S&W M&P 9mm Threaded Kit Review

[9teeneleven]

Well, that whole one gun thing didn't last too long, especially since I was without a handgun host for my suppressor. I was browsing gunbroker for threaded 9mm stuff and came across the recently released M&P 9mm threaded kit for $499. The kit comes with a standard full sized M&P 9mm, two mags, and an extra threaded barrel. Pretty good deal for $499 so I jumped on it.

•The Threaded Barrel

The second barrel looks to be a threaded barrel from an M&P pro. It's 5" and sticks out a good way extra from the standard slide. The threads are in 1/2x28 and are well cut and are a good fit for the suppressor.

•Ergonomics

I'd held some compact M&Ps before and really liked the feel, so I was willing to take a chance on the full-sized model. I wasn't too disappointed. The feel of this gun is a clear upgrade from the glock 17. The backstrap design is also really well implemented except the tool removal required using the butt of the magazine the first few times, and even now, it's still a very tight fit. I've settled on the medium grip, but really like the small, too. The M&P doesn't quite feel as good as the P30, but still feels smooth with a nice grip. However, after shooting my HK USPc for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that the whole ergonomics trend is a bit overrated. That thing is a brick, but feels good and shoots just as well.

•Features

- I don't really like the sear disconnect method of taking down the gun. The first time I did it, I had the slide slam home on my finger. I don't want to have to wrestle that tool out of the grip every time I want to strip the gun.

- The slide serrations on this gun are the best I've felt on any handgun hands down. Great gripability.

-Stock sights are nice. I like the thinner front sight and I like that in this price range the sights aren't plastic. However, the white paint has started to come off the front sight after only 500 rounds. Weak.

- Mag release is nice and IMO better than the Glock. The ambi slide release is nice, but the traditional side release seems to work better than the left-handed side release.

-Trigger is gritty out of the box, but the grittiness is in the takeup so that's not a huge issue to me. The trigger break is a bit mushy, but no worse than most other factory triggers.

-Mags are ok. I prefer the plastic covered Glock mags, but the trade off is grip size. The M&P has a really thin grip considering it holds 17 rounds. The mags make the difference in this regard.

•Shooting unsuppressed

- Nice accurate gun; I shoot it pretty well. While the bore axis is higher than a Glock, it is still lower than most and gives a nice quick follow up.

- Recoil is comparable to other full sized 9mms even though the M&P is a little heavier than most.

- Ejection is consistent, but seems a little weak.

•Shooting Suppressed

Here is where I ran into problems. I am fairly certain that S&W just decided to thread an M&P pro barrel, stick it in the box and call it a threaded kit. The slide is fairly heavy and with the extra barrel length and weight, the gun does not like most subsonic loads, or most factory loads for that matter. The extra length outside of the slide puts the suppressor further from the gun, thus inhibiting cycling. I used a LCD booster on a Trident-9. On every other handgun I've run this setup on, I've had good success running lighter subsonic loads. On this gun, I used my usual powder (VV N320) and took it up beyond max loads and still couldn't get the gun to cycle. So, I tried WWB ammo; no luck. Speer Gold dot +P worked fine, but that defeats the purpose. I've been playing around with different subsonic loadings, and have gotten Unique to cycle the gun reliably when loading close to max. I don't love the idea of having to run hot loads all the time through my suppressor, though. More powder=more gas and dirt and more wear on the gun. I may experiment with some lighter recoil springs in the future to see if I can load down a bit. Also, as the gun breaks in, it may get better.

Overall, for the price, its a keeper, but not without some flaws.

Side note: I picked up an M&P BB gun for extra practice, and I've gotta say it might be the best $35 I've ever spent. The feel is very similar to the real gun, and it is really really accurate up to about 25 yards.