# M&P mag safety



## novak1911freak (Jun 2, 2007)

I have been looking at the M&P compact series for a CCW..... I noticed that there are several versions of the gun that have a mag safety and that is something that I have never heard of.... can someone tell me what that is? Thanks.....


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## Jackle1886 (Dec 21, 2007)

One of my friends has this pistol. As far as my understanding, if the magazine is out of the weapon, it will not fire. A gun should always be treated as loaded, but he specifically said if I drop the magazine, it will not fire.


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## novak1911freak (Jun 2, 2007)

Thanks for the informaiton...


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## Teuthis (Apr 9, 2008)

*Safety*

I noticed that 9c does not have a mag safety. Smith pistols have had that feature for many years though. I have two other that do have it.

The best part of that feature is that if you inadvertantly leave a round in the chamber and then eject the magazine, the pistol will not fire that round. I think it is a good feature, especially for the police. But I shall have to live without it I guess. If you can get one with the mag safety, I recommend it.


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## Wyatt (Jan 29, 2008)

The mag safety, or "mag disconnect" as it is alternatively called, essentially safeties the weapon if the mag is not in the gun. It is one of the latest in a long line of new requirements on pistols in order to be certified for sale in California.

There are two schools of thought regarding the mag disconnect.

One school of thought (mainly by the safety nazis and gun control crowd) claim that this makes the gun safer and will eliminate many of the accidental dicharges that result in injury and death by avoiding the situation caused by taking out the magazine on a pistol and erroneously thinking the gun is now unloaded. For law enforcement the theory is that if your gun is being wrestled away from you and you can manage to hit the mag release button in the process, then your gun cannot be used against you.

On the other hand, in a defense situation, should your mag drop either by accident or during a tactical reload, you now effectively are holding nothing better than a hammer for your defense because the round in the chamber is not available to you to defend yourself. Also (though this may or may not be a minor point) without the mag disconnect, should your mag drop or otherwise become non-functional, you still have a firearm that you can manaully load and use as a single shot weapon. Some also feel that disconnects simply add complexity (reducing reliability) and may adversely affect trigger feel and thus reduce accuracy. In this manner, the gun actually becomes less safe when you may need it most, by reducing accuracy, reliability and not having the weapon always available to shoot as in the tactical reload mentioned above. Lastly, some feel these types of requirements simply lessen people's reliance on what is really important - PROPER GUN SAFETY.

It seems to me that it is simply one more incremental restriction by the anti-gunners to slowly erode our rights. In California there will definitely be less guns available for sale because of it. As they keep coming up with additional measures designed for "our safety" the hope is that there eventually will be no guns for sale. While some of the bigger armories like S&W may get around to this on all their pistols in the future, the smaller ones most surely will not, meaning those firearms cannot be sold in California. From what I have read it seems that most of the manufacturers are taking a wait-see attitude, meaning that if this kind of legislation doesn't grow roots most of them will probably write-off doing business in California at least in the short term. Just a back door way of usurping our natural right, IMHO.

Having said all that, Teuthis's opinion that it is a recommended feature is valid, and I don't mean to say that it is not. It's just that I feel we should have a choice. I'm one of those that is just not comfortable with the "cocked and locked" carry of a 1911 for example, but that doesn't mean I think everyone else should not be entitled to carry that way if they are comfortable with it. I prefer the safety/decocker feature on my Beretta to those pistols that don't have this feature, but again, to each his own. Pistols that don't have this, such as the Glock, are essentially just the same as carrying a revolver (which I also own). With my revolver however, I feel comfort in the heavier DA pull of my S&W to that on a Glock or other such pistol. Just me, but I don't think it should be legislated.


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## jacksmatrixxx (Mar 17, 2008)

i ordered mine without disconnect,you can tell by looking at the slide it will say will fire with mag removed


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## 54omle (Feb 9, 2008)

I have 3 M&P pistols a 9c and .357 sig fs and c. The .357 sig has the mag saftey and the first two do not. I prefer that they do NOT have the mag saftey.


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## Todd (Jul 3, 2006)

Wyatt said:


> On the other hand, in a defense situation, should your mag drop either by accident or during a tactical reload, you now effectively are holding nothing better than a hammer for your defense because the round in the chamber is not available to you to defend yourself.


Exactly why I prefer a gun w/o the disconnect.


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## rvl8 (Jun 4, 2008)

mine .40 M&P has that. can it be removed ? (not by me...)


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## mbott (Oct 3, 2007)

rvl8 said:


> mine .40 M&P has that. (not by me...)


Yes, they can be removed.

-- 
Mike


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

They are very simple to remove if you have any mechanical skills. Be sure to get a new roll pin ahead of time. They cost about 1 dollar plus freight from Brownell or Midway. The roll pin loses its sharp edge on insertion and removal so when reused may walk out after a few hundred rounds. New pins provide a fresh edge and hold properly. Save the extra parts in case do-gooders force us to put them back.

I don't like hammers for self defense. :numbchuck::smt068


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## mbott (Oct 3, 2007)

Using the proper tools and techniques, the roll pin can be removed and replace multiple times without having it walking under recoil.

-- 
Mike


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

mbott said:


> Using the proper tools and techniques, the roll pin can be removed and replace multiple times without having it walking under recoil.
> 
> --
> Mike


The front Roll pin is most prone to walking. I do have the correct tools and know how to do the job properly and they have walked.
For the enormous sum of 1 dollar the potential problem can be avoided. Make your choice and take your chances. At least you now know what might happen.

If you do a little searching on http://mp-pistol.com/boards/ you will see a few complaints regarding pin walk with new M&P pistols.


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

Mag safeties can also be useful in a weapon retention scenario. The theory goes like this: bad guy grabs your gun, you punch the mag release and instantly disable the pistol. Then you grab your backup gun or stab him or whatever.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

There may be an extreme situation when I can hit the release but not the trigger but my first inclination would be to pull the trigger rather than push the release.

Everyone talks about various motor skills being messed up in a gun fight and that we need to practice what we will do ahead of time.

I refuse to train myself to drop my magazine at the beginning of a fight.

I also don't like going to a gun or knife fight with a brick. JMHO


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

Nonetheless, police officers have used the magazine safety feature in real weapon retention fights at least several times, and possibly saved their own lives. Sometimes fights don't go the way we plan - in fact, they almost never do - and we can't get the muzzle on the bad guy.

Does the weapon retention feature outweigh the negatives? I don't think so, and I don't carry guns with mag safeties. If I was a cop carrying openly, though, I am not sure I'd object to one.


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## mbott (Oct 3, 2007)

TOF said:


> The front Roll pin is most prone to walking. I do have the correct tools and know how to do the job properly and they have walked.
> For the enormous sum of 1 dollar the potential problem can be avoided. Make your choice and take your chances. At least you now know what might happen.


Hasn't been the experience I've encountered on my M&Ps or the several I've worked on, but I guess it's possible.

-- 
Mike


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