Smith & Wesson's M&P 9 Part 1

As fall winds into winter in New England, grounds keeping equipment has been changed over to snow removal or prepped for winter storage and emergency equipment has been inspected and serviced. Personal firearms have been cleaned, inspected and test fired and ammunition stores have been replenished. Emergency supplies and equipment tend to represent survival in a rural setting. Waiting half and hour isn’t bad if it the wait ends at a good table in a nice restaurant. Waiting half an hour for a deputy sheriff to arrive when someone is kicking in your back door can seem like an eternity. So we arm ourselves for the latter remote eventuality and, like the tools, equipment and supplies we own, they keep us safe, allow us to remain independent and give us peace of mind.

The full size Smith & Wesson M&P was introduced in 2005. During its production run, the full size has been available in 9mm Luger, 357 SIG, 40 S&W, and 45 Auto. All except the 357 SIG are currently standard catalog. The subject pistol, SKU 150922, is a Smith & Wesson M&P®9 – Threaded Barrel Kit, supplied with both a plain and threaded barrel. It can be configured to permit suppressed and unsuppressed operation.

Overview and spec box…

S&W M&P 9 Threaded Barrel Kit SKU: 150922
Manufacturer	Smith and Wesson
Point of Origin	Springfield, MA
Type	Striker
Caliber	9mm Luger
Magazine Capacity	17
Barrel – 2 Supplied*	4.25″
Rifling**	1:10″
Overall Length	7.63″
Overall Height	5.50″
Overall Width	1.20″
Weight	24.0 Oz.
Sight Radius	6.50″
Trigger Pull – Actual	9 Lbs. 6 Oz.
Rear Sight	Low profile – Two Dot
Front Sight	White Dot – Dovetail Mount
Barrel Material	Stainless Steel
Slide Material	Stainless Steel – Blackened
Slide Finish	Black Melonite
Frame Material	Zytel Polymer
Grips	Three Backstrap Contours
Manual Safety	None
Magazine Disconnect	No
MSRP	$669
*Two barrels included, one threaded 1/2” – 28 – 2A for suppressor **Verified rate in June 2015 production

Intended to meet the needs of Military and Police applications, this M&P is a simple, high capacity, striker action pistol with Zytel frame and stainless steel structural components, inclusive of slide and barrel. There is no manually actuated safety, there is no magazine disconnector so the pistol can be fired with magazine removed and all controls are ambidextrous. A comparable unthreaded barrel version of the subject pistol is SKU: 209301, which has an MSRP that is approximately $100 less.

S&W lists the trigger pull as 6.5 lbs. however, I was unable to get a reading less than 9.5 Lbs with a digital trigger pull gauge. Total trigger stroke is 0.300″ with approximately 0.140″ forward movement required for trigger reset. The S&W has a grip angle of 18º in comparison to the 1911 type 11º grip angle.

A note on the trigger, it is not double action, it is a striker. The motion of the slide partially cocks the striker, then the full pull on the trigger fully cocks and releases the striker. In the event of a misfire, the slide must be racked to empty the chamber and to chamber a new round as the pistol does not have second strike capabilities as is the case with a double action pistol.

The only tool needed for takedown is disguised as the heel of the pistol’s grip. A quarter turn twist and pull out produces a frame tool that releases the back strap panel and the same tool can be used to push the magazine deactivation lever into the magazine well. Disassembly is: mag out, check chamber, lock slide back, pull frame tool, push down mag deactivation lever, rotate takedown lever down, release slide and guide it forward and off the frame. The captive recoil spring and barrel lift out. Those steps in real time take about twenty seconds.

The M&P 9 is supplied with a captive 16 Lbs recoil spring. Aftermarket springs, in a wide range to facilitate tuning, are available for use with an open guide rod arrangement at a cost of approx $30, guide rod and spring.

The small port at the top rear of the ejection port permits the user to look in and see if a round is in the chamber. The rear sight is drift windage adjustable.

With the magazine removed, the grip heel AKA frame tool, get a quarter turn twist and is then pulled out. This releases the backstrap insert. Three contours are packaged with the pistol, along with two magazines. The backstraps make a big difference when fitting a pistol to a shooter’s hand.

Even more interesting with bullets…

The S&W, M&P 9, other than giving me ampersand fatigue, digested everything it was fed without a hiccup and it shot everything accurately. I thought 50′ groups, shot from a rest, were impressive and more than accurate enough for a defensive handgun or recreational target shooter.

The notion that a 9mm Luger round may not be sufficiently lethal is… silly. Skipping the FMJ that can blow through 32″ of ballistic gel and the 147 grain plodding subsonic round, the other three looked a bit like this.

Left to right, the 115 grain Hornady penetrated 13.5″, The Remington Ultimate Defense 20″ and the Hornady Critical Duty +P 19″. All of them held together. All of them expanded near or slightly over 0.600″. It would not cross my mind that there would not make a sufficient wound channel or penetrate sufficiently. The M&P 9 is also very controllable, taking only moderate practice to build proficiency.

My final thoughts. No, I mean my final thoughts on the issue…

The S&W M&P 9 is an all purpose 9mm that can fit many applications. It is well made, well finished and it is accurate. While this one is high capacity with 17 round mags, there are also version for states with 10 round restrictions and Massachusetts certification. It’s size and heft make it easy on the hand and nerves even after a long range session. If there is one wart that takes away from the pistol’s overall performance it is the trigger.

The mechanical design of virtually all strikers leave them with a trigger that feels a bit like dragging broken glass through day old bubble gum. The M&P is not that bad, but it is rough and I would be tempted to install an APEX forward set trigger kit as a refinement and maybe Tritium over fiber optic sight system.

In any event, we’re only halfway through the project with subsonic loads and silencer to follow.

Smith & Wesson’s M&P 9 Part 1
Smith & Wesson’s M&P 9 Part 2