Canucks Finally Ditch the S&W Wondernine
I love a third-gen Smith & Wesson Wondernine. I mean, have you ever seen one? They look great and shoot like they look.
Thus:
My circa 1993 S&W 5906. A functional work of art
Canada’s federal law enforcement agencies, the famed Mounties of the RCMP/GRC and the fish cops of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), have used the S&W 5946 since the early 1990s, adopting it to replace the older K-frame .38 revolvers (such as the S&W Model 10) that had been in use since 1952.
The DAO RCMP S&W 5946 has the silhouette of a horse-mounted Mountie lancer on the slide. Would be great if these made it to the surplus market
Going even further back, they carried the Colt New Service from 1905, which replaced assorted Adams and Enfield wheel guns used in the North West Mounted Police days as far back as 1873.
With the 5946 out of production since 1999 and generally not supported for the past 15 years, Ottawa has been looking to get something newer.
That search has cumulated with a $28,457,482.08 ($38,976,365.69 CAD) contract awarded to Canadian distributor Rampart Corporation to supply Canadian federal police with a new duty pistol system.
The new system includes the Glock 45 MOS 7 pistol with Ameriglo suppressor-height night sights, a 725-lumen Streamlight TLR-7X white light, an Aimpoint Acro P-2 enclosed red dot sight, a NANUK 910 storage case, and a Safariland 6360RDS duty holster. The contract also included blue training guns, spare parts, at least three mags per pistol, lanyards, etc.
The choice came as zero surprise to me.
I wrote a series of articles for the Glock Annual between 2020 and 2024, primarily profiles of LE agencies that recently went Glock, and by far the most popular combo for the departments I interviewed was the G45 with an ACRO.
It has quickly become the gold standard for LE use.
So much so that Glock released a G45 MOS with a factory-direct mounted Aimpoint Acro P-2 already installed to the consumer market in February 2024.
Further, while I like a 650-lumen/66,000 candela Surefire X300T for heavy lifting with a duty pistol, the TLR-7 series flush fits on G19/45s and makes an easy and flush-nosed holster fit, and its 725-lumen/9,500 candela throw is surely better than nothing.
Retail per outfitted gun is around $1,800, not counting spare parts and training guns, with wholesale closer to $1,400, so you can imagine between 15,000-20,000 equipped pistols will be acquired. This tracks as the RCMP has 19,000 sworn officers while the FO/DFO has about 600.
The Canadians made a good choice.
Would be nice to see those old 5946s on the surplus market, however.