GoldCoaster
Regular Member
imported post
I'm a lefty (not to be confused with leftist) and own a Smith and Wesson M&P 45.
I've reversed the magazine release so I can eject the magazine using my left hands thumb.
Other than that the pistol is stock setup from the factory. The mag release button is designed to be changed from left to right so I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary there.
I recently took a couple of pistol classes at the local range and our instructor had us short load the magazines (no more than 3 or 4 rounds, and mix in some dummy rounds too) so we would have plenty of experience with reloading on the move and clearing malfunctions on the move.
Here's the thing though, if you only put 3-4 rounds in the magazine for the M&P 45 the mag follower is right in front of the two notches that the magazine release (or in this case retention) slide is.
What happened to me during the class was I had one in the pipe and inserted a short loaded magazine and took my shot. Clunk, the magazine fell out onto the floor. Quick reload with another magazine, rack and fire, clunk. At this point we stopped the drill and made safe the pistol and tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
One time is not putting the magazine in hard enough, twice well that's a problem.
So looking at the follower we surmised that the catch wasn't fully seating and the blast from the shot being fired was enough to dislodge the magazine from the well.
My workaround was to put 5 rounds in the magazines, once the catch seated properly when it got to 3-4 rounds it didn't matter.
This is a bit of an anomalous situation, because who puts 3-4 rounds in a magazine and loads it? Most of us carry with a full magazine I would think. But lets say you had an issue and had to drop a magazine with 3-4 rounds in it but found out you were now out of bullets and needed to "stay in the game" and loaded that 3-4 round magazine, well one shot and you'd be a sitting duck.
I wrote to S&W about this and their suggestion was to send the pistol to them. I told them I wasn't about to send the pistol to them when they could replicate the problem in their own labs. "Put 3-4 rounds in a magazine and look where the follower is" "Oh sorry sir, we aren't allowed ammo in the lab" OK "So take 3-4 dummy rounds or snap caps and put them in a magazine and look where the follower is" "Oh sorry sir, we aren't allowed dummy rounds either" I was getting frustrated and said "How can you, being a firearms manufacturer not be allowed to put ammunition into pistols?" "Oh sir, the gunsmiths are the only ones that can put real ammo into the pistols" I said "Ok then, so why don't you go down to the gunsmiths and ask THEM if they would be so kind as to put 3-4 dummy rounds into a magazine and show you where the follower is"
Bottom line is S&W couldn't care less about this. I followed up with an email asking for them to at least look into it and said If I don't hear back from you I'm going to mention this on the gun boards I frequent. Still nothing.
I may have to take the dremel tool to my mag follower, but I'd really have liked S&W to step up and at least show some interest in what I was telling them.
So for you M&P owners out there (esp ones that have reversed the mag release) try it out for yourself and see if it happens to you, I suspect it will.
I'm a lefty (not to be confused with leftist) and own a Smith and Wesson M&P 45.
I've reversed the magazine release so I can eject the magazine using my left hands thumb.
Other than that the pistol is stock setup from the factory. The mag release button is designed to be changed from left to right so I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary there.
I recently took a couple of pistol classes at the local range and our instructor had us short load the magazines (no more than 3 or 4 rounds, and mix in some dummy rounds too) so we would have plenty of experience with reloading on the move and clearing malfunctions on the move.
Here's the thing though, if you only put 3-4 rounds in the magazine for the M&P 45 the mag follower is right in front of the two notches that the magazine release (or in this case retention) slide is.
What happened to me during the class was I had one in the pipe and inserted a short loaded magazine and took my shot. Clunk, the magazine fell out onto the floor. Quick reload with another magazine, rack and fire, clunk. At this point we stopped the drill and made safe the pistol and tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
One time is not putting the magazine in hard enough, twice well that's a problem.
So looking at the follower we surmised that the catch wasn't fully seating and the blast from the shot being fired was enough to dislodge the magazine from the well.
My workaround was to put 5 rounds in the magazines, once the catch seated properly when it got to 3-4 rounds it didn't matter.
This is a bit of an anomalous situation, because who puts 3-4 rounds in a magazine and loads it? Most of us carry with a full magazine I would think. But lets say you had an issue and had to drop a magazine with 3-4 rounds in it but found out you were now out of bullets and needed to "stay in the game" and loaded that 3-4 round magazine, well one shot and you'd be a sitting duck.
I wrote to S&W about this and their suggestion was to send the pistol to them. I told them I wasn't about to send the pistol to them when they could replicate the problem in their own labs. "Put 3-4 rounds in a magazine and look where the follower is" "Oh sorry sir, we aren't allowed ammo in the lab" OK "So take 3-4 dummy rounds or snap caps and put them in a magazine and look where the follower is" "Oh sorry sir, we aren't allowed dummy rounds either" I was getting frustrated and said "How can you, being a firearms manufacturer not be allowed to put ammunition into pistols?" "Oh sir, the gunsmiths are the only ones that can put real ammo into the pistols" I said "Ok then, so why don't you go down to the gunsmiths and ask THEM if they would be so kind as to put 3-4 dummy rounds into a magazine and show you where the follower is"
Bottom line is S&W couldn't care less about this. I followed up with an email asking for them to at least look into it and said If I don't hear back from you I'm going to mention this on the gun boards I frequent. Still nothing.
I may have to take the dremel tool to my mag follower, but I'd really have liked S&W to step up and at least show some interest in what I was telling them.
So for you M&P owners out there (esp ones that have reversed the mag release) try it out for yourself and see if it happens to you, I suspect it will.
Bat