Chris Rhines
Member
A bit of background – I’ve been shooting for most of my adult life, and in the past three years have been competing in practical pistol (USPSA and IDPA) and multigun events. I presently shoot a modified Glock 35 0.40 in USPSA Limited division. Last year I decided to switch to USPSA Production division, just for a change of pace.
The Glock 17 and Glock 34 are highly competitive in USPSA Production, and a Glock 34 would have worked with all my existing holsters, magazine carriers, et cetera. I was all ready to order one, when fate intervened – I went down to the 2007 SHOT Show in January and got to handle a Smith & Wesson M&P. I was immediately impressed by the quality of construction, ergonomics, and downright acceptable trigger. I did some trivial internet research, and found that the M&P has a pretty good reputation for reliability and a fair amount of available aftermarket support. I decided to take a chance on it.
This past Friday, I arrived home from work to find that UPS had delivered my new Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm pistol. I had ordered this gun the previous Tuesday from Cascade Ammo in Roseburg, Oregon – very good company to do business with. I carted my new toy down to the shop, pulled it apart, swabbed out the barrel, and gave it a good cleaning and lube. Here are my initial impressions:
The Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm is a recoil-operated locked-breech semi-automatic pistol. It uses a striker-fired trigger mechanism with both a trigger safety and a Glock-style firing pin block. The trigger pull weight averages to ~6.75 pounds on a Lyman digital scale. The trigger travel from rest measures ~0.53”, while the reset length measures ~0.23” according to my Mitutoyo. Trigger travel was fairly smooth, and the release was crisp.
The trigger has one interesting hitch (pun intended) – what I call a “false reset.” There are two springs that act together to return the trigger to the rest position – the trigger return spring and the firing pin block spring. The firing pin block spring engages the trigger bar at ~0.175” from the overtravel stop, and forces the trigger forward to ~0.22”. This can feel like the trigger mechanism has reset, but it has not. In order to fire again, the shooter must release the trigger another tiny fraction of an inch, which causes the sear to engage the trigger bar.
This can be really annoying if you are a shooter who is used to “pinning” the trigger. Fortunately, it seems there’s a fix available. According to noted M&P gunsmith Dan Burwell, it is easy to correct this problem by removing a small amount of material from the sear/trigger bar engagement surface. The M&P seems amenable to custom trigger work - at the SHOT Show, I got to handle some M&Ps with trigger jobs that compare favorably to a custom 1911A1. No joke.
The Smith & Wesson M&P series is available with both a magazine safety and an integral key lock. In an all-too-common moment of absent-mindedness, I forgot to inquire about these “features” before ordering mine. Fortunately, neither one was present on my M&P. Further, either feature can be removed at the user level with a simple parts swap.
I pulled all of my magazines apart and cleaned out the copious amounts of rust protectant therein. The magazines are of typical high S&W quality, with nicely rolled feed lips, polished bodies, and grey nylon followers free of burrs or flashing. I had no problems loading each magazine to capacity, and a fully loaded magazine locks in easily on a closed slide.
The Smith & Wesson M&P is also available as a “carry kit.” This is, in brief, an M&P pistol cased with three magazines, a Blade-Tech Revolution belt holster, and a Blade-Tech double magazine carrier. Obvious attempt to compete with the Springfield XD kit, and something I’d frankly like to see more of. The injection-molded Revolution holster isn’t as nicely finished as Blade-Tech’s hand-molded Kydex, but it is sturdy, comfortable, and every bit as fast as my Dropped Offset holster. Ditto the magazine carrier.
One small annoyance – the Smith & Wesson M&P magazines don’t fit in my allegedly “universal” Rescomp CR Speed adjustable mag carriers. The Beretta/CZ insert is too thick, and the Glock and S*I inserts are too thin – the M&P mags rattle even with the tension knob cranked all the way down. My next project will be to make some new inserts out of Delrin, or possibly shim up the Glock inserts with some plastic cement.
Once I had the gun cleaned and lubed, I did a little dry practice, just to get familiar. Results were positive – this pistol really seems to fit me well. I hit a couple of 1.1 second draws at 7 yards; reloads were sitting right at 1.5 seconds. I’m not a fan of Novak sights, but the M&P sights seem to align instinctively and they let plenty of light through. All three magazines fall free with no problem, and I can reach the magazine latch without shifting my grip. The plastic grips are a bit slippery, and I plan to remedy that with some stair-tread tape in the next few days.
In conclusion, while the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm has a few small issues (mainly the false reset), on the whole it seems to be a high-quality and well-engineered piece. So far, I’m about as happy as I can be without having actually fired the pistol. I’m currently pulling together all the 9mmP ammo in the house, so expect a detailed range report (with pictures!) sometime this weekend.
Heads down, guns up!
- Chris
The Glock 17 and Glock 34 are highly competitive in USPSA Production, and a Glock 34 would have worked with all my existing holsters, magazine carriers, et cetera. I was all ready to order one, when fate intervened – I went down to the 2007 SHOT Show in January and got to handle a Smith & Wesson M&P. I was immediately impressed by the quality of construction, ergonomics, and downright acceptable trigger. I did some trivial internet research, and found that the M&P has a pretty good reputation for reliability and a fair amount of available aftermarket support. I decided to take a chance on it.
This past Friday, I arrived home from work to find that UPS had delivered my new Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm pistol. I had ordered this gun the previous Tuesday from Cascade Ammo in Roseburg, Oregon – very good company to do business with. I carted my new toy down to the shop, pulled it apart, swabbed out the barrel, and gave it a good cleaning and lube. Here are my initial impressions:
The Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm is a recoil-operated locked-breech semi-automatic pistol. It uses a striker-fired trigger mechanism with both a trigger safety and a Glock-style firing pin block. The trigger pull weight averages to ~6.75 pounds on a Lyman digital scale. The trigger travel from rest measures ~0.53”, while the reset length measures ~0.23” according to my Mitutoyo. Trigger travel was fairly smooth, and the release was crisp.
The trigger has one interesting hitch (pun intended) – what I call a “false reset.” There are two springs that act together to return the trigger to the rest position – the trigger return spring and the firing pin block spring. The firing pin block spring engages the trigger bar at ~0.175” from the overtravel stop, and forces the trigger forward to ~0.22”. This can feel like the trigger mechanism has reset, but it has not. In order to fire again, the shooter must release the trigger another tiny fraction of an inch, which causes the sear to engage the trigger bar.
This can be really annoying if you are a shooter who is used to “pinning” the trigger. Fortunately, it seems there’s a fix available. According to noted M&P gunsmith Dan Burwell, it is easy to correct this problem by removing a small amount of material from the sear/trigger bar engagement surface. The M&P seems amenable to custom trigger work - at the SHOT Show, I got to handle some M&Ps with trigger jobs that compare favorably to a custom 1911A1. No joke.
The Smith & Wesson M&P series is available with both a magazine safety and an integral key lock. In an all-too-common moment of absent-mindedness, I forgot to inquire about these “features” before ordering mine. Fortunately, neither one was present on my M&P. Further, either feature can be removed at the user level with a simple parts swap.
I pulled all of my magazines apart and cleaned out the copious amounts of rust protectant therein. The magazines are of typical high S&W quality, with nicely rolled feed lips, polished bodies, and grey nylon followers free of burrs or flashing. I had no problems loading each magazine to capacity, and a fully loaded magazine locks in easily on a closed slide.
The Smith & Wesson M&P is also available as a “carry kit.” This is, in brief, an M&P pistol cased with three magazines, a Blade-Tech Revolution belt holster, and a Blade-Tech double magazine carrier. Obvious attempt to compete with the Springfield XD kit, and something I’d frankly like to see more of. The injection-molded Revolution holster isn’t as nicely finished as Blade-Tech’s hand-molded Kydex, but it is sturdy, comfortable, and every bit as fast as my Dropped Offset holster. Ditto the magazine carrier.
One small annoyance – the Smith & Wesson M&P magazines don’t fit in my allegedly “universal” Rescomp CR Speed adjustable mag carriers. The Beretta/CZ insert is too thick, and the Glock and S*I inserts are too thin – the M&P mags rattle even with the tension knob cranked all the way down. My next project will be to make some new inserts out of Delrin, or possibly shim up the Glock inserts with some plastic cement.
Once I had the gun cleaned and lubed, I did a little dry practice, just to get familiar. Results were positive – this pistol really seems to fit me well. I hit a couple of 1.1 second draws at 7 yards; reloads were sitting right at 1.5 seconds. I’m not a fan of Novak sights, but the M&P sights seem to align instinctively and they let plenty of light through. All three magazines fall free with no problem, and I can reach the magazine latch without shifting my grip. The plastic grips are a bit slippery, and I plan to remedy that with some stair-tread tape in the next few days.
In conclusion, while the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm has a few small issues (mainly the false reset), on the whole it seems to be a high-quality and well-engineered piece. So far, I’m about as happy as I can be without having actually fired the pistol. I’m currently pulling together all the 9mmP ammo in the house, so expect a detailed range report (with pictures!) sometime this weekend.
Heads down, guns up!
- Chris
