This past week I started eyeballing this M&P 2.0 in our case. It looked good, and being a huge fan of textured grips, stippling, and grip decals when necessary I loved that it came stippled. When I grabbed it I was surprised pleasantly by the aggressiveness of the stipple. Nice. I was able to handle (not shoot) a 4.25" But hadn't seen and really was thinking about the 5". Didn't manage or care to go back in the safe and get the box out to look at the goodies, just handled it outta the glass. Felt good. Felt real good. Time to find a long slide 2.0
Found one today for 509 locally BNIB of course and scooped it up. Got it in the car and sat there a bit ****ing with it. No, no one was around and my Windows are black as sin.
I remember I hated the original M&P trigger and especially the non PC shields. This one felt really nice, even better feeling than their pro 5" series in my opinion. Reset was a little farther than I expected but audible, consistent and by no means far. Nice reset.
The sights were standard white dot, the front drifted in and the rear being driftable for windage and held in place by friction and an Allen screw. The sight radius is a relief for me shooting mostly sub compacts. It's long and comfortable my front blade is crisp and drops in fast. Out of the box it was impressively accurate and easy to maintain sight picture.
The cerakote looks applied well and is a darker fde in my opinion. It's the first FDE pistol (minus chargers or ar pistols)I've owned I think? It looks clean and has plenty of black accents that set off the fde. Smith didn't get crazy and laser engrave their name all over the pistol in huge numbers. The logo and the 2.0 are faint but deep laser engraved. You gloss over them as you look at the pistol. Classy.
The slide has wavy S&W rear serrations and some "finger tip" front mini serrations low by the frame. The loaded chamber indicator on top is barely noticible one of the smallest I've seen thank God because I hate those. It's also 99% black with a "Micro-smidge" of red I've tried to show in the images below.
All the controls are ambidextrous, including the slide lock/stop/release (haven't read instruction manual to see what smith CALLs it themselves) the safety is a nice crisp paddle. It came with 4 factory backstraps all perfectly stippled and fitted. Small, Medium, Medium large with beaver tail, Large with beaver tail. I found medium large to be the nicest so far and shot with them mounted and no others. I will try them all eventually. Well most.
You only get two magazines which is lackluster seeing as the foam box allows you to pluck away the cut out for a third. Magazines hold 18, and I'm gonna be looking into some factory FDE + 2 baseplates unless anyone knows a good source? I don't have a tac-light for it yet but since this is pretty much going to be my night-stand gun it will soon be wearing a TLR - 1 HL (fde why quit now) and since I have a 9 mil can a threaded bbl will have to happen as well. 7lbs here we come
As far as the most important part of this review I am slightly failing. I was able to shoot 100 rounds white box 115. At my 25y range. I took no pictures and can validate none of my results. I didn't carry a measuring tool, so worthless, but I can say the weapon performed for me right out of the box. Zero malfunctions, healthy brass ejection and pleasurable recoil and ergonomics. The stipple stuck to me like tar, resulting in fast, easy follow up shots. I was able to reliable hit (100%) 25y human sized shillouettes with respectable groups, standing, nice cadence of fire. Engagements from the 15y and closer were so easy it seemed like a joke and resulted in nice tight ragged holes. Of course this is a 5" bbl pistol and 25y is where I'm going to keep playing for awhile.
Overall as a Glock lover I can still say this pistol left me with the feeling of "natural" in my hands for the first time in a forever, and an impression so pleasant I can't help but wonder if this is where I'm gonna stay for a long time. Well done smith. Can't wait to hit the range and get you guys some pics here in the short future. Sorry on-top-of-bible Glock...you may be heading back into the safe for awhile.
Found one today for 509 locally BNIB of course and scooped it up. Got it in the car and sat there a bit ****ing with it. No, no one was around and my Windows are black as sin.
I remember I hated the original M&P trigger and especially the non PC shields. This one felt really nice, even better feeling than their pro 5" series in my opinion. Reset was a little farther than I expected but audible, consistent and by no means far. Nice reset.
The sights were standard white dot, the front drifted in and the rear being driftable for windage and held in place by friction and an Allen screw. The sight radius is a relief for me shooting mostly sub compacts. It's long and comfortable my front blade is crisp and drops in fast. Out of the box it was impressively accurate and easy to maintain sight picture.
The cerakote looks applied well and is a darker fde in my opinion. It's the first FDE pistol (minus chargers or ar pistols)I've owned I think? It looks clean and has plenty of black accents that set off the fde. Smith didn't get crazy and laser engrave their name all over the pistol in huge numbers. The logo and the 2.0 are faint but deep laser engraved. You gloss over them as you look at the pistol. Classy.
The slide has wavy S&W rear serrations and some "finger tip" front mini serrations low by the frame. The loaded chamber indicator on top is barely noticible one of the smallest I've seen thank God because I hate those. It's also 99% black with a "Micro-smidge" of red I've tried to show in the images below.
All the controls are ambidextrous, including the slide lock/stop/release (haven't read instruction manual to see what smith CALLs it themselves) the safety is a nice crisp paddle. It came with 4 factory backstraps all perfectly stippled and fitted. Small, Medium, Medium large with beaver tail, Large with beaver tail. I found medium large to be the nicest so far and shot with them mounted and no others. I will try them all eventually. Well most.
You only get two magazines which is lackluster seeing as the foam box allows you to pluck away the cut out for a third. Magazines hold 18, and I'm gonna be looking into some factory FDE + 2 baseplates unless anyone knows a good source? I don't have a tac-light for it yet but since this is pretty much going to be my night-stand gun it will soon be wearing a TLR - 1 HL (fde why quit now) and since I have a 9 mil can a threaded bbl will have to happen as well. 7lbs here we come
As far as the most important part of this review I am slightly failing. I was able to shoot 100 rounds white box 115. At my 25y range. I took no pictures and can validate none of my results. I didn't carry a measuring tool, so worthless, but I can say the weapon performed for me right out of the box. Zero malfunctions, healthy brass ejection and pleasurable recoil and ergonomics. The stipple stuck to me like tar, resulting in fast, easy follow up shots. I was able to reliable hit (100%) 25y human sized shillouettes with respectable groups, standing, nice cadence of fire. Engagements from the 15y and closer were so easy it seemed like a joke and resulted in nice tight ragged holes. Of course this is a 5" bbl pistol and 25y is where I'm going to keep playing for awhile.
Overall as a Glock lover I can still say this pistol left me with the feeling of "natural" in my hands for the first time in a forever, and an impression so pleasant I can't help but wonder if this is where I'm gonna stay for a long time. Well done smith. Can't wait to hit the range and get you guys some pics here in the short future. Sorry on-top-of-bible Glock...you may be heading back into the safe for awhile.
