S&W M&P Slide Drop Debate

My issued M&P does that almost everytime (never noticed the agle thing tho).
My USP does it more consistently, I doubt that either is designed to do so, but there is nothing wrong with that... so there is no design to prevent it neither.
I can't see why someone would NOT buy a pistol because of this but to each is own.
 
mississaugagunnut said:
My Gen 4 17 releases the slide when a full magazine is inserted with force almost every time. I just did the IPSC match at the Brant club and it released on every magazine change. You just have to slam the magazine in with the heel of your palm.
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Why would you go to slide lock for every mag change while shooting an IPSC match? :confused: To me that's just poor stage planning.
 
I've got a couple of handguns which do this. My 1911 does it the most consistently with anything more than the most moderate of mag seatings.

It's all just a function of the angles of engagement of the slide lock to the notch in the slide and how polished and/or worn these angles have become with use.

Oh, the guy that did that video linked in the first post hasn't got a clue about how the slide lock works in connection with the magazine being loaded or not.
 
The M&P is designed for (Police & Military) and as such is designed to release the slide upon magazine insert. The philosophy being, if your using your gun to the point where upon you need to reload, its because you are putting something down and need to pump it with lead. Its to make it even simpler for operation, due to the levels of stress a police or military member would be under fire, they may be late to rack the slide, and that is precious seconds that could lead to death

The Glock is NOT designed to do this, however it does happen from time to time. For me it happens once every 50 reloads on my Gen4.
 
Sorry, I call BS on this.

I've seen a number of folks slam mags into their M&Ps when I've watched them at various matches. Some slide drop and some don't. It is NOT a built in feature. It just happens or not due to the variances in manufacturing and long term wear.

Or show me some official S&W literature where it says that it's "designed" to do this.
 
I just recieved my M&P range kit recently and was trying to reproduce those results today with no luck.

And just a side note, I have not put a round through it yet, so maybe this happens with the wear of parts.
 
BCRider said:
Sorry, I call BS on this...show me some official S&W literature where it says that it's "designed" to do this.
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x2

If it is designed why doesn't it work everytime?
And why didn't the two S&W M&P sanctionned instructors here at work did not mention that?
 
Hmm, interesting... I went to S&W's website and looked at the M&P pistol's manual. On page 16 in the red safety warning statements it says,

"WARNING. DO NOT USE EXCESSIVE UPWARD FORCE WHEN INSERTING A LOADED MAGAZINE INTO THE PISTOL. EXCESSIVE UPWARD FORCE COULD CAUSE THE SLIDE TO MOVE FORWARD, CHAMBERING A ROUND AND MAKING THE PISTOL READY TO FIRE."
 
I read this thread and I know I can get mine to do this sometimes at the range too and while I was cleaning the gun tonight I was able to get it to happen a few times with no mag at all, just smacking the bottom like I was putting one in. With an empty mag I couldnt get it to do it at all. I appears to me that putting force to the gun in a deadblow fashion like with just my hand or the weight of rounds in a mag is just enough for the slide lock spring to overcome the slide springs lateral force. It was almost like the empty mag was absorbing that energy. Though I could be over thinking this issue.

Also, I agree that this is in no way what they had intended the gun to do but its not exactly something thats terribly hindering to the performance of the gun either.
 
kills said:
.....With an empty mag I couldnt get it to do it at all. ......Though I could be over thinking this issue......
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You're not over thinking it. You're misthinking it just like the guy in that original YT vid.

Remember that the mag has a follower that pushes UP on the slide lock so that it causes the slide to lock back. With no bullet to lower the follower when you slam the empty mag home the follower slams into the slide lock's finger that sticks out into the mag well and holds the slide lock firmly in place. So with an empty mag there's simply no way to make the slide bounce forward. You could slam that empty mag in with the aid of a sledge hammer and the slide is still not going to release and go into battery.

But with a bullet to the mag or with an empty magwell and a good slap the inertia of the slide lock along with the slight downwards pressure from the slide lock's retraction spring will cause a lot of guns to let the slide jump forward..... Actually make that ANY typical semi auto handgun. It's just some may require the butt of the mag or magwell to be slammed forcefully onto a table or similar to generate the G loading required to snap the slide lock down.

The thing is it's not a planned feature or a failure. It just is what it is. If the slidelock finger and notch in the slide wear to the point where the slide won't reliably stay locked back when just handling the gun normally the rest of the time THEN it becomes a "failure".
 
enefgee said:
Actually you're right, that is misleading - obviously the mag only goes in at one angle. When you 'tap' (smash, hammer) the bottom of the mag to enusre that it's seated, if your hand moves upward and forward at a 45 degree angle, the slide will drop (on a full mag and a gun that's seen some rounds in my experience) and load the pistol.
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yep that was what i was trying to say :)

i do not think its a design feature but merely something that one can do due to inertia acting on the slide lock. come on, if you hit the butt of an ar-15 hard enough the bolt carrier will fly into battery.

its been a while since i used my m&p and i just tried this. i can get it all the time if you hit it just right and hard enough. and actually it kinda hurts the heel of my palm as the force i'm applying upwards/forwards on the mag is mostly concentrated on the rear edge of the magazine.

also i can close the slide by banging on the part where the take down tool is stored even without trying to insert a mag.

*ouch*
 
BCRider said:
show me some official S&W literature where it says that it's "designed" to do this.
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THIS!!!!

Show me something that calls this a feature, or any indication that S&W planned this! Their manual warns against it FFS.

If my gun did this on a consistent basis I would call it broken, as something is not right! Amazing some can make themselves feel better by calling it a feature.

Inconsistency is a clear indicator it isn't a feature, but a flaw!
 
Avalonthas said:
The M&P is designed for (Police & Military) and as such is designed to release the slide upon magazine insert.
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Ganderite said:
My HK4 does this, by design.
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I can't believe people still think this and spread it around as 'fact'.... No modern pistol is designed for the slide to go forward on it's own when a mag is inserted. It's cause by the force used to insert the mag into the gun, and sometimes the way the gun is held/mag inserted.

If you think it's designed to do it, try inserting the mag gently. Oh no... The slide didn't go forward... It must be broken right? But then try inserting the mag forcefully, and it's more likely to cause the slide to cycle. What kind of design would work so inconsistently???

And it's not a 100% effective way of getting a round chambered anyway. If you do it enough times, eventually, the slide won't pick up a round (more likely to happen with a partially filled mag than a full one).


The only methods of maximizing the chance of the slide stripping a round from the mag when it goes forward are pulling the slide to the rear using your preferred grip, or hitting the slide stop/release lever to drop the slide.
 
wicked_police said:
I can't believe people still think this and spread it around as 'fact'.... No modern pistol is designed for the slide to go forward on it's own when a mag is inserted. It's cause by the force used to insert the mag into the gun, and sometimes the way the gun is held/mag inserted.

If you think it's designed to do it, try inserting the mag gently. Oh no... The slide didn't go forward... It must be broken right? But then try inserting the mag forcefully, and it's more likely to cause the slide to cycle. What kind of design would work so inconsistently???

And it's not a 100% effective way of getting a round chambered anyway. If you do it enough times, eventually, the slide won't pick up a round (more likely to happen with a partially filled mag than a full one).


The only methods of maximizing the chance of the slide stripping a round from the mag when it goes forward are pulling the slide to the rear using your preferred grip, or hitting the slide stop/release lever to drop the slide.
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Wicked Copper the win!!! If the gun actually was meant to close the slide and chamber a round upon insertion of a full mag, it would also have to have some way to disable the firing pin until you engage it, like an automatic safety. Could you imagine what would arise holding a gun at a 45 degree angle and have the gun go full auto because of a mechanical failure?
 
My m&p pro does this 100% of the time and will not work with 1 rnd or no rnds in the mag, I need 2 or more rnds for this to work on my pistol and I'm not sure why, but I love the feature .... Or accidental feature or w/e I love it either way.
Also I'm pretty sure it cannot fire without the trigger safety depressed but I can possibly be wrong about that ??
 
The gun is not broken....Excessive force is probably #1 cause.
2nd is some pistols are manufactured with closer tolerances than others(The profile and closeness of fit of the slide stop)
This is common in autoloaders,My Tanfoglio goes really easy,every H&K I have owned does it with force,some single stack 1911's will do it if slide stop is "fine fitted".Even had a Glock do it a couple times. Heck even AR's do it
Stop overannalizeing this simple stuff to death
The M&P is a decent pistol,buy it and enjoy.
 
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