Marswolf

Had a combat guy over on HK94 (at Bragg right now) describe the gun in chat as, "I like many features of the M&P but the trigger is very crunchy". Any comments?

I thought it was something else that supposedly made you go blind.

As I keep reading reviews and thinking about safety features I see that S&W did a lot of thinking before producing this handgun. Here's another review that is worth reading. Be sure to read all four pages. They obviously tried to find a way around the safety problems of the Glock and XD in having to pull the trigger in order to take down the weapon. With the magazine disconnect, it prevents the unfortunate brain-dead accident of dropping the magazine and mindlessly pulling the trigger to take apart the handgun. I am not normally a fan of magazine disconnects for several reasons, but it sounds like S&W did a good job on this one and it does add significantly to the safety of the weapon. I still don't see the advantage of a striker fired handgun over a SA/DA handgun with a hammer except for the psychological effect on the public. Maybe some of you will enlighten me. Still, this is another step in the right direction. I may have to consider trading the XD for a M&P.

I like Guns & More, even if they did try to talk me out of my H&K Law Enforcement Division cap and they did sell me a case of that sh*tty American Ammunition.

Reviews of the M&P are pretty good. Defense Review has several reviews and they all seem pretty good. The sear deactivation lever was designed to prevent the problem with the Glock where you have to pull the trigger to disassemble the weapon. http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=796 By the way, unlike the Glock, you don't have to pull the trigger on the M&P to disassemble it. The M&P's sear release lever is part of the trigger assembly at the rear of the pistol. To field strip the M&P, just lock the slid back, push down the sear release lever that becomes visible in the middle of the magazine well, pivot the takedown latch, pull the slide back a bit to release the slide latch, and remove the slide just like on a Glock, SIG, or any other semi-auto pistol. http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=777 One of the drawbacks of many polymer pistols is that they require you to pull the trigger to field strip. Part of the neat stuff with the trigger mechanism is a sear release that can only be operated with the slide locked open. There is a lever that is easily reached through the ejection port that releases tension on the sear. Then you turn the external takedown latch and the slide can be removed. There are some other good points mentioned in these reviews, like the "steel chassis" that helps reduce polymer frame flex.

Remember the Glockath day and keep it holy. It seems like you could design a striker fired handgun that doesn't go off if field stripped with a round in the chamber and that doesn't require de-cocking.

OK. Thanks.

So basically the sear deactivation lever just allows you to take down the handgun without pulling the trigger?

Jackdog, I agree with you (and the guy you talked to). It's sort of like the horse whisper thing. If you understand the nature of the animal, you don't have to beat it into submission. You might have to be aggressive, but not mean. In my view, in this video the guy is not hurting the dog. But he doesn't understand the animal either, or he's following the technique of a guy who doesn't know how to train a dog. You want an animal who follows your commands because it wants to please you, not because it fears mistreatment from you.

You do have to be Alpha but this guy doesn't look like much of a trainer. You restrain the dog. You don't do body throws or choke him. You hurt the dog and he may follow your orders out of fear until you really need him. I've talked to my local Sheriff about this. He's an old friend. He was a K-9 handler at one time and has been sent to the hospital a few times training dogs. You build dominance as you build loyalty.

I pulled up the M&P manual at http://www.smith-wesson.com/wcsstore/SmWesson/upload/other/MP_Manual.pdf. It says that to field strip the handgun you: Use the frame tool provided (or a similar device) to lower the sear deactivation lever into the magazine well. Rotate and hold the take down lever clockwise. Grasp the slide from the top, in front of the rear sight and remove the slide by pulling it slightly rearward then forward while being careful to retain the recoil spring and guide rod assembly. The way I interpret this is that you must open the slide and lower the "sear deactivation lever" in order to remove the slide. Right? Is it possible to rotate the take down lever and take off the slide, or significantly move the slide without opening the slide and lowering the take down lever?

We feed baby bunnies to our dogs. Well, we hide marshmallow peeps bunnies in the back yard and let our dogs find them.

It's nice having a board without the ads, but even a little money coming in helps. Besides, filter software takes care of the annoyances.

My wife has me trained that well.

Welcome. Did Len tell you about us?

We are getting close enough to the target date, and I can't see anything going on in the Tri-Cities that will get us together this month for a shoot up here unless we do Scioto. I'd say go for Oak Ridge and try to get something going for the Tri-Cities on May 19. I think towerclimber37 needs to be at the first shoot at his brother's place, if he and his wife are agreeable. Meantime, we can try to find some other locations too.

Every finish wears but if it's for a carry gun, who cares. It's not a piece to put in a trophy case and admire. It's a working gun. Some holster wear might help your reputation as a dude to not mess with. My personal preference is for a black gun. Anything that aids it's being spotted by the bad guy is undesirable IMHO, although I can see other views as perhaps valid too. Having said that, at normal self protection distances (within 15 feet), it probably doesn't matter. I'd still go black.

I think I'll just call the Sheriff and tell him the situation. He's an old friend. Went to High School together, so I've know him since he was just the school fat kid. Now he's the county fat sheriff. I'll still bet the offense date gets this guy off the hook.

Pretty handy page. We might quibble about carrying in parks on technical grounds, but consensus seems to be as stated in your post. Bristol recently decided they didn't need to post their parks.

Hopefully you have a DA with some common sense and who values the concept of self protection. That depends a lot on the politics of the community. If that isn't true, I wouldn't live or vacation there. Guns are great equalizers and not everyone has the time, money, or ability to become an expert in martial arts. But it is handy to at least learn a few blows and throws. Quick story. I'm not a big guy. 5'-8", 175# today. Back when I started college, I was less than 110#. Skinny little thing. I went out with a girl one night and her ex-boyfriend came up on us drunk as...well a UT athletic student - which he was. Big drunk guy. He was upset that I'm out with his girl (he hadn't learned the meaning of "get lost" yet). So he pulls out a knife and makes a swing at me. Unfortunately for me, he managed to take a nice slice out of my left wrist, but missed any major veins. This upset me. I started learning martial arts from a book when I was 14 years old. Used to do one weapon per summer just for fun. One year it was hands and feet. He didn't know that. He also didn't know that my roommate was a 3rd degree black belt in Karate who regularly beat me up (we called it practice) because I wanted to learn more. So...I'm upset about being in pain and bleeding on the sidewalk under the pedestrian bridge over the strip. I didn't even have a knife with me. Someone called the campus cops and they arrived in time to take me to the hospital to get my hand sewed up (12 stitches) and my attacker also to the hospital to wire up his jaw that I had broken in two places. As I said - I was upset. As you get older, you look like more of an easy victim. You need to learn to protect yourself. Body language helps keep you from looking like a victim. So does knowing how to do a few throws, blows and breaks without a weapon. Knife fighting techniques help and a concealed handgun helps a lot. A whole lot. But regardless of whether you are in full tacticool gear or naked, you should have some idea about and some skills on how to protect yourself. If they have a knife or gun, they are getting shot - dead, unless I'm having a bad motor reflex day. I am in fear of my life. They get to be dead so they don't put anyone else in fear of their life. At that point, you need to know how to handle the legalities as others have mentioned above. This is a really good topic.

I've just never gotten into trap or skeet shooting. No reason. Just haven't. I have a semi-tacticool shotgun. Basically a Mossberg 500 with grip and shorter barrel. No lights or other gadgets. Also have the longer barrel and standard stock for it for when reality sets in and I want to blast some BGs with feathers. Talked to a guy the other day who had sent his shotgun off to Wilson Combat for conversion. He liked the results.

That something you do with one of those shotgun things?

I got quite a few, but never would have finished without cheating. Hey cheating is OK - isn't it? The one that stumped me (apart from the British stuff I had to cheat on) was "9 L of a C". Thats one of those "oh stupid me" ones.

I got them all right. Yeah, that's the ticket....

Pretty much as I learned them....