908 is a fine pistol.
Here's a link comparing it to the 3913.
I would recommend buying a few extra magazines now as they're still relatively cheap, and available.
I used to own and carry (not in Maryland) a 6906 back in the 90s. Police trade in. It was my first quality handgun. I loved that thing. It shot very well. Fit my hand well. And was just plain pretty. Bobbed hammer which some people don't like.
Sadly stolen.
Hard to find now.
12 round magazine. Not quite the high capacity mag we like to see, but more than the ten rounds our psychopathic elected elite want us to have. It is possible to buy a magazine block; but I guess that would have to be installed out of state.
My very first pistol was a SW 4006 (40 cal) I bought from lou45. It's a California park police trade from the 80s. It's a great gun. The factory Mags technically hold 11 rounds, but I only load them to ten. That last round just really doesn't want to fit.
It weighs a ton though. It felt good in the shop, but after a while, it just felt too big for my hands.
I still love it though. And the fact that it was my first and I bought it from Lou means I'll never part with it.
3913 is as described above . At the time was considered the first subcompact 9mm , by today's standards midway between Compact and Subcompact .
The 9xx and 4xx series was the lower cost option , with less intricate cosmetic slide machining and matte finish .
The 4013 was a totally different beast , of the large frame variety .
As a starting point , visualize a 4516 .
Add an aluminum alloy frame instead of SS
Change caliber from .45acp to .40 S&W
Vola ! The 4013 !
If you liked the 4516 , but really , really wanted a lightweight version , even if it was in .40 , the 4013 was your Huckleberry .
A good quality , well made pistol as were to 3rd Gen ( aka "4 Digit" ) guns of the era . But it was a single stack .45 sized gun in .40 , in the era that double stack compact- ish .40s on 9mm sized frames were common .
* I * like the 4013 , but it's a very niche taste .
3rd gens are all great guns. Workhorses and if taken care of will outlive you. I wish they were still made, I bet they would only have been improved over time.
This gem of a model 457 .45 came my way and didn't pass up on one this time after many years. Carries well. I just drop it in a little suede IWB holster and carry it often.
When the S&W 59 came out and I saw the photos of it on a table with all those 9mm cartridges lying next to it, it was love at first sight! But it had a horrible reputation. Smith makes great revolvers, I was told and retold, but their autos are horrible!
One article was entitled, "Why A $49 Raven .25ACP Is Better Than A $550 S&W 9mm!"
The writer's point was that a Raven would go BANG! when you pulled the trigger while a S&W 39/59 would not. In fact, the term JAMMOMATIC was often applied to S&W autos, the article read.
S&W 5906 (top) and 659. I love both, but actually prefer the latter.
I got two of them at the time because they were so doggone hard
to get at the time!
The S&W 457 .45 ACP was a budget third generation auto.
I only shot it once, but it was both accurate and reliable!
The 645 is another.45 auto that was very accurate. A S&W rep
showed a number of us in a gunstore how it would feed empty
cases into the chamber. I'd never seen THAT before. One article
with no byline reported that despite the gun being a fixed sights
model, it was more accurate than their two Colt Gold Cups.
I was crushed. My dream gun was a nightmare!
But then came the Beretta 92 Italian beauty that made Sophia Loren look like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. She held 16 rounds and spot them out without issue. Later, when the U.S. Military chose it to replace the venerable, but vastly overrated Colt .45 auto, I sold it and bought a Taurus PT-92. It wasn't quite as accurate and the finish wasn't as beautiful, but I grabbed one up and it went through the ammo without a wrinkle!
But then came the S&W 659 9mm auto. It was incredible. Some called her "boxy," but I loved her at first sight! And she never jammed. In military tests, the Beretta malfunctioned once in every 2008 rounds. The S&W 459 malfunctioned every once in 952 rounds. But they, as far as the military was concerned, were a dead heat. And I agreed. (In fact, they had to nearly beat the 459 nearly to death to get it to malfunction.)
And I loved the stainless steel in the 2nd Gen. I also got a S&W 5906 when it became available. Then the 6906.
I've never regretted buying them and to this day despise Glocks. I mean, no trigger, no safety. Accidents waiting to happen. A few years ago, police were negotiating a surrender of a bad guy at his home. The man said he's give up if the police lowered their Glocks and permitted him to be handcuffed. As the negotiator was working this out, a shot rang out and the man dropped dead. One of the cops had accidentally touched the trigger of his Glock. The man was shot accidentally, but it was cold comfort to the man who was killed.
Back in the eighties, when I did a lot of gunsmithing, Smith send all of its dealers a book just on the 3rd generation guns. It was amazing how many different models they were putting out back then. I wish I still had the book.