I've owned a near new M&P 45 4" Gen I for several yrs, which I barely shoot or carry. (I do have an early 45 Shield that fills those needs) I found a mint, complete part set for a Gen II 45 with the 4.6" bbl/slide. I noticed some minor differences in the internal parts between both generations. The slide assy fits, hand cycles and dry fires without issue, but the Gen I slide release in the frame, will not lock back the slide, manually or empty mag. I tried swapping in the Gen II slide release, but both left and right levers were a very tight fit to the frame, so I did not install it. Has anyone else tried swapping parts between the model generations? I could probably "open/spread" the levers a bit more, to fit the frame or maybe swap all the internals over to Gen II, but wanted to see if anyone has done this prior. Thanks for the help, Bill in MA
As you discovered, the notch for the slide catch are different on the 1.0 vs 2.0. Also, the 2.0's use a detent for the slide catch to eliminate the "auto forward" from the 1.0. Your 1.0 frame doesn't have the recess for the detent but I can't say how that affects the fit of the 2.0 slide catch.
Oddly, there's a bunch of vids that show 1.0 slides on a 2.0 frame (before S&W released optics ready 2.0s) but I couldn't find 2.0 slides on a 1.0.
I had watched a few videos prior, one showed the slide release of a Gen II PC version, which had no little wire spring on it. The Gen II release I had, was missing that same spring, where the original Gen I, had it. I like the longer barrel of the Gen II set up and may just keep it as it is now and just deal with the hassle of the slide not locking back. Thanks, Bill
Info on 45 Gen I vs II...
Linear Mode
