Just ranting a little, and some of this is probably my own personal preferences, so not everyone would see these issue the same way I do. My feeling with S&W handguns, they feel nice, are accurate, include nice features, but:
I now have 5 handguns of the M&P line, and every single one has had issues ranging from annoying to dangerous. I contacted S&W customer service for 2 of them and didn't get very good help. I had to fix or am in the process of fixing all the issues myself.
1) M&P 9 M2.0 4" Compact: The something about the barrel made it nearly impossible to remove the slide for field stripping. I cut my hand the first time I attempted this. I think the chamber feed ramp was a hair too thick and was catching on the rear of the locking block. I could see wear marks in the contact areas.
After shooting 200 hundred rounds, it became better, but still needed a tough push from the back while pulling from the front at the same time. Was still frustrating, so instead of possibly needing to send in an otherwise functional gun on a 4-6 week trip, I found a company selling spare, factory new barrels for ~$65, so I bought one, and problem was gone. Another 200 rounds later, those wear marks did not appear on the bottom of the feed ramp of the new barrel.
2) M&P 22c: The windage spring for the rear sight blade was missing right out of the box. Emailed S&W and got a vague response. Didn't want to bother customer service any further, since I was going to eventually replace the sights with fiber optic sights anyway, so I bought a long piece of 2mm diameter spring off eBay for $2 and cut it to size.
3) M&P 9 M2.0 5" FDE: The thumb safety's contact with the trigger bar was not great. Slight pressure on the safety lever even before snapping it past the detent spring would remove the overlap between the trigger bar and the safety bar, allowing the trigger bar to move rearward. This isn't much of a problem in normal use, but could be a problem if during carry, clothing or the holster was pressing on the safety lever. Might not be a big deal to some, but I don't think that's quality work. I saw this problem in all 5-6 other guns of the same model whenever I made trips to LGSs.
I compared the overlap of the trigger and safety bars between my 5" and the 4", and the 5" had about a 1mm smaller overlap. I switched all the frame components between the 2 guns and the missing overlap still existed, making me think that the frame of the 5" was somehow seating the sear housing and safety bar with an ever so slight rotation downward. I heard that the 5" FDE M&Ps originally didn't come with thumb safeties. Maybe the polymer mold they made for the thumb safety version is slightly off spec compared to the 4.25" and 4" M&Ps, which I haven't seen the problem in.
I sent in the 5", got it back 5 weeks later, and I don't think the service tech read my note. The service report said that the customer's issue is the safety lever doesn't rotate, no problems found, no repairs needed. Didn't want to try sending it back again for another 5 weeks, so I just took 2 sets of pliers, held the safety bar in place, and bent the tip upward 1mm, problem fixed.
4) M&P Shield Plus: The slide lock would get stuck on the inner surface of the slide, and would not fall back down on it's own when the slide was pulled back. I had to push it down with my thumb at the same time. I polished that part of the slide lock and now it doesn't happen anymore.
5) M&P Bodyguard 380: The magazine catch would pop out the magazine with a light touch, and happens if my trigger finger or the webbing of my support hand made contact with it during the recoil kick, almost every 2-3 shots. Tried different ways to adjust my grip, but could still happen at least once per full mag. I think I'm also not used to the kick of tiny pistols, so there is a lot more muzzle flip in my grip.
I googled, and seems like this is not an unusual problem. People sending it in for service would not get the problem resolved, because there's nothing "defective" with the stock parts. The spring is just too light, and the trigger travels all the way back so that the trigger finger will end up right next to the magazine catch button.
Some people simply took out the magazine catch spring, bent it wider for more resistance. I tried that and it really helped. Still got 1 or 2 magazine releases in 1 box of ammo, so I'm going to try adding even more resistance. Possibly might buy the Galloway trigger, which stops the trigger maybe 1/8"-3/16" away from the back of the trigger guard.
I'm also getting light primer strikes with Magtech FMJ that my local range magically obtained, which I thought had somewhat soft primers? I disassembled the slide and the firing pin and tunnel were clean. Cleaned it up anyway, but it still happens. I think Galloway makes a lighter firing pin return spring, or a harder hammer spring Might try those too. I read that some people also tried sharpening the tip of the firing pin. Only other ammo brands I tried were 1 box of Federal Syntech, and 3 boxes of Hornady Critical Defense, those did not have light strikes.
That's it for my long winded rant. Hope I don't get flamed for being negative
I now have 5 handguns of the M&P line, and every single one has had issues ranging from annoying to dangerous. I contacted S&W customer service for 2 of them and didn't get very good help. I had to fix or am in the process of fixing all the issues myself.
1) M&P 9 M2.0 4" Compact: The something about the barrel made it nearly impossible to remove the slide for field stripping. I cut my hand the first time I attempted this. I think the chamber feed ramp was a hair too thick and was catching on the rear of the locking block. I could see wear marks in the contact areas.
After shooting 200 hundred rounds, it became better, but still needed a tough push from the back while pulling from the front at the same time. Was still frustrating, so instead of possibly needing to send in an otherwise functional gun on a 4-6 week trip, I found a company selling spare, factory new barrels for ~$65, so I bought one, and problem was gone. Another 200 rounds later, those wear marks did not appear on the bottom of the feed ramp of the new barrel.
2) M&P 22c: The windage spring for the rear sight blade was missing right out of the box. Emailed S&W and got a vague response. Didn't want to bother customer service any further, since I was going to eventually replace the sights with fiber optic sights anyway, so I bought a long piece of 2mm diameter spring off eBay for $2 and cut it to size.
3) M&P 9 M2.0 5" FDE: The thumb safety's contact with the trigger bar was not great. Slight pressure on the safety lever even before snapping it past the detent spring would remove the overlap between the trigger bar and the safety bar, allowing the trigger bar to move rearward. This isn't much of a problem in normal use, but could be a problem if during carry, clothing or the holster was pressing on the safety lever. Might not be a big deal to some, but I don't think that's quality work. I saw this problem in all 5-6 other guns of the same model whenever I made trips to LGSs.
I compared the overlap of the trigger and safety bars between my 5" and the 4", and the 5" had about a 1mm smaller overlap. I switched all the frame components between the 2 guns and the missing overlap still existed, making me think that the frame of the 5" was somehow seating the sear housing and safety bar with an ever so slight rotation downward. I heard that the 5" FDE M&Ps originally didn't come with thumb safeties. Maybe the polymer mold they made for the thumb safety version is slightly off spec compared to the 4.25" and 4" M&Ps, which I haven't seen the problem in.
I sent in the 5", got it back 5 weeks later, and I don't think the service tech read my note. The service report said that the customer's issue is the safety lever doesn't rotate, no problems found, no repairs needed. Didn't want to try sending it back again for another 5 weeks, so I just took 2 sets of pliers, held the safety bar in place, and bent the tip upward 1mm, problem fixed.
4) M&P Shield Plus: The slide lock would get stuck on the inner surface of the slide, and would not fall back down on it's own when the slide was pulled back. I had to push it down with my thumb at the same time. I polished that part of the slide lock and now it doesn't happen anymore.
5) M&P Bodyguard 380: The magazine catch would pop out the magazine with a light touch, and happens if my trigger finger or the webbing of my support hand made contact with it during the recoil kick, almost every 2-3 shots. Tried different ways to adjust my grip, but could still happen at least once per full mag. I think I'm also not used to the kick of tiny pistols, so there is a lot more muzzle flip in my grip.
I googled, and seems like this is not an unusual problem. People sending it in for service would not get the problem resolved, because there's nothing "defective" with the stock parts. The spring is just too light, and the trigger travels all the way back so that the trigger finger will end up right next to the magazine catch button.
Some people simply took out the magazine catch spring, bent it wider for more resistance. I tried that and it really helped. Still got 1 or 2 magazine releases in 1 box of ammo, so I'm going to try adding even more resistance. Possibly might buy the Galloway trigger, which stops the trigger maybe 1/8"-3/16" away from the back of the trigger guard.
I'm also getting light primer strikes with Magtech FMJ that my local range magically obtained, which I thought had somewhat soft primers? I disassembled the slide and the firing pin and tunnel were clean. Cleaned it up anyway, but it still happens. I think Galloway makes a lighter firing pin return spring, or a harder hammer spring Might try those too. I read that some people also tried sharpening the tip of the firing pin. Only other ammo brands I tried were 1 box of Federal Syntech, and 3 boxes of Hornady Critical Defense, those did not have light strikes.
That's it for my long winded rant. Hope I don't get flamed for being negative
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