Smith and Wesson 1006 - 10mm Sweetness - Initial overview and thoughts.

pirate604

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For a long time I have lusted after three of four different guns, my Grail guns so to speak. They are, in no particular order; The Bren Ten, S&W 4506-1, S&W 1006 and my all time Grail Gun, the Smith and Wesson 945. I don't really know why these guns speak to me the way they do, all I know is they haunt my dreams and fill me with the nostalgia of 80's and 90's actions films when I see them. They have been elusive to me but I recently was able to obtain one, The Smith and Wesson 1006. I was in the market for a 10mm and was looking at a few options when this Bad Boy popped up on the EE. It was fate, it had to be. I pulled the trigger, lied to my wife about the price and then set up a tent next to my mail box while clicking refresh on my Canada post app playing the waiting game.

But enough about my sad obsession.
The 1006 is a all stainless 10mm pistol with a DA/SA trigger, a slide mounted safety/decocker and is fed from a single column 9 round detachable box magazine.

I have some experience with 3rd get Smiths, particularly the 5906 with a god awful DAO trigger. When this pistol arrived, my first thought was "well this is BIG" and it is. Most of the pistols in my safe are modern PFSF pistols which are all substantially smaller. But when I picked it up it didn't feel big, the grip is very slim, slimmer than my 1911 with magpul grips. It has a 5" barrel and balances very nicely in the hand. The slide is buttery smooth and has a very minimal amount of play in its fit to the frame. The slide is topped with a 3 dot sight variety, the front post has a larger dot than the rear dots. I like this as I usually find 3 dot or figure 8 arrangements distracting. My preferred sight arrangement is a tritium front (with a colored ring like the trijicon HD's) and a black serrated rear. The rear sight on my example is the fully adjustable type with the stainless "ears".

The DA trigger pull is quite long but very smooth with a nice clean break. I find it is quite easy to stage the trigger rapidly with out going past the breaking point. Those of you who have shot a lot of DA revolvers would appreciate this. The SA pull has a minimal amount of take up but breaks cleanly. The trigger reset is short and tactile. Over all I am pleased with the trigger.

Now on to the controls, the decocker/safety lever is reachable with the thumb without breaking grip but unless you have giant #### beaters, there is no way one can reach the slide release with out breaking grip. I will be using my weak hand when reloading as I am not a fan of the "power stroke" or "sling shot". The magazine release can be reached with a slight break of the grip and is not really an issue.

My example came with 2 magazines ****** IF ANY ONE HAS SOME THEY WOULD LIKE TO PART WITH, DROP ME A PM****** The magazines hold 9 rounds each and have witness holes numbered 2-9 one each side. They feature white followers, although I have seen some mags with yellow followers. I will be buying up what ever mags / mag parts I can get my hands on as I usually like to have 10ish mags per pistol in my inventory and 2 is a far cry from that. "An auto pistol is only as good as the mag that feeds it" I heard that some where once, maybe, I dunno...
These mags also feature two raised tabs, one on each side between the 8 and 9 holes, these tabs index with channels cut into the magwell. I guess this is so you don't put your 1006 mags in your 4006 or your 4506?

Disassembly is quite simple, very 1911-esque with out any of the barrel bushing nonsense. Reassembly is simple but requires pressing down some of the components near the hammer so the slide may travel all the way back.

Over all I am quite impressed with this pistol. The phrase "they don't make em like this any more" comes to mind. I truly wish the Smith and Wesson continued their 3rd Gen pistol line up when they introduced the M&P polymer line like Sig Sauer did.

I will update this thread with a range report one I get to feed this beast.

This overview was inspired by Master G and his excellent threads showcasing some the examples from his collection.

Please share your pics and thoughts of 3rd Gen Smith and Wesson's.
And now, on to the pics...
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I sold mine when I needed rent about 10 years ago. Huge regret but oh well, it wasn't really that great. It's quite large for a single stack and the DA trigger was pretty bad. SA was ok but overall it's biggest draw is how much of a tank it is. Handles 10mm as well as anything.
 
I had a S&W 1066 back in the day. Nice pistol & good shooter! :cool:

Sold it a long time ago on CGN.... someone here probably still has it.

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NAA.
 

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Thanks for an excellent, detailed review! And your pictures are great, too—big, clear and with nice, even lighting.
 
I sold mine when I needed rent about 10 years ago. Huge regret but oh well, it wasn't really that great. It's quite large for a single stack and the DA trigger was pretty bad. SA was ok but overall it's biggest draw is how much of a tank it is. Handles 10mm as well as anything.

Ya the triggers is one of the reasons I let go both my 1006 and 4506-1 .....but made great profit on both of them.

Not sure why 15 years ago 10mm only had a "niche" following....NOW its in vogue.

Horrible, gritty triggers with long take up.

Still well built guns....
 
I had one in the last year I lived in Canada before I moved to Mexico, so that was 1989-1990. It looked just like yours. I remember buying my third mag in Sheels Sporting Goods in Minot. I didn't have it long but I bought some 200 grain JSP bullets at the time -- like 400 or so and loaded up the "Miami Vice" load which I think (but don't totally remember so if you're going to do it, work up to it at your own risk) was 12.0 grains of 2400. Anyway, it really roared and clocked right at 1,200 fps on my Chrony at the time. If the load was up or down a bit, well, all my old Brandon load data is long gone now so I cannot really say. It sure clanged steel. Pepper poppers that would not fall over using the hottest .357 Magnum or 45 ACP loads fell nicely to that gun.

Mexico, however, reared it's ever seductive head, and that gun had to go along with pretty much everything else I owned at the time so I could get down there. Quite the gun though.
 
Nice pics. Sounds like you got a good trigger on that sample so that is a big plus. I particularly like the link to Pulp Fiction, intentional or not.
 
So I finally got my Reg Cert for this beast and had it to the range. I put 200 rounds of 180gr Blazer Brass through it. The cheapest ammo I could find and it as $35/ box, so I bought the remainder that was in stock. Needless to say, I saved all my brass as this may be the caliber that finally gets me to take the leap into reloading.
This gun was fun to shoot, and quite controllable, most likely due to the weight. I noticed that the front sight is off center ever so slightly so I had to drift the rear sight to the right to correct for this. At 5 and 10 yards I was able to consistently put all rounds in the same 1" ragged hole. I was having a bit of difficulty replicating this a 15 yards and find that my group opened up quite a bit to the 3" range. A lot if this was due to me not taking my time. I have a tendency to rush and crank my shots off fast when I have a new gun. I found that the slide release was really digging into my anterior of my strong had thumb when going fast. Perhaps I need to adjust my grip, but I also find this happens when I shoot my 1911. The trigger was ok, I still found it predictable and did fire quite a few rounds in DA.
Overall I really did enjoy shooting this beauty and am glad I took the plunge on it. I would like to shoot it a LOT more but the cost of ammo is quite high. It will most likely sit out most range trips and I will stock pile 10mm so I can have a few hundred rounds to shoot every once in a while. I'd like to get a holster, a few more mags and 1000 round and then really put is thing through its paces shooting it hard and fast.
I do need to get a Galco Miami Classic holster so I can channel my inner Sonny while watching Miami Vice reruns late at night.
 
So I finally got my Reg Cert for this beast and had it to the range. I put 200 rounds of 180gr Blazer Brass through it. The cheapest ammo I could find and it as $35/ box, so I bought the remainder that was in stock. Needless to say, I saved all my brass as this may be the caliber that finally gets me to take the leap into reloading.
This gun was fun to shoot, and quite controllable, most likely due to the weight. I noticed that the front sight is off center ever so slightly so I had to drift the rear sight to the right to correct for this. At 5 and 10 yards I was able to consistently put all rounds in the same 1" ragged hole. I was having a bit of difficulty replicating this a 15 yards and find that my group opened up quite a bit to the 3" range. A lot if this was due to me not taking my time. I have a tendency to rush and crank my shots off fast when I have a new gun. I found that the slide release was really digging into my anterior of my strong had thumb when going fast. Perhaps I need to adjust my grip, but I also find this happens when I shoot my 1911. The trigger was ok, I still found it predictable and did fire quite a few rounds in DA.
Overall I really did enjoy shooting this beauty and am glad I took the plunge on it. I would like to shoot it a LOT more but the cost of ammo is quite high. It will most likely sit out most range trips and I will stock pile 10mm so I can have a few hundred rounds to shoot every once in a while. I'd like to get a holster, a few more mags and 1000 round and then really put is thing through its paces shooting it hard and fast.
I do need to get a Galco Miami Classic holster so I can channel my inner Sonny while watching Miami Vice reruns late at night.

In the 1st Season I think Crockett used a Ted Blocker lifeline shoulder holster, but Don Johnson did not like it and asked for something better. I had a Blocker lifeline for my 1911 when I was in Mexico. Hell, I still have it. I sold the 1911, though, although I'll get another when I go back. But I don't recommend the Blocker holster. It prints in any suit jacket I had, and that's not good. I rarely wore my 1911 concealed in Mexico and when I did it was in a Galco inside-the-pants holster. But since my grip-safety was blocked out, that made me nervous. I needed something better.

The 1911 in the Blocker holster.
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Phil Maher, the US Consul asked me to "back him up" one day when a Gringo house was broken into and it appeared the occupants were being held hostage. I took a Model 10 and a Model 64 S&W in two pancake holsters and my snubby in a pocket holster. I was weighed down. Everything turned out okay, they weren't being held hostage, they had just been bound and gagged into chairs in front of the main window, after which the bad guys left. After long enough, the maid entered and saw them there in the window and called for help. When we got back to Phil's office and I took my jacket off he looked at all the iron I was packing and said: "We have to find you something better than that."

Quite soon enough, the Consul "found" a S&W 3904 and through his office helped me register it. Now, Colonel Phil Maher carried his 1911 Officer's in a tan Miami Classic and his 469 in a black Miami Classic. Having the chance to try out the Miami Classic by borrowing Phil's I found out that with a fullsize 1911 it still printed just as badly as the Blocker holster. "I guess you can't be Don Johnson" was the Colonel's snide comment. No matter, in the Miami Vice 2nd Season Crockett also uses quite often the "Original Jackass Shoulder System" and you can still buy that too. So I ordered one of those for my 3904.

Here is the 3904 in the Original Jackass holster. This was taken just after I got the holster and the 3904 still was in the original state that it came to me, all black and in 9mm.
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Around this time Allan Williams and I had developed the ".380 Cal" which is a .380 chamber in a 9mm barrel with a 9mm lead-in allowing the reloader to load say a 140 grain SWC into a .380 case up to around 1,060 fps out of 4 inches and 1120 out of 4 inches. In a fully supported chamber you can get it up to around 1,160 out of 5 inches but the 3904 alas was not such a beast. I had the Queretero Custom shop fit me up a .380 Cal barrel I got out of one of the big US barrel makers before it became impossible to make custom orders like that and had them spray-and-bake the frame a stain nickle color. Thus I could carry that gun even when the Colonel wasn't around to protect me with his "these aren't the 'droids you're looking for" powers of a serving US Consul.

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In this guise I carried that 3904 all over hell's creation in Mexico. I wore it to work several times on days when the crap going on around us was just so nerve wracking (kidnappings, killings, disappearances, etc.) that I felt a 5-shot snubby might not be enough. Because of the canted angle of the gun as opposed to a straight horizontal presentation, there was no printing I couldn't live with. I really like that holster.

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On my friend Michael's sailboat on the Sea of Cortez. The 3904 is just under my outter shirt in the Jackass holster. Yeah, it might print under just a shirt but at night on a sailboat on the Sea of Cortez I wasn't too worried about it. I really recommend you take a look at the Galco Original Jackass holster. And Crockett wore it, with the Bren 10 at least.

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One of the first guns I bought was a 645, still have it, shoots very well. Ergonomics like a 2x4 but it is accurate.
 
I love my 1006 my favorite gun by far. Not quite as nice as newer guns but still love it. How do you like the sights on it. I just got a 915 being built right now and out night sights on it thinking of do in ng the same to the 1006. And amo is a pain. It if you reload it makes it a bit better on the pocketbook to shoot.
 
Had one for a short time. Only ever had two mags, and spare parts were scarce. I had bought it with the intention of shooting IDPA with it, but couldn't find mags while I had it and a holster for a lefty was problematic. I recall quite a hefty girl with a decent single action, but despite that never rounded 3rd base with her ;)

Since selling her on I found 2 nearly new mags that I thought prudent to buy despite no longer having one.
They are in the spare parts bin somewhere - let me know if you are interested.
 
Had one for a short time. Only ever had two mags, and spare parts were scarce. I had bought it with the intention of shooting IDPA with it, but couldn't find mags while I had it and a holster for a lefty was problematic. I recall quite a hefty girl with a decent single action, but despite that never rounded 3rd base with her ;)

Since selling her on I found 2 nearly new mags that I thought prudent to buy despite no longer having one.
They are in the spare parts bin somewhere - let me know if you are interested.

PM coming your way.
 
When your 3rd gen S&W trigger has excessive take up & is as gritty as all get out-

With slide locked back out of battery-
Take a #2 pencil w/ eraser & push the trigger lever return spring (brass colored)forward to keep the trigger lever engaged w/ the trigger bar.

With slide removed from the frame-
A finger accomplishes the same task as above.

My 1006,1026,1076,645,745,4506,945 have been relegated as safe queens, since the introduction/transition to the SIG SAUER R5 10mm's.
 
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Here is my recently acquired 1006, currently have 2 mags for it, I too hope that I can find some more someday! Definitely a bit of a challenge...
 

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