I have a couple of gun stores locally in Central Florida who have extensive inventories and whose inventories have recovered from the massive run on guns starting late last year, and they seem to keep a wide variety of M&P's in stock. However, I haven't seen ANY CORE models, and I haven't seen any 5" models that are CORE, Pro series, or otherwise. Glock 34/35 and longslide XDM's are easily had, but no 5" M&P's. So my question:

Are 5" M&P's produced in such small quantities or so desirable that gun stores can't maintain a stock of them? Are they just hard to get, or am I having bad luck? AND

Has Smith&Wesson actually started distribution of the CORE series at all? It seems like it was announced about 6 months ago.

Basically, I wondering what others' experiences have been in terms of seeing 5" models in stores.

TIA

--Matthew

It seems in general that S&W has had an uphill battle keeping up with demand for all of it's products, between new LEO contracts and mag shortages and new gun owners.

The 5" models (PRO & CORE) have always been scarce in my experience.

I shoot all S&W products and have felt the pain too, I guess patience is the only choice.

MY LGS is a very large Smith dealer(they buy direct). The owner told me that Performance Center products were non existent until recently but are now trickling in. He expects to see 5" CORE and non CORE M&Ps "relatively" soon.

A local gun store has a CORE M&P in stock so they are out here I Mid GA. I've had my eye on this for a few days and seriously thinking about taking it home. It is the 4.25 barrel.

Last year when the Shield came out, I ordered and paid for 2 40's. The first one came in after Thanksgiving, and the second came in 1-31-2013, Both well worth the wait.

My LGS had 2- 5" M&P40L CORE's in last week, and now one is at my house, my son is checking on the second gun at the LGS and if they still have it he is buying it.

So far I like the CORE, but plan on swapping out the trigger for a Apex trigger, and than put a RMR sight on it buy the fall.

Here in Australia we are limited to 5" barrels, 38 cal and 10 shots, so the M&P9L is all we can have.

We wait a long time between shipments.

I just don't think that S&W is able to keep up with demand. I have been looking for a new pro, 9L, or C.O.R.E for the past 3 months with zero luck. The used market price is higher than a new one so i'm TRYING to be patient.