M&P 9 not stamped "Stainless" on slide

RJR573 · Nov 22, 2011

Hello everyone.

I recently bought a fullsize M&P 9 which is not stamped "stainless" on the left side of the slide.

Seems like every photo I've seen they all are. Also everywhere I've read says they are blackened stainless slides and barrels.

Any thoughts ?

Thanks.

LukeDuke · Nov 23, 2011

Chinese knock off?

markush · Nov 23, 2011

LukeDuke said:
Chinese knock off?

lol huh? I suppose if he was shopping the flea markets and buying air soft stuff but I'm pretty sure real firearms are no longer imported from China.

Cost cutting measures? A slide that simply wasn't stamped? A sterile slide meant for spec-ops? oops now I'm sounding like Luke

Dragon88 · Nov 23, 2011

You must have one of the rare early versions that has a slide made of balsa wood. Either that or the "sterile" slide for "operators" in "spec-ops" as mentioned above.

Just shoot your gun, stop examining it with a microscope.

S. Kelly · Nov 23, 2011

Maybe they are making them out of carbon steel?

Dragon88 · Nov 23, 2011

Maybe they are making them out of pure lead?

Ruger Nut · Nov 24, 2011

Just get a screwdriver or a nail and engrave it yourself.

chuckles46 · Nov 24, 2011

You must have purchased the one with the airsoft slide. Mine has the really nice, well done and quality "STAINLESS" on the slide. Yours must be defective, send it back to Kimber.

Fivestones · Nov 24, 2011

I purchased mine last week, and it isn't stamped either.

afultz075 · Nov 24, 2011

My M&P45 doesn't have stainless stamped on the side, actually prefer it that way.

LedFowl · Nov 25, 2011

I was just looking at the M&P models on the S&W website. Some of those shown don't have stainless marked on the slide, particularly the .45s.

cyclopsshooter · Nov 25, 2011

my older 9 pro and 40c have it but i just received a new batch of m&ps for stock and none of them are marked stainless... was gonna call smith and ask if they were still stainless but got sidetracked.. ill try to do it tomorrow

RJR573 · Nov 26, 2011

M&P Stainless ?

Thanks for the replies so far, even the funny one's.

I wondered why I had not got a e-mail notice for replies and just realized I forgot to subscribe to this thread. I'm used to other sites that automatically subscribe whenever a post is made.

In searching around Gunbroker I have seen a couple other's that are not stamped "Stainless" either.

The date on my fired case envelope is 10/26/11 so maybe they quit stamping the newer guns, or maybe they are not all stainless anymore. I'm going to call S&W monday to ask.

I actually like it without the extra stamping. Many of the newer guns have too much stamped on them for my taste anyway.

Dragon88 · Nov 26, 2011

S&W loves to save money. This practice goes back for as long as the company has existed, as far as I can tell. Eliminating a superfluous roll mark is exactly the kind of thing the factory would do to speed production and reduce production cost.

Even if it's only a few cents per gun, that adds up over time.

Silversmok3 · Nov 26, 2011

In the basement of BATFE Headquarters...............

***Meeting is in Session****

Alright agents, we have a problem. The American shooter is simply too resilient. Gunrunner went tango uniform, so now we need a new plan to undermine the American shooter. How do we do that people?

**crickets**

Come on,someone in this room is awake!

Uh sir, what if we switched the slides?As in , we break into S&W headquarters and swap the stainless slides on M&P's with pot metal ones made from Chernobyl reactor material.With people concealed carrying these days a radioactive handgun would slowly kill anyone who touched it.

**Operation Atom Walker is a Go**

chuck s · Nov 26, 2011

The only reason other than marketing to mark the slide "stainless" is to differentiate it from a carbon steel product.

Not sure S&W's intentions, but they make many different pistols and it's hard to tell the raw stainless from raw carbon steel parts during manufacture. The stainless marking may be a hold over or standard process for the manufacturing process. Or may just be for marketing.

-- Chuck

Ruger Nut · Nov 26, 2011

Use a magnet to verify if it is stainless or not.

Titan · Nov 26, 2011

Perhaps the machine that marks 'stainless' was busted that day.

glen_farmer · Nov 26, 2011

magnet?

I just did that. My magnet sticks to the slide of the M&P (with the stainless roll mark) next to me. What does that mean?

update: just did a test on a stainless S&W 1911, 4006 stainless, and a Ruger SP101 stainless. The magnet sticks to them all. In fact of all the stainless stuff around me, it's the Dillon case gauges that the magnet will not stick to.

vista461 · Nov 26, 2011

Magnets stick to some stainless.

M&P 9 not stamped "Stainless" on slide

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