Here We Go Again...

Above, you will see a Smith & Wesson 3906. J&G Sales has a few for $350 in very good condition, and dammit, I need one. Let me explain why.

The 3906 was born in the late 1980s, and was nearly D.O.A. thanks to the influx of mega-capacity "Wundernines" with plastic frames. The 3906 is about at anachronistic as they get. It was made from enough steel to make a Volvo station wagon, and features a low-capacity single-stack magazine (eight or nine rounds, depending on manufacturer). It seems like engineers looked at the future of handguns and decided that lightweight polymers and magazine capacities reaching toward 20 round were NOT the wave of the future, and built a gun that everyone else had been making a version of since dirt was new. That's not to say they didn't do a good job. The 3906 is very solidly built, has a slim grip, and developed a reputation for accuracy and dependability during its short life (it was discontinued in 1991 after unimpressive sales numbers rolled in).

To sum it all up, it is a classic. The presenters on my favorite T.V. show, Top Gear, say that to be a classic, a car has to be two of three things : interesting, rare, or beautiful. The S&W 3906 is all of those things. And now it is fairly cheap as well. I think it would make a great utility piece, or bowling pin gun. Mainly, I just need more S&W classics in my safe. I may not pick one up soon, and I may step up to the 5906, which was a double-stack version of the 3906 that held 15 rounds (17rd mags are now available, though the 5906 has also gone out of production). I've always wanted a single-stack 9mm, and the 3906 may be just the thing. You just can't have too much stuff with a S&W stamped on the slide.