Exactly one year with the M&P

[SecondsCount]

I am reposting this with permission from ny32182 on thehighroad.org. When I asked him about accuracy he thought it shot about the same as the Glock but did not do a side by side comparison.

Original thread here (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=683453)

I have shot exactly one whole competitive season with the M&P Pro 9. I will share my experience for whatever it might be worth to those reading.

Basic Stats:
Round count: 17952
Other: Significant dryfire, 1 to 4 times a week depending on schedule

Aftermarket parts: SSS stainless non-captured guide rod, 13lb ISMI recoil spring, both installed at 765 rounds.

Maintenance: One of my goals was to find out how many rounds various parts of the gun could actually take before they need replacement for me with the way I use it. Overall it has proven to be a good durable pistol in my estimation, but there are some quirks with it.

-Magazine springs: These do suck in the M&P. I changed them 6 times in the three primary mags I use.

-Detail cleaning: I detail cleaned the slide and frame at various intervals beteen 5k and 9k rounds. It is important to note that my sear started having intermittent failure to reset issues at 13k rounds with no cleaning. Following the first cleaning, I made sure to take the sear out and clean under it any time I had the frame apart, and have not had a problem since. Still on the factory original sear spring.

-Other parts replacement: everything else that was replaced, I replaced due to physical failure of some type.

Parts worn out/Broken:

-Trigger return spring: Broke at 14.5k rounds. Replaced with new stock one.
-Trigger safety: lost tension completely at 16846, causing the trigger safety to be non-functional. This is not only a slight potential safety hazard, but makes the gun illegal for SSP and Production. Replaced with new trigger/bar assembly.
-Striker assembly: I started having intermittent light strikes with hard primers only (Federals always 100%) with all the original trigger parts at around 14k rounds. They got progressivley worse and I elected to replace the entire striker assembly at the same time as the trigger/bar. I figured the spring was getting weak, but upon close inspection of the old and new strikers, I could see that the actual tip of the old striker that impacts the primer was rounded off visibly compared to the new one. I believe that was a contributing factor as well.

I am reposting this with permission from a post made by ny32182 on thehighroad.org. He said that accuracy wise it shot as well as the Glock but he didn't

Lessons learned:

Based on this I will utilize the following maintenance schedule going forward:

-Detail clean at 10k rounds or less, Including under the sear.
-Replace trigger return spring at 10k rounds.
-Replace trigger/bar assy and striker assy at 15k rounds or when problems start to surface

Impressions:

I was shooting a Glock before. I think both are good solid designs, but I have to give the reliability edge to the Glock simply because of the sear in the M&P. The sear has to stay clean or it will start to malfunction. This is an issue that doesn't exist in the Glock.

Looking forward to more rounds downrange with the M&P, and also I plan to take a look at the 5" FNS when it becomes available.
Hope this helps someone.

[Timbonez]

Thanks for the very detailed write up, as well as another data point supporting the M&P's reliability and durability.

[Nephrology]

Interesting note about the reliability. Not that they are bad guns by any means but I am unfamiliar with the design relatively speaking so it is enlightening to hear its failure points. I'm also a dyed in the wool glock shooter but frequently recommend the M&P to new shooters and it seems like they are still a good bit. Probably most disappointing to hear about is the mag springs. I've had total crap 10 year old Glock mags still feed great.

[TNK]

Thank you for the good report.

[Jhp147]

I appreciate your posting the information on the performance. I have 4 M&PS, but not a Pro. Im a dept. armorer for a handful of the guns, and try to read all I can about them. Just going from memory, I think someone on the forums has said S&W replaced some springs for people early on because of a batch of crummy ones some vendor supplied, but six times seems like a lot unless the replacements all came from the same ratty batch. I think they told us to replace springs at 5K, but that should have been 30K instead closer to 18K. A weak spot to keep in mind. Striker doesn't surprise me, that is just plain worn out. I have seen other problems reported when the sear won't reset and cleaning fixes it, surprised it went that long. I have encountered a couple of bent trigger bars and suspect that the owners had something to do with this, they weren't just bent from a sudden burst of horizontal gravity. Still, the trigger and bars have always seemed a bit cheesy to me, and finish on the bars varies, making me wonder if the quality varies. Again, I think they said a 5K replacement on trigger springs sounds like a good cheap insurance.
Thanks again.