So, I'm new to posting here but figured I'd give back to y'all since I have been reading anonymously for years.
After seeing S&W release the M&P10 in 6.5 Creedmoor chambering a couple of weeks ago, and noting that there are no spare parts available in S&W's online store (safety selector not withstanding) for either caliber, I decided to give them a call a week or so ago. I told them I was glad the M&P10 was doing so well they released another caliber for it, but after many hundreds or even thousands of customer requests for the sale of spare parts, the very nice gentleman basically said, for example, that the fact that there are no M&P PISTOL parts for sale was a company decision and that they also don't offer and M&P15 bolts and the like because its not always just drop in. In my reading between the lines, it certainly appears that S&W, for the foreseeable future has made a business decision not to provide spare parts. Pity...I love my M&P10, but wish I could get a spare gas tube and extractor for it. That said, S&W appears to be making their stand at the level of their customer service, where they stand by them, by all appearances, 100% (more on that later).
After seeing the TFB post about Battenfield Technologies coming out with M&P15 upper and lower parts kits a couple of days later, I decided to call Battenfield, BHW, and S&W (again) to talk to them all.
First, BHW for the barrels that I know they used to provide. They still don't, but said that if I emailed them, they would show it to their higher honchos. Email sent.
Next, I called Battenfield, asking that since they are using actual "S&W M&P" branding and since they are owned by S&W, if they were considering doing the same for the M&P10. They said that there was a distinct possibility and refused to rule it out in the future. Good stuff.
Finally, S&W themselves in an effort to see if warranties were still good if we made modifications to the rifles. The representative asked for an example and I said cerakote and a low-pro gas block. He said roughly maybe good, maybe not for cerakote and that if the rifle came back for warranty work with a low-pro gas block AND the concern was short-stroking (or something related to the gas system) then they would probably put the original block back on it but the low-pro one would still be shipped back. There may be fees in this example but seemed like they were being more than reasonable as far as how they viewed it. In the case of light primer strikes, if the user had put in an after market trigger, S&W would again, replace the after market with a stock trigger but ship the after market one back with the rifle. The gentleman I spoke to had obviously heard this type of talk before and was very understanding and wanted to be helpful. It does indeed seem like our warranties are still good if the problem we are shipping it back for is not related to any modifications we have made, and even if they are related, they won't charge us unnecessarily for warranty work.
I see this as hopeful but am cautiously optimistic. I figured this community would like to have an update since I have been reading threads on here for years trying to better understand the issues related to the configuration and proprietary nature of this (and all) .308 AR-type rifles.
The TFB press release:
New M&P Branded AR Parts from Battenfeld Technologies - The Firearm BlogThe Firearm Blog