It'd have to be the one I picked up just a few weeks ago...an as-NIB S&W PC945 4"...here's a write-up I did on it on another forum:
After lusting after a S&W 4” Performance Center 945 (PC945) for a year or so after seeing this photo in an old (’98? ’99? ’00?) gun magazine that was in a lot I won on eBay:
…and subsequently hearing nothing but glowing comments about the pistol, I saved up my pennies and finally made one of these beauties my own a couple weeks ago:
Who knew a six-dollar lot of magazines would cost me so damn much a year later…?
Unfired and as-new in aluminum case with two eight-round proprietary magazines, this particular example with both stainless slide and frame had a factory-ship date of mid-2000, and it’s been someone’s safe queen ever since; the first field strip quickly confirmed the seller’s claim.
I took it to the range for the first time a day or two ago, and its performance was flawless. The ultra-crisp 3.5 to 4 lb. trigger garnered accuracy that made even my tendonitis-plagued shooting look good. No failures of any sort fresh out of the box, and even several deliberate limpwristing attempts had no detrimental effects on the cycling of the pistol (though one errant shell flew up into one of the overhead lightbulbs in the stall and shattered it…that was a first! I saw several large pieces raining down on me upon recoil and I thought my purdy new pistol had flown apart
). Some claim the 945 has a purported lower bore axis then the 1911 and report a subsequent lower recoil, allowing for quicker followup shots; I thought the two were entirely too similar in that area and could discern no substantial difference…more experienced shooters may sense a subtlety that escaped me.
The fit and finish of the Performance Center is everything it’s cracked up to be. The unbelievably smooth yet tight slide-to-frame fit has rails so well hand-lapped they seem as one yet glide on each other like silk. The barrel ramp, the entire outer skin of the hand-fitted barrel and portions of the inner slide are all hand-polished. The handfitted golden bushing ring that sits within the slide mates perfectly with the slide and barrel, insuring outstanding accuracy. All safeties engage and disengage with just the right blend of crispness and firmness (this particular example is the first generation of the 945, thus does not have the secondary firing pin block FWIW). The frontstrap is checkered and the trigger guard is undercut near the frontstrap. The slide’s scaled serrations (which I love) are cleanly and expertly cut; the sights are 3-dot fixed. The pistol is bead-blasted with slide flats that are polished. Very thin wood grips give the pistol a wonderful feel in hand that is very similar to the 1911 platform – perhaps even a bit slimmer – but does have a distance from frontstrap to back that is just slightly longer, giving one a sense of same-but-different.
Overall, a high-quality firearm built by craftsmen whose attention to care and detail is apparent both by the pistol’s appearance and performance.