M&p gurus out there. Difference between my m&ps

[Paul053]

Before anyone chimes in I did a search for m&p dots and generation nothing came up for my answer. I traded my glock 34 a few months ago for a M&p 9mm which has me drinking the m&p kool-aid especially with the apex fatty trigger. I just bought a backup m&p9 and brought it home tonight.

Ad I'm cleaning it I notice a few things. My first m&p9 mm had these humps on the slide release where as my latest one doesnt. In addition the one I just brought home has two vertices dots in the slide, whereas my first has two horizontal dots. Lastly my first m&p9 mm says "S&w spfld ma" just forward of the frame rails where as the new one does not. What do all these markings mean? Is one a different generation than the other?

[CWM4A1]

Your "New" one may appear to be the older version, not the newer version. The slide stop "bump" is there to press against trigger bar to create more positive reset. Your "Old" one may also sport the new H stamped trigger bar as oppose to the older "s" stamped trigger bar.

Don't know about the dot on the slide though.

[rsrocket1]

The dots on the slide are simply codes to indicate which machine the slide was made on. For tracking quality control most likely. Same with the dots on the frame.

As CWM4A1 said, your older gun seems to have more modern parts. I've noticed that on M&P's. Sometimes you'll get parts that were superseded several years prior to the making of your particular gun such as the small spring sear housing block or the old trigger bar or slide release. No matter, S&W does not guarantee the latest parts in their latest gun, they simply guarantee the gun will work within specs and replace/fix anything that breaks or wears out for life.

[CWM4A1]

First M&P9 I bought was back in 2013, 2nd one in mid 2015. 2nd one has the new internal: slide stop with bump, H stamped trigger bar and the PRO series sear.

The M&P9 PRO I bought in late 2014 before SSE stopped has the older style slide stop and S-stamped trigger bar as well.

If it's the previously CA approved model (with capability accept manual safety), APEX RAM kit cannot be installed, so the only option to improve reset is to upgrade to the new style slide stop and H stamped trigger bar. G&R Tactical has the new parts but they are constantly out of stock. I was lucky to get 2 to upgrade mine.

[tduck72]

Yep

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[Legasat]

There are multiple generations of M&P's. They keep track internally, but I have never seen anything published about the differences.

[rlmxracer]

The slide stop with the bump appears to me to fix a breakage issue they have. It looks thicker where the slide rides over the top of it. I have broke 3 slide releases on my early gen .40 and .45 M&Ps. My guns have always broke the ejection side of the slide release (the side I never touch as a right hander) I might send my .45 back for repair now that I see they have a replacement that at least looks more durable.