Mags won't drop freely

[Mr. Satchmo]

I'm thinking an easy and cheap way to get around this is to use a few strips of weighted lead tape

 

[bp231986]

Probably the way you're holding the gun.


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[Ransom]

Probably the way you're holding the gun.

Or maybe the way you're holding your mouth.

 

[Rastoff]

Probably the way you're holding the gun.

Are you serious? How can my grip affect this?

 

[N4KVE]

My M&P40c pops the mag out like a baby momma in her 10th month. My gun is 4 years old. GARY

 

[Starwalker]

I have never had this problem with any of my M&P's so not talking from experience, but, have you closely inspected the magazine to see if there are rub marks from a burr or dragging on the mag well? I would also inspect the mag well to see if you can see any rub spots that may be jamming up the mag.

You have probably already done this, but just in case.....

 

[sstewart]

I have a full size 9mm. I also have a 40 slide and barrel. 9mm mags drop freely but the 40 mags stick. Go figure. The 40 mags are new only 200 rounds thru the 40


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[1straykat]

I'm having the same problem with full size M&P 40 and 4 out of the 10 round magazines not wanting to drop all the way out, most of the time they only drop about 1/4 inch and have to be pulled out by hand, the more rounds in the magazine the worse the problem is, It happens to empty magazines too. If you see the M&P photos on S&W website home page it shows the magazine dropping right out, on the 40 cal with no problem. The sides of the magazine seem to bulge from trying to load the 10th round, which is hard to get in. Either the spring in the magazine is too long or the length of the follower is too long. Not sure if the 12 round magazine has the same problem or not. The fix as I see it is to use the 12 round magazine with a different follower that only allows 10 rounds to be loaded in to it as they did on the M&P 22 pistol.

I sent the gun and all 4 magazines back to S&W after waiting over 3 weeks for pickup label to be emailed to me and now after them having the gun for about a week they say that it will take up to 4 weeks for them to finish the gun and return it. I see this as poor service and am truly disappointed in S&W service. I waited for 3 weeks for pickup label as I was advise by S&W employee would take several days to get pickup label emailed to me, I waited and it never showed. I called them again and this time the service department employee sent me an email pickup label and instructions while I was on the phone to him. Why couldn't the first person done that when I called.

This gun was purchased new in February of 2013 at local gun shop. The magazine well is clean as are the magazines except for the wear on the sides from too tight of fit in the magazine well. Also the white dot fell out of the front sight post. The gun has about 800 rounds through it and is cleaned and wiped down regularly to include the magazine well as well as the magazines. I understand that it is manmade and will have problems but the service expected should be higher in MHO. Hope to get it back sooner but not holding my breath.

I love the gun except for the above listed problems. It never has a FTF or FTE and my wife enjoys shooting it as well. She has a M&P 22 with problems as well but I am afraid to send it in as they said the turn around on that model is longer. I purchased 3 M&P series guns this year and I'm now looking to purchase a couple more and I am looking to other brands. Sorry, but, quality fast service is what we should all expect.

 

[Rastoff]

Yeah, that is really slow. I wonder if your first label just got forgotten about?

I have tried a few things, but I honestly believe we're running into a "stacking tolerances" issue. I'll bet the magazine well is on the small side of its tolerance and the mags are on the large side of their tolerances. This seems likely.

I may resort to sanding the inside of the mag well. I don't know, but I don't want to send it to S&W for this issue.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

If I can find my weighted lead tape, I am going to add several small strips to the magazine plate so I can add weight for the magazine to drop our freely.

 

[e5gator]

OK, getting on this a little late but I'll put my thoughts and advice in. I have a M&P Pro in .40, I needed easy release and quick drop for IPSC competition and 3-gun. Here are the steps I took to ensure it.

1. Remove the mag release butt from the lower, there is a small metal tab formed into the plastic, you can trim a little off this with a file (dont recommend a drem for this as it may get away from you) once you have taken off what you feel is enough, use a drem and jeweler's rouge and glass it up nice and pretty. if you think you didnt take off enough you can always go back and repeat steps at your will. a replacement is not that much

Take a file and LIGHTLY smooth out any rough spot in the mag well, recommend taking all the guts out of the lower to avoid any unintentional hits, check it often to ensure you have not made any uneven areas.

And lastly I bought the Taylor Freelance brass base pads, they leave little craters in the ground when I hit the release button.

Other than buying the base pads this is a free and easy way to reduce drag within the mag well and increase mag drop efficiency.

 

[SoCalDep]

I have tried a few things, but I honestly believe we're running into a "stacking tolerances" issue. I'll bet the magazine well is on the small side of its tolerance and the mags are on the large side of their tolerances. This seems likely.

I may resort to sanding the inside of the mag well. I don't know, but I don't want to send it to S&W for this issue.

I think you are correct. I have three full-size M&P9's...One from around 2011, one from late 2012, and one from mid 2013. I also have an older 9Pro and a 9C.

Up through the pistol from 2012, I never...ever had an issue with magazines getting stuck in the pistol. I had 12 magazines. I never really noticed anyone else having an issue either. Now I'm seeing it more often. I was issued my most recent pistol a few weeks ago with three magazines (so now I have 15 total). Using those (new) magazines, at least one sticks in the mag well of the 2012 gun that always worked great. I haven't tried the mags in the 2011 gun or the 2013 gun yet.

It seems the problem is more in the magazines than the pistol itself, but tolerance stacking may have a part as well.

 

[Rastoff]

1. Remove the mag release butt from the lower, there is a small metal tab formed into the plastic, you can trim a little off this with a file (dont recommend a drem for this as it may get away from you) once you have taken off what you feel is enough, use a drem and jeweler's rouge and glass it up nice and pretty. if you think you didnt take off enough you can always go back and repeat steps at your will. a replacement is not that much

The problem I'm having is definitely not the mag release. It's working perfectly. I don't see a need to alter it, but I will keep this in mind as I work on this issue.

I have sanded the inside of the mag well a little. There is a casting line in there and I will sand that smooth.

 

[Murcus]

I've noticed this with my 9C also. I have 10 mags and feel it is the mag. One can stick, while another drops free. I have been looking at the follower on the magazine and think it may be just a hair to wide, but have not shaved anything from it to test the theory.

 

[DanTana]

Rastoff, I seen one video on Youtube that had the same problem, and it turned out to be the magazine release. I know you said you others that worked perfectly, but if it's not that difficult, maybe give that a try?

Here's the video :
M&P 9 Magazine Release Problem - YouTube

I seen another solution to take the magazine apart, put the magazine into a vise and just squeeze it a little to make it narrower. You might want to use a venier caliper to check it, before and after, you may even want to check it against the good vs bad magazines and see if there is a size difference?

Good Luck!

 

[dannybot]

I had a similar issue once upon a time when I reversed the mag release. It turns out I did not properly install the spring and it was rubbing on the magazine, causing it to bind. I reinstalled the spring properly and no issues since.

To make sure it's not defective or poorly installed release or spring, why not remove the magazine release and spring and see if the magazines insert and fall freely?

 

[Bkreutz]

Don't know if this will help or not but I've attached a couple of pictures of some of my older mags. You can see the wear points on them which might lead you to tight areas in your pistol. I have no idea how many mag drops these have done (I tried to calculate it but it gave me a headache) Hope this might help.
Ignore the silver in the long creases, that's silver sharpie marking so i can see them in the dark. (or at least that was the plan, doesn't really work)

 

[Rastoff]

DanTana,
The video you posted was just 6 minutes of him complaining about his mags. There was no fix offered.

To make sure it's not defective or poorly installed release or spring, why not remove the magazine release and spring and see if the magazines insert and fall freely?

OK, why not?

First I started with just checking the mags. All were working OK. I could feel that they were sticking a tiny bit, but they still fell free. I could hear them laughing at me saying, "Watch, we'll work now, but when he gets to the range we'll all stick. HAHAHA!" I took the mag catch out(the spring is captured and cannot come out) and the mags fell freely. I wiped it down just to be sure. I put it back in and they fell freely.

I did measure the width. Some were .003" thicker than the others. I doubt that .003" would cause this, but when talking about stacking tolerances...

I feel foolish now because it's working and I've done nothing since the last time I looked at this. Maybe it's a temperature thing?

One good thing did come out of this. I'm definitely having an issue with the followers of a couple of them. They are not catching the slide stop as they should. They are catching the follower on the side rather than the top like they should. I'll be calling S&W on Monday to see if I can get that fixed.

 

[DanTana]

Rastoff, Glad you got it worked out. Maybe just removing the magazine release and re-installing it helped? Who knows? Good luck on the magazine followers.

 

[Llando88]

I had a similar issue once upon a time when I reversed the mag release. It turns out I did not properly install the spring and it was rubbing on the magazine, causing it to bind. I reinstalled the spring properly and no issues since.

To make sure it's not defective or poorly installed release or spring, why not remove the magazine release and spring and see if the magazines insert and fall freely?

Great point.

I changed the mag release on my new M&P Friday from right-handed to left-handed. The first couple times I went to check the mechanism the mag would not fall out.

I took out the mags and gave them a quick wipe down with Froglube CLP. Two were new with the pistol, and two were new from Midway. After this they were ok.

I think the mag release spring might have gotten dislodged slightly, so you might be onto something here.

Or it's another thing to check. Just a thought.