I have recently purchased a new M&P9 2.0 for my local 3 gun matches, until recently I have used my old M&P 45 but I had started to find the mag capacity lacking at 10 shots. Seeing that 9mm's knock the steel back with the same consistency as the .45's I opted to go with a 9 for the mag capacity.

Two things I immediately picked up on at the range today breaking it in. The grip is absolutely fantastic, its a bit prickly at first but when your hands start getting a bit sweaty oh man is it wonderful, and there is this spring loaded thing on the left side of the firearm that makes the operation of the slide stop a royal PITA (also seems to prevent the slide forward with a new mag that I loved on my older 45).

Digging through diagrams and the owners manual seemed to be just set in there with some resistance and not actually attached to the frame and seemed to serve no other functionality, a quick poke with a pocket knife confirmed this and I was able to remove it from its housing. This allowed me to actually operate the slide stop on the left side w/o the use of tools and also allowed the slide to return to battery when a fresh magazine was inserted with some gusto (about the same as you'd expect on a qualifying course of fire or pistol match)

So other than technically voiding the limited warranty is there any other function to that "thing" aided in that was removed?

I don't have the answer for the warranty question. There has been some debate in this forum as to the actual purpose of the slide stop. Many shooters have for years used the slide stop as a slide release. It's a practical use for the feature and it's a shame it doesn't work for that purpose.

Good for you, making the slide stop function in the traditional way, with all options available. How easy is it to release from the right side now?

BTW--save the spring, reinstall it and warranty concerns go away?

Nope. that's all that thing does. I Guess enough people complained about the auto forwarding of the originals and they developed that thing to combat it. It could very well have been a military compliance thing too for the XM17 bid they developed the 2.0 for but I'm not 100% sure that.

I may eventually remove mine too but haven't played with it yet. So can you put it back in if you wanted to?

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I doubt that removing it has voided the warranty. If anything S&W would probably just repair it if you returned it for warranty work.

I’d be happy if they made something to plug that hole once it is removed. That part is one thing that I feel detracts from the look of the pistol.

The purpose of that piece was exactly to prevent the "auto forward" you're talking about.

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