A few months ago I picked up a Springfield MA police trade in M&P40.
Circumstances kept me from shooting it till just lately. What a great shooting pistol! My handgun shooting skills have gotten really rusty since shooting has been infrequent at best in the last couple of years.
This M&P40 makes me look good. Well, not sucky anyway.
Excellent ergos, a well broken in pistol with a half decent trigger and a bunch of good ammo makes for a new favorite woods bumming, tractor, 4 wheeler, truck gun.
When I was loading up a bunch of ammo for it, I found a baggie of 184gr wiiide nose flat point gas checked bullets. The meplat on them is .35”. A comparable WFN is .31” across the flat. I have no idea where or who I got them from, but they came in a baggie with Rooster Red lube label on it. Anyway, they looked too wide, too abrupt and sharp edged to feed.
Boy was I wrong. That M&P gobbled them up and spit them out like hardball. Impact on acorn squash was more impressive than Nosler 165gr hollow points and dramatically better than fmjfp’s. They’re unlikely to fly well at longer ranges than 40 yards, the farthest I shot them, as WFN’s don’t shoot well at long range and these are significantly broader across.
Yeah I know, WFN’s can shoot well when pushed as hard as possible, but they have never been as good as LFN’s or good semi wadcutters for me.
I originally bought this because I have a few thousand 135 & 150gr Nosler hollow point and more than that in cast bullets. My 10mm doesn’t shoot the lighter weight bullets ie. the 135 &150’s as it does the 180 & 200gr so I wanted to use the heavier weights in the 10mm and looked for something to use those lightweights in. Mission accomplished.

Those WFN are a gift from heaven for the 40sw. I didn't think that wide a meplat existed - love to find the source. Glad you're having fun!

The M&P is an excellent pistol. I have three 9's and a .45, my son has two 9mm's and they have been great guns in their genre. I'm not a big .40 fan but I wouldn't mind having an M&P .40 for a kick around the farm gun. Since we have hogs and bears here a good 180 - 200 gr. WFN hard cast would suit my needs just fine.

I have an M&P9 C. O. R. E. that has been a great shooter, but I don’t think it’s as accurate as the 40 at least between these two pistols.
On another note, I seem to remember being able to buy a 9mm barrel and use it in a 40 slide, but not the reverse. Is this doable on the M& P platform?
Is the difference that the rim cutout on the 40 slide will accommodate the smaller 9mm rim? Obviously the reverse wouldn’t work.

KKM make a .40 to 9 conversion barrel

Glad to hear you like your M&P trade in. I was going to get one and drop a 9mm conversion in for cheap shooting but found a great deal on a M&P 9 so I bought it instead.

I took advantage of the M&P 40 S&W trade -ins back in 2016 when I picked a Detroit PD trade in that was basically new from Bud's Gunshop for $300.

It came with three magazines, night sights that still had some life, all of the grip inserts and the paperwork still in the sealed plastic bag.

The only thing I have done to it has been change out the sights and upgrade the trigger; it continues to motor on.

I think that it was money well spent.

StarchedCover

Which trigger did you put in your M&P 40?
Apex?

Mark,
I had my local gunsmith install an APEX Tigger in my M&P 40 S&W and Ameriglow Hackathorn Sights.

Made a world of difference.

StarchedCover

Thanks a bunch. Starch.
I really don’t mind the trigger as it is, finding someone who has an M&P with an Apex and shoot it see what’s up

I carried an M&P .40 in uniform for a few years. I put a Hogue Handall on the grip. It feels better in my hand than any pistol I’ve owned. Per our contract I was able to purchase it for $1 when I retired. It now resides in the safe with my Ruger Police Service Six and S&W 4506 that I was issued during my career.

Ron

I bought one of those Detroit PD pistols from Bud's at about the same time, I honestly think mine was ever issued or fired before I received it. If it was, it was very little. The only thing I changed was to add an Apex sear to reduce the trigger pull. Great pistol.

Night sights are kaput now, I need to replace those.

What was your long term opinion on the M&P40?
Would you choose it if given the option to carry what you wanted?

I didn't carry one as part of any job but a 40 M&P is my EDC by choice. I liked it so much I purchased a 45 M&P as well and love it too. FYI, both of mine are the 2.0 versions. I can't say enough as to how well I like both. IMHO much better than a Glock

Several people I’ve talked to agree with me that the M&P40 is often more accurate than the M&P9. If my agency didn’t go full-retard on 9mm, I’d carry the M&P40.

The original M&P 9mm did have some accuracy issues here and there. The issue seemed hit or miss as S&W tried to fix the problems. I have an original M&P 9mm that is very accurate. My son had one that was a real stinker. S&W got their stuff together before the 2.0 came out and all the 2.0 9mm versions that I own or have shot have been very good shooters.

I have a few of the original ones in 9mm and I guess I got lucky as they all run and shoot great. I will say that the 2.0 has a better trigger right out of the box the mine. I am not sure what else they changed other than the longer slide rails on the 2.0

M Stevenson, to be honest with you I would still carry a Glock of some sort. One of our Ordnance guys was kind of helping S&W with prototypes and testing of the original M&P. We were issued the first generation M&P .40 about 2007ish. In 2014-15 S&W traded our department 1 for 1 for the second Generation M&P .40. I liked the pistol except for a couple of things. Sometimes the slide wouldn’t lock open when empty. And sometimes the slide would slam shut by itself when a full magazine was inserted. I just didn’t totally trust the M&P with my life. My old department (I retired in 2018) transitioned to the M&P 2.0 9mm shortly after I retired. Officers seem to like it. I purchased all of my duty handguns for my Grandkids to have when they grow up. A Ruger Police Service Six .38 Special, an S&W 4506 .45acp, and the M&P .40.

Ron

Thanks for your thoughts Ron. I appreciate it. Enjoy your retirement, I know I am.

If any of you M&P .40 shooters want some mags, I've got some I'll send you for $10 each. I've got a pile of them and sold my .40.

The frame is reinforced to reduce flex, the slide release lever is modified so that they won't auto-forward anymore, the entire trigger bar is redesigned, the sear / trigger bar interface is different, the stippling is more aggressive, there are forward slide serrations, and there's a now medium-large grip.

I will take you up on that generous offer. Thank you.
PM to follow.

PM sent
Thnx