[thedesertfox]

Among my (too many?) P99's and SW99's, I have two SW99's in 40S&W that have a rarely/seldom seen safety feature. These two SW99's have a magazine safety that prevents trigger pull without a magazine installed. The ordinary Walther frames used on the P99 and SW99 carry a "CAUTION" stamped on the right side of the frame stating "Capable of firing with magazine removed". That "CAUTION" is absent on the frame of these two SW99's. And, sure enough, the trigger cannot be pulled to fire with the magazine removed. Attempts to discover thru S&W the intended market for and/or distribution of the SW99's with the mag safety have been unsuccessful. I do know that one of my SW99's with that feature was originally owned by the "CMPD" as identified on the slide.

It's just my own opinion that the mag safety feature would sure be a desirable feature on such weapons wherever it is desired that they are to be prepared and held in a "ready" condition**, while preventing use by unauthorized or unintended users by just removal (and "secreting") of the mag.

Note:** "ready"condition meaning a hot round chambered, and in either the cocked or de-cocked condition.

I'm curious how many of the SW99's out there have the mag safety feature. Does your SW99 have the mag safety?

 

[BessonGuy]

Can you show us the internal parts for this?

I had never heard of this variant.

-Don

 

[Angry Hippo]

Thanks for sharing. That is definitely interesting to see.

I have a few SW99 pistols and they don't have magazine disconnects.


If I were to speculate...
Seeing the "CMPD" serial number combined with the caliber makes me think it was very likely a police department weapon. Presumably the requirements (either formal or informal) for the department's duty weapons was to include a magazine disconnect.

Google says CMPD is for Charlotte, NC. Given the relatively high serial number and the size of their police department that is reasonable that they might be able to ask for that sort of modification on an order of 800+ pistols.

What I'm now curious about is how many other departments had magazine disconnects put in their SW99 pistols.

Which variation is yours? Is it the standard DA/SA with the AS Trigger? Or is yours DAO or some other variant?

I'd be interested in more pictures of the other side of the pistol and +1-ing the request for internals.

 

[thedesertfox]

I'm curious as well as to how many of these SW99's are out there.

 

[thedesertfox]

Both of the pistols with the mag safety are DA/SA. Externally, both pistol variations appear identical on the left side of the frames. . No difference in pins or such. The trigger feel sure feels like an AS (on all of the SW99's)..

 

[thedesertfox]

Oh, NO! What a revoltin' development this is! (are any of you old enough to recall that expression from "The Life of Riley" series?)
One of my Walther P99's just went from DA/SA to SAO
Looks to be an issue with the slide, since fitting another slide to the frame restores it to DA/SA. After a visual inspection of the slide, I have no clue as to the cause of failure. This particular slide has fewer than 50 rounds fired. Anyone experienced this before, and have an answer as to cause?

 

[thedesertfox]

Can you show us the internal parts for this?

I had never heard of this variant.

-Don

I sure wish I could. Attempts to get a schematic for the frame with the mag safety have been futile. S&W told me that since the gun has not been manufactured for 19 years, they no longer have documentation (including the schematic).
The mechanism that effects the safety is driven by a spring-loaded plate or panel at the front of the mag well, just below the magazine catch dog.
Both of the frames have this plate/panel, and both get compressed by full insertion of the magazine.
As I'm unable to see all of the linkage and mechanism inside the frame, that's "sandwiched" between the spring-loaded plate and the trigger, I can't see the difference in the area between the plate and trigger.
BTW, the mag safety prevents pulling the trigger back from it's forward resting position. That, as opposed to disconnecting the trigger from the trigger bar, and allowing a full pull of the trigger without engagement with the trigger bar.
I'm afraid that's as much as I can offer regarding what the difference is between the frame parts.

 

[saltydawg]

I think a lot of European police require mag safetys, that maybe why they developed it. I also know in the US it was a thing they pushed for cops to have as well in the 80's and 90's.

 

[balance]

I live in Charlotte, and I got into the 99-series pistols when local police still carried the SW99 in .40. i know that every time S&W changed the internal design from the original, there were issues with the pistols, and local police had very little nice things to say about their duty pistols at the time.

From what I remember, there were lots of reliability issues reported on these pistols. It was so long ago though, that I can't really be any more specific with information here. If I run into any local 99-series armorers again, I'll ask about this specifically.

Did you get the owner's manual with this pistol? The NJSP pistols came with their own one-off owner's manual due to the design changes S&W made on those pistols (which also had issues, and which also were pulled and replaced with other pistols). I'm assuming this model came with its own manual as well, and I'm assuming that it would be interesting to see what they had to say about this feature there.

 

[thedesertfox]

Oh, yeah. Please pass on any info you can get regarding the reliability issues. I haven't had any issues with any of my six SW99's (three 45acp, three 40S&W).
I have one downloaded owner's manual "Safety & Instruction Manual" for SW99, SW99 QA, SW990, SW990L and one (what looks like OEM) "SW99 Armorer's Manual".
The owner's manual contains the following two "Warning"s printed in red:

"WARNING: SOME SMITH & WESSON CENTERFIRE PISTOLS ARE DESIGNED NOT TO FIRE WITH THE MAGAZINE REMOVED. BE CERTAIN TO FULLY RELEASE THE TRIGGER AND REMOVE YOUR FINGER FROM WITHIN THE TRIGGER GUARD WHEN THE MAGAZINE IS REMOVED FROM THE PISTOL. FAILURE TO FULLY RELEASE THE TRIGGER COULD RESULT IN FIRING THE HANDGUN. AFTER INSERTING A MAGAZINE, ALWAYS TEST TO MAKE SURE IT IS LOCKED IN PLACE BY APPLYING SOME REMOVAL PRESSURE TO THE EXPOSED PORTION OF THE MAGAZINE BUTT PLATE"

"WARNING: ONCE THE MAGAZINE IS REMOVED FROM THE PISTOL AND THE TRIGGER IS FULLY RELEASED, SUBSEQUENT CYCLING OF THE TRIGGER WILL NOT FIRE THE PISTOL UNTIL THE MAGAZINE IS FULLY REINSERTED. (THIS MAY NOT APPLY TO CERTAIN PISTOLS THAT HAVE BEEN MARKED "CAUTION - CAPABLE OF FIRING WITH MAGAZINE REMOVED")."

The armorer's manual contains no information regarding difference in components/parts of the two different variants (mag safety/no mag safety)...including the IPB/schematic.

 

[PPS1980]

Oh, yeah. Please pass on any info you can get regarding the reliability issues. I haven't had any issues with any of my six SW99's (three 45acp, three 40S&W).
I have one downloaded owner's manual "Safety & Instruction Manual" for SW99, SW99 QA, SW990, SW990L and one (what looks like OEM) "SW99 Armorer's Manual".
The owner's manual contains the following two "Warning"s printed in red:

"WARNING: SOME SMITH & WESSON CENTERFIRE PISTOLS ARE DESIGNED NOT TO FIRE WITH THE MAGAZINE REMOVED. BE CERTAIN TO FULLY RELEASE THE TRIGGER AND REMOVE YOUR FINGER FROM WITHIN THE TRIGGER GUARD WHEN THE MAGAZINE IS REMOVED FROM THE PISTOL. FAILURE TO FULLY RELEASE THE TRIGGER COULD RESULT IN FIRING THE HANDGUN. AFTER INSERTING A MAGAZINE, ALWAYS TEST TO MAKE SURE IT IS LOCKED IN PLACE BY APPLYING SOME REMOVAL PRESSURE TO THE EXPOSED PORTION OF THE MAGAZINE BUTT PLATE"

"WARNING: ONCE THE MAGAZINE IS REMOVED FROM THE PISTOL AND THE TRIGGER IS FULLY RELEASED, SUBSEQUENT CYCLING OF THE TRIGGER WILL NOT FIRE THE PISTOL UNTIL THE MAGAZINE IS FULLY REINSERTED. (THIS MAY NOT APPLY TO CERTAIN PISTOLS THAT HAVE BEEN MARKED "CAUTION - CAPABLE OF FIRING WITH MAGAZINE REMOVED")."

The armorer's manual contains no information regarding difference in components/parts of the two different variants (mag safety/no mag safety)...including the IPB/schematic.

I’m thinking that the only modified models were specifically ordered by PDs. Remember that many used to think a magazine disconnect was an essential safety mechanism.