M&P mags don't drop free

mnharris

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I bought an m&p 40 a few months back. When I got my two magazine rebate they had a different baseplate than the two that came with the gun. In the photo it is the one on the right. They do not drop free, only coming about 1/3 of the way out of the grip. Anyone else had this issue? I'm going to call customer service to see if they'll replace them with the older style.
 

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All my M&P9 magazines look like the bottom magazine and all drop free.

Since these are plastic there's no reason you can't remove any high points on the other magazines. I doubt S&W will exchange them, but who knows.

Never depend on your magazines to drop free anyway. You'll merely look stupid shaking the pistol on the range. At 0200 in a dark parking lot things are different. Strip the magazine out of the pistol, every time.

-- Chuck
 
No my mags are full capacity mags and are all steel. This morning I field stripped the pistol and took some fine grit sand paper to the inside of the magazine well. That seems to have fixed the problem. I'm just curious, does anyone else out there have these mags and if they have had any issues with them, or if my pistol just has an extra tight may well.

Thanks all,
Mike
 
I find it odd. On both my M&Ps, the magazines fall out so well that I almost think they're spring loaded.
 
I have had to clean up the magwell and the mags using alcohol because of some residue from my mag holder. I also have had an issue of mags falling out during a match but called S&W and they gave me a new retention spring which took care of the problem.
 
The two mags that came with the pistol jump right out its the other two that were giving me trouble.

What kind of residue was building up in your may well? Like leather particles? I'm using kydex mag pouches and holster right now.

I decided to post the problem because I hadn't seen any other posts about it and thought you all might be interested.

I love my M&P by the way. I worked for an agency that issued 4006tsw's. It was a good gun and got me hooked on Smiths. But this gun is a dream to carry compared to the substantial hunk of steel that is the 4006.

Mike
 
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Just grabbed my M&P9 and darned if the mags ain't steel! :)

See where the wear marks are rubbing. Magazine catch is a common place in many pistols.

-- Chuck
 
mag holders

I have Fobus 2 mag holder and on the inside is a patch of material that helps with the retention. Some of the glue from the material had gotten on my mags and then transferred to the gun. Simple alcohol rub cleaned then right up. Don't get me wrong, the Fobus equipment I have is great, just one of those things. I have not had an issue since with the mag holder or my holster for that matter.
 
Swap a base plate from a magazine that pops out with one that doesn't. Test both mags.
 
I know this thread is two years old, but I have this exact problem.
Mags that came with the gun fly out of the frame, while mags purchased after get stuck. Same story with the different base plates. Even milled the mags, still stick.

Any suggestions?
 
Additional info:
Over 3k rounds thru the weapon.
The follower on the mags that came with the gun sit higher than the mags I purchased after.
The two mags were purchased from different stores.
 
All of my FS 9mm mags drop free from my two 9mms. I bought a lightly used M&P VTAC .40 locally, and the two FDE mags are a bit sticky. The other .40 mags I have drop out with no problem. It appears there may have been a run of magazines that might be slightly bigger than specs?
 
All of my FS 9mm mags drop free from my two 9mms. I bought a lightly used M&P VTAC .40 locally, and the two FDE mags are a bit sticky. The other .40 mags I have drop out with no problem. It appears there may have been a run of magazines that might be slightly bigger than specs?

I think I agree with you that there might be a run of mags that were slightly with slightly larger specs. I also have the VTAC, but I have the reverse problem. The ones that came with it jump right out of frame, but the ones I purchased after crawl out, if they make it out at all.

I am waiting to hear back from the customer service. I'm not sure what they can offer; maybe exchange mags for better ones.
 
I had this problem with my .40S&W. I honestly believe we are running into an issue with stacking tolerances. The mag well in your gun may be a the tighter end of the tolerance and the mag you're having trouble with is at the larger end of its tolerance.

I did three things to solve my problem:
  1. Lightly sanded the inside of the mag well.
  2. Lubricated the magazine tube with Froglube.
  3. Worked a lot with inserting and removing the mags.

Now all my mags drop freely.
 
One trick I've used is to coat the mag tube with white shoe polish and see where it is actually rubbing. Then I either work the tube or magwell to get the clearance that I need.
 
I coat the magwell with some CLR, nice thin rubdown and you should be fine

Sent from my C811 4G using Tapatalk
 
Living here in the desert, coating a magwell with any type of lubricant is asking for trouble. The dust klings to anything with lube on it.

I usually just use a couple of drops of Tetra Gun on the slide rails, and the pistols work fine.
 
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