The internet is an interesting thing. It can function as easily as a rumor control engine without peer as it can to disseminate good information.
FWIW, the improperly hardened magazine catches were supposed to have been going out in all M&P's toward the end of last year. "New" can mean just produced and shipped, or just purchased after having been received from a wholesaler where it sat for several months, or just purchased where it had sat on a dealer's shelf for a similar length of time.
S&W was still sending the new magazine catches out to LE armorers upon request back toward the end of last year. Even to regular commercial customers upon occasion, apparently as long as they felt comfortable replacing the part themselves. The thing is that armorers had to think to mention to the factory that they were having a problem, and not keep it to themselves. You'd be amazed how often things go unreported, though.
I briefly spoke to a fellow from one agency who said they didn't understand why their early production M&P's were sometimes dropping magazines during training. When I asked if they'd called an requested new magazine catches to replace the ones in their early release guns, explaining about the small run of improperly hardened inserts in some of the early catches, he said he had no idea what I was talking about ... and said his firearms unit hadn't ever mentioned even being aware of the issue involving the improperly hardened catches S&W had received from their vendor at one time. Maybe it's time to make a call.
Yes, a slight modification of the grip frame was done earlier, but that was supposed to have been (according to S&W) during the very early production period. The M&P was released in Jan '06, if I remember.
When I think of what our folks tell me when they bring me their guns, telling me what's wrong with them and what needs to be repaired, more often than not it turns out to be something the shooter did that caused the problem, instead of being an actual gun problem. That's why I prefer to have the opportunity to observe the user with the gun out on the firing line, rather than just find a gun on the bench with a note attached saying it needs to be repaired. I've caught more shooter-related "gun problems" out on the firing line, and corrected them, than gun problems over the years.
It's not much different in CCW classes, either.
I had a fellow who had a Walther PPK/s which was repeatedly dropping the magazine during the course of fire. I mean repeatedly.
I finally took the fellow off to the side and asked him to slowly shoot a string of fire while I carefully observed him from the
left side. His grip appeared good before he started shooting. Neither thumb was anywhere near the magazine catch button. (The magazine catch button had appeared to be in good working order, with proper spring tension, when I briefly checked it, too.)
As soon as he started shooting, however, I saw that his off-side (left) thumb shifted under recoil. The tip of that left thumb very adroitly found the magazine catch button and depressed it ... at which time the magazine promptly fell to the ground. After a couple of repetitions I'd seen enough.
I had him shift his left hand a bit, modifying how he held his left thumb, and repeat the course of fire without telling him why. Naturally, the magazine remained in the gun as he fired it empty. When I told him what he had been doing, completely unaware, he had a gentlemanly fit. :banghead: He said that all these years he'd thought the gun simply had a problem and he'd put up with it, and he was quite annoyed to find out that he'd been causing it the whole time.
He's not the first person I've seen do something like that, either.
Not everyone's hands may fit all pistols to the extent that fingers and thumbs don't 'get in the way' of various controls. Usually it's slide stop levers on different designs & pistol platforms. Magazine catch buttons have been involved in such things, though, too. Improperly fitting holsters (or holsters not used properly) can cause unexpected grief when they depress magazine catch buttons while the user is going about his/her normal activities.
My M&P 45 was produced sometime in April of this year according to the code. Granted, I've only had a few opportunities to shoot it since I received it, but in that time I've fired over 900 rounds of assorted ammunition through it, with all but a couple of boxes of it being an assortment of 3 different duty-type hollowpoint loads. I've run it fairly hard through the usual drills and courses-of-fire ... distances covering 2-50 yards, 2-handed/1-handed, 'weak-handed', moving, standing, kneeling, barricade (standing/kneeling; strong & off-side), etc.
I cleaned it when it was NIB before shooting it, then after a couple hundred rounds had been fired, and then just after passing the 900+ mark (I wasn't carrying it and was only using it for range training/familiarization, otherwise it would've been cleaned after each session before it was used for actual off-duty usage).
During that time it's demonstrated itself to be a surprisingly accurate pistol, and it's exhibited good, reliable functioning throughout. The initially heavy trigger (noticeably on the "+" side of the 2lb +/- range of the standard 7 1/2lb stock .45 trigger
) has smoothed out and felt 'lighter' as it was fired. I haven't had the time to check it with the digital gauge since it was NIB, though, so maybe becoming more familiar with it might be influencing my perception. The trigger is smooth and predictable in its 'break' and reset. Better than I'd expected, actually. All in all, I like it better than I expected.
It'll never rival the traditional double action of the 99-series ... (and I have a personal preference for a good TDA gun for general purpose, followed by a good 1911-style for special needs in the hands of an experienced user) ... but if I had to express a preference, I'd offer that it was easier to adapt to (for me, mind you) than my Glocks.
I've only spoken to folks from a few agencies who have either been testing M&P's or have already adopted them. Aside from that one fellow who said they were experiencing the mag catch/unintentional release issue in their early models, everyone else has expressed very good satisfaction with the guns.
Not bad for only having been released into the LE market for just over a couple of years. Last I heard S&W had reached the 347-mark when it came to the number of agencies who have already adopted the M&P. They've been quick to address not only the little issues which have surfaced (not uncommon in a new model), but have responded with some changes requested by some LE customers, as well.
I'd wish a special sight pusher wasn't required for the M&P (I already have a couple of pushers for other platforms), but overall I think S&W's design & engineering team has done an excellent job of coming up with something that will increase their presence in the pistol market once again. About time.
I heard a while back that they were in the process of revising the striker design to make it less susceptible to breakage from dry-fire w/o snap caps. I've heard of some competitive shooters using one striker assembly for dedicated dry-fire and another for actual shooting, to reduce the potential for breaking a striker. I don't engage in excessive dry-fire with striker-fired guns, anyway. I've always wondered if it might not be somewhat harder on strikers to repeatedly slam into the back of the breech face, compared to a tapered firing pin slipping into and through a hole in the breech face. Different impact forces between the different parts, so to speak. Never asked an engineer, though.
It's just a firearm, though, and just a handgun, at that.
No reason to get personalities involved when it comes to discussing one ...
I've seen examples of just about all of the major manufacturer's offerings act up or experience breakage of parts at one time or another. Glock is still revising, upgrading & refining parts in their well-established model line.
There's likely a good reason that the major manufacturers of pistols which see a lot of LE usage offer armorer training programs ... and stock spare parts, after all ...
