Is S&W still producing third gen semi autos? I found these over at buds this morning, 3953

I am about to order one, they say it is factory new. Anyone know the deal with these? Were they found in a closet at S&W hiding or are they some sort of contract over run?

Batches seem to turn up from time to time.  Whether it's brand new or stock that's been sitting in the warehouse isn't always clear.  Smith would like to get out of the third gen business but several large departments still use them.

As I understand it smith could do a third gen run if a large enough agency requested them, but this is highly unlikely. Most agencies that issued them have moved on to polymer frame guns. What does happen from time to time is an agency that issued these ( and therefore may have had some spares in storage ) goes to a new pistol and they surplus out the old ones including the new spares. NYPD used to have a third gen 59 series type pistol as one of the three options for new officers but I think they dropped it as a choice.

These are indeed new. I ordered one yesterday. I am looking forward to owning a new 3rd gen Smith.

About a year ago smith and Wesson said they were done with gen 3 pistols.....

Call them ans ask.

From what I can tell, the NYPD and RCMP were the last big departments using/authorizing the Smith & Wesson 3rd Gen 9mms.  The RCMP is transitioning away and the NYPD dropped new authorizations of the 3rd Gens in 2014.
The new 5946s that have hit the market have night sights that are 2014-dated, suggesting that those pistols likely were undelivered or unissued NYPD guns.  I've seen a post on another forum from a member who seems to be in-the-know at the NYPD that the Houlton-manufactured guns were problem prone and either caused or at least hastened the NYPD's dropping of the 5946.

S&W's position when it dropped commercial sales of the 3rd Gens was that they could make new production runs if a customer bought a big enough batch.  With the last two big customers transitioning away, I think it's pretty safe to say that the 3rd Gens are pretty much dead as far as seeing new production.