Learn me about a M&P 9mm

[Guest WPsharpshooter]

Dont have all the specifics as of yet but... A few days ago I had posted about having 500 bucks to spend on a gun... I was mainly looking at a glock or an xd. I have always loved the way the M&P looks but have never really considered it due to its cost. A buddy hits me up the other day and says his father inlaw has an SW M&P 9 with a couple of clips for about 475. Im thinking this is a good deal, and I know the guy that has the gun so there is no question about it being taken care of... I dont know a whole lot about the M&P in general though... Is there anything specific I need to be looking at, is the price decent, or should I keep moving on to the next gun?

[Alpha7]

I know they are prone to break. See the thread on here about dude that dry fired his and it went to heck in a hand basket.

[McAllyn]

I have an M&P Pro 9, and I beat it to death. Never had a single issue with it except finding magazines locally. I highly recommend them.

Mac

[Alpha7]

Ive heard numerous reports of broken extractors and broken firing pins etc.

[Guest 10mm4me]

pistol-training.com just finished a 50,000 rd torture test on an M&P 9mm. There were (2) parts breakages-1. a broken trigger reset spring 2. the right side slide stop lever. Both occurred right around 20,000 I think. I know at least after 10,000. You will never put that much through a gun more than likely. It had two malfunctions in all of this as well. Pretty good. You should read the posting there.

[Guest rystine]

Sounds like a good deal to me. I've got two M&P9's, one full size and one compact. Great pistols all around. See if you can tell what year it was made though. Earlier models had some issues with the extractors, the finish, and evidently the strikers as well (early .40 compacts had issues with the mag release as well, but that wouldn't affect you). AFAIK all the issues have since been worked out. I know that I've dry fired mine 10,000's of times and have never had an issue. Overall they have around the same level of quality as a glock or xd, my preference comes from the fact that I feel it to be more ergonomic than either of those two, YMMV.

pistol-training.com M&P Monday

These guys ran an endurance test on an M&P9, they put over 60,000 through it in a little over six months. Worth a look.

[Guest tbone]

Recently, the striker assembly was upgraded. Reports of breakage were few, but S&W acted anyway and redesigned the unit. If you search, you can find examples of parts failures with any of the big polymer makes (Glock, XD, etc). I own a couple of M&P 9's. They are great guns, I have put about 1K through each of mine with zero issues. I think 475 is not bad. Bud's gunshop has good deals and you can always check gunbroker. The interchangealbe grip backstraps let you fit the gun to your hand. The trigger is typically a little "gritty" for the first few hundred rounds. After that, it improves dramatically. Even though the M&P is a relatively new product, it is suppported well in the aftermarket, with holsters, night sights, custom shops, etc. There is also an M&P forum where you can learn more. For that price, if you didn't like it, you could probably sell it and get your money back out. (or most of it.)

[eapking]

I've got the "full size" M&P 9. I bought it used. Had some light striking issues early. Sent it in to SW (no questions asked). Came back 100%. Great CS. Not a problem since. I really like the trigger compared to my G26.

[Guest m&pc9]

I have 3 M&Ps. One went back to have the feed ramp polished, No other problems.

If you look around you can find them for $450 used. But $475 is not a bad price.

[Guest CK1]

I have an M&P9 and was the guy who posted about breaking a striker not too long ago.

All in all, I think the the M&P is a pretty awesome platform, and it does certain "tricks" that none of the other striker-fired poly guns can do, it does however have a few of it's own idiosyncrasies as well...

First off, the M&P's feel really good in the hand and you can choose a backstrap that fits YOU best rather than getting YOU to fit the gun, so the ergos are really great. The other main thing is the trigger... It's pretty easy to do trigger jobs on them, and they can be made to be outstanding, I'd say easily better than any other striker gun out there, mine is sickeningly good for a striker gun, and I did it myself with a $5 file I got at Lowes and some 600 grit sandpaper in 20 minutes by following this: S&W M&P Trigger Job...

The down sides are few but they're there: two words... roll pins. I tend to shoot a lot so I detail strip my guns from time to time, I don't like roll pins because they wear out, S&W could have done better here. Also, they have a new striker design, the older design breaks from dry firing, snap caps or not, so first things first make sure you get the latest striker assembly sent to you from S&W.

Not too bad, but annoying nonetheless is the trigger reset, even tuned up to it's best, it has nothing on a Glock's reset, not a big deal, but something to consider. And then, you have to remove the rear sight to clean the firing pin block fully and in general it's slightly more complicated than some of it's competitors out there. I'm used to Glock's so I'm probably over sensitive to that, I say the fewer parts the better...

It's really easy to shoot an M&P well, I've spent years with Glocks and I can still usually shoot the M&P better with far less effort and overall they're great guns... there's a reason why you'll find a lot of them at gun matches where only Glocks used to rule. I'd rank it a tie between an M&P and a Glock 9mm, but with each one having different strengths and weaknesses that even out, and would consider them much better than the XD or any of the others out there that are similar from what I've seen and including my own experiences.

Hope this helps.

[kwe45919]

A buddy hits me up the other day and says his father inlaw has an SW M&P 9 with a couple of clips for about 475. Im thinking this is a good deal

Guess you'll have to trash the clips and purchase a few mags BEFORE you shoot it though......

[Alpha7]

Guess you'll have to trash the clips and purchase a few mags BEFORE you shoot it though......

Damned right since clips are what you use to hold stuff in place and the magazines are for handguns.

[Alpha7]

I have an M&P9 and was the guy who posted about breaking a striker not too long ago.

All in all, I think the the M&P is a pretty awesome platform, and it does certain "tricks" that none of the other striker-fired poly guns can do, it does however have a few of it's own idiosyncrasies as well...

First off, the M&P's feel really good in the hand and you can choose a backstrap that fits YOU best rather than getting YOU to fit the gun, so the ergos are really great. The other main thing is the trigger... It's pretty easy to do trigger jobs on them, and they can be made to be outstanding, I'd say easily better than any other striker gun out there, mine is sickeningly good for a striker gun, and I did it myself with a $5 file I got at Lowes and some 600 grit sandpaper in 20 minutes by following this: S&W M&P Trigger Job...

The down sides are few but they're there: two words... roll pins. I tend to shoot a lot so I detail strip my guns from time to time, I don't like roll pins because they wear out, S&W could have done better here. Also, they have a new striker design, the older design breaks from dry firing, snap caps or not, so first things first make sure you get the latest striker assembly sent to you from S&W.

Not too bad, but annoying nonetheless is the trigger reset, even tuned up to it's best, it has nothing on a Glock's reset, not a big deal, but something to consider. And then, you have to remove the rear sight to clean the firing pin block fully and in general it's slightly more complicated than some of it's competitors out there. I'm used to Glock's so I'm probably over sensitive to that, I say the fewer parts the better...

It's really easy to shoot an M&P well, I've spent years with Glocks and I can still usually shoot the M&P better with far less effort and overall they're great guns... there's a reason why you'll find a lot of them at gun matches where only Glocks used to rule. I'd rank it a tie between an M&P and a Glock 9mm, but with each one having different strengths and weaknesses that even out, and would consider them much better than the XD or any of the others out there that are similar from what I've seen and including my own experiences.

Hope this helps.

If you consider them better than an xd you are smoking crack my friend LOL

[Guest WPsharpshooter]

Guess you'll have to trash the clips and purchase a few mags BEFORE you shoot it though......

ROFL.... I copied and pasted his text... never caught it as you can tell.... Ill see if he has any mags that goes with the gun too LOL

[Guest Moody]

I've had nothing but great shooting out of my M&P45... as have other friends. I've never had a failure, issue, or problem. I have also never had a friend/known anyone that has had one break, honestly. I like mine so much, that it's my daily carry, even over my H&K.

[Guest Moody]

If you consider them better than an xd you are smoking crack my friend LOL

I do - so much so that I let my XD45 go for one.

[Guest CK1]

If you consider them better than an xd you are smoking crack my friend LOL

I can tell by your avatar what your favorite team is, and I meant no disrespect to your favorite brand.

As someone who's owned and had a lot of trigger time with them all I stand behind what I said because I believe it to be true, and I'll explain my point of view (mind you, I'm not starting a brand war here, but I'll explain my reasoning as I wasn't just saying it just to say it).

I don't necessarily dislike XDs, they just have characteristics which I dislike and view somewhat as disadvantages, for instance: the grip safety - since the striker is fully cocked at rest in the XD design and it stops trigger and slide operation, I sort of see it's purpose, but since you still have to disengage the firing pin block before the gun will fire when you're pulling the trigger in a sense it's just an unnecessarily complicated add-on as it doesn't gain you any advantage in quality of trigger pull... might as well just not have a fully cocked striker and eliminate the extra complication of having the grip safety IMO (also, as it's a defensive handgun, the grip safety can be seen as a liability in a panic situation as under grave circumstances a shooter may not activate it fully and it could spell disaster, I've seen it happen at IDPA matches so I know it could happen).

Also, as an aside, as a fun gun to be used in IDPA matches and such, because of their fully cocked striker's they're considered single-action and land you in ESP class, good luck against any decent 9mm 1911 or Witness Elite Match (FYI, Scott Springer of XD experts Springer Precision shoots an Witness Elite Match 9mm in IDPA ESP, not an XD, he' won the WA state championships with it, that's worth mentioning...), any true single-action has a substantial edge.

All of the above equals a more complicated firearm, with more parts that could potentially fail, and unlike a Glock or an M&P, DIY trigger work or easy hop-ups are not nearly as readily available... in fact, detail stripping an XD is an entirely more tricky operation than either of the others.

So, there you have it. I prefer the Glock and M&P designs mostly because they're simpler, it's neat that all the guns each have there own way of pulling off their respective magic (and I didn't even mention the Steyr M-A1's, which are totally different than everybody else here, but that I also like better than the XDs), I'm just not a fan of extra clockwork and more complicated assembly that doesn't add up to any real advantages.

I think the extra complication in the M&P over a Glock has a benefit as their sear set-up is more "traditional" in a sense and transmits to real nice triggers.

Now this is JMHO!

Lots of guys really love XDs (Rob Leatham's comes to mind, he's pretty good:)) and as with everything else, different strokes for different folks!

[DMark]

CK1,

Very thoughtful comments and well written.

Thanks!

[Guest m&pc9]

If you consider them better than an xd you are smoking crack my friend LOL

I guess I need a hit also.

[Guest Ae-35]

I guess I need a hit also.

Call Ophra she's got plenty of "crack".

[Guest m&pc9]

Call Ophra she's got plenty of "crack".

Are you dug out of the snow yet?

[Guest Ae-35]

Yeah, only got a couple of in. left , more to night!! WOO HOO!!

[kwe45919]

ROFL.... I copied and pasted his text... never caught it as you can tell.... Ill see if he has any mags that goes with the gun too LOL

I was just seeing who'd give me greif for pointing that out......

If you consider them better than an xd you are smoking crack my friend LOL

It's an opinion jacka$$. No need to be rude.

I perfer Glocks over both S&W and XD's. Am I smoking crack like everone else?? I don't want to feel left out......

Edited February 5, 2010 by kwe45919

[Smith]

I know they are prone to break. See the thread on here about dude that dry fired his and it went to heck in a hand basket.

They're as prone to breakage as Glocks are to shoot you in the rear and XD's are to break roll pins.

That's a great deal and you should take it over the other pistols you were considering. If you do have an issue, S&W is one of the best to deal with. BTW - I've had 3 Glocks, 3 XD's, and 1 M&P and I liked them all, but I would have to go with the M&P over the others. The major benefits for me over Glocks are the ergo's and looks. Biggest benefit over the XD is the lower bore axis and size. There are other pro's but these were my main factors for choosing the M&P. The only thing Glock has on the others (IMO) is mag prices and shorter grip.

[Alpha7]

I was just seeing who'd give me greif for pointing that out......

It's an opinion jacka$$. No need to be rude.

I perfer Glocks over both S&W and XD's. Am I smoking crack like everone else?? I don't want to feel left out......

I wasnt being rude, and I dont take to kindly to name calling. You have been warned. I dont mean to sound like an ass but I wont tell ya again. I have been called names and made fun of my whole life due to me having adhd and a hearing impairment so I take name calling to be an insult and I never let anyone insult me. Read my quote on my posts. Do I have a chip on my shoulder from name calling? Perhaps you could say that yes.

Edited February 5, 2010 by Alpha7