Gunnie Bleg

My good friend (and fellow Bloggershoot attendee) JD has a serious problem. He's got money burning a hole in his pocket and a desire to upgrade his carry gun. He asks,

Jay

Have you had any experience with the Smith and Wesson M&P pistol?

I am looking for a new carry gun and am debating a 1911 say a Para Ordnance or S&W in the $700 range but it looks like the M&P does well in sales at Four Seasons and I don't know anyone that has one. . .

I want something with a bit more guts than the .380 I got now ya know. . . .

Anyways, if you have any thought on this I would love to hear them. . . and blog fodder them if you want = )

thanks

JD

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Well, it so happens I have a little experience with the M&P series, so I responded immediately:

Hey JD (my AR-savior!)*,

Hmmm. You've got $700 and an itch for a new carry gun. Oh, what a terrible, terrible fate... Heh.

Let's see... The M&P. I had bad luck with the M&P compact .40 S&W when I shot it at the Smith & Wesson range. The placement of the magazine release put it in such a way that my normal grip would cause it to engage about, oh, once or twice a magazine. Leading to humorous range exchanges like this:

[M&P] BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
{CLUNK}
[me] SHIT DAMMIT!

Since I was thinking of the compact .40 as a carry gun, and couldn't rely on it as such, I more or less put the M&P series out of my mind.

I've heard that S&W has addressed this issue (I'd heard from several other people who had the same experience) since then. I would strongly recommend you find someone with a comparable model of M&P and try it out, first, though. The M&P series is one of the greatest values for the MA gunnie - under $500 new OTD, and right now I think S&W is running a "two free magazine" promo again. Can't argue with that at all.

If you can find one for a reasonable price, look at the subcompact Glocks - 26 (9mm) or 27 (.40 S&W). What's great about the Glock WRT MA law is that there are plenty of pre-ban high-capacity magazines to be had. M&P? Not so much.

You can also find the S&W scandium-framed Commander sized 1911s for around $700 (gently) used if you want to honor the St. JMB (PBUH). I'm waiting to see how much they want for the subcompact 1911 before I get a new 1911 - if it's MA compliant, which I would imagine it would be, and under $900 or so new, I will be SORELY tempted to pick one up.

Another thought would be a S&W snubbie - either the 442/642 for pocket carry or a 637 for IWB. Those are selling for around $400 or so new, and that extra $300 will buy quite a bit of practice ammo. I dunno if you got a chance to shoot The Snubbie From Hell™, but the Airweight .38 specials are only a couple ounces heavier and shoot .38 Spl +P ammo - almost as good as .357 Magnum. Let me know if you'd like to try it out (or my shrouded hammer model 38).

I'm going to post this and see if anyone else has any other suggestions - I'm sure there's a couple dozen other good suggestions that I'm just not thinking of right now...

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So, what say you? Bear in mind that JD is, like me, trapped behind the Red curtain here in the Volksrepublik of MA, and therefore beholden to the Approved Firearms Roster {spit}. That means outrageous prices for Glocks and Kahrs, little-to-no chance of guns like the CZ75 or the Springfield XD, etc. We're pretty much limited to S&W, Ruger, ParaOrdnance, and SigSauer.

(Hey!!! JD - Sig 239 in .40 S&W. I've seen them used for around $550-$600, and you can get the screamin' .357 Sig barrel for it too!)

Help a fellow MAhole blogger out with this most important of decisions, won't you?

That is all.

*JD was very helpful when my Bushmaster developed a severe case of indigestion over the .223 reloads...