SHOT Show is just around the corner, which means that a wave of “new” products is crashing down upon us like the Great Wave off Kanagawa. I put “new” in quotes because “new” products these days tend to simply be a mixture of “it now comes in FDE” with a sprinkling of “we added another caliber.” Smith & Wesson seems to be bucking that trend somewhat, still calling their latest creation new but using the “2.0” designation. Which I like.

News comes via our friends at TFB that Academy accidentally leaked the details of an improved version to the much-loved M&P series ahead of what we have to assume is the official launch. Improvements include a new trigger (which was one of the biggest complaints about the platform), a better finish, and including an additional backstrap in the box to ensure a good fit. The products have since been removed from Academy’s website suggesting that the leak was truly accidental. The retail price appears to be basically unchanged. More when we get our hands on one.

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63 COMMENTS

    • We’re creatures from a bygone era, Gov! These younguns’ and their fancy striker-fired shootin’irons barely recognise what a proper pistol looks like. Some young pup leaned over my revolver counter the other night and the lil’sh!t said,” hey, those look like my grandma’s guns!” Boy needed to be put over my knee…

      • It’s almost like young people prefer modern technology to stuff that wasn’t even ground breaking 100 years ago.

        I wonder if old people in the 1860s complained about everyone using wheel guns instead of the good old flint locks of their day.

    • With so many new shooters, the learning curve on Striker fired handguns is easier to teach. The concept of DA/SA with the hard first pull and light single action trigger pull seems to be tough for some shooters, particularly inexperienced shooters. The consistent trigger pull is much easier to teach to the novice. I don’t like them one bit. I like a hammer, I like the stout first pull and light S/A pull.
      That’s what I have had for the last 40 years I have been carrying. If people like strikers, goody goody gumdrops for them.
      What is of most critical importance is to be comfortable with ones weapon of choice, be able to shoot it well, hit your target and carry it. Beyond that, little else matters and is mostly personal preference.

      • I usually have the noobs shoot a couple rounds in DA and then just worry about mastering SA. DA was never originally intended for target work in the first place, it was meant for up close and personal encounters. Longer shots were intended to involve the use of your thumb. You can work up your Jerry Miculek skills at your leisure. For my money I’d rather have the option of taking a well aimed longer shot.

        • The newest striker triggers, are rarely what’s limiting defensive gun accuracy these days. I like DASA, and even DAO, but for their “hey buddy, throw me your gun” accident resilience.

          DAO for average Joes, DASA for those with the training to run them effectively.

          Ever lighter triggered striker guns just strike me as a shortcut to up qual scores for exactly the kind of people who are least likely to be entirely safe with a light trigger. They make all the sense in the world for the military, though.

      • I readily admit to usually being lasttoknow about gun stuff, but I do know about “learning curves”. The common mistake is to apply “steep” improperly. We generally think of “steep” as difficult or hard. When it comes to learning curves (especially related to manufacturing product), “steep” is actually good. The graph places number of units (of whatever) correctly accomplished on the vertical axis, and the time required to accomplish X-number of units on the horizontal axis. The goal is to achieve the greatest number of accurate accomplishments in the shortest time. When plotted on the graph, quick “learning” will result in a “J” curve, where the number of accurate accomplishments accelerates per time unit. This is the “steep learning curve”. If learning is difficult or slow, the actual curve shows more time needed, and a slow rate of accomplishment (sort of like a “lazy J”).

    • I severely injured my right index finger as a kid. Living in the modern (1980s) first world meant that I retained almost normal function in the finger, except for reduced strength and some range of motion. Single action and striker fired triggers are absolutely no problem. I can fire a double action trigger maybe once over a five to ten second span. Once, and then my trigger finger won’t have the strength to pull the trigger again, even in single action mode. So for me, DA/SA is emphatically a no go.

      • But your thumb still works OK, right?

        Not saying strikers aren’t right for anybody, but it’s not like you’re running out of choices these days.

        • BTW, I once completely severed the tendon that runs the last joint in my trigg er finger, along with a couple nerves and nicked a couple other tendons. Spent 5 hours in surgery getting that fixed. No significant issues now though.

        • Right, but what’s the point or advantage of DAO or DA/SA for me? If I have to cock into single action every time, then I should just choose a single action to begin with. Alternatively, striker fired guns have triggers that aren’t as good as single action, but are still acceptable.

  4. When you compare all the modern guns to the beginning of the 1900s, modern ones seem rather dull and uninteresting. Found a page with collector guns dating from 1700s, and up until about 1970, the guns seemed to have some personality. Now, they seem to be all black, all the same.

    • Yeah. Back in the 50s, 60s and70s one could tell a chevy from a Plymouth from a ford. Now they all look like jelly beans.

    • Or, put it another way, we’ve found a lot of ways to make a gun – or car – and a lot of those ways weren’t as good as others.

      Something I learned as a motorcyclist: “personality” = “quirk” = “pain in the @ss”. Depending on who you speak to.

      • I guess “personality” can seem a negative. By that, I meant interesting to look at, intriguing firing action, guns without trigger guard, multi-barrels, engraving, tones, elegant components, innovative but limited sales, anything other than just another black gun. I just can’t see modern guns ever becoming “collectable”, or even something to “pass down”.

        • Exactly. You won’t EVER see a bunch of neighborhood men standing around gawking at the open hood engine of a 2010 Toyota Camry like you would on a 69 Camero. All this striker fired polymer …..uh, stuff has gotten mundane and boring. While you might pass down your M&P to your son, there sure won’t be a family fight over it if you suddenly died like what would happen with your prized Python.
          I probably shouldn’t be so hard on the entry-level daily carry garbage product. If we want to carry the open hood wow factor chrome valve covers and oil filler cap of guns, we have to spend the money for a Kimber, Sig Legion or many other fine weapons that many are not willing to purchase for a daily carry.

  5. Why spill the beans over S&W, but pull the story about the Ruger Mk IV? Why the special treatment to one gun company but not the other? Not being judgmental, just curious?

  7. Eh choice is good. Tons of “new & improved” plastic guns around now. And with the Donald winning prices are dropping…

  8. I too find it difficult to get overly enthusiast about a polymer heater these days. Sure they have their place in everyone’s arsenal but if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all these days. Do you think there will be commie versions available? The biggest victory would be to convict one of these politicians for treason that would send a message.

  9. Let’s all not forget Academy succumbed to the anti-gun forces and removed those “evil black rifles” from their racks a while back. I, for one, will no longer shop there.

      • You missed the point completely by being in a rush to be a smartass. He said Academy pulled them a while back, meaning during a time of pressure they gave in. Yes they put them back when there was less pressure you douchebag.

  11. Judging by the comments on this story you can get a good idea about the average reader. Grumpy, old, and stuck in the past.

    • No that’s not true (at least for me) at all….Walther PPS, PPQ, Glock 29SF, G17, and G43 all reside in my safe and I shoot all of them and several are in carry rotation. All are fine weapons…

    • Not necessarily true…have my share of polymer firearms but also steel as well…all have their place…

      BTW I am 58…

    • We call them OFWGs. The Urban Dictionary recognizes the term, albeit with entirely unnecessary scorn: “Old Fat White Guys. Basically, the gun nut loonies. By far, the majority of gun rights activists are OFWGs.”

    • ‘…stuck in the past.’

      You say that like it’s a bad thing. What makes you think a 3 decade old innovation (Glock) is so much better than a 4 decade one (Beretta 92, Sig 226, etc.) or even a century old design (19 11)? Personally, I don’t like striker fired pistols because they’re a) really boring and redundant (everyone makes at least 3) and b) they all have crappy trig ger pulls.

      • @ Gov. William J Le Petomane

        + …a lot.
        Damn straight on what you said. That’s why I carry a P229 with Rosewood grips. I know what I like and what I don’t like and can afford to own it. If I wanted a Kia, I’d own one.
        I am an OFWG and damn proud of it. I like not being a stupid kid who’s too damn dumb to not know what they don’t know.
        I grew up before they had personality traits of the month, but leave out INDIVIDUALISM.
        In other words, us OFWG aren’t programmed drones. I’m from a world where my first car was a 1951 Jeep Pickup and not some dorky rice-grinder with a wing thingy on the trunk and an exhaust tip the size of a small garbage can who thought Fast and the Furious was bitchen and Vin Diesel is cool.

        • ‘…and Vin Diesel is cool.’

          OK that one was a bit over the top.

          My first car was a Chevy Nova. Paid $100 for it. Chicks dug that car.

  12. Most folks should have a plastic pistol, because one tupperware gun is all that a man will usually need. The rest of the collection should be made of steel and wood.

  13. Other than size, is there much of a difference between the M&P series and the Shield series? I’ve shot a 9mm Shield and thought it was pretty good for a large pocket pistol. Never touched an M&P.

    • I believe that it’s basically a size difference. The Shield is a very nice CC piece; a buddy of mine owns one and loves it. Another buddy owns a Bodyguard in .380; I have a very different opinion of that…thing. My trigger finger hurts just thinking of it.

      • At one of our backyard shooting ranges the other week a guy went to shoot his SW Bodyguard & everyone put muffs on & backed up, said it was a damn loud thing. Boy was it ever! Another person went to shoot & thought it broke because it would not fire; the owner said just to keep pulling the trigger: it finally fired. I asked if he would like to try my Ruger LCP Custom, which he did. Unloaded it so he could load it with the same ammo he just used; everyone was astonished about the huge reduction in noise, recoil & the smooth, short trigger.The LCP absolutely humiliated the Bodyguard; and yes the LCP was completely factory original.

  14. I have a Springfield XDM and a S&W M&P. If I was to buy one of them again I’d go with the XDM.
    The XDM trigger is much better and I’m more accurate with it.

  15. I’m excited about an M&P coming from the factory with an improved trigger. That may be my next duty gun. I bet S&W will sell a bunch of these if they are good.

    However, I’m definitely becoming more excited about hammers, lever guns, and revolvers.

  16. When I see stuff like “Gen. 4,” “Mod. 2.” “2.0” what I hear is “Even though we are an experienced gun manufacturer, we effed-up the first time, but now we finally got it right. I have no problem with improvements to guns based on new technology, manufacturing techniques and design thinking, but fixing screw-ups and making it sound like innovation diminishes my respect for a manufacturer. The R51 a case in point. If I was not interested in the M&P 1.0, which I wasn’t, a 2.0 is not going to get my attention.

    Like MLee said above, “It’s just more striker fired boring ass sh–” Do you know why everyone is making strikers? They are cheaper to manufacture, but they can be sold at competitive prices, so the profit margins are higher.

    • It actually has to do with the getting rid of gunsmith and replacing them with gun techs. It used to be gunsmiths would get one gun and they would complete it from start to finish some of the parts would have to be hand-fit so it took a more experienced gunsmith vs. A technician. The gun tech simply do one assembly process to the firearm and pass it along in a basket to the next assembly Tech if all the parts fit well this works if the parts don’t fit together well you run into a headache gone one that’s got a gremlin that’s the problem with mass production they keep trying to get cheaper with all of their parts and they wonder why they have problems with entire lines of guns failing. Getting cheaper.

  17. I like the M&P pistols. I own one in 9mm. The trigger does not bother me, I would prefer it felt like a Sig P250 or Kahr, but I am happy. I also own a P288. I love that pistol, it is the first pistol I wanted. I find M&P easier and more comfortable to shoot, which leads to maybe better accuracy. I do miss the Beaver Tail on the new model, I liked it. If the new fourth size back-strap is Extra Small size, great I have small hands. I hope those fit on the older models. I might get one.

  18. I own 4 glocks 3 m&ps. I like the poly guns you can beat um up and not worry bout finish as much. However I also have a T3 Nighthawk custom. I like all my pistols and revolvers. Lifes to short to carry an ugly Gun though. Lol

  20. Version 1.0 was so great various police depts bought them, then dumped them a few years later when they got tired of them falling apart.

    Atlanta PD even went to Glock after a hundred years of S&W instead of switch to M&Ps.

    Version 2.0, because there are still a few misguided souls who havent been pissed off enough to say no more crappy Glock clones and embrace the realness of Glock Perfection.

    • And Glock has been so “Perfect” that they have gone through four “generations”, five if you count the FBI version…and countless, uh, “updates” (code for recalls)…..yeah. Perfection, my ass.

    • I have totally written off Scrap & Worthless, but I do not believe in that Glock perfection myth either. Do not & will not own either one.

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