S&W M&P Pistol .30 Super Carry Production Numbers

Now that S&W has discontinued its pistols chambered in .30 Super Carry are there any total production numbers available for these pistols that any one can share?

This was a caliber I knew would die from the moment it first came out.
Like everybody else did as well.
Except I really wanted it to succeed for the pistol I'd buy and use but no one else would.
A 6" barreled 25-shot polymer framed fullsize job with adjustable sights (think FN Five-Seven sorta thing).
Can't imagine a better thing for my ski jaunts and field regular field use.

I bought an EZ 30SC a few months ago. It was at a fire sale price, so was the ammo, so I layed in a small stash of that too. It's a pretty good shooter, but doesn't offer anything really that a 9mm doesn't offer IMHO.



If I ever come down to selling off the rest of my motley collection, I guess I'll hold onto that one. I doubt I could sell it anyway.

Never even heard of this
What weight bullet ? What are the ballistics on it ?

Well that niche cartridge certainly didn't last long.

Did S&W actually announce 30 Super Carry guns are discontinued? The Shield Plus and EZ still show on their website as being in production.
Granted the cartridge has turned out to be a dud in terms of market acceptance and I doubt S&W is manufacturing many new pistols based on lack of demand in the marketplace, but pistols are still available from the factory.

Says discontinued in two different places on their website.

CajunBass said:

I bought an EZ 30SC a few months ago. It was at a fire sale price, so was the ammo, so I layed in a small stash of that too. It's a pretty good shooter, but doesn't offer anything really that a 9mm doesn't offer IMHO.

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Except a few extra rounds. That's it. Which tho I promoted the thing above I never bought one. But HAVING one with the stash of ammo and dies and lots of brass it's not a bad round. There's nothing wrong with it. You've got a keeper.

Bald1 said:

Never even heard of this
What weight bullet ? What are the ballistics on it ?

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115 grain bullet at 1150 fps.
Sound familiar?

lol yes very 9mm like…. I thought it was going to be a high velocity wonder round like the 5.7

Bald1 said:

lol yes very 9mm like…. I thought it was going to be a high velocity wonder round like the 5.7

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Yes.
As soon as I saw the actual case I knew it was a dead letter tho for a lot of "9mm applications" it would be very good, its only problem being it produces the same ballistics as a 9mm adding just a couple rounds in a small carry pistol. That round count would be bumped in a fullsize pistol but it was obvious they were never going to go that route and thus it was a dead letter from the start.
Tho sporting the same case head size as the 9x19 and thus no "extra rounds" over a regular 9mm pistol, I'd like to see a modern loading of the 7.65 Luger round tho that'll never happen due to the existence of...Lugers and the possibility of damage caused by extra-high pressure loads. Regardless, for years I carried Tokarevs and CZ52's on ski treks and in the mountains here and came to acquire a high degree of respect for the ".30" cal highspeed pistol cartridges. We'll never see in commercial guns the 7.62x25 I don't think b/c OAL is actually longer than .45 ACP so demands a very long mag well fore and aft, not what the makers today want to get involved with. CZ made one a while back but that's it. The round was great, the CZ52 and Toks as platforms, not so great....but they were FLAT and easy to carry and I sure would like to see some company spin out a fast .30 tho I'm not holding my breath.
Anyway, the 7.65 Luger conundrum happens to a number of old rounds....great case dimensions but due to loadings in older perceived-to-be weaker pistols the cases are not going to be used for modern high pressure rounds.
Kind of like what COULD be done with the .38 S&W, but never will be. That one by case dimension could produce 9x19 performance in a small revolver, but never will be because of all the old, weak wheelguns it is chambered in. Happens to rifle cartridges, too. The ancient .38-56 WCF would make a stellar higher-pressure .375 cal round for the 1895 Marlin but it never will. Capable of performance equaling the .358 Win or 9.3x57 in a slick lever gun. Great elk/deer/bear round, but we'll never see it.
Anyway, Smith had several directions they could have gone in whumping up a ".30".
A smaller round better than a .32 ACP but under 9x19 performance but loaded in an actually smaller pistol...not happening due to retooling/design...or a modern version of the 7.65 Luger, not happening due to the above, or...the middle road .30 Carry.
The chose the latter and tho they just might have made a little $$ on the pistols due to the easy changeover of tooling from 9x19, it's dead, a death as predictable as the marketing of a lead skinning knife.

Factory Federal ammo claims 1250 FPS with a 100 grain bullet. If reloading using an 85 grain Hornady XTP JHP bullet you can probably substantially improve upon that.

3/4Flap said:

Except a few extra rounds. That's it. Which tho I promoted the thing above I never bought one. But HAVING one with the stash of ammo and dies and lots of brass it's not a bad round. There's nothing wrong with it. You've got a keeper.

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Oh, I'm not thinking of getting rid of it. Like I said, I don't think I could sell it, and I know the dealer I bought it from doesn't want it back, but heck, I like it enough to just keep it on it's own merits.

I've got close to 1000 (both FMJ and HP) rounds stashed away. I don't shoot it much, I've got plenty of other guns to shoot.

To be viable the 30 super carry needs to offered in a gun that offers some advantage. I will give an example most 16 gauges but not all are made on 12 ga frames. So the 16 ga shotgun handled like a 12 and had a lesser payload. The 16 ga is dying in the USA. There used to be light, short handling double barrel 16 ga built on guns that designed for the 16 ga. These fast handling guns were used for quail. Everything was considered to be a very fit for the mission.
They put the 30 super carry into 9mm size pistols. the advantage to the super carry would have been to make thinner double stacked guns that offered some better concealment advantage. But no one seems to have wanted to build a gun around the 30 super carry.
The 30 super carry seems to have been inspired by the 30 long that was used in some french pistols, one SMG, and in the Pedersen device.
Below Pedersen Device on a WWI era springfield rifle.

I agree. The 30 SC EZ is the same gun for all intents and purposes as the 9mm EZ. Sure it offers a couple of extra rounds, but everything else, including the recoil (at least to my way of thinking) is the same.

I'm told it has to be that way because of the pressure the load developes. I don't know if that's true or not, I'm no engineer, but I think in a gun the size of an EZ 380 (a slightly smaller gun than the 9mm version) or a Sig 365 it would be great.

barnetmill said:

To be viable the 30 super carry needs to offered in a gun that offers some advantage. I will give an example most 16 gauges but not all are made on 12 ga frames. So the 16 ga shotgun handled like a 12 and had a lesser payload. The 16 ga is dying in the USA. There used to be light, short handling double barrel 16 ga built on guns that designed for the 16 ga. These fast handling guns were used for quail. Everything was considered to be a very fit for the mission.
They put the 30 super carry into 9mm size pistols. the advantage to the super carry would have been to make thinner double stacked guns that offered some better concealment advantage. But no one seems to have wanted to build a gun around the 30 super carry.
The 30 super carry seems to have been inspired by the 30 long that was used in some french pistols, one SMG, and in the Pedersen device.
Below Pedersen Device on a WWI era springfield rifle.

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Yes, this was my point above and your example of the 16 gauge conundrum is an excellent one.
The answer is pretty obvious which you and I note: It's expensive and would require a full redesign and retooling to produce a ".30 Carry"-sized frame.
The same problem has plagued the AR systems as well where everything had to fit either the 5.56 or the 7.62 NATO round receivers.
Problems arose in chambering slightly bigger rounds in the 5.56 receiver and who would want a 6.5 Grendel in a 7.62 NATO size package?
Ruger's SFAR is one exception but really a design needs to be cooked up that is specifically made for the "middle" sized rounds IF one is not going to wind up with extra metal and bulk (and for some rounds, some feed issues) in rounds of the 6.5 Grendel size (7.62x39 case head).
Facts are facts I guess and when we have the SIG P365 and a couple others stacking a big pile of 9mm rounds in the grip going DOWN a size is just not going to win many converts unless a whole bunch more bullets can be had and that has not panned out to be true in the sub-compact size market.
An interesting idea (to me) might be a totally new cartridge not impacted at all by prior pressure limitations. Just navel-gazing here but let's say a high pressure, relatively high speed 6.5/.264 caliber thing with a case head diameter just a smidge smaller than the .30 Carry where more bullets could be stacked in the mag than even the Carry can carry. Something where an 85 grain bullet would be the suppressible "Heavy" bullet. Maybe get a 65 to 1450 or 1500 fps?
Advantages?
* Low Recoil.
* High Capacity.
* Excellent penetration.
* Suppressible w/ Heavy Bullet Option.
* FLAT profile.
* Light weight.
Would it sell?
Probably not. But IMO it would be an interesting and actually different option which hasn't happened in pistol-making since about 1912.

There's a reason besides nostalgia, that cartridges such as .380 (introduced in 1908), and 9mm (introduced in 1901) have survived long enough to have become labeled as "venerable".

I feel like it shoots softer/flatter than 9mm for me. I think its destined for the same fate as 327. It wont disappear, but it will be a niche caliber, with only occasional limited runs of guns, and a few tried and true ammo loading on the market.