Smith & Wesson M&P40 question

I looked back on a few of your post and I think I know what transition course you are talking about and I would hazard a guess during your training that they would have never told you to reload your pistol then bring it into your body and look down. I'm sure they would have told you to keep your eye on the threat and observe your surroundings instead. Reloading the pistol should be second nature and you should not have to look at the little indicator to be 100% sure it chambered a round, hence why I manually rack the slide so I can keep my eyes where they should be.

Anyways gentlemen, I did not start this thread to get in a pissing match over how to use the M&P pistol. Was a simple question on the mechanics of the firearm. I appreciate everyone's opinion but was solely after some facts about the firearm.
 
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I shoot a variety of pistols and compete with a number of them.

It is important to me that whatever gun I use is reliable and repeatable. The way I handle it (rack it) is dictated by the gun.

The OP might like my 1911s. After inserting a new mag the slide must be racked or released. I have never had a slide drop automatically with one.

I have a HK that is designed to drop the slide when a loaded mag is inserted. When it is slapped home or gently clicked into place, it drops the slide. Any shooting with that pistol has to be be based on the slide being released by the mag.

I shoot a M&P9, 40 and 45. The 40 will drop the slide 90% of the time when the mag is slapped in. The 9 and 45 are about 80%. With them I have to slap the mag enthusiastically to get the slide to release 95% of the time.

I like the feature, but I wish it was engineered like HK so it happens 100%, no matter what. The OP seems to be saying that since he does not trust it, he would rather release the slide himself. If the mag was modified, I suspect that the result would be that the slide might not lock back 100% when empty. That would be a real disaster.

If I was going to try to stop the automatic slid drop, I wold look at a very slight angle change on the slide notch.

The OP said he wants to drop the slide himself, so as to be sure it picked up a round. It seems to me that if a loaded mag is inserted, a round will be stripped by the slide, whether it drops automatically, or by racking or slide release tab.

As I said, I like the feature. I am not the fastest shooter on the range, so any time I can save is valuable. In this video you can see me do a reload with the M&P40 and taking advantage of the automatic slide drop. I got my last shot off just as time expired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnTxd90GLBg
 
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^^ don't try and help him any more. he has clearly reached the age where he knows it all, and he doesn't want to learn from our real world experience.
 
hoochie said:
^^ don't try and help him any more. he has clearly reached the age where he knows it all, and he doesn't want to learn from our real world experience.
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Not sure why you are getting so wound up. Some people in this thread have had some positive things to say and as much as I appreciate it it just wasn't what I had asked.
 
Ganderite thanks. You kinda hit two points why I rack the slide. If it is only going forward 90% of the time you have 10% you have to switch your muscle memory to racking manually. The second is that I have had it twice where the slide dropped automatcally and gun went click.
 
I want the same muscle memory every time I load. That way if a high stress situation comes up I will automatically revert back to my training and not be fumbling around with the gun.
 
freddyfour said:
Ganderite thanks. You kinda hit two points why I rack the slide. If it is only going forward 90% of the time you have 10% you have to switch your muscle memory to racking manually. The second is that I have had it twice where the slide dropped automatically and gun went click.
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Yes, it is that 10% that causes the grief. You and I have approached it differently. I would like to make it 100% automatic, and you want to make it 100% manual release, like a 1911. In high stress it is a b1tch when something as important as a reload does not go the way it was supposed to.
 
Ganderite said:
Yes, it is that 10% that causes the grief. You and I have approached it differently. I would like to make it 100% automatic, and you want to make it 100% manual release, like a 1911. In high stress it is a b1tch when something as important as a reload does not go the way it was supposed to.
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I would take 100% either way if I was 100% sure it worked. But my own personal experience leads me to the manual.
 
If you slam the mag in from/at the heel it will happen. I like when that happens.
Just avoid slamming your magazine...
Many pistols do this and for me it is a nice feature to have. If you are worried about not having a round in the chamber, use the chamber indicator your gun came with.
I don't see the issue here, nor I see how a gunsmith will fix this without damaging something else.
 
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