Costa signature series m&p

Don't have one, but would love to... 10-8 sights, great serrations, awesome texturing... Everything I really want out of a polymer wondergun. Except for the whole not being a Glock thing....

You'd need to convert to the church of Costa Ludas, his new company and the one behind this M&P.

Its a neat gun with well thought out features. Apparently they sold out of them in 1 minute when sales went live online.

One can get the vast majority of the functionality of that gun for much less. Costa himself will tell you that. Thus, if one likes the ideas behind that gun but can't swing the cost to replicate it a functionally similar gun may be within reach. The trigger work is probably the most useful addition. The sights and stippling are probably the next most useful.

Here is a video of Costa talking about the gun, the ideas behind the modifications:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYrSFRkue3Y

Another video about ATEi, the company that built the Costa series gun. Here Costa and Pineau talk about the type of mods ATEi does. There is some overlap in what is discussed in the the two videos but there is unique content in each.

I don't get the slide cutouts, but everything else makes sense. I'd buy one if the price were reasonable.

Really like the sights.

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10-8 sights are great. Been using them on all my Glocks for a while now.

I don't get the slide cutouts, but everything else makes sense. I'd buy one if the price were reasonable.

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The top serrations and the hook in the rear sight is for racking the slide against objects, with one hand. The serrations are meant to help grab whatever surface your racking against. Not sure if they REALLY increase effectiveness, but that's the idea.

Ew.

Doug at ATEi does a bunch of trigger work for the M&P here in Michigan. He makes his own sear, has another guy do all the stipple work. Have not seen him promote the slide cut outs, but it must be for weight reduction.(Dont see a ported barrel) Great guy to deal with, with many loyal customers!

I don't get the cutouts. The serrations are awesome AND useful, but those slots look inviting for debris to enter.

Inebriated said:

10-8 sights are great. Been using them on all my Glocks for a while now.



The top serrations and the hook in the rear sight is for racking the slide against objects, with one hand. The serrations are meant to help grab whatever surface your racking against. Not sure if they REALLY increase effectiveness, but that's the idea.

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The serrations I understand... they have a purpose and don't have an impact on function. Just not the giant holes in the slide. I watched the vid and I understand his theory. However it messes up the timing and may have an impact on magazine feeding... he had to put a stronger recoil spring in to compensate. IMO I'd leave the main mechanics of the pistol to S&W to figure out during the million rounds they fired during development.

Cutouts lighten the slide, which can be nice with lighter loads to result in faster cycling. For most people (myself included) that's not going to make much of a difference. The cutouts are standard on Beretta 92 and on the Springfield XDm Competition model. It also looks to be set up for ported barrels if you so desire.

Personally, I'd rather have forward slide serrations than the cutout. I'd also rather have an APEX trigger than the horrible hinge.

I don't get the cutouts. The serrations are awesome AND useful, but those slots look inviting for debris to enter.

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My thoughts too. I really like the serrations and texturing (if it feels like it looks) though.

wow6599 said:

My thoughts too. I really like the serrations and texturing (if it feels like it looks) though.

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I'd have preferred the serrations rather than the cuts. One handed reloads done super easy.

I'd buy the crap out of it.

I don't get the slide cutouts, but everything else makes sense.

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I take it that people saying they don't get the slide cut outs or that it will causes issues A) didn't watch the video where he talks about it and B) aren't familiar with the G34 either.

It changes the speed at which the slide tracks. It is something that most shooters likely won't even perceive let alone find advantageous. For some shooters it adds value. As to debris, he addresses that issue in the video. Costa uses his guns pretty hard. I'd wager much harder than most of the folks questioning it. If you've put less than say 5K rounds through your carry gun you aren't even getting up to a respectable fraction of the number of rounds Costa and guys like that run through a gun in a year. In other words, shoot more, theorize less. I can see people saying the slide cutout are not something they would want. For one thing most people can't take advantage of what they provide so why bother paying for them or having to tune the recoil spring to compensate?

I'd have preferred the serrations rather than the cuts. One handed reloads done super easy.

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There are still forward cocking serrations even with slide cut outs. If you'd rather have full ones on a complete slide a gun can be set up that way easily enough. This gun is nothing more than how Chris personally likes his gun set up.

I'd buy the crap out of it.

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You can get ATEi to build you one like that. The only thing it wont have is Costa's logo, but surely you could live without that.

As noted, he sold every unit they produced in absurdly short time. Thus, if you weren't in on that buy you likely need to have your own version built anyhow.

I'm actually thinking about sending a gun (not an M&P) to ATEi for some some of the work they do that I do find useful.

I'm actually thinking about sending a gun (not an M&P) to ATEi for some some of the work they do that I do find useful.

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Please, if you do that, post a review or something.

I'm waiting for this insanity to die down so I can buy another 19 or a 32 (or maybe even an M&P)to send to ATEi and Diversified Concepts for some work.

I do find the M&P serrations to be better than those on a Glock.

Girodin said:

I take it that people saying they don't get the slide cut outs or that it will causes issues A) didn't watch the video where he talks about it and B) aren't familiar with the G34 either.

It changes the speed at which the slide tracks. It is something that most shooters likely won't even perceive let alone find advantageous. For some shooters it adds value. As to debris, he addresses that issue in the video. Costa uses his guns pretty hard. I'd wager much harder than most of the folks questioning it. If you've put less than say 5K rounds through your carry gun you aren't even getting up to a respectable fraction of the number of rounds Costa and guys like that run through a gun in a year. In other words, shoot more, theorize less. I can see people saying the slide cutout are not something they would want. For one thing most people can't take advantage of what they provide so why bother paying for them or having to tune the recoil spring to compensate?



There are still forward cocking serrations even with slide cut outs. If you'd rather have full ones on a complete slide a gun can be set up that way easily enough. This gun is nothing more than how Chris personally likes his gun set up.



You can get ATEi to build you one like that. The only thing it wont have is Costa's logo, but surely you could live without that.

As noted, he sold every unit they produced in absurdly short time. Thus, if you weren't in on that buy you likely need to have your own version built anyhow.

I'm actually thinking about sending a gun (not an M&P) to ATEi for some some of the work they do that I do find useful.

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Yea... No. Still, really not a fan of big holes in my slide, for tracking or otherwise. Costa knows his stuff, so he can have em. He shoots more than I do, so I get that he has his reasons.

I don't need his name on my gun, but I do like the serrations. I may, like you, look into having some work done. Very cool that I can get treatment to the Shield.

Edit to Add: Whoa! $1500 for that thing!?!?

Girodin, I think that unless you are on the level that these guys are at, you probably don't need the slide cuts. I don't know if there would be too much disadvantage (although I've heard of feeding problems using SD ammo on the XDm competition slides), but the advantage would not be worth the cost. I know I'm not on their level, so I have no desire to have them. The gun isn't the limiting factor when I'm at the range.

The one thing I can think of is if you wanted to shoot lighter loads with a lighter spring and slide, this would let you do that.

Please, if you do that, post a review or something.

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I need to contact them and see if they will work on the make of gun I'd like to have worked on. At a minimum I'd like it stippled. There are a few other good places to get the work done too (bowie tactical for example). I have a lot of confidence the work will be top notch at any of those places. Otherwise I may eventually have a G34 done, but that will be down the road as I have some SBR and suppressors on the short list. My primary carry I'd like to get some stuff done though.

Edit to Add: Whoa! $1500 for that thing!?!?

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That was somewhat my initial reaction as well but then you start to add it up and it makes a little more sense. Having good machining and refinishing work done is never a cheap job.

That gun has a lot of work done on it adding to the price of the base gun. All the machining on the slide (top serrations, cutouts, front side serrations), refinish of the slide, refinished barrel, custom trigger work, magwell work, laser engraved logos, undercut trigger guard, recoil spring to match the slide work, mag release, and the stippling job. That's off the top of my head so I may be missing something too. If you start pricing out all that work/parts separately it will start to add up pretty quick. I haven't gotten quotes on the exact work done so I'm not sure what exactly it would come to. However, I know what the ball park is. The package may even be less than pricing it out individually. You'd have to get quotes. Add to that the "value" of it being a limited edition signature series gun. If anything they charged far to little for them, given how very quickly they sold out. They probably should have charged another $1k for them, seriously. I'm not one to buy something just because it is so and so's signature series but there are a lot of folks who will, particularly if it is an otherwise very practical well thought out gun.

Now if you aren't looking to spend $1500 you could build a poor mans version of this for a lot less. Particularly if you do your own stippling job. Just go for the main functional things. Stipple it and perhaps under cut the trigger guard. Add sights. Drop in an Apex trigger. It is a different trigger than what is on the Costa gun, but it is a huge improvement over stock and some may even prefer it. Put some grip tape on the top and perhaps the sides of the slide. That will give you the vast majority of the functional improvements at a fraction of the price. It won't look as fancy nor give you as many cool guy points though.

Very cool that I can get treatment to the Shield.

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Some work like that on a shield would be a nice functional enhancement and as an added bonus would look cool and make it more unique in the sea of bland poly striker fired guns.