Curious if anyone here has experienced this same malfunction with their M&P9…
I purchased this pistol new about a month ago, and I have fired 1350 rounds thru it thus far without any other issues at all.
While doing some reload drills using my issued duty ammo: Winchester Ranger
124gr +p SXT & 147gr Bonded JHP, along with Cor-Bon 115gr +p DPX, I have been getting fairly consistent failure to feed malfunctions during reloads.
What specifically happens is that when I insert a magazine with enough force to cause the slide to release forward, the nose of the first round gets jammed up against the bottom of the feedramp causing it not to chamber. I can replicate this 7-8 times out of 10 attempts.
My M&P9 is a “REV. N” serial #MPP4xxx.
I have also been able to replicate this same identical malfunction with my partners M&P9. (will update later with serial # info).
I have NOT been able to induce this malfunction when shooting ball ammo of any make/manufacturer, etc.
Im sure someone will say “Just dont slam the magazine in soo hard”. While that may temporarily treat the issue, I have found that during training when I am under “stress” I tend to slam the magazines in with more authority, consistently causing the slide to drop forward on its own. So while I cant say for certain what I WILL do under real stress with my reload, I can only assume that I will likely slam the magazine home with even more force.
Anyone else have this same malfunction with their M&P9? Has this been addressed by S&W in their newer/current production M&P9’s?
Just tried it on my new M&P9 Pro (I’ve never slammed a mag so hard it released the slide on a gun ever), if I’m deliberately trying I can slam the mag in with enough force to get the slide to close automatically, however mine seems to feed just fine with snap caps, ball ammo, and 124gr +P Gold Dots.
Well I wish I knew what to tell you on that…It almost sounds like the inertia from the mag slam is causing the top round to nose down as the slide is trying to ram it forward. I agree with the previous poster…try doing the same thing with one less round in the mag and see if this proclivity continues.
Nick, I seem to remember this was quite a common issue over on mp-pistol.com for awhile but I don’t remember seeing it come up lately. What colore are the magazine followers?
IIRC this was more common in the compact models than the fullsize…
Let me do a little searching and see what I can come up with.
If you slam home a mag during a reload, the M&Ps have been known to release the slide and chamber a round. It happens to all of my M&Ps. I recently started getting your type of malfunction, where the round would FTF, getting hung up on the feed ramp, and being trapped by the slide. It’s only happened on my full size 9, and after I passed the 4K mark. It’s happened in the past 3 range sessions. It may be a bad mag or two, since it doesn’t happen to all of the 10 mags I take to the range. I’ll inspect to see if it’s the feed lips on the mags, the feed ramp itself, or the recoil spring. FYI: I do fill the mags to 17 rounds.
I had a similar problem with my 9mm mags with the old black followers. I had two sets of mags, two with old and two with new followers, and the old ones would hang occasionally. Problem went away when I switched to grey followers.
Hope this is all that’s on with your gun…good luck
Mag levelers and springs are a good idea to check, and something I hadn’t thought about. I thought all of them were the gray ones. I have two different types of mags, one with a shinier coating that came with them, and some ones with a non reflective, and more durable coating that they later came out with. I’ll mark them and pay more attention to which ones induces the malfunction. I do that with AR mags, but not pistol mags.
I tried downloading my mags by 1 rounds, and had the same result, but not as frequently. About 4-5 out of every 10 attempts.
I doubt my mag springs need replacing as they all came new with my M&P9 which I have had for just over a month now and fired 1350rds thru so far. All of my mags have the gray followers.
I am aware that it is common for the slide to drop into battery when forcibly inserting mags into the M&P’s, as it has always happened consistently with my M&P45 fullsize.
There are two versions of the gray followers; one that looks like a ramp with its end up against the side of the magazine and one which says “9” on top. The “9” follower is the newer revision; if yours aren’t that version you might call S&W and see if they’ll send you some.
Dumb question - Me and a few fellows were doing some repetitions with 1 round in a mag (shoot at target) followed by a emergency reload with a mag with 2 rounds in the mag. Both of us had MP pistols, his a MP9 and mine a MP9C, and we both realized that during an emergency reload (fast as you can while under control and being scrutinized by Gut_Shot_John) that both of our MP pistols would drop the slide with a fast and firm insertion. This is not to say that we were “slamming” the mags into the pistols, but we were aggressively inserting them with some amount of speed and force as we were doing our best (low skill level limited) to facilitate an emergency mag change during a bad-guy encounter.
The dumb question - Is this slide lock designed as such that it is intended to release the slide upon a firm/fast insertion of the magazine, or is this a design flaw that is being recognized? I also own a very old Glock 17 and have never seen this happen, so it is something new to me. Also of note is that both of these MP pistols are recently new purchases, and I know mine has the grey follower in them, but I do not know if the ramp or the number 9 is in it. I will need to look for that.
I have two of the newer “9” marked followers, and two of the older gray follower mags. They all act the same for me in regards to this specific malfunction.
It’s fairly common at least with polymer semi-autos. Just about all semi-autos, if smacked properly, will release the slide thanks to the physics involved. Personally in all the mag changes I’ve done I have never made such a thing happen automatically. Some guys do it practically every time.
Ok…since we’ve established that you are using recent production mags with the proper followers and that this is happening even with downloaded magazines…
Uhhh…
Have you noticed anything odd about your ejector? It’s not making contact with the rounds when the mag is fully inserted, is it?
I have been working with S&W LE on this “issue” for a little while now. Let me first state that I do not believe there is ANY ISSUE with a gun that auto-forwards. Glock’s, Sig’s and Hk’s can all do it and I can get most of them to do it on command (as I can an M&P).
One of the reasons it is so easy to do on the M&P is the because of the grip change plug. Because of its flat, mag level position allows the shooter to smack it easily.
When I am doing mag changes, I rarely get my M&P to auto-forward. So I have to wonder (to a certain degree as every gun is slightly different) if it isn’t a shooter induced issue (aka too much force being used). I do understand that under stress, you will be doing everything with greater strength/force.
Now, onto your specific issue. In our testing, we were able to reduce the auto-forwarding and also came up with a modification that stopped it altogether and still kept the slide release easy to operate. This proto-type is in S&W’s hands as we speak for testing.
During our testing, we found that sometimes the round would NOT feed correctly during auto-forwarding. From what we could figure out, this was due to the angle in which the mag was inserted. So if you come straight in (level and even with the mag well), the gun would auto forward, but chamber a round. If you came at a more forward angle (thusly striking more of the rear of the grip), there was a much greater chance the round would not feed.
The theory for this is that the energy coming from the back of the gun is causing the bullet to nose dive and retreat into the mag as the slide is coming forward.
I am not sure what I have posted is of any use to you, but just thought you would like to know that other are looking at this “issue.” You are also welcome to send me your gun, and I will look it over and see if I can pinpoint the exact issue.