Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns A retro .45

I just traded into an old S&W 645, with 3 mags. These were only made a few years (1985-1988). For those not familiar these were (are) 2nd Gen, single stack 8+1 .45s.

Cool old school .45. Now all I need is an alligator named Elvis and a Ferrari.








Pics are not the highest quality. I used my phone since it was handy.

Cool old gun. I had the 745 for a while.

Walk down memory lane, right there. Good snag.

Nice....I have the third gen 4506 progeny. Fun to shoot and reliable to a T.

4506 resides in the nightstand for me. If I run out of bullets I can beat them to death with it.

That, sir, is a beauty.

Nice...and a set of Pachmayers.... Always thought about getting the same gun in 10mm...

I had one years ago, bedstand gun. Cool gun, but it was a heavy monster. Also had a CJ7 at the same time. Still wish I had the CJ7.

The funny thing about the weight is that this .45 seems heavy to me too, but specs put it as .1 pounds lighter than a 5" 1911. 2.3#s vs 2.4#s roughly.

Great old white outline, orange ramp sights. Very easy to pick up quickly.

If you want to cheap it, polish the slide with Mothers Mag polish and buy a cool pair of sunglasses.

A thought occurred to me that this might make a good platform for heavy .45 loads, like 250 Cast bullets with stiff charges that approach .45 super.

The big down side is that as far as I know parts are pretty much like unicorns or tolerant liberals.


From research many owners indicate that the 645s were/are UBER reliable and known to even feed empty cases.

We will see.

Believe it or not, there is an alligator farm about 30 minutes from here! We have some geothermal pools in the area, and the gators love them. It must be like living at a spa!

On one of the facebook gun sites there is a guy in Boise selling a 4506.

I was issued a 4586 years ago as a trooper and absolutely detested the gun. It was DAO with a horrible trigger. You could knock the fight right out of an aggressive person with it though.

I had a car chase, then foot chase that ended in a dive bar and since my gun was in my hand, and the guy decided to fight, it was used effectively. He literally crumpled to the dirty floor.

I carried the then new 4506 as a duty gun in the mid-80's before switching to the 4506-1 when it was introduced. They were both reliable pistols and we had no trouble with them.

As you're likely already aware, that platform isn't supported by the factory so plan accordingly if you plan on shooting it much.

Magazines are getting harder and harder to find and prices are up proportionately.

In 1980-84 I was working for a KCMO suburb, surrounded by that city and a 10 minute drive from their Metro Patrol Division. Of course we attended their Academy and I'd shot well and made friends in the Firearms Training Section. Might have been spring '84, but I got a hush-hush invitation to examine and shoot a new S&W 45 Auto!! No cameras and keep a tight lip, Patrolman.

It was, of course, the 645; hawked like PT Barnum by a company rep whose name I don't recall. It was the "best 45 Auto EVER! It would FEED EMPTY CASES!!" It did feed empty cases, most of the time, but when I got my turn it choked at least once per mag with the 230 FMJ the guy brought along. He says "Haven't shot an auto much?" I said "I carry a Colt MKIV, been shooting a 1911 since I was 18." He suggested they'd sent bad ammo. I asked for 14 rounds to run through the Colt that was under my jacket. No deal.

In all fairness to the 645, I saw a half dozen at qualifications I ran over the next 15 years; and I shot most of them. All ran fine and they were quite accurate.

So there's my trip down memory lane with the 645, Mackay. If my experience with the model is any indication, the odds heavily favor you getting a good one.

Let us know how it shoots

Bad ass Mackay.




Travis

I've never owned one but shot a friend's pretty extensively. I have owned a 1006 and it was the best 10mm I ever had. Short on firepower, compared to a Glock, but not much chance of a Kaboom this side of 2k fps.

Now that I think of it, that friend doesn't have many guns currently. One he does have is his dad's 4506 from when he was Chief of Police of the county seat. But I believe the one he owned back when we were shooting was indeed a 745. IIRC, the dept. went from 681's to 4506's. At some point before that they had 38-44 Heavy Duties.

And here I thought Sonny Crocket carried a Bren 10.....
Got to try a 745 once. In spite of the heavy, gritty trigger, it shot groups as well as my best 1911....
Never owned either the 645, the 745 or a 4506, but I do own a 1006. Just shot a 2 inch, 4 rd. group at 24 yds. with handload Barnes 155 gr. TAC-X bullets. Somebody knew how to make those guns right. E