Shooting the Smith and Wesson M&P

In the late 1800s, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson formed a partnership that began a legacy of one of the most widely known firearms companies in the world. Just in case you haven’t had your coffee yet and missed the last names of the company’s founders, I am talking about Smith and Wesson!

My first encounter with any S&W firearms were during my youth shooting a Model 65 and Model 686 which were my dad’s duty pistols. These pistols where accurate and reliable, which being a duty pistol, one would hope to be the case! In fact, S&W revolvers have a reputation as being some of the best on the market.

When I was 18. My dad gave me my very own S&W Sigma for a home defense pistol. This was a first generation model with a stainless slide and grey receiver. I thought it was the coolest gun ever!

This was around the time when Glocks began mainstreaming into law enforcement. Side-by-side, the guns were almost identical, that is until it was range time! The first time I shot it I could not hit the broad side of a barn. Thinking that it must be me, I had several other experienced shooter fire the pistol and they did not fare much better. This was probably in part due to the extremely heavy and rough trigger pull on this model, which the Sigma line was infamous for. Needless to say, I traded it for a Glock and put a bad taste in my mouth for S&W semi-autos.

In 2003 I began working as an alcohol enforcement agent for the State of Texas. My duty issue pistol was a S&W Model 4043 (a 3^rd generation S&W pistol).  While it looked cool, the 8-10 pound trigger pull was very long.  Our firearms instructor referred to them as nothing more than a “high-capacity revolver” as their design was very simplistic. While better than the Sigma, the pistol did not impress me, and I was still not a S&W semi-auto fan.

Shortly after I left the agency, I heard they were issued new S&W Model 99s, which were not carried very long. Never heard the exact problems they were having, other than “quality control issues”. This should have been “strike three” for me, but I knew Smith and Wesson had to have a good semi-auto out there somewhere! Then Along came the M&P line!

 

 

Pictured here is an M&P 40

 

One thing I have learned with new models (be it guns, vehicles, or electronics), always wait for the second version to come out as it always seems that the first generations always have something wrong with them!

Around the fall of 2012, I began to see an increase officers and departments switching over to the new S&W M&P line of pistols. Still a bit hesitant to go out and buy one (despite all the good reviews), I had the opportunity to shoot a couple of them (one in .357 sig and the other in 9mm) and fell in love with the gun!

My thoughts when I was done shooting? “Smith and Wesson hit the jackpot with this one!”

 

Lucky for me, I happened to be walking through a large retail store when I saw a clearance tag on a brand new S&W M&P 357sig for a price I couldn’t turn down!  I was actually looking at getting a 9mm, but let’s face it, money talks!

As of the writing of this blog, I have probably fired nearly 800 rounds through this pistol without a single malfunction. The only thing I have swapped out on the gun is the barrel (converted it to a 40 S&W after ammo became scarce!)

My wife even borrowed the pistol to qualify for her concealed handgun license course. She liked the gun so much, she wants one now!

Moving on….

First, let’s talk about ergonomics:  With the beavertail grip, different sized replaceable palm swells, and aggressive slide serrations, the gun feels great in your hand!

Trigger: The trigger on the gun is smooth and is around 6.5 pounds. Unlike the Glock, it is hard to feel the trigger reset, so it is a bit more difficult to “stage” the trigger, but I have found that there is minimal slack to begin with.

Sights: My pistol came with factory night sights. These low profile ramped sight are windage adjustable, but were dead on right out of the box.

Recoil: Recoil on this pistol for both the 40 S&W and .357sig is very manageable, and is comparable with the Glock. One thing I did notice was that when shooting with .357sig rounds, the gun had a less perceived recoil than with firing 40 S&W rounds, which is odd, since the velocity on the 357 is higher. Of course, this could have something to do with the 40 S&W bullet being a bit larger in diameter as well.

Final Verdict:

Smith and Wesson finally struck pay dirt with their M&P line of pistols. They are accurate, and dependable, so much so, that the pistol that I carry on my hip today while on patrol is my S&W M&P 357!