Smith & Wesson

M & P

(a.k.a. Military & Police)

9mm Parabellum

Last year S&W launched a new auto-loading pistol, the M&P. It is a polymer framed handgun with a stainless steel slide finished in melonite and is striker fired utilizing a hinged trigger. What intrigued me most about the design is that it comes with large, medium and small replaceable backstraps. This allows the end user to somewhat custom fit the grip to their hand size. This feature is extremely beneficial to shooters with small hands. Upon measuring the distance with the small insert installed from the backstrap to the face of the trigger I found it to be approximately 3/16 of an inch shorter than a Glock 19, which IMHO is significant.

My first range session was somewhat disappointing. The factory trigger has a significant amount of slack and a very indistinct reset. The M&P uses an internal passive safety system whereby a plunger blocks the striker. In that regard it is somewhat similar to the Colt Series 80 firing pin lock in that as one presses the trigger, the plunger moves down and out of the way. Unfortunately, as the trigger is pressed and the slack is taken up, one can feel a certain amount of "gritty-ness" as the plunger disengages. In addition to being indistinct, the reset is also very "lazy". Instead of the trigger return "forcing" your trigger finger back to reset, the best way to describe it is that you have to "allow" it to go back to reset. Anyone who has shot a Glock will understand the difference. Initially I often found myself allowing the trigger to return beyond the point of reset. However, I'm certain that with enough trigger time one could "program" oneself to overcome this shortcoming.

I also experienced a very weak ejection pattern. I was shooting Blazer 115 gr FMJ and empty cases were hitting my eye pro and the bill of my ballcap with the empties piling up around my feet. I fired a total of 220+ rounds and by the end of the session the ejection pattern did not improve. Anyone who has followed the writings of Col. Cooper knows that an auto-loading firearm should eject empties "into the next county".

Subsequent to the first range session I had a trigger action job performed by Dan Burwell. Word around the Internet gun boards was that he had developed a method to improve upon the factory trigger, smoothing out the "gritty-ness" and greatly improving the reset. All I can say is what a difference. Not much can be done with the amount of slack inherent to the design but it is much smoother and the reset is much more pronounced. Not quite as distinct as a Glock but definitely on par with a 1911. I would not want an M&P without a Burwell trigger job, especially given that it is so affordable.

The second range session with the Burwell trigger job was a much more pleasant experience. The pistol is now considerably more "user friendly". Why S&W isn't releasing these pistols with a trigger action duplicating that of Burwell and Bowie defies logic. In fact, there is even a DIY thread at the MP-Pistol forum. For this live fire session I purchased a 50 round box of Remington UMC and two 100 round boxes of Winchester "white box". I was curious to see whether the ejection pattern would improve with these different brands of ammunition. During the first fifty rounds of UMC, the pattern was similar to the Blazer. After about 50 rounds of Winchester the pattern changed. It started ejecting 90 degrees to the right (as opposed to almost straight back at my face) but it was still rather weak dropping empties only about two feet away. I may be sending the pistol back to S&W for the ejection issue but I might also try ordering a new ejector and installing it myself. The M&P is similar to the Glock in that it is a modular design and parts replacement seem to be "end user" affair.

I would characterize the accuracy potential of the M&P as better than acceptable to just about exceptional. This target represents a 2.5 inch ten round group fired off hand at ten yards. You can't do much better out of the box from a general issue defensive handgun at this price point. Unlike S&W's revolver line, the M&P can be had without the internal lock and without a magazine disconnect.

The M&P was not without its growing pains. My pistol is only about two months old and the ejection issue aside, it does not exhibit any of the early problems experienced by some owners. To its credit, S&W has been steadily making improvements and incorporating engineering upgrades that are addressing some of the documented issues. I am really warming up to this pistol. With the medium insert it fits me much better than any Glock and I can shoot it much better than my G19 and G17.

Tony
07-31-2007
tony@fireinstitute.org