I can't be the only guy who owned one and thought it was truly awful. I know I'm not, because it was an unsuccessful design they changed multiple times before they finally discontinued it. That should say something. Any design where you remove the rear sight to disable the magazine disconnect ought to be a warning. Even the Illinois cops dumped it as soon as they could. Horrible ergonomics (think table leg) coupled with an awful trigger, in both DA and SA. It was the first gun I ever sold, and one of the few I sold at a (huge) loss. Ugh. What's really funny is a throw-away one-line joke I made has completely derailed this thread (mostly because of Mark's standard "abused child" defense of, well, pretty much everything). I swear, sometimes the ADD of this group surprises even me.
Overlooking and not quite understanding "Mark's abused child defense" let me give you a brief history of the M39. I certainly wasn't disrespectful to you but in your latest post you have some incorrect information. Rather than drop it, you decided to carry the "joke" on and your pathetic sense of humor backfired and I became a convenient target. Now you are apparently are miffed and rather than just let the matter drop, have decided to not only make me the focus of your ire but perpetrate your lack of knowledge about this pistol.
First, the DA/SA trigger system is not good. But then neither was the Walther P38's of which it was a direct copy. That is one of the cons. You either adapt and overcome to it or you don't. You couldn't, fair enough.
Second the ISP didn't drop the gun as soon as it could. Nothing could be farther from the truth. That's poor or non existent research on your part. Sgt. Louis Seamans was tasked by the ISP to find one gun that could be carried 24 hours a day because at the time ISP Troopers had to be armed 24 hours a day on and off duty. After testing all the guns of the day, he chose the M39 which had been commercially available since the middle 1950's. Concurrent with this, the ISP adopted a 100 grain Winchester PowerPoint. Once issued, one of the biggest problems was feeding and broken extractors. This brought about improved extractors and feed ramp and the 39-2 and in turn further refinements in the trigger and a firing pin retention as well as other improvements in the Second Generation as well as materials: 439 aluminum frame, 538 steel frame, and 639 stainless frame. From this evolved the famous Third Gen Guns. At each juncture the ISP used S&W metal pistols until they got swept up in the polymer striker fired craze and finally switched to Glocks only a few years ago. An offshoot of the M39 was the M59 which originally a Navy project and was the first wundernine.
With regard to the mag safety, it is a controversial feature. Disconnect a safety device? Experts say no from a litigation standpoint. One prolific pundit here says it doesn't matter. Massad Ayoob has documented cases where ISP Troopers and other LEOs disconnected their mags during a gun grab with a perp rendering the gun inert thus allowing them to prevail.
Now as you can probably tell I collect M39s. The only pistol I seriously collect and there are enough variations to make them interesting.
Without appearing to be unkind or disrespectful and to get this thread back on track we might all pause to reflect that misinformation and ignorance is just as rampant among gun owners as gun sellers and today's customer might be tomorrow's clerk.
Now the M39 has its detractors and if it is not the pistol for you Scott I get it, but if you are all butt hurt since you mentioned me by name, kindly take it off the boards and PM me. Thank you.