It still could be chamber dimensions. If they are on the tight side and you get a round that is a bit on the large side there might be problems. If S&W were trying to get more accuracy out of the gun, I could see this as a cause.
I thought about the extractor a bit more. If the extractor didn’t have enough tension I would think you’d have the new round trying to feed into the spent casing.
Jason, it’s not in anyone place like the striker issues; the posts are scattered all over the place which is another reason why I wanted to bring it here and discuss it. Guys like Sam and GotM4 have a ton of rounds through theirs so I figured they could weight in and we could get the full scoop.
That is exactly what happened.
That’s what ocurred.
Could be but it only has 900 rounds through it at this point.
The rim of the spent brass was intact?
We didn’t find it 
OK now I’m confused. I though the spent casing was in the chamber when the new round was fed in?
Well when we cleared it it fell onto the ground and there was about 10,000 other spent cases laying there as well. So, we weren’t able to identify which one was the culprit.
How did you clear it? Forcibly or did racking the slide do it?
Kind of a mixture of both. The slide had to be forcably pulled and locked back then the gun was held barrel up and shaken to free the empty case. It just so happened that when it fell we didn’t catch it.
So you didn’t try to drop the mag and rack the slide a couple of times to see if the extractor would remove it? But it did fall out with some shaking?
Really sounds like extractor tension to me, but I’m no 'smith.
Yes it did fall out with some shaking and did not require any prying or pushing.
Well I’ll get some more rounds through it and see if it happens again. This time I’ll pay particular attention to the rim and case.
M4arc, what you saw was me working the slide twice to clear it, came out on the first rack.
I was shooting it on some steel. I pulled the trigger, nothing, popped the wrist back, saw the malfunction(fail to extract, new one on it’s ass)
immediately locked the slide, pulled the mag, worked the slide to clear the case, inserted mag, racked it and shot.
As stated, didn’t take the time to look at the case or where it went.
Any updates on finding the root cause of this issue?
this might be related, or might not.
i was at the range yesterday and had some probs with my M&P which were ammunition related, and yet, not completely.
yes, i was shooting crap ammo - i’ve a couple of cases of old wolf with the red lacquer that i bought years ago that i’m burning through, so that’s what i took with me. i don’t shoot wolf out of my rifles anymore unless it’s an AK, but i haven’t had any probs with wolf 9mm out of my G19 and P226.
first magazine when through fine, then suddenly nothing. striker didn’t fire. i looked and noticed that the slide was VERY slightly out of battery. tried to rack it and couldn’t. set the gun down for a minute pointed downrange, as there was a live round in there. tried racking the slide by pressing the front against a pice of wood, still pointed downrange. wouldn’t budge.
got a screwdriver on my multitool - it’s got a very sharp point, and wedged it between the barrel hood and face of the slide, and slowly pried them apart. the extractor popped off the rim and i locked the slide back. i had to use the screwdriver to pry the round out. took a look at it, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. i fit checked several other rounds in the chamber and they were all tight at the front.
re-assembled the gun and tried it again. went through another mag and the same thing happened. fixed it and put the gun away.
when i got home, after cleaning the pistol, i checked some other rounds in the chamber. all the brass ammo fit in perfectly, no binding, and would drop out. all the wolf would be tight, and would not fall out, and had to be extracted with a fingernail. so, i figured, it’s just wolf.
but i haven’t had problems with wolf in my G19, P226 or browning HP, so it’s not entirely an ammunition problem. so i brought those out too. i checked the wolf in those chambers and there was no tightness nor binding, and all the wolf rounds would slide back out easily, however, the wolf ammo has less of a taper to the case than the brass ammo, and felt very slightly tighter. i also compared the relative ‘looseness’ of a brass-cased round in all the chambers, and the M&P one had less ‘play’ than the others.
without any gages, what i gathered from this is that the chamber of my M&P is very slightly tighter than the ones on my other pistols. that, combined with the red lacquer on the wolf ammo and less taper ended up being a problem combination.
edited to add - headspace dimension might also contribute to the problem i had - if it’s a bit shorter, the additional length of the wolf case added due to the red lacquer might have prevented the case from fully seating. it’d be very interesting if someone with the right tools/gages would measure the M&P chamber dimensions and headspace and compare it to some others like glock, sig etc, and see if it indeed is a bit tighter
MM,
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
In your case it definitely sounds like a tighter than average chamber. I would be interested to see the head space measurements on the M&P as compared to the Glock and Sig…
I will probably wait a bit longer so all the bugs are worked out before I get an M&P.
i’m not sure i’d consider it a bug (in my particular situation), and not necessarily a strike against it if it doesn’t function well with wolf 
it’s been 100% with brass cased ammo so far.
I agree totally. I’ve had a few thousand rounds through the M&Ps and have not had any issue after the MPAs nor with my personal 9mms.
Everyone should also realize more people will be willing to report problems than those who are reporting guns that are good to go. It is human nature and goes for cars, tools, etc.
I agree on the internet thing… if it makes anyone feel better, during the Holiday break I went out and put 200 rds thru my G17 and I had a FTE…:eek: No clue why… There guns… shit happens… Just be prepared for it…
I have had mine 2 weeks and have 800 rounds through it in two 400 round sessions. I have had 5 failures to eject with WWB. Many people want to say this is an ammo related problem. The problem I have with that is I have shot thousands and thousands of rounds of WWB in other pistols with 0 FTEs. I have not talked to S&W about this issue yet as my phone call with them got cut short after the magazine issue, I think they thought I was done and hung up. I like the gun enough I am buying a second next week and we will then see if this one does it too. There have been no issues with Remington or S&B ammo.