Smith & Wesson Model 645 .45 ACP – Stainless Steel, Adjustable Sights

Now we're into peak 1980s Smith & Wesson.

This is a Smith & Wesson Model 645 chambered in .45 ACP, built back when a full-size fighting pistol was allowed to be made out of actual metal and nobody at the engineering meeting was particularly concerned about how much the damn thing weighed.

Introduced in the mid-1980s, the Model 645 was Smith & Wesson's full-size stainless-steel .45 ACP semi-auto and part of the company's second-generation pistol family. It uses a traditional DA/SA operating system, an 8-round detachable magazine, a 5-inch barrel, and ambidextrous slide-mounted safety/decocking controls.

This example presents very nicely for a used Model 645. The stainless finish shows normal handling and age-related marks, but overall this is a clean-looking pistol. It retains the black Smith & Wesson grip panels and wears an adjustable rear sight with a red-insert front sight.

And visually?

There is absolutely no mistaking what decade this thing came from.

Big stainless pistol. Square trigger guard. Black grips. Red front sight.

The only thing missing is a white Ferrari and a synthesizer soundtrack.

A Proper Old-School Smith & Wesson .45

Before polymer frames took over basically the entire handgun market, Smith & Wesson was building some seriously substantial semi-autos.

The Model 645 is a perfect example.

It's a full-size stainless .45 with a conventional exposed hammer and double-action first shot followed by single-action operation. The slide-mounted controls are ambidextrous and function as a safety/decocker.

No interchangeable backstraps.
No optics plate system.
No app.
No Bluetooth.

Somehow civilization survived.

This particular pistol also has the adjustable rear sight setup rather than the simpler fixed arrangement found on some examples.

Yes, It's the Miami Vice Gun

If this pistol looks familiar even though you can't immediately explain why, there's a decent chance 1980s television programming damaged your brain in exactly the same way it damaged mine.

The Smith & Wesson Model 645 was famously carried by Sonny Crockett in later seasons of Miami Vice.

And suddenly the giant stainless .45 makes perfect sense.

Of course it does.

Nothing says undercover narcotics detective quite like carrying a handgun large enough to be detected by coastal radar.

Condition

This pistol is being offered as a used firearm in very good overall cosmetic condition.

From our inspection and the photographs, expect normal signs of previous ownership and handling, including light surface marks and finish wear consistent with an older stainless handgun.

• Stainless steel frame and slide
• 5-inch barrel
• Traditional DA/SA action
• Ambidextrous safety/decocker
• Adjustable rear sight
• Red-insert front sight
• Black Smith & Wesson grip panels
• One magazine as pictured

As always, the firearm shown in the photographs is the firearm being offered for sale.

Look at the pictures. Zoom in. Inspect it.

We're selling a used gun, not putting it on a dating app. There's no reason to hide the bad side.

BigRed's Take

I like old Smith & Wesson semi-autos.

They're from an era when somebody apparently walked into an engineering department and said:

"We need a .45."

And the response was:

"How much stainless steel do we have?"

The Model 645 is large, heavy, wonderfully overbuilt-looking, and about as subtle as getting hit in the face with a stainless-steel toaster.

That's why it's cool.

It's also becoming one of those pistols people suddenly realize they haven't seen sitting in every gun-shop case for years.

There was a time when these were simply old Smith autos.

Now people who remember them when they were new have gray hair, Miami Vice is considered vintage television, and somehow guns from the 1980s have become collectible.

I'm not emotionally prepared for that either.

If you want a clean Smith & Wesson Model 645, an old-school stainless .45, a second-generation Smith & Wesson semi-auto, or simply something from the period before every handgun became another black polymer rectangle, this one deserves a look.

Looking for a Smith & Wesson Model 645 in Pennsylvania?

If you're searching for a Smith & Wesson Model 645 for sale in Pennsylvania, used Smith & Wesson .45 ACP pistol, vintage S&W semi-auto, stainless steel .45 pistol, or collectible Smith & Wesson handgun in Northeast Pennsylvania, this one is available through Frontiersmen Firearms in Palmerton, PA.

We serve customers throughout Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Walnutport, Slatington, Carbon County, Northampton County, Monroe County, the Lehigh Valley, and surrounding Northeast Pennsylvania communities.

If you're local, come look at it.

You can handle the pistol, look over the condition, check out the sights, and tell me about the one you sold in 1996 for $275 and now wish you'd kept.

We've all made mistakes.

Some of mine have receipts.

For Everyone Who Somehow Found Us From 900 Miles Away

Apparently the internet has once again decided that a small gun shop in Palmerton, Pennsylvania is exactly where you needed to end up.

Maybe you're specifically hunting for a Smith & Wesson 645.

Maybe you saw one on Miami Vice and nostalgia got expensive.

Maybe you started tonight looking for something completely unrelated and Google slowly walked you down a dark alley until you arrived here considering a giant stainless .45.

That's between you and your browser history.

Either way, welcome.

Frontiersmen Firearms ships firearms nationwide wherever legal, to an appropriate receiving FFL and subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Whether you're around the corner in Carbon County or sitting across the country explaining to your spouse that "they really don't make these anymore," we appreciate you supporting a small independent firearms dealer.

Your purchase keeps the lights on, keeps interesting old guns coming through the door, keeps Hank operating at an unnecessarily high standard of living, and gives Carol another opportunity to ask why there is suddenly one more gun in the shop than there was yesterday.

We appreciate your business and look forward to working with you.

Have questions? Ask.

We'll tell you what we know.
We'll tell you what we don't.

Painfully honest firearms sales. Still cheaper than therapy.