Hello all. A few months ago I purchased a M&P Sport from an online retailer. I expected a model with no dust cover and no forward assist. What I got I cannot seem to match to any currently offer M&P Rifles I see offered online. The only differences I can identify are those two additions. Any one able to shed light on this? Is there a alternate model of the Sport that offers these?

I attempted both Google and this forums search function, and cannot find anything. Thank you.

Edit: I'm also curious as to if my barrel is chrome lined, and that is part of the reason I am trying to identify the rifle.

Can you post a pic of your rifle? There are not any Sports that come from the factory with an ejection port cover and forward assist.

Hello and welcome to the forum!

That is an interesting conundrum. Is there any way you can post a picture of your rifle? I also have a few questions:

1. Did you buy a new or used rifle?

2. From which online retailer did you purchase your rifle?

To answer your additional question, the M&P 15-Sport is not chrome lined. It is hot salt bath nitrided, a.k.a. Melonite Treated. The Melonite treatment imparts onto the barrel hardness and corrosion resistance similar to chrome. Because you've indicated that your rifle does not conform to a 15-Sport, the way to tell is to take a look at the chamber.

Hinge open the rifle. Shine a flashlight into the chamber. You should be able to tell quickly whether or not there is chrome in there.

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-John

S&P 15 Sport? - Imgur

Not real familiar with Imgur, but I'm giving it a shot. The only thing I have modified is the hand guard. It came with what is pictured on a sport model. Sorry for cell phone quality

JaPes,

Purchased new on Buds. And I will give looking down the barrel a shot when I won't wake the wife up by grabbing a flash light and rooting around in the safe.

If you really want to know in what configuration that lower receiver left S&W's factory, you should call S&W customer support. Give them a quick summary of your situation. Provide them the serial number from the lower receiver. Politely ask them to match the serial number to model from their database.

In general any AR-15 lower can mate to any AR-15 upper. If you bought the rifle new, there could have been a mix-up at the factory. An assembler could have mistakenly logged a different model as a 15-Sport. Someone at the retailer could have been futzing around with rifles and mismatched a lower to an upper. They could have shipped you the wrong rifle.

If you bought a used rifle, then any number of things could have happened.

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-John

That's odd. M&P 15-Sports do not come with a full feature upper nor do they come from the factory with a drop in quad rial. The heavy barrel profile is indicative of a 15-Sport. At first I thought it was a 15-X, but the barrel profile isn't right.

Have you fired it at all yet? I can't tell if it's glare or reflection, but the brass deflector looks like it's already deflected a few rounds more than a factory test fire. I wouldn't expect a brand new out of the box rifle to have a brass deflector dinged up like that.

IMO, I would call S&W and ask them what configuration is logged to that lower's serial number. If you have a friend who is knowledgeable, have them take a look and give you an opinion whether or not that upper is brand new.

I'm thinking that there is a mix-up of some sort going on. If I made the determination that the upper is not brand new, I'd call Buds and have them send a call tag for that obviously wrong rifle and send you out a new one.

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-John

It does look like a Sport or 15T lower. Has the integral trigger guard. What does the stamping on the barrel say?

Does the box indicate that it is a Sport? What is the model number on the box? And does the serial number on the rifle match the one on the box?

It really looks like a used Sport that someone got a stripped upper and swapped all the parts over. The lower is right for a Sport, and the barrel profile and the sights are right for a Sport. Startover said he swapped the hand guards out... did the hand guards have heat shields?

My bad, it was late.

If everything is indeed new, there are no outward signs of the rifle being monkeyed with, and the original hand guards didn't have heat shields, and S&W confirms that the lower SN is matched to a 15-Sport then I'd call that a factory screw up in the OP's favor.

15-Sport with a full feature upper mistakenly installed got out of the factory. Wow.

I guess the possibility exists that some Buds employee wanted a lighter upper receiver for a 3-gun build and swapped in a full featured upper, but that doesn't seem that probable. Most 15-Sport upper swaps are from the featureless upper to a full feature upper.

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-John

I agree, looks like Sport lower with Standard upper - a bonus for the OP assuming not a used product. That a couple hundo mistake by someone at Bud's.

Although the confusing part is the barrel doesn't seem to have the lug recess like the standard models - what M&P models have a lug-less barrel other than the Sport? Definitely bears a call to S&W.

I have put a few rounds through it. It appeared new out of the box. Just looking at the box and markings on the lower, nothing implied it was the sport, I didn't know if they were typically marked with that designation.

On the S&W box, there should be a sticker on the end. The sticker will have the serial number on it. This should match the number on your lower. It should also have a SKU. The SKU for the Sport (non-compliant model) is 811036.

Does your box have this info?

The lower isn't marked as a Sport, but the integral trigger guard gives it away. The lower you have is only used on two models, the Sport and the newer M&P 15T. Most of the rest of the lineup uses the standard lower with the removable trigger guard base.

Well, the moe mids don't, they have the melonite barrel without the recess, but that looks carbine length. They also have an integral trigger guard, though the magwell has a magpul rollmark. Is that a flared magwell on that rifle?

It's not a MOE, the trigger guard shapes are different. He didn't get that lucky!

Must have over looked the model number last night. 811036. Still looks like a sport according to the model. Put in am email to S&W support. So I guess either a factory error or a used upper. Either way looks like I benefited.

Does the forward assist work? My only concern would be if S&W would honor warranty work if there is an issue with your upper...

When S&W switched from the 1/8 barrel on the Sport to the 1/9 they simply started shipping them that way. Is it possible this is a similar unannounced change? Although if it were, you'd think S&W would be shouting this one from the rooftops.

EDIT: BTW, What is stamped on the outboard end of the barrel as to twist?

Maybe S&W had some left over full featured uppers on hand and used them to finish a production run of 15-Sports. I know that Sig Sauer does this with their pistols. I'll find feature combinations on Sig models that don't match anything in the catalog. They're notorious for using production overrun parts. I have a P250 compact, diamond plate pattern stainless steel slide, with an extended threaded barrel. That combo doesn't exist in their catalog.

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-John

Calling IS way better. E-mail can take forever. Call early in the day and you'll get in faster too.

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THIS WE'LL DEFEND ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I think this may be possible. Someone else in another thread said they bought a Sport with a non-working forward assist, like I have on my .22lr AR...

I wouldn't mind that at all.

They don't offer a upper with that barrel in this configuration at this time. Could this be one of the original m&p 15s? New old stock? Just throwing it out there. Did the sport start out with a fa/dc?

No, the Sport has always been a featureless upper. I think the Sport and the 15T are the only rifles with that barrel profile and flash hider. Some of the compliant rifles have the same barrel profile, but no threads for the flash hider... so I don't think it is old stock. S&W is going to say it is a Sport, based on the serial number. I would like to hear an explanation though on the upper.

The moe mid has the same barrel profile without the recessed cut. But, like I posted above, the model pictured by the OP looks to be a carbine length handguard.

NOTE: A few months ago I was in Gander Mountain because I needed to laugh hysterically about their ammo prices. As usual, the AR rack was calling and I had a question about the removal of the stock to install a sling attachment. The employee pulled down what I "thought" was my rifle (the barrel color, profile and moe handguard being the flags. When he handed it to me it was clear something was different. It was a carbine length handguard. It wasn't a mid after all and according to the tag it was being advertised and sold as a moe carbine.

So, add that to the mix and matchology here.

One other thing. I had an original M&P some years back but for the life of me I can't remember with any certainty if that barrel had the recess. My thinkng is it didn't, but I do recall the barrel as being a flat black, not the melonite treated finish style on the models mentioned. The OP's seems to have that melonite finish, yes?

Also, if the OP is still around it would be interesting to see a picture of the forward end of the barrel where it's stamped, and to see the flash hider. Neither are apparent in the cell phone pics above.

There was a MOE before the MOE Mid. But it had the cut out on the barrel.

Product: ARCHIVE: Model M&P15 - MOE - Black


The OPs rifle does appear to have the Melonite finish, judging by the color. Hopefully he will come back and share the barrel stamping and let us know if the FA is fully functional.

The rifle I handled at Gander Mountain didn't have that cut out. I thought it was odd when I saw it like that in carbine lenth, but I didn't spend too much time thinking about it, I had already bought the mid. Reading this thread revived my curiosity about it.

It would also be interesting to see what handguards the op took off the rifle.

So, Basically we have a "Sport" with a sport lower, but with a standard mp-15 (full featured) upper, with a Sport barrel installed. We think.

As long as Smith says OK and warranty will be good, I'd be pretty happy if I were the OP. Even moreso if the Sport barrel is the older 1/8 5R. But that might be asking too much lol.

Did the OP ever report back if the barrel was chrome lined? I looked back but didn't see it.

Will be definitely interesting to see what S&W comes back with.

Tell me about it. That guy would have one unique factory screw up rifle.

If only the MSR gods were so kind to me...

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-John

OP, did you ever get any info/reply from S&W?

This is a simple question that everyone is overcomplicating and/or over explaining! Just tell them where the numbers to google or look for the answer!! Holy f#*ck!!

Indeed.

You’ve just replied to a question that was posed 7 1/2 years ago.

Ahah ha ha ha!

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USMC 83'-87', NRA Member.