S&W Chiefs Special .45 auto , anyone own one?

The CS 45 is a light weight carry gun. It will not do a very good job of taming the 45's recoil. If you are looking for a reduced size S&W in 45 ACP, the 4516-1 is probably your best choice. It is similar to the CS 45 but larger, with a 3.75 in barrel. It is all stainless and weighs about 31 oz which is heavier than the CS, but lighter than a full sized 1911 which weighs 39oz.
 
A 4516 or 457 will fit the bill a bit later. I have a CS9 and use it as my EDC, but I think a CS45 might be a bit snappy. The size difference between the CS45 and the 457 is not that great, but I think it's enough to make a difference.
 
Both the 4516 and the 457 look great , Now ive got to find one and shoot it to find out if i should buy it . My other option is going back to an xd i shot well in .45, and go with an xd45 compact, since 45 glocks don't like my hand size
 
Xdm 3.8 is a great little 45 and still carries nine rounds. I like it better than the 30sf I had and it carries almost like a glock 19. The gun is by no means inexpensive though. Your still talking 6 bills. Likely more in this state.

Your definately barking up the right tree with the cheifs special. You'll just have to get used to the da/sa trigger.

Since your talking inexpensive take a look at the sig 250. Its 450 bucks Personally I hate the trigger on it but it's something to get used to. You can make it a small subcompact or full size with a 200 dollar kit too and it comes with night sights for that price.
 
Last edited:
Queen Bee said:
In my never ending quest to find a good low recoil .45 that is not a 1911 platform.

i found out about this little gem from the 90's

these days they are not that expensive. a nice inexpensive .45 , that has enough weight to tame the .45 cartridge.

what do you guys think of this gun??

http://www.mtbrass.com/linked/cs45/CS45dims.jpg
Click to expand...

Well, if you want low recoil, stop looking at tiny guns, for starters. Those are all going to buck like nobody's business with ammo that is worth launching out of it.

By not looking at 1911s, you've shut out about 65% of the choices, BTW. You're looking at Springfield XD .45 Full, Glock 21/21SF, EAA Witness .45, CZ97, etc. Sig P220 might be viable. (Hint: if you go down that road, don't get the full stainless, it doesn't eat recoil, it just makes more of it. ) Some of the other S&W .3rd gen .45s are good guns but like the CS45, they have gay crap on them like magazine safeties that must be removed to preserve sanity. There's also the M&P .45 which I think is a decent gun. (It's the only M&P series gun I've ever really wanted to own).

-Mike
 
Queen Bee said:
Both the 4516 and the 457 look great , Now ive got to find one and shoot it to find out if i should buy it . My other option is going back to an xd i shot well in .45, and go with an xd45 compact, since 45 glocks don't like my hand size
Click to expand...

They show up occasionally both here and at dealers. I've seen them for sale at the Smith and Wesson forum, but then you get into that whole bringing them in to MA thing.
 
Yeah. I missed the low recoil part....most compacts have a touch of bite to them with self defense
Ammo. Certainly not unmanageable but they are no 9 mm.
 
I like the 4513 tactical as well , i dont mind the gay features on an older gun like this.

Good to know a the 4516 stainless wont reduce recoil,

I love the looks of the black 457. Which is easily transferable since its on the roster i believe.

I like compacts over fullsize guns . As long as the recoil of these smith's
Are less than say a m&p 45/XD45 i'll be set , since i can handle the xd 45 pretty well, but id prefer a single stack .45 for grip purposes and a tad less recoil for follow up shots. since i can barely hold onto the xd, its at the max of my gripping ability. Glock is over , and the 36 sucks for me to hold.
 
I have a CS45. The recoil is a bit sharp but not too bad. The gun carries well but the grips are a bit 'thick'. It would be nice if the rubber hogue grips were thinner but I can understand why they are thick. It's a small concession to tame the recoil a bit. The draw is slow as there isn't much to 'grab' as I tend to have the pistol down very low IWB. You'll need to practice the draw quite a bit for this to work for you but it's a good compromise for size and firepower.

My other 45 carry piece is a Sig P245. A bit heavier and larger but much easier to control. Concealment for the p245 is a bit more difficult for me as it tends to drag down my pants. There's more of a butt to grab onto during the draw.

I'd like to try a G36 someday if I can find a reasonably priced one.
 
I have never shot the Chief's Special, but I did have two friends that each had one (over 5 years ago). Neither one of them could get their guns to reliably shoot 230gr JHP ammo so they ended up selling them cheap. Seems a couple of people here say they have and carry them so maybe they've fixed what ever might have been wrong with them.

-Cuz.
 
Queen Bee said:
I like the 4513 tactical as well , i dont mind the gay features on an older gun like this.

Good to know a the 4516 stainless wont reduce recoil,

I love the looks of the black 457. Which is easily transferable since its on the roster i believe.

I like compacts over fullsize guns . As long as the recoil of these smith's
Are less than say a m&p 45/XD45 i'll be set , since i can handle the xd 45 pretty well, but id prefer a single stack .45 for grip purposes and a tad less recoil for follow up shots. since i can barely hold onto the xd, its at the max of my gripping ability. Glock is over , and the 36 sucks for me to hold.
Click to expand...

One way to predict recoil is to check the weight of the pistol. The 4516 all stainless will recoil less than other S&W 45s with alloy frames due to the increased weight. The 4516 doesn't recoil all that much; I shot one for a season of IPSC competiton.

The "gay" magazine safety can be deactivated by simply removing the rear sight and then removing a plunger and spring held in place by the sight. The only down side is that you have to re zero the pistol. The whole operation can be accomplished in less than 1/2 hour.
 
Got to hold but not shoot a 4516 , really nice and heavy in hand , nice gun. He also had a 457 under the counter but said you dont want that. He told me that since the model number wasnt 4 digits, it wasnt a gen 3 sw. The 4516 with 4 digits is , and its reliable. I kinda liked the slide mounted decocker, it was kinda fun. Triggerpull was great. Too bad i couldnt shoot it. But opted to shoot a sig 220 instead, the grip was great but i could not stand how far back the slide release is . I didnt like sigs DA nor the mushy reset of SA, granted its a range gun but still. Recoil was good though , only a tad more than my 19, Though i had to concentrate on holding firmly. I tried for fun to shoot fast and vertically strung 4 out of the 8. The rest were not on paper lol. Unlike my 19 where i can rapid fire and keep a ruler (12") sized grouping. But i do love that big ol .45 , its fun to load :) i have to shoot some more:)
 
Last edited:
I have a cs40 as my edc and will never part with it. It is built on the same frame as the cs45 and fits my small hands well. I feel less recoil from
my cs40 than my m&p40 full size.
jmho
 
i have a CS45 as well (Smith has a black and alloy stainless model).I've also owned a 457 in the past. Both are great pistols though the 457 has a longer and slimmer grip. I prefer them to the newer "plastic" pistols. Both the CS45 and 457 are easy to carry and recoil hasn't been an issue for me.
 
Queen Bee said:
Got to hold but not shoot a 4516 , really nice and heavy in hand , nice gun. He also had a 457 under the counter but said you dont want that. He told me that since the model number wasnt 4 digits, it wasnt a gen 3 sw. The 4516 with 4 digits is , and its reliable. I kinda liked the slide mounted decocker, it was kinda fun. Triggerpull was great. Too bad i couldnt shoot it. But opted to shoot a sig 220 instead, the grip was great but i could not stand how far back the slide release is . I didnt like sigs DA nor the mushy reset of SA, granted its a range gun but still. Recoil was good though , only a tad more than my 19, Though i had to concentrate on holding firmly. I tried for fun to shoot fast and vertically strung 4 out of the 8. The rest were not on paper lol. Unlike my 19 where i can rapid fire and keep a ruler (12") sized grouping. But i do love that big ol .45 , its fun to load :) i have to shoot some more:)
Click to expand...

Another gun shop commando that doesn't know what he is talking about. The 457 was part of the Value Series which was had 3rd Generation Features but had a less machined frame and a dull finish and a plastic guide rod. The Second Generation Guns were three digit numbers as well, but would have been: 439, 539, 639, 459, 559, 659 and 469 and 669 and 645. The 908, 909, 910, 410 and 457 were all Value Series guns as was the 915 which was really a 5904 with less of a finished frame and finish. All of the Value Series came out after the 3rd Gen guns hit the market.

There, BTW really aren't bad things about the 2nd Generation Guns. I much prefer the 439 over the 3904. I have never had reliability issues with 2nd Gen guns anyway, so the point is moot. Supposedly 3rd Gen guns had better trigger pulls in general, but I would have to say as an owner of both 2nd and 3rd Gen guns, I have had 2nd Gens which have better trigger pulls than 3rd Gens.

The 457 saw police service as a detective sidearm and may still be in service with some agencies.
 

Similar threads

GOAL edition S&W 586
Replies
2
Views
116
appraiser
appraiser
Counter Punching Colt .45
Replies
4
Views
175
BTSDOG
BTSDOG
Classic Engraved Colt Commander .45
Replies
2
Views
96
Mass-diver
Mass-diver
Boston/North Shore Area looking to test fire a Keltec KS7? Or other cheap bullpup semi-auto/pump shotguns
Replies
0
Views
93
mmsteady
M
Anyone got the new Sig P365 Fuse?
Replies
19
Views
1K
Coyote33
Coyote33
Back
Top Bottom