S&w m659

[Spud]

Been wanting a Gen 2 or 3 Smith SA for awhile and picked one up (subject gun) the other day. After 3 days I hate this gun more than any handgun I've owned. It's a pain (literally) to field-strip it, at least for me. Takes three pairs of hands. But my main complaint concerns trying to shoot my cast or even commercial cast boolits in it. None of my reloads (for another 9mm) with .357 sized boolits would chamber and .356's hung up occasionally. Many malfs, all FTRTB probs. Chamber's evidently somewhat tighter than my Ruger.

Anyone here shoot these Smith semi autos with cast? I haven't slugged the bore yet, but fear nothing much bigger than .355 is gonna chamber in this one. I tried more taper crimp 'til they chambered, but know I'm distorting the boolits I'm using doing this.

Looking for anyone's experience along these lines. Thanks.

[wcp4570]

Spud
I like smith autos. It took me a long time to buy my first one and now I have a few. The herd has a model 39, 539, 3913 and a 915. I use the Lee 120tc boolit and started out with a 357 sizer and got barrel leading and poor accuracy. Bought a 355 sizer and all of my guns are happy now and no more leading. My son also has a pair of Smith M&P Pro's that the grand kids shoot steel challeng with and they shoot the 355's very well also. My problem is keeping everyone in ammo.

One more thing, all the Smith autos I've shot are very reliable. I can't remember having a failure to fire or eject even with the 357 size boolits.

wcp

[Spud]

Thanks, wcp. I was afraid that 355 boolits would cause leading as most 9mm's I've seen have bores larger, including my Ruger which slugged a hair over 356. Have virtually no leading with that gun with 357 boolits.

Not giving up on my Smith. Made a few adjustments on my presently loaded rounds (seating depth and taper crimp) and just need to do more experimentation.

Gonna take some familiarization with single/double mechanism also.

[wcp4570]

I forgot to mention anything about take down. You are correct about them being a pain to take down. All of mine are a little difficult to get the barrel pin out. I hold the muzzle of the gun in my left hand with the slide back into position to remove the pin and use a punch to start the pin out. After the pin is unseated the rest is easy. Smith has greatly improved the take down on the M&P'S.

wcp

[Spud]

Thanks for the help, wcp. I shot another 100 or so cast loads tonite, some with commercial 125 gr. TC's (sized 356) that worked fine. Still had some FTRTB's with my own cast boolit (Lee 125-RNFP) which doesn't surprise me. Getting a little more acquainted with the gun, too, so much more enjoyable today. Adios.

[primersp]

shoot in an 5906 rcbs tc 124 grs sized at 356,5 works fine but don't chamber bullet in 357,5
pistol accurate

[Spud]

shoot in an 5906 rcbs tc 124 grs sized at 356,5 works fine but don't chamber bullet in 357,5
pistol accurate
Thanks for that. One issue I have is that my Lyman boolit sizer die that reads .356 on it actually sizes boolits in my alloy at .357. Not a problem (in fact beneficial) with my other gun, but I may have to get another sizer die for this one.

[primersp]

SPUD

if you need i have an rcbs sizer in 354 that i have on a trade fews years ago ,no utility for me ,never use
you can try how it's sized your bullet and open it a bit if necessery.
i will send you free

[Spud]

Now I must say I really appreciate the offer, but think 354 may be a bit small for my use. Also the cost to ship from you to me could be somewhat prohibitive if you are indeed where your ID info indicates! Thanks for the thought, though.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i shoot cast in a m39-2 , it is a single stack , it feeds them fine now that i added a taper crimp

it does have a much tighter barrel and a tighter chamber than many other 9mm

but it will also shoots much tighter groups than any other 9mm i have

it likes a 356-120TC seated 1.050 over 4.5gr of power pistol

my barrel slugged at .346 x.354 the ruger i slugged was .348x.357

it was a challenge making 1 round that would cycle and not lead in both i think i have it now

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I am not following on the break down , for the 39 i unload and pull back on the slide while pressing the right side of the pin with my trigger finger the pin pops in when i get to the spot then remove pin form the left side and set it down
then the slide slides off forward , then remove the spring and guide the turn barrel bushing and remove then the barrel comes right out

to go back together barrel in , bushing in guide and spring in then slide on frame ,start pin hold pressure in on pin with right thumb while slowly retracting slide with left hand when it is in the right spot the pin pushes thru 3/4 of the way then line up with ball dent retract slide slightly while pushing with thumb and it goes all the way in

does the 59 brake down like that or is it different?

[GabbyM]

Different brands of 9x19mm brass has widely varying case neck thickness and taper.
You need to sort all 9mm brass by head-stamp.
I’ve shot lots of .358” in my 659. I’ve a Tarus 92 with a fat bore.
Mine is most accurate with 122gr TC bullets loaded light. It shoots .356” bullets the same as the .357 or .358. I size my 9mm bullets to .357”.

If you are sticking cases short of bolt closing first thing I’d look for is bulged crooked loads or lead pushed up ahead of the case neck. A Lyman M die is your friend with any tapered case. Seat and crimp in two separate steps.

If you don’t separate your cases by head stamp the crimp will vary all over the place.

[LUBEDUDE]

Hey Spud - I used to have the motto, I never met a gun I didn't like. Until I bought a 659 back in the 80's. I can usually pick up any pistol adjust to it right away. But this Smith, I could not hit Dark if I was in a Dark room. And reallly tried. I mean I liked the gun and Wanted to make it work. I had no problems field stripping it. I remember it took me a few extra minutes to fiqure it out.

But since then, I have a phobia about Smith autos. Until the Sigma came along. And I liked it. Everyone else trashed it.

I must admit, I have been eyeballing the M&P's.

[Spud]

Different brands of 9x19mm brass has widely varying case neck thickness and taper.
You need to sort all 9mm brass by head-stamp.
I’ve shot lots of .358” in my 659. I’ve a Tarus 92 with a fat bore.
Mine is most accurate with 122gr TC bullets loaded light. It shoots .356” bullets the same as the .357 or .358. I size my 9mm bullets to .357”.

If you are sticking cases short of bolt closing first thing I’d look for is bulged crooked loads or lead pushed up ahead of the case neck. A Lyman M die is your friend with any tapered case. Seat and crimp in two separate steps.

If you don’t separate your cases by head stamp the crimp will vary all over the place.
The beauty of my Ruger pistol is I don't have to separate brass, measure neck thickness, use special expanders, etc., etc. Although I bought this (M659) gun because of its robustness, specifically to burn a lot of 9mm, it'll probably spend more time in the safe. The SR9c evidently has a "sloppier" chamber but that hasn't been a problem, so far. And it's very accurate, even in MY hands!

I do seat and crimp separately on a LnL Progressive. Never thought I'd ever say it, but I DO love my plastic guns.

I was just reading about the procedure necessary to remove the firing pin to clean the FP tunnel on Gen 2 & 3 Smith's. Makes you appreciate 1911's and some others.