TGO David

It can be. My Glock likes less cleaning, so it gets less cleaning. My Wilson likes to be clean and wet with oil, so that's what it gets. Different strokes for different guns.

I wonder if these guys use cheap Chinese knock-off tactical gear.

For all practical sakes and purposes, it is the slide and barrel from the M&P 45 4-inch (aka midsize) mounted on a compact frame similar to what the 9c and 40c get, but up-sized to accommodate the larger dimensions of the 45acp magazines. Kind of like what Springfield did when they offered the XD 45 and the XD 45 Compact.

I use non-chlorinated brake / parts cleaner from the auto parts store to blast the majority of the filth out of my guns. It's usually in a green can and may be labeled under the store's brand name or any variety of manufacturer names. The important part is that it is non chlorinated and marked as being safe for use on automotive plastics. Typically I will: ... Field strip the weapon ... Douche the individual pieces thoroughly with the aerosol parts cleaner For The Barrel: ... Run a patch with Hoppes #9 through the bore to get the easy stuff ... Follow with a nylon bore brush and Blue Armadillo bore cleaner to get the lead and copper ... Follow with patches until they come out clean or mostly clean ... Follow with a patch lightly oiled with WeaponShield CLP ... Wipe down the outside of the barrel with the same lightly oiled patch of Weaponshield CLP For The Slide: ... Scrub the breech face with a nylon toothbrush and Hoppes #9 ... Scrub the extractor and extractor channel with same ... Scrub the inside of the dust cover with same ... Wipe all excess and filth away using dry clean patches ... Very small dot of WeaponShield on the firing pin block ... Wipe all external surfaces with a clean patch lightly oiled with WeaponShield CLP For The Frame: ... Scrub the feed ramp and other "high fouling areas" with nylon or copper brush and Hoppes #9 as dictated by the material and amount of crud ... Small dot of WeaponShield CLP applied to springs and metal-to-metal contact areas ... Small dot of WeaponShield CLP applied to frame-to-slide interface points / slide rails Final Pass ... Reassemble weapon ... Dry fire a few times to work lubricant into critical areas and expel any excess ... Wipe weapon down with silicone impregnated microfiber cloth (shines it up nicely, removes excess oils) My regimen is a little more time intensive than what some may use or prescribe, but it works well for me and keeps my weapons looking nice.

07 FFL / 02 SOT Us mere mortals are S.O.L. then it seems.

I bet your M&P will give you flawless performance until the cows come home. I just have weird luck with them. By the way, Todd Louis Green (a familiar name to some folks from a lot of different forums) is doing a serious torture test with his M&P 9mm. He's had some interesting issues but the gun has been running very well for him for twenty thousand (20,000!!!) rounds to date. You can read his blog here: http://pistol-training.com/archives/299

My "service" size M&P 40 ran like a champ all the time. My 40c and my 9c had problems. The 40c dropped mags like crazy but S&W installed a revised mag catch and that fixed it. The 9c locked back prematurely a good 50% of the time with 2-3 rounds left in the magazine each time. A revised, heavier weight slide release spring fixed that one. For some reason neither my Glocks or my XDs have had any problems out of the box. They have all run very well and very reliably with any ammo that I've fed them. Maybe this M&P just needs to be "broken in" a little. I'm going to put a few more hundred through it before deciding whether it needs to go back to the mothership for repairs.

What's the process to legally equip a Glock with an auto-sear?

That is the stock photo of the Compact courtesy of S&W. I imagine it says 45c on the slide now as that photo is pretty old and predates the SHOT show. And yes, they are larger than the 40c and the 9c. By just a little. Here's a side by side comparison. The 45c is on the left. The 45 (Midsize) is on the right. Pictures are not to scale but you can spot the differences in the frame.

Bud's has them listed. I called to confirm that is really the compact and not the 4-inch midsize and they said that it is the new compact model. http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=411535233 I know some of you have been waiting for this, so I wanted to throw it out there. I'm happy with my Glock otherwise I'd be on this like white on rice. Looking forward to a range report!

It was like $600 out the door with tax and TICS. I lucked into this one, I think. I still haven't seen any on Gunbroker or any of the other local shops. This one came from Guns & Leather on a trip up to Kentucky last week. I think they had a Pro model for slightly more. Yeah, they will make it right. It's sometimes a question of how many trips it has to make back to them though. One guy has a 4-inch 9mm and he has had to send it back three times now for FTEs. It will be with us unless I get some more range time and it keeps jamming up. Then it will be up to S&W as to whether I have it back by the 19th.

Recently sold my XD Tactical 9mm to a friend. Guns & Leather happened to have one of these in stock, so it came home with me. Thoughts: We have only had it out to the range once. It suffered several classic stovepipe failures to eject while my wife was shooting it and one failure to feed (double feed) while I was shooting it. I hope that the FTE were due to her "limp wristing" the gun but I have a bad feeling that the weapon will be going back to Smith & Wesson for some tuning if the problem persists. I'm going to detail strip and clean it soon and properly lube the extractor channel to see if that remedies the problems. There are a lot of threads on the MP-Pistols forum that show other people having these problems with their M&Ps lately as well. Some have fixed it themselves with the prescription outlined above. Others had to return their weapons for service. It wouldn't be the first time I've had to return a new M&P to Smith. Ergonomics, Shooting, Etc. The ergonomics of the M&P are just head and shoulders above the Glock and XDs that I've owned. Just holding it reminded me immediately of why I had chosen the M&P in the past. Having owned a 9c, a 40c and a 40 all at the same time once before, I am still a big fan of the M&P's ergos and keep rooting for Smith to get them running right out of the gate. The 9L balances very well and the extended slide and barrel add just enough heft to the front-end to make it a really smooth shooter. No complaints from me here. The gun really needs better sights so I'll be ordering a fiber optic front and a 10-8 Performance rear sight soon. I really like Hilton Yam's 10-8 sight and consider it an almost essential upgrade to any M&P automatic. I've written about this sight here in the past. The trigger on this particular M&P is really mushy. The reset is barely perceptible and absolutely nothing like the firm, definitive click of my Glock 19. I really wish it had a more pronounced, shorter reset. I found myself short-stroking the trigger on more than one occasion during our range session. I may replace the sear with the new S&W Performance Center sear and see if that helps any. I'm told it is basically a drop-in version of what Dan Burwell and other gunsmiths do as trigger jobs for these guns, albeit in a somewhat mass produced form. Odds are that this weapon will never see any sort of carry duty and just be a range toy / gamer gun, so I have no issues with modifying the trigger. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the gun. I just need to resolve the FTE / FTF problems and replace the sights. Then it will be good to go. Still not sold on the M&P as a carry gun based on my personal experiences, but there are hundreds of folks out there who do carry them and have never had these sort of problems.

Thankyoucomeagain.

I lucked out and found the rubber band trick before messing with mine. Otherwise, yeah... I'd have done it too.

You know... people actually do wash them in the dish washer from time to time.

I was wrong. Rabbi is apparently willing to step in for you and deal with the ATF on your behalf.

While this is of no consequence, I cannot help but to have noticed over the past few years of reading gun forums online that there is a pervading attitude of belligerence toward the Government or authorities when issues like this come up. As a result, some really bad advice is given. Perhaps more frightening, some of it is actually followed. I don't think any of us here feel warm and fuzzy about having our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms infringed upon. Some of us may feel that the government has no business limiting the number of firearms that we can sell privately, but the government respectfully disagrees with us and has the wherewithal to make life very, very unpleasant should we choose to ignore their opinion. There are a lot of issues where you can get away with being a conscientious objector and suffer no ill effects. There are even those times when you can engage in civil disobedience and only receive a slap on the wrist. But this isn't one of them. Like I said, nobody here is going to volunteer to go to jail for you or pay a fine if they are wrong and the government is right. I think you're doing the right thing by investigating your options and choosing to play the game according to the Fed's rules. Good luck.

Just remember that the vast majority of the time, members of the general public interact with police officers when they (the police) are doing their job. Usually that means that someone broke the law, and I'd wager that for most of us that means we got pulled over in traffic for some reason or another. And just how happy are we to see the police then? I tell my kids all the time that when they get in trouble with me, they can be mad about it all they want -- but they need to be mad at themselves for breaking the rules. Not mad at me for calling them on it. Something to think about.

I would be interested in that. As for the hats and such, I don't have any of those. Hero Gear is the only shop selling them but I imagine Joe might have some down there.

None of the people who are giving you advice here (good or bad) is going to step up and go to prison for you or pay a fine for you if they're wrong and the Government was right. I think I'd take heed to what a Federal Agent told me and give more weight to that than I would what a bunch of faceless strangers on the Internet told me. If they felt you were doing something that might get you in trouble, then they are already watching you. Only you know the specifics of this situation. Take that, add it to what you learn when you receive your FFL information packet, then let your gut instinct be your guide. In the meantime, I'd try talking to a competent lawyer also and solicit their professional opinion. Good luck.

Sorry for the confusion. This thread started as a bunch of off-topic posts in a Vendor thread. Since we discourage off-topic stuff in Vendor threads, I split them off into their own thread. Somehow the post I meant to start it off with vanished.

Yep, there is a ton of it. Some of it is amusing and some of it just makes you shake your head at it.

Ok. Not really looking for a debate on the matter, just reposting what information is available on the springs. Some people like a light(er) trigger on their carry guns. Others don't. I'm one of the others.

Per TopGlock.com ...