Loading ...
Summary
Unfortunately there was high expectations for this pistol, and it left a lot to be desired. While the weapon shot straight and on target, the operator is left feeling like he had to fight the pistol to keep it lined up. Smith & Wesson makes great revolvers—really second to none. With the M&P, it’s the opinion of ATF that they go back to the drawing board and improve on some of the design limitations. A fair weapon, but so many others in its price-point and class seem to be a better choice.
Pistol Details
The test weapon is the Smith & Wesson M&P in .40 S&W with a 4.25″ barrel. It carries a whopping 15 rounds in the magazine plus the one in the chamber. That amount of on-board ammunition rivals many 9mm pistols! This is a polymer/steel, striker fired, double-action pistol with controls that feel like the Glock and Springfield XD. In fact, many of these controls are in the same place, so if you shoot those platforms, it is easy to move to the M&P.
A nice feature of the M&P is the interchangeable backstrap. The test model was fitted with the large grips, which could account for the feeling of fighting the pistol after the shot. The grips come in small. medium, and large and are not very difficult to change. The checkering is sufficiently deep to channel sweat away from the palm of the hand. If you’re shooting this in hot and humid weather, this will be an added benefit.
Weighing in at 24¼ oz empty, the gun can be carried all day without feeling like a brick is attached to your hip. It is also a fairly large weapon due to the high capacity, double stacked magazine. We mention this because it may be difficult to conceal—if you are licensed to do so—should you be a small framed person, or are trying to carry in the heat of the Texas summer.
Shootability
Given some of my reservations about this weapon, it did shoot surprisingly well. The rounds struck at the point of aim with great regularity. At 25 yards, a 3″ group was the norm using target grade 180 grain FMJ Winchester White Box ammunition. The recoil was directed straight back, but muzzle flip seemed a little excessive. There could be a few reasons for this phenomena. Large grips, longer slide, and the polymer frame means there is plenty of leverage acting on an open-wide grip with little weight at the end of the weapon to soak up the kinetic energy. We also can’t discount the caliber. The .40S&W cartridge can be sharp on recoil, so it is difficult to completely blame the weapon for recoil management, but Smith and Wesson should account for that in the engineering of this pistol. A small to medium framed individual, or one who rarely gets themselves to the range, is not going to find this firearm very fun to shoot.
Looking down the top of the weapon was a distracting. 
The three-dot sight system used gigantic dots. While the operator is supposed to focus on the front sight and press the trigger, the size of the two dots on the rear caused the eye to change focus several times when doing slow fire drills. Even in rapid fire exercises, it was a struggle to keep a good cadence on trigger pull and front sight focus. Given that the weapon carries a hefty MSRP price tag of $710, one would expect that the sights would be worth more than the $2 S&W has invested in them. The expectation would be night sights with Trijicon inserts. Barring the owner buying and installing new sights, one suggestion would be to take a black Sharpie and darken the rear posts a little. This technique has been used on some of the ATF personal firearms with good results. S&W isn’t alone in shaving costs of their firearms by bolting lousy sights to their frames—Glock does the same thing—but we expected the diameter of the dot to be smaller. Cheap sights are one thing, but lets keep them at least viewable!
And what about that trigger? This too left a lot to be desired. The initial take-up was very long and heavy. It required a great deal of concentration to press through the arc smoothly, which happened to be difficult due to the fact that your mind is already trying to process those enormous dots known as “sights.” After fighting through the initial take-up and break, the trigger reset had an odd, mushy feeling. On initial dry firing, I thought it was pretty slick and may have been the great equalizer of that trigger system. This was not to be.
The trigger reset felt like you would roll over the top of a ball, which was nice in the beginning. The trigger would then give you a positive “click” and while you register that sound/feeling as the trigger being ready to fire the next round, you start to bring the trigger finger back only to find you’ve been fooled by the pistol. In fact, there were two clicks you need to pass through to fire the weapon. This trigger-induced-misfire happened several times over the course of the range time. If this is your first pistol, you will probably train yourself to recognize the point where the trigger is ready to engage the seer. The problem is when you buy another gun, you may be taking extra time between shots, or bringing your finger completely off the trigger and fouling the follow-ups. Either extreme is bad and certainly shouldn’t be the case with a $700 pistol.
After sending about 600 rounds of hot lead down range, it was time for clean up. While the Glock, Springfield XD, and M&P are all similar in fire controls, the mechanics of field stripping are a little different. By comparison, the Glock and Springfield XD have small take-down levers that once engaged, allow the operator to remove the slide from the receiver. No tools required. No gyrations to go through. No extra set of hands required. Taking apart the M&P requires the user to reach down in side the magazine well through the ejection port and lift a small lever to allow slide removal. What?
Even with my medium sized digits, it was like stuffing 5 pounds of ground pork into a 1 pound sausage case. The little yellow lever seemed to mock you as you reached in to try and hook it with your finger. Once it was finally disengaging the slide, disassembly was very easy. Lest we leave the impression that the M&P is all bad, I was pleasently surprised that depressing the trigger is not required to disengage the slide. The first time I took apart the XD, it struck me as odd that you must pull the trigger to disassemble. Seemed like it broke a lot of traditional gun safety rules.
Nearly every time I strip down a striker fired gun, I am usually amazed at how closely they ressemble each other from manufacturer to manufacturer; then I marvel that there are not as many patent infringement law suits among the big firearms builders. Firing pin blocking safety? Check. Locking breech barrel? Check. Standard “L” shaped trigger bar? Check. The list goes on and on. While cleaning, I inspected the locking block, trigger springs, and ejector for early signs of wear. Not surprisingly, there was none. The finish on the outside of the weapon took the abuse with aplomb. I also attempted to diagnose and alter that mushy trigger but never seemed to find the correct combination of adjustments. Apparently this is just the way it’s going to be for this Smith.
Suggested Improvements
Clearly, the staff here has some significant issues with the M&P. The fact that it is an accurate weapon doesn’t seem to help its case. Of all the things S&W could do to improve this weapon, the trigger is the most important. When you’re shooting a rapid fire series, a smooth trigger press and a quick reset are going to keep the sights on target. The fact that a faux reset is inserted in the middle of the stroke is more than a nuscance, it’s downright frustrating! Frankly, due to the expectations set by the MSRP, I expect the kind of trigger you would find on a Sig Sauer. Unfortunately, the M&P Pistol Action Package from the S&W Performance Center Gunsmithing Services will run you another $130. Of course, it’s factory tuned and warrantied. If you would rather live with the trigger as is, replace the sights. Seriously. In the second picture in this article, there has been no PhotoShopping of the rear sights. They really are that big, and they really are that distracting.
In the opinion of this writer, pass up the M&P and go for the Glock or the XD (or whatever else fits you the best). Pound for pound, you’ll own a better weapon, be a happier shooter, and even have a little money left over for bullets.