TGO David

Identifying Marks: other

I'm going to continue my M&P love-fest by getting the logo tattooed on my butt.

You can spot-heat that area with a hair dryer or a heat gun set on low, and then push the firearm further into the holster causing it to re-mold in that area. I would probably start the remolding process in this way and then use a comparably sized wooden dowel to finish it off since you want to provide ample clearance for the front sight blade. Just work slowly and use heat sparingly to prevent distorting the rest of your holster. Only apply heat to the area you're wanting to re-form.

I picked up some 3/4" plywood and a counter top at Lowes. Plan on building it sometime this week.

That is what I had read elsewhere. The S&W press release didn't state, ostensibly to take the high road.

Brian's forum is an awesome resource for reloaders. I hadn't made it over there yet. Your idea of two 3/4" pieces laminated together sounds like a winner.

Thanks. They aren't using anymore more sturdy than 3/4" plywood for the bench surface in that plan. I may just push ahead with the use of a kitchen counter and then use a piece of drilled steel plate beneath the press to distribute the force of the press across a wider area. I did this with my bench vice and it's stood up to serious use and abuse over the past 10 years of working on various car parts.

I have decided to get into reloading and may be ordering a Dillon Precision 650 this week or next. To prepare for this, I am changing around some of the arrangement of our garage to accommodate the reloading bench. I built my current workbench out of 2x4 frame with a formica kitchen-style counter top with backsplash. It's 6-feet long and I have an additional 6-feet of space next to it to build another bench. Realizing that a reloading press exerts a lot of force onto it's base while it's in motion, I am curious as to whether or not I should use another kitchen style counter top or if I should build it out of something sturdier. One thought was to just build it out of 2x4's laminated together on edge to create a butcher-block style surface. Recommendations? I need to keep the space beneath this bench fairly open to use the area as storage for bulkier items like my shop vac, some folding saw horses, rolling garbage can, etc. Thanks.

Detroit Police Department Converts to Smith & Wesson M&P40 Pistols & M&P15 Tactical Rifles SPRINGFIELD, Mass., April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: SWHC), parent company of Smith & Wesson Corp., the legendary 157-year old company in the global business of safety, security, protection and sport, announced today that the Detroit Police Department will equip its force with Smith & Wesson Military & Police (M&P) Series pistols and with M&P Series tactical rifles. The orders mark a conversion of the entire Detroit Police Department to Smith & Wesson firearms. The orders also demonstrate Smith & Wesson's progress towards its stated strategy to expand its professional law enforcement customer base. M&P40 Polymer Pistols The Department has placed an order for 5,000 Smith & Wesson M&P40 polymer pistols, chambered in .40 S&W. The pistols will be issued to each officer of the Detroit Police Department and will replace currently issued, non-Smith & Wesson firearms supplied by a European-based manufacturer. During the selection process for a new duty sidearm, the M&P pistol was compared exclusively with the department's then-current handgun. The M&P40 received high marks on officer evaluation forms for the pistol's ergonomics, operating controls and reliability. The M&P pistol was also noted for its ambidextrous controls and the ability to customize the grip size of the pistol to each officer's preference. M&P15 Tactical Rifles The Department has also placed an order for 350 M&P15 tactical rifles. The rifles will become available to officers upon the completion of a certification course. While reviewing new patrol rifles during the test and evaluation process, the Detroit Police Department compared the M&P15 against a broad range of competitive semi-automatic rifles. The M&P15 was acknowledged for the high quality of its components, the fact that it is produced in the United States, and that it is fully supported with training offered by Smith & Wesson. Detroit Chief of Police, James R. Barren, Ph.D., said, "Converting our department to a completely new brand of firearms was a significant decision that required a great deal of evaluation by our officers. The Smith & Wesson M&P40 and the M&P15 merited a review, based upon their selection by a number of other law enforcement agencies recently. Both of these firearms were thoroughly tested and found to meet or exceed all of our requirements. The pistols allow each officer to customize the fit and feel of the sidearm and that translates into a safer and more efficient environment on the job. We were also impressed with the level of customer service that Smith & Wesson can deliver, along with the warranty that stands behind both the M&P40 pistols and the M&P15 tactical rifles." Leland Nichols, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Smith & Wesson, said, "We are extremely pleased and honored that the Detroit Police Department has chosen to equip its officers with multiple firearms from our M&P series. This series of products has been designed especially to address the needs of global law enforcement and military personnel and is manufactured in the United States. The Detroit Police Department's commitment to provide its police officers, and therefore its citizens, with the highest quality and the highest level of safety possible is demonstrated by the decision to convert to both the M&P40 pistol and M&P15 rifle. Both of these firearms have earned the respect of police agencies both in the United States and abroad. Currently, the M&P pistol has been approved or adopted by 505 U.S. police departments, and the M&P15 tactical rifle has been approved or adopted by 221 U.S. police departments."

Cliffs notes for those who don't have the patience to read through the replies above: * Small number of pistols tested, even smaller number exhibited issues. * LASD might have an agenda here * LASD's practice ammo may have been at fault * LASD might not have contacted S&W before issuing said release, giving them time to address the issue * Countless other agencies and civilians have not had similar problems * Statistics can be skewed to support whatever position you have decided to take I personally have had only minor issues with my M&Ps over the years. The most significant problems were the slide locking back prematurely and the magazine dropping on it's own; both on a 9mm Compact model. I bought this gun in 2005 when the models had just come out and S&W fixed it both times with revised parts that eliminated the problem. Clearly a first-run, freshman year problem. Were they problems that could have fisted your OODA loop in a fight? You betcha! But they both occurred within the first 500 rounds fired at an indoor range. That's why I intentionally take any firearm I may carry and subject it to some abuse at the range FIRST. This is the recommended course of action for anyone who buys a new defensive handgun. Wring it out before you trust it. Less critical but annoying none the less is the horrible lack of tactile trigger reset on my M&P 9mm. It DOES reset, you just don't feel a nice snap in the trigger when it does like you do on a Glock or an XD. My M&P 40 has a pretty good reset. Not great, but good. All of my previous M&Ps have had good reset. So the issue seems to be hit or miss, luck of the draw. I am sending my M&P 9mm back to have the trigger re-worked and a Performance Center sear installed anyway, so I'm not really concerned. Plus it's something you could train around if you wanted to carry it. I just prefer not to work around it because I'm a lazy creature of habit.

Quote love continues... You mean other than going off when impacting a hard object or being struck by a hard object, which led to the well-publicized non-recall recall? Or changes to the finish of various internal parts? Or numerous mag design changes? Or slide stop levers wearing out slide cuts? Or firing pin blocks chipping and causing high incidence of misfires? Add in the G19, and you've got the NYPD's "Phase III Malfunction" saga. Add in the G22, and you've got functionality issues to this day being reported all over the place. Add in the G23, and you've got all sorts of issues among agencies which later decided that a full size G22 was a better choice for plainclothes folks because of G23 reliability problems. And don't even get me started on the whole kB! thing, which so many people are quick to blame on bad ammo regardless of how many times someone blows one up with factory ammo. Does that make the Glock a POS? Absolutely not. Again, hundreds of agencies, countless thousands of people, use Glocks successfully. But if you mistakenly believe Glock (or any other manufacturer) rests on a pedestal above all the rest, immune from the vagaries of human failure, you're mistaken.

Bah. Detroit Metro just dropped Glock in favor of S&W. Here are some replies from folks smarter than me over on M4Carbine about this issue. Keep in mind that a lot of these guys have been down this road before with other firearms so it's not exactly earth shattering to them. More to come...

It doesn't pull the gun in close enough to the body for me to use it for concealment. For range use it's just fine though.

Have one for a Glock 19. Not a fan of them.

XD-M isn't available in .45ACP yet either. Maybe they are carrying the Glock 22 and were saying they would rather the XD-M in .40SW

Been there and done that. Life does get better though.

The holster is intentionally designed with "extra" material because it's required to pull the holster in tighter to the body. I questioned that same aspect of it when I first saw photos of the holster elsewhere, but the answer was pretty much universally what I just said.

Mike and Garrell just signed up as Authorized Vendors here on TGO. Expect to see their banner ad in the rotation very soon.

My wife and I fully intend to move to Montana at some point. This is just icing on the cake.

Just got an email. My Raven Concealment "Phantom" holster has been shipped. Pics as soon as it arrives!

I did an M&P Compact grip insert in Pink Duracoat for XD Shooter's wife, Angel. This was my first run with the flex-agent added into the mix and I'm happy with the results. Of course Duracoat takes about 3-4 weeks to fully cure if you don't bake it, and there's not much of a way to bake a plastic piece without it ruining. I'll post pictures later and hopefully get some pictures of her M&P Compact with the grip installed at a later date. I guess I am getting into the Duracoating thing pretty heavy as I bought a second, better airbrush this week and also picked up a good respirator and a commercial quality HVLP commercial spray gun so that I can do larger pieces and complete firearm basecoats. The next project will be some AR-15 furniture in pink so that we can build up another rifle for my wife. Todd@CIS - Hit me up soon on those Beretta grips. I'm going to order some more colors and just need to know which gray you were wanting. They have a few different grays available but none that they call "gunmetal".

Interesting. I'd heard that they were going to do a gas piston design this year but hadn't heard who's components were being used for it.

I've made a few adjustments that should allow better tabbed browsing. I use tabs also but I typically only have 4-5 open at once.

I'm going to work on it later today and try to clear out the blacklist a little so that you guys having trouble logging in won't have that issue anymore. I've got a few pressing issues to deal with offline first, but I will do it.

Keep us posted on how well the Adams kit works. I saw them a while back and was intrigued, but it's still pretty much an unproven commodity isn't it?