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The Texas Department of Public Safety has discontinued use of the Smith and Wesson M&P in 9mm due to an unacceptable number of malfunctions in training. My DPS Trooper friend verified this telling me he had recieved an official memo to that effect. DPS will continue to carry their SIGs in 357 SIG.

My neighbor, who is a trooper, is very happy with his Sig.

MoJo wrote:The Texas Department of Public Safety has discontinued use of the Smith and Wesson M&P in 9mm due to an unacceptable number of malfunctions in training. My DPS Trooper friend verified this telling me he had recieved an official memo to that effect. DPS will continue to carry their SIGs in 357 SIG.

Wow, that has to be a huge blow to S&W.

Weird. I haven't shot mine a lot, but I've never had a malfunction with it.



.....never thought of Texas troopers as limpwristed...

There was talk on the S&W forum that the little pin and spring that act to return the sear to "reset" after firing (so it'll grab the striker during recoil) was poorly spec'd, and this can cause the gun to fail to re-cock. S&W will fix that under warranty, or you can buy a replacement sear assembly for something like $30 that includes the new spring & pin (warning: do the work inside a plastic bag :D) plus about a half-hour of bench time. I'm sure that the TX DPS armorers are aware of this one by now.

First heard of this a couple of years ago when a friend put a DCAEK kit into his 40C. Apparently age and/or dirt will accelerate this, as did installing the kit. Apex will fix that for about $30, but you have to pay to ship it to them. (However, you can ship 'em the sear block assembly, which is NOT a firearm, and while they recommend UPS or FedEx, isn't $80+ to ship, either.)

I guess the newer M&P have the redesigned parts, but it is the old M&P's that have never been updated that are at primary risk of this malfunction.

Pure speculation, but I wonder if this issue is related to the TxDPS decision.

Jumping Frog wrote:There was talk on the S&W forum that the little pin and spring that act to return the sear to "reset" after firing (so it'll grab the striker during recoil) was poorly spec'd, and this can cause the gun to fail to re-cock. S&W will fix that under warranty, or you can buy a replacement sear assembly for something like $30 that includes the new spring & pin (warning: do the work inside a plastic bag :D) plus about a half-hour of bench time. I'm sure that the TX DPS armorers are aware of this one by now.

First heard of this a couple of years ago when a friend put a DCAEK kit into his 40C. Apparently age and/or dirt will accelerate this, as did installing the kit. Apex will fix that for about $30, but you have to pay to ship it to them. (However, you can ship 'em the sear block assembly, which is NOT a firearm, and while they recommend UPS or FedEx, isn't $80+ to ship, either.)

I guess the newer M&P have the redesigned parts, but it is the old M&P's that have never been updated that are at primary risk of this malfunction.

Pure speculation, but I wonder if this issue is related to the TxDPS decision.

I noticed that the Apex kit is machined from A-2 Heat Treated tool steel.

What is the material used in the factory M&P?

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Funny you should mention this because I heard this from two different DPS troopers on Friday. I have been looking for something like a copy of the memo or a news article for the podcast.

This coming from an agency that issues Bushmaster rifles?

Their gear opinions are not real high on my list ones I heed.

They also don't put cages in their cars and transport prisoners in the front.


Maybe I can find cheap M&P 9 mags because of it.

Smith & Wesson and Sig Sauer both have long histories of providing quality weapons to Law Enforcement. The M&P is issued by a number of agencies and has in my opinion a pretty good track record. The failures the DPS is experiencing could be due to a bad production lot, poor QC due to high demand, or just down right inexperience by the person operating the weapon. One trooper I spoke with mentioned the failures reportedly occurred during training, however I know a recent graduate from the DPS police academy that trained on and was issued a DAO Sig P226. So either these failures happened very recently or prior to the new trooper I know being trained. If it is the latter then the decision has been researched and thought over, if it is the former it may be a knee jerk reaction to a few failures. Until we get more details I am withholding judgement on S&W and DPS in this matter.

Recently I read that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept switched their duty pistols
from Beretta's to M & P's.

Their research found that the M & P's improved accuracy scores and that they operated well either clean or dirty.

LASD is a very large department with thousands of sworn LEO's, so their endorsement of M & P's seems to be
a feather in Smith and Wesson's cap.

SIA

Hmm. Interesting. Maybe they should go back to revolvers?

From the rumor mill it doesn't sound like they're actually dropping them, but they had some concerns and current graduates will be issued existing Sigs. They're working with S&W on the problems.

gigag04 wrote:This coming from an agency that issues Bushmaster rifles?

Their gear opinions are not real high on my list ones I heed.

They also don't put cages in their cars and transport prisoners in the front.


Maybe I can find cheap M&P 9 mags because of it.

No cages??!!

Hmmmmmmm ..... That type of malfunction is consistent with what I have had students experience rather rarely with an M&P 9mm subcompact purchased for training purposes (especially the interchangeable back straps) back in late 2008 or early 2009.