I have a MRE2000 serial M&P9. Never took the platform seriously, so sat unused for a long time. Started training with it one month ago. Broke the striker at 1400 rounds. Ordered a new striker from Midway, but in the meantime thought I’d be able to use the old striker assembly for dedicated dry fire. Broke the leg in 10 minutes.
How much mileage are you guys getting from the new M&P9 strikers? Normally, I’d have a duplicate backup gun, but I haven’t committed to the platform yet.
Vinhinator: are you dry firing with/without a snap cap or is that 1400 rds of live fire? Just curious.
FWIW Speed Shooter Specialties has the new “stainless” strikers in stock for $33 each.
Vihn, I had similar results with at least three different generations of factory S&W strikers. None held up to serious dry fire. S&W is very good at replacing them though. Simply call them up and they will have a new one out to you in 2-3 days max.
I have no firsthand experience yet using the newest revision strikers but hear they are much better than the older ones, but they can still break. It looks like “Apex Tactical” will be coming out with a striker in the not to distant future that will take care of the problem once and for all . IMHO, by adding some of the new Apex Tactical
parts to the M&P pistols you can transform them into pistols that can be taken seriously.
Definitely, call them, tell them the striker broke and you need a new striker. Make sure to ask for the whole assembly. The newest striker does not work with the old cups.
Oddly enough, both of mine have held up very well. I finally broke the striker on my #2 M&P last year, after somewhere over 150,000 dry snaps.
I still keep a couple spares around.
-C
S&W has made 3 generations of strikers. The Gen 1 strikers broke at hideously inappropriately low numbers of dryfires. The Gen 2 strikers did better, but still broke if you did too much dryfire sans snap cap. Most of my M&P’s have gen 2 strikers and they’ve held up for years over thousands of dryfires using snap caps.
The latest gen 3 strikers are made of stainless steel and are much more tolerant of dryfire without snap caps. They are all silver instead of black like the gen 1 and gen 2 strikers.
Call S&W and they will send you another striker.
subzero,
I was doing 5-10 minutes daily without snap caps for the past month. Quit using them last year since I kept tearing the rims off, but it looks like I’ll have to get a new set.
Are the 1st and 2nd generation strikers also stainless steel but finished with the same “black Melonite” finish as the slide?
They are finished black, but I don’t think they are made of the same steel as the “stainless” strikers currently being used on guns.
Any metallurgists or engineers take a look at this one? I’m wondering why Smith has had such an issue with striker breakage, which is uncommon in most other striker-fired guns, especially the Glock, to which the M&P is very similar in this regard. Is there some part of the striker’s geometry that lends itself to stress fracture formation? Is there a less cushioned or more forceful impact of the striker against the breech face? Is Smith just using inferior materials?
Never been much of a fan of the M&P, but I can’t figure out what’s behind this huge issue in an otherwise pretty sound (and very popular) design.
They were MIM parts based on the mold lines on them. Hopefully, someone will mill them (and charge us for the extra work) to make this pistol do what it was supposed to do…
Actually, I may be confusing the sears on this one. A buddy broke 2 of his sears but I don’t recall what they looked like except for observing the “cupping and coning” surrounded by the shiny compacted area which is indicative of a fatigue failure.
Sorry for any confusion.
How can I tell which “gen” my M&P is? The piece of the striker that protudes down through the slide is black so I assume 1 or 2. It is not that old – I’ve had it maybe 15 months – so would guess gen 2(?)
I would not count on that because it’s exactly what S&W has said about every generation of striker. Yet, they all have broken on me in short order.
I would seriously suggest people use snap-caps or pick another hand gun.
The Triple K snap caps I used to use were like that. I switched to A Zooms a while ago and I’ve found them to be much more durable.
Gen 2 is the most likely candidate. I’ll try to get some pics of the strikers up tonight since I now have gen 2 and gen 3 strikers.
To this point I haven’t seen evidence of anyone breaking a Gen 3 striker on an M&P.
The ugly truth here is that most guns will eventually break something with dryfire. I’ve broken several guns from different manufacturers with dryfire in the past. Snap caps are, in my view, cheap insurance for those who want to do regular dryfire practice no matter what handgun they are packing.
While the Gen 3 strikers look promising, I’ll wait until Apex gets a billet striker made. I’ve no doubt it’ll be a better part. I don’t believe that a high stress part like a striker is the right application for MIM… So far though, I’ve had no problems with either of mine (Gen 2), But I’ve been using snap caps for dry fire practice. I do believe that helps alot.
Here is a picture of the latest striker.
Hrmph,
I dry fire my guns without snap caps like a lunatic and i have yet to break a striker. Im literally at the point where im TRYING to break my M&P’s. My full size M&P has 30k rounds on it now and i can only imagine how many dry fires. I literally sit in front of the television for at least an hour dry firing every evening and have been for well over a year and a half with this thing.
Is there any chance the snap caps are causing issues? Yeah i know, probably not but who knows.
Please do, I’d like to see that.
I’m fairly certain that all of my M&Ps have the Gen 3 striker, nevertheless I use snap caps on a regular basis.