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Smith & Wesson M&P Pistols All Variants of the Smith & Wesson M&P Auto Pistols


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Old 07-06-2010, 11:03 PM
zorba zorba is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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Default Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?



I bought a 9mm M&P 3 months ago. The only other auto loaders I own are S&W Model 41 and a Glock 20. I love the way my M&P fits my hand, and it shoots accurately as well. The trigger pull is not satisfactory, but I have an Apex hard sear ordered.

The M&P seems like a very good overall design, but I am puzzled by the hinged trigger. It looks kind of fragile. Has anyone ever heard of the trigger breaking or otherwise failing?

I also wonder why the M&P was designed with the hinged trigger in the first place. Was it just something the marketing and/or legal departments insisted on? I can't imagine how the hinged trigger makes the M&P safer to carry and shoot. I have tried in vain to visualize a scenario where some foreign object intrudes into the trigger guard and presses only on the upper half of the trigger without also moving the lower half. At least with the Glock's safety trigger, one can imagine a scenario where the trigger is being pulled from the side of the trigger by some object which gets caught in the trigger guard. In that case, the inner trigger would prevent the trigger from moving to the rear. But the M&P hinged trigger does not seem to add anything to the safety of the pistol. Is it just cosmetic? Or am I missing something, and the hinged trigger really does make the M&P safer to carry?

Personally, I would prefer to have a sturdy one piece metal trigger rather the the current hinged trigger.
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Old 07-07-2010, 07:58 PM
southchatham southchatham is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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It works as a safety. It does work. Try pulling on it with a pencil or string or something. When I first got my M&P I tried to use a trigger scale to test the trigger weight. I couldn't get the trigger to fire. It seems to know if its a finger or not.
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Old 07-07-2010, 09:16 PM
OKFC05 OKFC05 is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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Quote:
The M&P seems like a very good overall design, but I am puzzled by the hinged trigger. It looks kind of fragile. Has anyone ever heard of the trigger breaking or otherwise failing?
The hinged trigger is one of three safeties that make the pistol almost immue from accidental firing (not immune from you negligently pulling the trigger at the wrong time.) The pistol can be thrown off the building and run over but will not fire until the trigger is pulled.

The Glock safety system is very similar with their small trigger lock release on the trigger.

The hinged part must be pulled down to disengage the trigger lock, and the whole trigger mover to disengage the striker lock. Only then can the striker be fully cocked and then released to fire.
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Old 07-08-2010, 07:20 PM
blastfact blastfact is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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I fail to see how a articulating trigger functions different than a blade safety trigger.

It's two approaches to the same solution. And I prefer S&W's way myself.
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Old 07-15-2010, 06:18 PM
jaysouth jaysouth is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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AD = Accidental Discharge?

When did one of these ever occur?

I have been involved in and around Negligent Discharges but never an AD. Some body explain how one of these could happen.
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Old 07-15-2010, 07:02 PM
OKFC05 OKFC05 is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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AD = Accidental Discharge?

When did one of these ever occur?

I have been involved in and around Negligent Discharges but never an AD. Some body explain how one of these could happen.
The ADs I have seen were caused by failures of the hardware.
1911 went full auto; Kreighoff shotgun fired both barrels on closing; old Remington shotgun fired when dropped; open IPSC gun fired on closing.
In all of these cases, the guns required repair.

Most so-called "ADs" are in fact "NDs".
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Old 07-17-2010, 09:47 AM
toocool toocool is offline
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Many (more than I care to admit) years ago I had an AD with a Llama .380 pistol. It was designed to be something like a mini-1911, and after I'd cleaned it, I was at the range, loaded the magazine, inserted it, racked the slide, and when I flipped up the thumb safety, the gun discharged. I verified that I had NOT touched the trigger and I still don't understand how activating the safety had caused the gun to fire, but fire it did...and I almost did too! It scared the you-know-what out of me! And I didn't keep that gun for long, either...
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Old 07-23-2010, 02:40 PM
carrya1911 carrya1911 is offline
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My simple rule for AD vs. ND is this:

AD is when the person handling the gun was not doing something negligent (like finger on the trigger) when the gun went boom.

ND is when they were.

The trigger blocks used on the Glock and the M&P are designed to keep the trigger from going to the rear if the weapon is dropped on it's muzzle. They do not do a super job of keeping the trigger from going to the rear if you, say, attempt to reholster with a thumbsnap holster where the thumbsnap works it's way into the trigger guard. Thus it behooves those of us who carry weapons like the Glock or the M&P to avoid dangly things that can get into the trigger guard, and to reholster with extreme caution.
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Old 07-23-2010, 02:53 PM
Steve_NEPhila Steve_NEPhila is offline
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by southchatham View Post
It works as a safety. It does work. Try pulling on it with a pencil or string or something. When I first got my M&P I tried to use a trigger scale to test the trigger weight. I couldn't get the trigger to fire. It seems to know if its a finger or not.
Nope. To put it simply, you were doing it wrong. Examine the trigger carefully and attempt to recreate the normal actuation of the trigger and it will work. There is no way the pistol "knows" if it is a finger or not.

I do not think pistols like any of the Kahr's are less safe then an M&P auto because they do not have the trigger safety. In fact, from a purely preferential point of view I cannot stand hinged triggers or triggers with any device on them. Of course, I am a wheel gunner.
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Old 07-23-2010, 03:38 PM
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Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's? Does the M&P hinged trigger help prevent AD's?  
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A very close friend and avid gun/pistol devotee told me that someone once told him that the two loudest sounds you will hear when firing a weapon are when you hear "click" and you were expecting "BANG", and "BANG" when you were expecting to hear "click".
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Old 07-25-2010, 10:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve_NEPhila View Post
I do not think pistols like any of the Kahr's are less safe then an M&P auto because they do not have the trigger safety. In fact, from a purely preferential point of view I cannot stand hinged triggers or triggers with any device on them. Of course, I am a wheel gunner.
I think a well designed trigger safety, for its purpose, makes a gun safer to carry. Specially with all the trigger/action enhancements done to some - my m&p 9pro came with a 4lb trigger - I think it works. There's a reason why I don't carry my wheel guns cocked ;-).
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Old 07-31-2010, 04:37 AM
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SMMAssociates SMMAssociates is offline
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Sure seems like hype to me....

They've interposed a block that your trigger finger (or something else) has to move out of the way, but that's the object of depressing the trigger in the first place. A string, or your trusty trigger pull gauge ought to do it, too, if placed properly.

Trying to operate the trigger by just squeezing the top, of course, might be futile, but that's sort of unlikely. If there's an obstruction, there's an obstruction....

The lower trigger moves a block that is allowed, then, to clear a hole in the grip, which then allows the rest of the trigger to move. Seems to be nearly impossible for about anything but a trigger pull gauge to fail to activate things....

The "blade" style (PPS, for example) is really just the same.

The good news, IMHO, is that if you manage to break or lose the extra parts, the gun will still fire as long as the block portion can be removed. Pretty easy if you know that you need to do it.

Striker-fired guns, IMHO, should have drop safeties or similar blocking devices for the striker. Whole 'nother thread.... 1911's probably don't need them....

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Old 07-31-2010, 07:02 AM
scooter123 scooter123 is offline
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IMO, with a modern firearm in good working order the difference between an AD and a ND is where the muzzle is pointed. If the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction it's an AD. If it's not pointed in a safe direction it's an ND. Point is that keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction is Job One. Follow that rule and even a malfunction won't cause any harm.

That said, the "safer" triggers probably do provide a slightly higher margin of safety. However, note the word slightly, they can be defeated by circumstance. Any object caught in the trigger that duplicates the size and shape of a finger can result in the gun discharging. It's the operator's responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen. Anytime you're holstering any handgun, it's important to take the time to make sure that the holster is clear of anything that could snag the trigger. Make that a habit and "Glock Leg" won't ever happen even if what you're carrying doesn't have any of these "safer" triggers.
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1911, 380, glock, ipsc, kahr, model 41, remington

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