M&P 2.0 Slim subcompact

[Dave Lively]

There is room in the M&P 2.0 lineup for something between the Shield and Compact. I would like to hear what everyone thinks S&W should make to fill that gap. This is my proposal.

I would really like to see a M&P 9mm with a Shield width slide and a double stack grip. Kind of like what Glock did with the 30s. A 3.5 inch barrel would be ideal but for IWB the length is not critical. A 3 inch barrel to make it more attractive to those that appendix carry would be OK. To make IWB carry more comfortable a less aggressive texture on the sides of the grips that rub against your skin that transitions to the current 2.0 texture at the front and back of the grip. A 10 or 12 round magazine capacity with the ability to use larger capacity magazines. I would expect such a gun to weigh a couple of ounces more than a Shield.

Such a gun would be quite a bit easier to carry than my 2.0 compact and hold about twice as many rounds as my Glock 43. It would be noticeably bigger and heavier than the Sig P365 but would also be less expensive, easier to shoot, could use widely available and inexpensive magazines and would probably not have as many issues as the P365 does.

While I like carrying very light 9mms my experience has been that once you get below a certain amount of slide mass they start to get finicky. A very light slide requires a strong spring which makes the gun harder to load and tends to batter the slide and frame when it slams forward. It also results in a very fast slide velocity that can cause the slide to ride over rounds instead of chambering them, striker drag on primers and other malfunctions. The Kahr PM9 I had worked great for about 800 rounds then started to have occasional jams until I replaced the main spring. The Glock 43 I own is much better but sometimes rides over the last round in the magazine with 147 grain ammo. The +1 bases for G43 magazines make this more likely but I had it happen once or twice without them. I don't own one but it sounds like the Sig P320 has the sort of problems I associate with 9mms that are a little too light. The heavier Shield seems to avoid these sort of problems.

I often hear that these sort of guns are meant to be carried, not shot a lot. But a gun I am relying on for self defense is the one I want to shoot every time I go the range, not just once in a blue moon.