Hello all. New here and this is my first post. I'm excited to say that my first post is to share that I've purchased my first S&W! I picked it up from my LGS this evening. As the title states, it's an M&P40 fullsize (no thumb safety, no mag safety, no ILS). I purchased it for concealed/open carry as well as a Raven Concealment Systems Phantom holster.

I ordered it from Buds for $487 w/ free shipping and my FFL charges $25 for a transfer and $10 for background check for a grand total of $522. I was a bit leery of Buds after reading some horror stories but it was the lowest price I could find so I gave it a shot and everything went as smooth as could be expected. Customer service through their online chat was fantastic and shipping was very fast (UPS 2nd day air).

I also knew going in that I wanted to upgrade the trigger so I had it waiting here to install. I went with the Apex Tactical FSS sear/trigger kit. I followed along with Randy Lee on Youtube and the install was a breeze, and I can tell the difference already just dry firing. I did have a little polymer gun trigger install experience going in though (powder river precision trigger in my old xdm compact).

I am now waiting on a package from 10-8 Performance containing .140" u notch rear sight and FO front sight. Also 2 of their aluminum mag base plates. This is a great place to order from, I've also ordered 1911 parts from them, they are outstanding!

The RCS Phantom holster was a quick ship option. Right hand, standard cant, and MD cut sweat shield to allow for full firing grip. I ordered C hooks for IWB, and politely requested in the comment on the payment page to have the "standard" owb loops swapped out for the pancake style and to my surprise without any communication to confirm when I opened the box the pancake loops were attached to the holster for me and I didn't have to spend the $19.99 on them! Fantastic, and the whole deal from order to arrival was something like 3 days.

On to the pictures!

Stock, laying in the case when I got home from the LGS


Apex FSS sear/trigger after about 35 min with Randy Lee on Youtube.


RCS Phantom with pancake loops attached and c hooks on the side.


Back of RCS Phantom


In the phantom. The holster is very comfortable. I have only tried OWB covered with a t shirt. It does print a bit, but I believe I read something about flipping the rear pancake loop backwards and it will suck the grip into your body a little more so I may try that out. And I have not tried the c hooks yet, likely will mess with them tomorrow.


Range report to follow in the next few days...

It's a shame you didn't shoot it with the stock trigger first. I've heard they have a much improved trigger. Even so, the FSS is a good one. I have one in my .45ACP.

Did you install the aluminum or polymer trigger?

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Freedom isn't free.

Welcome to the Forum from Oklahoma! That's quite a first post;good detail & great pics. I don't remember how long it took me to post pics, but it sure wasn't on my first post.

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

I thought about shooting first with the stock trigger, but dry firing it I knew I didn't like the goofy hinged trigger deal. I bought the FSS kit from Apex and it came with the aluminum trigger.

Thank you. I am a member of several other forums and have a photobucket account so I learned all about posting pics long ago.

congrats my friend, FS .40 is a damn fine pistol, I love mine!

I am sure you will like your FS 40 as much as I do mine. By the way I have a photo bucket account and I stilol have not figured out how to post pictures. But then there a lot of other things i have yet to figure out also...

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Retired Marine Gunny

In Photobucket you will see a series of links with each photo. Copy the one called IMG and paste it in your post.


The big red arrow is pointing to the link you seek.

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Freedom isn't free.

Thanks Rastoff, I will give it a try...

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Retired Marine Gunny

Glad to see someone helped out with the photobucket thing, now I can be lazy and not take a screen shot

Going to go send a few down range tomorrow morning, so I will report back on how she shoots. In other good news, 10-8 performance opened back up today after a week off and I got an email that my sights and mag plates shipped so they should be here in a couple days.

Update on the RCS phantom: It is a fine, well made holster and I really really want to like it. I do like it alot for OWB, however no matter how I adjust it with the c hooks it doesn't seem to work IWB for me. I will hang onto it for open carry kinds of days, but have ordered a Cleveland Holster (made right here in WI). Will post up pics when it arrives.

Still didn't make it to the range, hopefully soon though.

My new sights and mag base plates from 10-8 arrived in the mail today and my new Cleveland holster. Pretty cool deal, for the month of August all orders from Cleveland will be shipped within a week. Also as a member of WI Carry Inc I put in the notes that I'd like my holster branded with their logo and a portion of the sale goes to the organization. I don't have a pic at the moment because I'm wearing it to get a feel for it, but I will toss a couple up here later tonight if I remember.

My initial thoughts are, it is very very comfortable and conceals extremely well.