My S&W Article
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:04 pm
The Smith & Wesson Model 645 in .45 ACP. It wasn't Big Blue's first foray into the .45 ACP cartridge, they did that with the DA .45 Hand Ejector M1917 backing during the Great War.
But the Model 645 was Big Blue's first attempt at building a Double/Single Action .45 automatic. Riding the wave that started with their Model 39 and its adoption by the Illinois State Police in 1968.
S&W made a number of 9mm DA/SA automatics in fullsize and compact varieties starting in 1979 with the introduction of their 2nd Generation guns. But a .45 chambered blaster was not in the cards; that is until 1985.
Hearing the market demands, and the knowledge that the mindset of police were moving away from the revolver as their duty sidearm. S&W decided to make a gun that rivaled and beat the quality of a Colt 1911, with the added function of not being relegated to Single Action Only like the famous Colt .45 Slab Side. You see, what made the Model 39 and its progeny popular in holsters of America's cops was the fact that the gun was a Double Action design. Agency Brass feared the "Cocked & Locked" look and mechanics of the 1911 and Hi-Power design. They didn't trust their Patrolmen to carry such a gun. In fact, some agencies didn't even allow Single Action to be a feature on their duty revolvers. Some agencies went so far to have their armorers bob the hammers and make them Double Action Only capable.
Well, the Model 645 was S&W's answer to the market demands for a big honking steel framed .45 automatic.
Read the rest of it and see the rest of the photos the factory cutaway gun, along with seeing it in on screen action over here at SMITH &WESSON MODEL 645: THE GUN OF MIAMI VICE SEASON 2 & 3