New M&P Sport II Owner

[TX-Badger]

Hi All,

I'm pretty excited, for my birthday this week I purchased my first M&P Sport II. I will say, I didn't know how exciting it would be, but after spending time at a local gun show with a friend of mine who is a former Army Captain, he showed me ALL the different upgrades I could make to my rifle. He also gave some great advice and said a lot of it is personal choice, and after examining his M&P Sport with his upgrades. I replaced the butt stock with a Magpul MOE Carbine. I replaced the hand guard with the MOE M-Lok hand guard. I am in the process of looking for a good reflex sight for it. Any suggestions for a good reflex appreciated!

Also, as far as ammunition goes, I've read a lot about brass vs. steel. Any suggestions there? Anything ammo I should definitely stay away from that the M&P doesn't like?

 

[okiegtrider]

Congrats and happy birthday.

you might find this discussion of AR15 optics useful...or not.

Enjoy!
http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-m-p15-rifles/468451-new-ar-owner-optics-advice.html

 

[Kadonny]

Congrats. For the record, the Sport eats every kind of ammunition I have put in her pipes, but normally I stick with brass.

 

[JaPes]

Congrats & welcome aboard!

Owning an AR-15 is the best, most gratifying weight loss method out there. When I had an AR-15, I had less back-pain because I was carrying around less cash in my back pocket.

 

[JaPes]

Also, as far as ammunition goes, I've read a lot about brass vs. steel. Any suggestions there? Anything ammo I should definitely stay away from that the M&P doesn't like?

My old 15-Sport V1.0 cycled any commercially available off the shelf ammo: brass case or steel case.

All you ever wanted to know about Steel Case Bi-Metal Jacketed v.s Brass Case Copper Jacket...

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

 

[C J]

At the risk of hijacking this thread how hard would it be for an AR newbie to install a MOE M-Lok hand guard? I'm pretty good with tools (even though most of them are back at my house while I'm living out of town - I don't even have a decent vise with me at this point - got a nice one back home).

 

[tcon]

At the risk of hijacking this thread how hard would it be for an AR newbie to install a MOE M-Lok hand guard? I'm pretty good with tools (even though most of them are back at my house while I'm living out of town - I don't even have a decent vise with me at this point - got a nice one back home).

You won't need any tools. Look at this video: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k01PcyREU78[/ame]
I never shook the rifle like he does. Work in halves - pull the delta ring down on the bottom side and remove the bottom handguard first. Installing, reverse the procedure. Do the top first and then pull the bottom side of the ring toward the receiver and put the bottom guard on. There's just enough room to do it but none to spare.

 

[C J]

Seems pretty simple but I wish the guy would have used some more light and kept his hands from blocking the view of what he was doing. Maybe that part is harder to do than say but more light is pretty easy. Still I got the idea and I appreciate the help.

 

[Kadonny]

At the risk of hijacking this thread how hard would it be for an AR newbie to install a MOE M-Lok hand guard? I'm pretty good with tools (even though most of them are back at my house while I'm living out of town - I don't even have a decent vise with me at this point - got a nice one back home).

Drop in or free float? Two total different animals. Drop in you can do with no tools, free float no way. Do you just want a drop in rail?

 

[tcon]

Seems pretty simple but I wish the guy would have used some more light and kept his hands from blocking the view of what he was doing. Maybe that part is harder to do than say but more light is pretty easy. Still I got the idea and I appreciate the help.

Before you go to the trouble of removing the A2's and putting on the MOE's decide if you want any hardware. I put a MOE sling attachment https://www.magpul.com/products/msa-moe-sling-attachment and a Harris #5 bipod stud on mine. I originally had the AFG https://www.magpul.com/products/afg underneath but didn't like the angle and sold it. So here's what I did to my MOE grips:

 

[C J]

I was looking for a bit more rail to mount a small laser I have. My main optic takes up a lot of room when mounted with the original rear sight. I would also like to have a grip mounted. Those are my primary concerns. I don't really want a bi-pod for this rifle. It doesn't seem like the kind of rifle that should have one to me although there are situations where it would be nice of course. I'm just looking more for a CQB carbine setup.

 

[rcsayer]

The delta ring can be a little stiff on a new AR so I use a large set of channel lock pliers with rubberized grips by putting one grip on each side of the delta ring and pushing the delta ring down while my wife removes and replaces the the handguards. My grip isn't what it used to be years ago pulling the handguards off a M-16.

 

[arnoob]

They make a handy-dandy tool to ease removing the hand guard, the delta ring can be kinda stiff. I didn't need one myself but I know a lot of people like them and for 10 bucks it's hardly bank breaking if you're going to be swapping handguard a more than once.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Ade-Advanced-Optics-Handguard-Removal/dp/B00QV3J4PW"]Amazon.com : Ade Advanced Optics AR Handguard Removal Tool : Sports & Outdoors@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31-DqVskFSL.@@AMEPARAM@@31-DqVskFSL[/ame]

With regards to wanting more rail to mount a laser / light, personally I'd steer away from a quad rail and get a lighter weight drop-in with m-lok or Keymod then mount a short section of rail where I wanted the laser. Quad rails are cheap though, there's a half decent one of Amazon for next to no money, so if cost your driving factor maybe it's the better option.

Congrats on the new rifle OP, the Sport is a really good shooter. B)

 

[C J]

I'd steer away from a quad rail

I thought about something more similar but the possibility of wanting to add more stuff later is a factor. I'd rather keep weight and costs down to be honest. I don't anticipate wanting a lot of bling on my Sport. I basically just picked up on what was said here rather than picking out one from a group. I had not got to that yet. I was basically interested in the process more than anything else as far as my posts here go.

 

[arnoob]

I thought about something more similar but the possibility of wanting to add more stuff later is a factor. I'd rather keep weight and costs down to be honest. I don't anticipate wanting a lot of bling on my Sport. I basically just picked up on what was said here rather than picking out one from a group. I had not got to that yet. I was basically interested in the process more than anything else as far as my posts here go.

Yep, and there's nothing wrong with quad rails per se, I just don't like them because they tend to be sharp so I end up putting rail covers on, which adds more weight / cost and just shows that I didn't need all that rail in the first place.

The process is easy, for a drop-in replacement you just pull back the delete ring then pop the two halves of the handguard out, fitting the replacement is the reverse of removal usually with the addition of a couple of screws to hold the halves together tight. Whole job is no more than 10minutes, less once you've done it a couple of times.

 

[C J]

I didn't think the Magpul MOE hand guard was a quad rail. I thought it had the M-LOK slots where you can add stuff like a hand grip and maybe a small rail. That's what I was thinking about actually. Not real expensive either. I really don't even know what length to get for the Sport.

 

[arnoob]

The MOE isn't a quad rail,it can have MOE or M-LOK mounting systems make sure you pick up the newer M-LOK one.

You want a carbine length handgaurd if you're planning on a drop-in installation, ~6.5", but just search for carbine length.

 

[warriorking]

As you can see I put the Moe Furniture kit on my Sport 2..
I found the Delta ring quite easy to pull back for the removal of the stock grip...You just need to place it on the floor and with a firm grip pull down on the Delta ring...
You may find that the stock handgrip top and bottom will not separate easily, so I used a Butter knife to get it started..

 

[batmann]

Those are the same upgrades I did to my Sport II. I changed the the handguards, stock and pistol grip to Magpul FDE, added a SiteMark, a Magpul sling and it i was done. The SiteMark I've had a couple of years and while it's not an Eotech, it's 1/3 the cost and for my purposes, just as good.
Oh, it came with a laser which I took off.
Shoot yours, they are fine rifles.

 

[C J]

As you can see I put the Moe Furniture kit on my Sport 2..
I found the Delta ring quite easy to pull back for the removal of the stock grip...

That looks like a Strikefire II sight on your rifle which is the same thing I have. Your photo shows why you can't add anything else to the stock rail with that sight installed. BTW I tried pulling down my Delta ring last night and I barely got it to budge. Admittedly I'm not nearly as strong as I once was but still it's pretty darn stiff. I don't anticipate doing this upgrade right away. I haven't even gotten around to getting a sling yet.

One question. Do they make short rails to fit into the M-LOK slots. I looked a little but didn't see one for that connector. My primary reason for wanting to upgrade is to add the grip but I would like being able to add a rail so I can mount that laser. It's a green laser and very visible in all but the brightest sun. Lasers can acquire targets very quickly even if you're shooting from the hip. I've used them for decades I guess (on other rifles of course).