S&W Performance Center 945

WOW, nice find.

The grips look perfect and a true Bomar was put on the originals. The two-pin trigger was also on the original build. The grip safety has turned plum with age. I believe those are WC trigger, thumb safety and possibly the grip safety.

I had the Wave version with WC sights back in the early 2000s. I wanted the Bomar version back then and they could not be found.

if you plan to shoot it, range report!

The Briley Spherical Bushing was cool and was a pain in the azz to square back onto the barrel due to tight tolerances. I recall having to walk away and come back and it slipped in. Oil, Beer and vulgarities helped!

The Wave version was a tack driver. The only problem I had, and it was me, my hand is large, and I had issues depressing the grip safety (I ride the thumb safety and it moved my palm away from the grip safety pad) and also because it was inset into the frame.

I was trying to dream up an additional padding add on for positive depression.

Now to find additional 945 mags. IIRC, you can modify 4506 mags to work!!!!

I gotcha and also... apologies up front about the length of this post.

945 mags are exactly the same as 4506 mags except for the location of the slots and the earliest 945 magazines are dual-cut, although they are usually stamped "945 ONLY", and in my opinion, this was merely so that they weren't locked in to the wrong location in a 4506 or 4566 in any manner of a life or death incident.

Let me also say that when you look at a picture of these dual cut magazines, you see that fairly small chunk of metal between the two slots and you may think "boy that looks a potential failure point right there" and I can tell you from experience that it is anything but -- the metal they used in these magazine bodies is tough as nails and that spot is NOT frail, and not even close.

It was a friend of mine that had a milling machine and this machine (while old and just massive) was new to him and he was a skilled fellow but he wasn't a machinist by trade. So when I brought this idea to him, this was literally one of the first attempts he'd ever had using this machine.

He was methodical in his approach. And let me also say that he broke the first bit and it was funny because before we started, he did not have the bit that we needed and I insisted on paying for it, given the nature of the project. But when I tried to pay for the replacement bit, he wouldn't hear of it because he blamed the breakage on something he felt he should have done properly the first time and not broken the first one.

I arrived at project day with six 4506 mags and my 945, one OEM dual-cut 945 magazine and two boxes of ammo. The plan was to make that first one the test monkey and I was willing to toss at least two perfectly wonderful 4506 mags to the altar of sacrifice to see if this project could be a success. All I asked of my friend and his massive machine was that we not wreck or alter my OEM 945 magazine during the project.

...and as the first one went beautifully (after one snapped bit) we simply did all six mags and I've since been using those six magazines exclusively. In other words, my 945 hasn't done live fire with an OEM 945 magazine for, hmmm, maybe 6 or 7 years? And while it may come off like a stupid gun forum trope... my 5-inch 945 is a pistol that does not fail, in any manner, in the history of EVER, at least as long as I've had it. I've never fed it any crazy ammo or oddball boutique JHP's, this pistol has only had 185 and 200gr LSWC and 200/230gr plated and 230gr FMJ, all handloads, ever, as long as I've owned it. Zero fails. And zero failures with my altered 4506 magazines.

So that little (NOT FRAIL!) slice of metal... our broken bit... and the success of these magazines and the original dual-cut 945 magazines are all at least little bits of evidence that it may not be as easy as a few swipes with a Dremel, but I am not at all a skilled Dremelman, so YMMV.

But yet, done right, altered 4506 magazines are perfect for the 945 pistol.

The six magazines that we altered are all that I use in my 645, 745's, 845 and my 945's. If you use a 4506 for duty or defense or gun games with high speed reloads or if you shoot and train that way all of the time, the dual cut magazines are a bad idea for the 4506 series. If you simply are enjoying a session of fun where the gun handling is methodical and not balls to the wall, the dual cut mags are no issue in a 4506 or variant.