While inventorying and cleaning my gun safe. I started to admire the FDE carbine with original Magpull accessories. I like the rifle, but right after I got it, S&W started bringing out the middy version and discontinued this one. I felt a little disappointment, thinking if I had waited a month or so I’d have the newest version. I paid $990 for it before tax, in today’s market it would be about $3-400 less (new). The only accessory I bought for was a Trijicon MRO, which makes the rifle shoot one hole groups at 25 yard with me at the trigger. I really like the set up, I had a ground hog problem this summer. It gave me one shot kills eight times in a row. Yeah, I have about $1500+ in the M&P, and maybe I’ll get $800 for the set up if I decided to part with it. Sometimes you get good deals to make up for the blunders. It all works out in the end. I’m wondering if anyone here has this version and what you’ll think of it.
I bought one in 2008. Mine ended up becoming upgraded to the A5 buffer system, Geissele trigger, and a new upper with an 18" Sionics barrel. It’s honestly my favorite rifle. The original upper had its front sight chopped and a 13" free float rail installed. The original parts and upper went on to become a beginner rifle for someone on a budget. While I wish I had know well enough to buy a Colt back then, I’m very happy with how it turned out, and all the others I had privilege to help along the way. That original upper was accurate, though, and would shoot the heavies pretty well.
Is the S&W less quality than a Colt?
I wouldn’t necessarily say better quality, but I would say better built. Colt has been building ARs for decades and they use the correct material, processes and quality control. Smith and Wesson had a pretty steep learning curve.
I think it’s safe to say a Colt AR will always retain a better re-sale than a S&W AR (or Ruger, or Remington, etc.)
If you don’t sell it, then you won’t lose money on it; if you like it keep it.
Andy
P.S. I overpaid to build a “cheap” M4 clone a couple of years ago compared to the current price of a new Colt 6920.
Trying to search why the Colt is better on here. I might be missing a thread with the meat, but all I’m reading is, it’s better because it’s better. I like Colt I have a O1918, a Trooper MkIII revolver and a King Cobra. So, is the 6920 made from better aluminum and steel, tighter tolerances, or stronger small parts?
Has been discussed ad nauseum.
Long story short, Colt is a better package in terms of quality control, gas system, and quality of parts.
It has a better barrel, a known quality bolt, FCG from Mil-spec parts, etc. When I rebuilt the S&W upper I had originally, I added a gas port insert to make it more like the Colt.
I’m currently helping a buddy get his S&W upper to function correctly with issues I would NOT expect to see from Colt.
In the words, Colt has the reliability complexities sorted out.
There are a lot of professionals here on this forum and there is a lot of information. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get much of a response about why Colt is better than other brands. That question has been answered over and over and it seems most people here are tired of repeating it. Its like going to the SnipersHide and asking “which scope for your 700”. Take a couple weeks to search and read through old threads and you will start to understand the value in a standard like the 6920.
I have to throw in my 2 cents…
Think of Colts as being built to a specific standard, some companies go beyond that standard to meet certain requirements, other companies go below that standard to meet a certain price point.
Do some reading here on the forum to determine where your brand of choice falls in that spectrum…
I hope I didn’t ruffle feathers, I just intended to mention the performance of my rifle even if I overpaid for it. When it was mentioned, that 6920 would have been the first choice over the M&P; it got my envy curious. Maybe enough to put a 6920 on my short list.
I think you got a decent deal at the time. Remember is market for ARs in 2017 is much different than 2011. My advice is as long as the rifle runs well and is accurate, I would keep it.
Since you are talking about the performance of the rifle, how many rounds do you have through it? Any malfunctions or less than perfect function along the way?
I use it for the marksmanship team at my Air Guard range for practice. I’m not sure how rounds I’ve ran thru it, but it’s never stumbled. I’ve only handled this one AR, never fired any outside of military issued M4s, A1s, A2s and the SAW, if that counts. I was prior Army before joining the Air Guard.
The A1 jammed a lot after about 100 rounds, it was in poor shape. One of the A2s had a loose barrel just enough to give me two different groups and the SAW was great.
I got an m&p tactical ar15.
It was the free floated version with 5r rifling.
It literally had a defective Barrel, there were burrs in the rifling. I sent it back for warranty repair since I bought it brand new. The warranty work took about 3-4 months and then their gun smith said that the barrel was fine and they sent me the gun back with the same Barrel that had burrs in it. I called them after I got the gun back and asked them why they did not fix the barrel, they said that their professional gunsmith looked at it and that it was fine. BULL ****ING SHIT! Either the gunsmith is mentally handicapped, blind, or they never even looked at the rifle.
Either way I got completely screwed over. They said I could send the rifle back again if I wanted, yeah right like I’m going to wait four more months for the gunsmith just to send back the same gun with the same defective Barrel again.
I got rid of the gun telling the new owner he needs to the replace the barrel and why. After that customer service experience I will never give Smith & Wesson another Penny of my money.
I hate S&W after that experience.
That’d be a bitter experience for sure. A 3-4 month turn around for warrenty work isn’t a good sign either. Did it shoot flyers?
All of which are failures of the military maintenance system and not the weapon itself.
The A1 was the first real gun I ever fired, I didn’t think to see what brand it was. The A2 was brand new, at least that’s what I was told when the armorer handed it to me. I never checked the brand on that one either.
It sounds like your rifle is working fine and you’re pretty happy with its’ performance.
Stop worrying about whether you have the best version or best setup or gas system or whatever and go shoot the gun.
Sure, S&W isn’t top-tier, but it’s not complete junk either (well, usually…).
If you just can’t rid yourself of rifle envy, the good news is now’s the time to buy rifles!
Keep your M&P as either a dedicated training rifle (if you have a lot of rounds on it) or as a panic-sell item (if you’ve got few rounds on it), and go out and buy the rifle you want now, while prices are down and Black Friday is right around the corner…