I just spent my first session shooting my new M&P 40 S&W Compact.

Pros: awesomely accurate, comfortable to shoot, reliable

Con: Jeez, this is the hardest, most un-ergonomic slide release I've ever seen on an automatic pistol. Glad I'm not trying to compete where quick release of the slide on a fresh magazine is needed!

Question: Just to be sure, these guns don't have those odd barrels like Glocks where you are advised not to shoot all lead bullets in them, do they?

Congratulations on a fine pistol!

Hint - it's not a slide release it's a slide stop. There's a lot of pressure holding the slide open & it's all on the stop. The recommended method of closing your slide is to grab it overhand with your weak hand, pull it back a tiny bit & let it fly. To let the slide stop do that job can cause excessive wear on it.

To boil it all down - the slide stop is designed to keep your slide open, not to close it.

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Former USN, Retired US Army

The slide release is odd because it is not a slide release. It is a slide stop. The manual tells you to release the slide by pulling back on the slide.

The rifling is nothing special in these and is not the polyonal that Glock uses.

Welcome from the panhandle of West Virginia.
What the others said.

I guess you understand why I'm NOT into competitive pistol shooting, right?? LOL I can hold my own with a shotgun, but pistols are a sideline.

Seriously, thanks for the correction. Intuitively, I don't see how the two buttons on the side of the pistol "stop" anything. Seems when you push them down, things "release", they don't "stop". Just like the mag release button. Push it, the mags "release", correct?

Notwithstanding the intuitive deduction, I stand corrected, and will "release" the slide by pulling back on it (as I've done many times before). One question though, why have this "slide stop" button if all it does is "release" the slide?

Again, the help is appreciated.

It is a lock.

The slide does not lock without a magazine in it.

** I am a dummy. D-Hop two posts down has the obvious reason for that.

OK, I accept that. But why have this "button" on the gun if it's not to be used for anything?

The button is there in case you need to close the slide while it is in the open position. Then you should slightly pull back on the slide to take the pressure off and then release with the button.
Also you can use it to lock the slide open when there is no mag in it. Pull the slide back and push the button up.

This is why it's here. But so many people push that lever to "drop the slide" like so many people call a magazine a clip. It's called "misuse".

on a related question. If i pop my mag in just hard enough the slide will release. Is this normal? It's hit and miss depending on how hard I slap the mag in.

It's in the manual page 16 or 18 I think. Talks about slide going forward with mag slap to hard.

Yes it can happen, and is considered normal.

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Criminals don't register guns.