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.

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

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.

Maybe they are making them out of carbon steel?

Maybe they are making them out of pure lead?

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

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How many guns are too many?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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**

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

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

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How many guns are too many?

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

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.

Magnets stick to some stainless.

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M&P .40, M&P 9c & Shield 45

Not all stainless steel products are magnetic but also many of them are, as far as cooking stainless they are pretty much nonmagnetic but ballistic stainless as well as other do in fact have magnetic properties, my stainless M&P9 FS is magnetic!

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59,M&P9,40,40C,357,(2)45,G26

It sure sounds like the 'magnet test' is pretty useless, since you apparently can't determine anything by using it.

You're correct.The stainless I work with is not magnetic.I just thought all stainless was magnetic.I guess you learn something new everyday.

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How many guns are too many?

maybe it was made on a friday or morning morning, mine has it, 357/40 4.25 (stainless) , maybe some are carbon steel (4130 or 4140)

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N2GUNS

I just talked to a S&W customer service rep who said they are still all stainless, they just eliminated the stamping since all their literature says "all M&P's are melonite treated stainless".

Thats what I had figured but now we know for sure.

Drogon88 nailed it: why complicate production with a stamping that is basically unnecessary?

BTW, I have versions with and without the stamp. Doesn't make a bit of difference to me.

Out
West

I'm surprised more of you aren't aware that stainless used in the manufacture of firearms contains a higher content of carbon steel, thus causing it to be magnetic. It is also why this type of stainless WILL rust. Other products which use "pure" stainless are not as susceptible to corrosion, but also tend to be a "softer" metal.

I was going to suggest, but it's already been answered, that Smith figured they didn't have to stamp the name of the material into it since most people could figure that out. It would be like stamping the word rubber on the side of a tire, or stamping the word wood into factory magnas or targets.

Very interesting. My 45c has the stainless marking, but has a test fire date in early March of this year.

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M&P9fs

Or like stamping a warning across the slide saying that the gun may fire if you pull the trigger? Oh wait! They still do that on pistols with the magazine disconnect!

Let me say also...how am I supposed to "figure out" that the steel underneath the melonite coating is stainless or carbon steel if they don't stamp it? And yes there is a difference.

soooo even though ti doesn't have the stainless stamp the pro series is still stainless?

Yes that is correct... All M&P's are stainless...

My 40c test fired in December isn't stamped with stainless, I personally prefer less writing on my pistols.

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Rod
M&P 22A, 40c, 15A, 15-22

For the record, my 9mm compact isn't rollmarked either. But a careful check on the S&W website indicates that the slides on all M&Ps are stainless. Like others, I actually prefer it without such a rollmark.

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Geoff. Since 1960.

My latest M&P, a 40c I picked up last week, is NOT stamped stainless on the slide. I also noticed that the roll marks are not as deep.

Congratulations you have just purchased a gun by Smith & Wesson in the M&P line that is less than 8 months old, I know because two of my newest purchases of M&P's also do not have this stamped but they are still stainless nonetheless!

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59,M&P9,40,40C,357,(2)45,G26

My own example, with a fired casing date of February 2012, does not have "stainless" stamped anywhere upon it.

Seeing as how the 9mm projectiles fired from it don't care about the roll-mark's absence, neither do I . In 50 years perhaps the S&W collectors yet to be born will make an issue of the matter.

Randy, do you know for sure all M&P's are stainless or is that what S&W CS told you? My experience on several occasions with Smith's CS is they won't lie to you, but they will tell you the truth three different ways.

my M&P9 has a test fire date of 3.8.12 and doesn't contain the STAINLESS stamping.

mines pure gold

04-12-2012, 04:08 PM
Today, 12:54 AM
LOL better late then never... Welcome to he party Left.

I was told today by Customer Service that all their slides are Stainless steel. They therefore decided not to stamp the slides anymore. Sounded like it was a way to cut back on expenses, which many companies are doing.

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Retired PE Teacher & Veteran

Yeah, sure, unless you get one of the Chinese pot metal ones.

The two newer of my three M&P's are un-marked. I've always wondered why they stamped them in the first place; they've always been stainless. Like, duh. I think it was for advertising purposes.

Bill

Interesting thread. I never thought about it before, but my 9c I sold a few years ago was stamped stainless, but my newer (July 2012) 9 full size does not have it. I had forgot my old 9c even had it until I saw this thread, and had to check my fs. Gave me something to do on a boring evening.