7-round Kahr mags is more pointed and I find it doesn't conceal quite as well, tending to poke out at odd angles compared to the 3913.

Overall, I'd say they are really quite close and the longer I carr(ied) the Kahr the less I noticed the differences. It was really just a matter of, I'd carried the 3913 for 4 years and switched to the Kahr and it was different.

The one thing I do really like about the Kahr over the 3913 is the slightly thinner grip strap. I can really get my hands around it and hold onto the gun. That's why with a bit of practice shooting wise the Kahr and 3913 are almost dead even. The extra weight soaks up some recoil in the 3913, but the extra control with the hands on the CW9 pretty much balances it out. The 3913 has a much better trigger, even TDA, especially the sweet SA trigger.

-Rob

[LSP972]

It was really just a matter of, I'd carried the 3913 for 4 years and switched to the Kahr and it was different.

Makes sense; I know what you mean.

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[GJM]

Considering a Kahr in the same class as a 3913 as to shootability/durability/reliability doesn't jive with the experience owning about 8 Kahr pistols over the years. Shootability in terms of trigger, reliability in terms of over fifty percent needing a trip back to the Kahr factory.

[DamonL]

I like the 3913. It filled the single-stack 9mm niche, when I was looking for one. I haven't fired mine in years, but I can't get my self to sell it. I would probably buy a S&W Shield nowadays.