It feels like the era of subcompacts is coming to an end. Not that small pistols are coming to an end; they’ve just changed. Now it’s all about the SIG P365, the Shield Plus, and similar micro-compact pistols. Subcompacts are what happens when you take a full-sized pistol and chop off a chunk of the front and a chunk of the rear. That’s how we get guns like the S&W 6906.
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The S&W 6906 is a member of the third generation of S&W autoloaders. The three generations of S&W autos don’t make much sense, because they made auto pistols before the 1st gen, and no one calls the modern M&P series the 4th Gen. The 3rd-gen guns use four-digit model numbers, unless they don’t.
Most use four digits, but the budget models use three digits. Thanks to Lucky Gunner, we have a decoder ring to make sense of these names. The first two digits mean it’s a compact double-stack pistol in 9mm. The 0 means it’s a DA/SA design, and the 6 designates stainless steel.
The 6906 – A Product of Its Time
The 6906 is the subcompact variant of the 5906, which might be the flagship of the third generation. It has a 3.5-inch barrel, weighs 26 ounces, uses a 12-round double-stack magazine, and it can accept 5906 magazines. While it’s a DA/SA design, the hammer is trimmer and sits flush with the slide.
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The gun has an ambidextrous safety that doubles as a decocker. Sadly, there is no way to carry locked and cocked. S&W really loved these wrap-around plastic grips that offer texturing around the sides, and S&W serrated the front edge for a little more grip.
The 6906 is a product of its time. S&W wasn’t trying to do anything revolutionary. They just trimmed the barrel and grip and didn’t do much more than that. It put a check in the box that said we need a compact pistol in our lineup.
While it might be trimmer than a 5906, it’s still a thick gun. A gun that doesn’t try to fit everyone’s hand. If it didn’t work, don’t worry; S&W had a single stack in the 3900 series. The 6906 is a product of its time.
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With all that said, the subcompact double-stack wasn’t all that common in the era the 6906 premiered. There were basically two options: the Glock subcompacts and the S&W subcompacts. I’ll give KelTec credit for making the P11, which was also a subcompact double-stack.
At the Range With the 6906
You’d think a hefty 26-ounce all-metal 9mm pistol would be pretty tame to shoot. However, the 6906 has a bit more push than you expect. I think the slide’s heft creates a bit more of a push-like recoil that also seems slow to snap back into action. While you don’t feel much recoil in your hand, you do feel the muzzle rise and rotation at your wrist. As the slide moves forward, the gun seems to dip slightly.
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Eventually, the front sight comes back on target. Compared to more modern guns, the gun feels hefty in more than one way. This makes it a bit slower to get a decent sight picture before rapidly igniting rounds. How much extra time? In a long string of fire, it might be fractions of a second in total. Not a big deal, but it’s noticeable.
I understand why Beretta has such light slides. It seems to make them a little more controllable.
Triggers and Grips
The double-action trigger is nothing to brag about. It seems like most companies making DA/SA guns did it better. Beretta and SIG both have better double-action triggers. The single action is fine, but it was still done better elsewhere. Neither trigger is bad enough to make you miss shots; they just don’t feel all that refined.
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The grip is thick, so the recoil you do feel is distributed well. It’s a subcompact you can shoot all day long without feeling like your hands are beat up. The 6906 feels quite comfortable to shoot. No slide bite, no stiff wrist recoil, just a rolling motion between shots.
The plastic grip panels are another product of the era. The texture isn’t all that aggressive, so the gun can start moving when your hands get anything but dry. It’s fine, but man, a stippled gun would do wonders on this bad boy.
Out of Fashion
It’s easy to see why S&W moved away from the 3rd Gen series. They are cool; there is no doubt about that. They still lag behind more than their contemporaries, but they’ll always have a place in my heart and my gun safe.
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