The Third Generation Smith autoloaders are fine firearms. Generally, this question brings out some interesting comments, and unfortunately there are lots of folks that ping on the S&W because of what they heard from a friend of a friend of a friend, etc. Smith was one of the first to provide a double stack, double action autoloader (first generation - back in the 60's), and experienced some problems that have been published. Since then, they cannot seem to get a break in the Gun Magazine world, so you rarely hear anything at all, but when you do, it is not flattering. In the late 80's, they got very prolific, making different configurations of almost all of their models (DA, DAO, decocker versions, etc). The dealer world did not like having to keep up with the different versions, and this period became known as the "gun of the week" period of Smith's history. There was a lot of negative grousing about this program, but it was from the dealer community, not from a lack of quality standpoint. Today, I get a kick out of folks badmouthing Smith, generally it is in defense of their selection of another of the wonder guns (Glocks, HK's, Sig's, etc.) If you like your Smith, keep it and enjoy it. If it works for you, that pretty much says it all, right? The Third Generation line has enhancements and changes that the first and second generation lines did not have. It's called progress. I think they have done a good job. Sorry for the long winded response, but as you can tell, I like the current autoloader products from S&W, have or have owned several dozen. Also, I work at an indoor range/gunshop, and have had the pleasure of selling lots of Smiths to my customers. If they were a problem, I wouldn't still be selling them. They work. Enjoy. ......SmithNut
[This message has been edited by SmithNut (edited August 30, 1999).]