LA Sheriff's Department Pulls M&P Pistols

From M4Carbine.net, an officer safety release on the M&P 9mm pistols having issues:

FROM: XXXX 04/29/09 12:40:15

SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT BROADCASTANNOUNCEMENT TRAINING BUREAU
WEAPONS TRAINING
TO: ALL CONCERNED PERSONNEL

SUBJECT: OFFICER SAFETY ALERT – SMITH & WESSON M&P PISTOLS

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS HAVE FORCED A DEPARTMENTAL RE-EVALUATION OF THE SMITH & WESSON 9MM M&P SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL AS AN AUTHORIZED OPTIONAL HANDGUN FOR SWORN PERSONNEL.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE SMITH & WESSON 9MM M&P FULL SIZE PISTOL IS NO LONGER AN AUTHORIZED OPTIONAL ON-DUTY PISTOL.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THE SMITH & WESSON 9MM M&P COMPACT PISTOL IS NO LONGER AN AUTHORIZED OPTIONAL OFF-DUTY PISTOL.

SINCE FIRST APPROVAL AS AN OPTIONAL PISTOL ON DECEMBER 10, 2008, THE FULL-SIZED AND/OR COMPACT VERSIONS OF THE 9MM SMITH & WESSON M&P PISTOL HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED BY 49 SWORN PERSONNEL ON AND OFF DUTY. ONE OF THESE PISTOLS WAS DELIVERED NEW WITH AN IMPROPERLY MACHINED BARREL THAT WOULD NOT EJECT SPENT CARTRIDGE CASINGS. ANOTHER OF THESE PISTOLS EXPERIENCED A BARREL FAILURE IN MID-APRIL OF THIS YEAR. AFTER FIRING LESS THAN 10,000 ROUNDS OF TRAINING AMMUNITION. THIS PISTOL BARREL BROKE INTO TWO PIECES JUST AHEAD OF THE FIRING CHAMBER.

ADDITIONALLY, A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF DEPUTY ACADEMY CLASS #XXX RECRUITS WITH ISSUED NEW SMITH & WESSON 9MM M&P FULL-SIZE PISTOLS HAVE EXPERIENCED PHASE-2 PISTOL MALFUNCTIONS, CAUSED BY SPENT CASINGS FAILING TO EXTRACT FROM BARREL CHAMBERS, DURING THE PAST TWO WEEKS OF TRAINING. CLASS #XXX RECRUITS WILL BE ISSUED BERETTA 92FS PISTOLS ON WEDNESDAY APRIL 29, 2009, AND THEIR M&P PISTOLS REMOVED FROM SERVICE.

PERSONNEL SAFETY AND RELIABLE EQUIPMENT REMAIN OUR PRIMARY CONCERNS.

DIRECT ANY QUESTIONS (removed for PERSEC) AT THE B.C. RANGE.

XXXXX X. XXXX, SHERIFF LRR/SNDG

I’m interested to hear what S&W has to say about this; from everything I’ve heard about the M&P 9mm pistols, this is extremely unusual behavior. A test sample of the M&P fired over 60,000 rounds before the slide cracked. Very interesting.

8 Comments

  1. I’ve not fired 10,000 rounds through my S&W 9MM Compact, closer to 700, but I’ve not had any fail to extract, fail to feed nor mag retention issues with mine. I purchased mine new, new manufacture, last November in 2008.

    I too would like to hear what S&W has to say. I’m visiting the S&W forum next after this comment.

  2. dockbot – your gun is probably fine. Like I said before, there are a lot of M&P 9mms in circulation, and quite a few of them are in the hands of hardcore USPSA shooters, I’ve not heard any reports of these guns blowing up from those guys.

  3. Not in the same caliber, but Milwaukee PD is switching from the Glock 22 to the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 this week.

    One switches from M&P and one switches to M&P.

  4. I’ve shot 200+ rounds a month for the last 18 months through my M&P 9mm (full size) without a hiccup.

  5. Two years (2007) ago the Illinois State Police ordered over 1,000 Glock 19’s and 17’s. They had to send the whole shipment back for failure-to-feed issues. I have also seen Glock 22’s and 23’s have failures with their extractors–and NYPD had huge issues back in 1996 with a shipment of 26,000 Glock 19’s. Check out http://www.thegunzone.com they keep a list of articles of Glock failures.

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