Well joy of joys, I was breaking my M&P down to clean it tonight and I pulled the trigger to disassemble…and damned if the thing didn’t snap the striker. :mad: Is this a common problem?
So I head over to Brownells.com…and they’re out of stock on them. :mad: :mad:
Anybody know where I can get a couple of friggin’ striker assemblies post haste? I’ve been planning to use this pistol at the Vickers low-light class on November 9th.
Good luck, midway is out and the other sites I checked said they have been on back order for 2 months from S&W.
M&Ps don’t seem to be as tolerant of dry firing as Glocks are. I always use the takedown lever and I always dry fire with snap caps to avoid such calamities.
Smith’s have a lifetime warranty. Call them up.
It says to call to see if it’s in stock. Might be worth a try.
http://www.mp-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=142
Tim,
I sent you a PM.
Robb
I have one if you need it. If Robb doesn’t have one PM me and let me know if you want me to get it to you.
Robb is hooking me up.
I appreciate the help!
I’ve heard Robb mention needing a new striker before, but I figured that was more of a function of the fact that he practices like a madman to keep in competition shape.
I’ve dry fired, but not very much…well, at least not in my opinion.
Shows how much my opinion is worth, I guess.
I’ve also got some gear on the way to let me use my Beretta 92s as backups to the M&P, so one way or another I won’t be standing on the line with just my you-know-what in my hands.
It never fails…right before I’m supposed to actually use my weapons for something serious they crap the bed on me. And people wonder why I pack a backup…
More common than I thought, apparently.
Time to order some snapcaps.
EDIT – Does anyone know for sure if what is mentioned in that 10-8 thread is true? Has S&W really beefed up the strikers on these things?
It’s a fairly common problem, but is only gaining momentum on the net more recently. I think the guns out there are finally starting to accrue some rounds. There’s supposedly a change between the older and newer strikers, but I don’t know if it’s the geometry or metallurgy. Anyone else?
A striker that can’t survive dryfire without aids is simply unacceptable, given the importance of dryfiring in skill maintenance.
In my incredibly uneducated non-professional opinion, it would have to be in the metallurgy or production technique. Mine snapped clean right at the narrowest area of the of the part, right before the area with the actual “firing pin”.
I guess the strikers were MIM parts.
I’ll see if I can get some pics up tonight so you guys can see what I’m seeing.
A striker that can’t survive dryfire without aids is simply unacceptable, given the importance of dryfiring in skill maintenance.
Hopefully Smith has remedied the problem.
At the armorer’s course they discussed which parts of the gun were MIM. According to what I wrote down, the striker wasn’t on the list. Of course, I was trying to keep up and may have missed it.
John_Wayne777,
Is this M&P an early example, or a fairly recent one?
Based on the feedback posted on mp-pistol.com individuals that had their strikers replaced by S&W haven’t seen any more problems.
It’s possible I’ve missed a post or two but by and large it does appear that S&W has remedied the problem.
The SN is MPJ7XXX. I don’t know if that is an “early” one or not.
I’m sure you are right. I don’t know squat about how these things are produced beyond what I saw on the Shooting USA program, and I mainly just remember the hydraulic ram they used to install the sights, which explains why you need dynamite to move the front sight.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but I think dryfire without aids is an unacceptable risk. First, even if the part is designed to withstand the abuse, it could always contain a flaw. Second, by putting in an aid, it greatly increases the safety of the dryfire practice. The gun must be unloaded in order to insert a snapcap. That’s a good thing IMO.
Absolutely. However, a part containg such an anomalous flaw will most likely fail with dry or live fire. Here, producing the flaw through failure early would be of benefit.
A part that requires an aid as a norm bears an inherent metallurgical or design issue/weakness that could simply be corrected. I think they should just fix it, as it sounds like they may have.
I know of several batches of pool guns used at training venues that have had no striker/FP failures, despite intensive dry fire over a period of years. It’s odd to me that such an issue with the M&P has even arisen, given the competition.
Perhaps they thought that since the striker doesn’t require release for field stripping like a competitors gun, the striker could be more minimally engineered. Perhaps I’m cynical. 
Second, by putting in an aid, it greatly increases the safety of the dryfire practice. The gun must be unloaded in order to insert a snapcap. That’s a good thing IMO.
I can see that.
The downside, of course, is the additional nuisance in keeping the snap caps flowing on a striker-fired non-resetting trigger like the M&P (and others).
Mine’s MPJ8XXX.
Regardless, it sounds like (based on M4arc’s comment) the later strikers are less prone to failure.
I’ll have to order a couple of spares.