# A Smith and Wesson M&P Must Read...



## jamesr (Aug 20, 2007)

A long time gun owner, first time Pistol buyer. I did my research and decided I would buy a Smith and Wesson M&P in the 40 s&w caliber.

I purchased the 40 S&W M&P New on 8/4/07. I shot one box of 50 rounds through the pistol the same day. After shooting it I oiled the locations listed in the manual and wiped the gun down with a clean rag. I went home put the gun in the new holster I purchased with the gun. I then placed it in our night stand drawer in our temperature controlled bedroom. The gun never touched a drop of water, or sat in a damp location. One week later I take the gun out to shot again and it was covered in rust. Needless to say I was very upset that my new gun, only a week later, looks worse than my 1934 revolver. There is surface rust on the serial number, both magazines, front and rear sight, inside the magazine chamber, and even on the Slide (on the bottom rear and back sides)! I was under the impression the gun was stainless steel. In fact it says stainless just an inch in front of the rust on the slide?! Since it was designed to be a duty pistol I figure it would be low maintence and withstand most conditions. That was not the case; it couldn't even sit in room kept 70 degrees for one week. I could not imagine it after a month if I was an officer carrying this weapon in the weather.

Buyers beware! I contacted Smith and they are sending me a prepaid label to ship it too them. I will follow up with what they do.

If you are on the fence like i was between the m&p / xd /Glock 22. This should help make up your mind.


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## SigZagger (Aug 16, 2006)

*That is not good!*

Damn...did you use an oil gun cleaning rag? I can't wait to see what S$W tells you.


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## PhilR. (Apr 25, 2007)

jamesr said:


> If you are on the fence like i was between the m&p / xd /Glock 22. This should help make up your mind.


This isn't the pistol's fault. If it was, you would see this more often, but you don't. I don't know what you did wrong, but you did something wrong. Of course what that was, we'll never know....

PhilR.


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## teknoid (Mar 12, 2007)

I have had a M&P full size for 6 months, and carried it almost every day in heat, AC, humidity, rain, etc. It still looks the same as the day I adopted it, but I do take care of it. I doubt it's the gun's fault.


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

What kind of holster was it?


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Neither rain, soap & water cleaning nor lots of perspiration have caused any rust to appear on either of my two M&P's.

I reconfigured the sights by filing and proved they are not stainless as they accepted a new blue coat which stainless will not do. They will therefore rust given the right set of circumstances.

I have owned numerous guns, long and short for 55+ years. The only ones that rusted were those I left at home while away in the Navy. They were in an evaporative cooler environment for 4 years with no attention given. 

I believe a rusty gun is an indication of the quality of care it has been given and not of the quality of the gun.

The care giver that caused the rust could be the current owner, the shop that sold it or some point earlier in it's life.

We will never know which, but I will bet S&W will accept responsibility and fix it.

:smt1099


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## hargroder (Dec 21, 2006)

TOF, why is my M&P stamped "stainless" if it is in fact not? or did you mean the sights were not stainless? sometimes I am so stupid I surprise myself!


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

hargroder said:


> TOF, why is my M&P stamped "stainless" if it is in fact not? or did you mean the sights were not stainless? sometimes I am so stupid I surprise myself!


The slide is stainless. The sights are not.

Perhaps my words were not as clear as they could have been.

Enjoy

:smt1099


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## mkim1120 (Aug 2, 2007)

i have had my sw for about 2 weeks now..only shot around 75 rounds thru it and it works flawlessly..i've cleaned it every shooting and been stored back in its case...
i guess time will tell but this is the first i've ever heard..


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## teknoid (Mar 12, 2007)

This is kind of funny. I've seen it on five forums. It makes me wonder about the story. It sounds like somebody who's looking for a reason to blame the gun, instead of the way it was cared for.


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## MoCCW (Aug 26, 2007)

*No Problems here*

I have had my mp 40c for about a month no problems like this what soever, picking up mp9c tomorrow...


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## VegasEgo (Jul 10, 2006)

*1st post*

Well, I think someone is just bad mouthing the company, because for one... Its his first post, and he/she didnt even introdue himself, im going to call Bull S#!t on this one... He/she must of use paint thinner as a lubricant...


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## PhilR. (Apr 25, 2007)

VegasEgo said:


> im going to call Bull S#!t on this one... He/she must of use paint thinner as a lubricant...


Well, I wanted to say as much, but was unable to put it as succinctly as you....:mrgreen:

PhilR.


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## michiganflyer (Sep 15, 2007)

I have had my M&P in 9mm for almost a year, and I don't have any rust, problems or anything else bad. I have fired about 2000 rounds of reloads thru it, and I am very happy. I would like to get adjustable sights for the rear if anyone knows where to find those, mine shoots a bit low, and I would like to correct that. I guess that could be the operator, but I have sand bagged it at 25 yrds, and it is still about 3 inches low.

Ron


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## Snowman (Jan 2, 2007)

michiganflyer said:


> I have had my M&P in 9mm for almost a year, and I don't have any rust, problems or anything else bad. I have fired about 2000 rounds of reloads thru it, and I am very happy. I would like to get adjustable sights for the rear if anyone knows where to find those, mine shoots a bit low, and I would like to correct that. I guess that could be the operator, but I have sand bagged it at 25 yrds, and it is still about 3 inches low.
> 
> Ron


Have you tried different ammo?


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## michiganflyer (Sep 15, 2007)

Yes, I have tired factory ammo as well, not as bad but still tends to shoot low. Maybe it is just how I have naturally holding the gun, I havn't tried a vise or anything like that.
Anyway, I think adj sights would be nice to have in any case. Just the dovetail in the slide is a different than most standard dovetails, from what I have read. I also emailed S&W when I first got the pistol and they said they didn't have any adj sights for this model yet. They suggested a gunsmith to recut the slide. I was not really wanting to do that, more hoping there was an aftermarket sight that would just slide in and fit.

Any ideas?


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## Charlie (May 13, 2006)

:smt163 TROLL ALERT!!...TROLL ALERT!!...CONDITION ELEVATED!:smt074

(where's our troll icon?)


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## michiganflyer (Sep 15, 2007)

Charlie,
Did I violate some posting policy?

Was the troll msg pointed at me?

If I have please let me know, as I was simply responding to a question posted to me.....

Sincerely,
Ron


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## Charlie (May 13, 2006)

michiganflyer said:


> Charlie,
> Did I violate some posting policy?
> 
> Was the troll msg pointed at me?
> ...


Absolutely not, michiganflyer........my reference was to the original poster 'cause it's kind of an unusual, isolated incident going by what most of the other posters had to say . :smt033 And the thread starter is new and unknown, which does not necessarily mean the situation is not true but rather highly unlikely. Now if I had posted it..........some would say Charlie is full of it and it is absolutely not true................or some would believe it. There would probably be no in-between-ers...!


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## michiganflyer (Sep 15, 2007)

Oh good, thank god, I was having a complex.....lol
Yeah, not sure what the first guy did, but I have been shooting all my life and have a number of long and short guns, and I have NEVER had a problem like that. But, I guess we don't know the conditions, and there could always be a reason for a problem.


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## Charlie (May 13, 2006)

Just so happens I saw a similar situation only yesterday when a coach brought me two NEF cheapo starter pistols to clean 'cause nobody had cleaned them since they were purchased (several years ago) and had just fired them and put them in the cardboard box to wait for the next track meet! Needless to say they were COVERED with a film of rust inside and out and would not even function! I got one to work again but the other will take some disassembly and mucho cleaning inside before it will even have a chance. Obviously we don't have enough shooters in the athletic department!


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## Thek9 (May 9, 2007)

Mr. Jamesr must be either a seurity guard at battery acid factory or a Glock salesmen, (Nothing Against Glock they make a fine Weapon).



>>>>>>>>>>>Moderator Please Kill This Tread<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


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## Effyouess (Sep 21, 2007)

That's unfortunate. I've had my MP9 full size since January and no problems. It was one of the later Rev N models (with all the kinks worked out) and I have around 2500 rounds through it with no problems mechanically or with the finish. Heck, it still looks new, barrel lug and everything. I'm not the most meticulous when it come to taking care of my guns. I clean them when I can, otherwise they sit in the case dirty after a range trip and still function flawlessly. 

I have heard the .45 MP's had some finish problems, but Smith has taken care of that issue apparently. 

Ciao,
Effy


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## STi (Oct 22, 2006)

I've had my M&P Compact since they 1st came out and i have 0 rust...I wipe it down with CLP.


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## JimmySays (Jun 8, 2007)

jamesr said:


> it couldn't even sit in room kept 70 degrees for one week.


How can you afford to keep your house at 70 degrees? You must have a monster electric bill. You might consider setting your thermostat to 75/76 and with the money you save pay someone else to clean your firearms. My.02


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

It is time for jamesr's post to die a normal Troll death. It appears he has returned to glockville where he will probably pour battery acid on a Taurus for his next foray out in the real world. :mrgreen:

:smt1099


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## Charlie (May 13, 2006)

:smt023 I agree................bury this baby!


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

I've got two stainless steel guns that have rusted up on me. My Sig was famous for surface rust until I started spraying it with Birchwood Casey's Baracade about once every six months (in its defense, it was a carry gun for work and did sit in soaked leather holsters when we got caught in the rain, nothing I could do. If the gun left the holster I was fired). Same with my S&W 686 (then just an indoor gun that was never carried). That poor thing even has some pitting on it. Got the surface rust off pretty easily, then shot them both down with Baracade. My other guns have gotten hit with it before any rust set in.


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## TxPhantom (May 6, 2006)

I guess if you keep your house at 70 degrees with one of those old squirel cage, swamp coolers you could have a lot of rust and mold problems on everything in the house. 
I've had a MP 40 since July of last year and a MP 9c since last December and I've not seen any rust on either. Of course I always clean my guns after every use and often wipe them down with a oily rag after just handling them. If rust ever appeared on any of my guns the last thing I would do is blame the manufacturer and torture myself by going out and buying a Glock!


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## ArmyCop (May 7, 2006)

teknoid said:


> I have had a M&P full size for 6 months, and carried it almost every day in heat, AC, humidity, rain, etc. It still looks the same as the day I adopted it, but I do take care of it. I doubt it's the gun's fault.


Pretty much same story as above quote with me.


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## spacedoggy (May 11, 2006)

The guy who started this thread I could not take seriously because it was his first post and only post and when you complain about something or a company It's just someone out to bad mouth. Now I have seen rust on a MP also. The Gander mtn store here has one with rust along with half the pistols under glass. When I buy from a gun store I check to see how they handle guns when they put them back. If all they have is the one shown and they don't wipe them down after each showing then I don't buy from them unless I can get a new one in the box. I don't understand Gander and feel it's one of the worst place to buy from. Beside being 200 or more above everyone else all their show guns are rusted. I cry when I see all these fantastic 1911 rusting away.

So this guy never posted again. I did see rust on the m&p but the glock none. The rust was where the barrel square area is. It wasn't much but enough to turn me off. I got some on the same area with my P99 C but cleaned it in time before the ever lasting pitting. Mind was covered in sweat everyday and not under a counter. If I like the m&p I would buy one from what has been said here. I doubt they are rust buckets when they are taken care of.

Back in the 70's and early 80's I always had problems with rust on any blued gun. Now a day it's not much of a concern.


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## hideit (Oct 3, 2007)

this is very similiar to what I was reading two weeks ago regarding an XD40

some parts sometimes get missed on certain treatments
the factory should back it up


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## hideit (Oct 3, 2007)

sorry it was not an XD
it was a pf9


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## 1geo (Nov 8, 2007)

*S&W or ?*

I was considering buying a S&W 457, after reading your article, I think I'll look around.


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## TxPhantom (May 6, 2006)

1geo said:


> I was considering buying a S&W 457, after reading your article, I think I'll look around.


While your looking around check out the MP forum ( http://mp-pistol.com/boards/portal.php ) to see what actual MP owners are saying instead of the guy that started this silly thread.


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## billt (Aug 19, 2007)

It seems the hard core S&W people are jumping on this guy, quick to claim it was his fault. He told you what he did. For a gun to rust that badly in 7 days is ridiculous. Most certainly call S&W. This kind of thing happened with a lot of Springfield XD's when they first came out. Glock has the Tennifer process, which can't be processed in this country because the EPA banned it. Glocks are treated with Tennifer in Austria, then assembled in Georgia. S&W should replace that handgun. It isn't as if you stored it in a leaky shack. Bill T.


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