Things I hate about the M&P 9c

[pistolero805]

Sounds like you may be limp wristing. I have seen this happen on multiple occasions.

[Knomad]

I think the getting hit in the forehead thing is a shooter caused issue. Easiest way to find out is to get a firearms instructor to shoot a few magazines through it. If a trained shooter experiences the same problem it is the gun. If not, then it is you. I'm not insulting you - just passing on some information. I've seen a lot of new shooters, especially women for some reason, have the exact same issue with Glocks. I'm told it is their grip. New shooters do what feels right. And a proper grip and stance, is not something you come to naturally. It is learned. The hot brass to the face thing is not something I've personally experience, but I've seen it happen to a lot of new shooters in courses and watched instructors help them iron it. I was so focused on improving my own shooting abilities I didn't memorize what they were being told to do to correct it. But it all boiled down to getting the fundamentals right.

I agree a Magazine disconnect is a LOUSY idea. It can get you killed in a firefight. You've done your after action drills, you're toping off the gun by reloading, and just as you drop your mostly spent magazine a bad guy pops up from being a dumpster and takes a shot at you...and even though you see him you can't make use of the one round in the chamber to return fire. It is a liberal enforced safety measure for new guns to get listed on the California Safe Handgun roster. Don't like it - vote Republican!

The Glock trigger is actually night and day better in actual practice. Yes it feels crunchy. But it is lighter, and has a shorter rest. Two very important criteria in determining which is "best". What "feels good" is often a way to end up buying the exact opposite of what you want in a gun fight. That's why the common advice of "go to a gun shop and buy what feels good" is probably the absolute worst advice somebody can give. There are just so many more important criteria when buying a defensive handgun. Feeling so wonderful it might as well be sex is just not high on the list of priorities for an experienced shooter.

Honestly the solution to your issues in my opinion, or at least the first step in diagnosing them, is to take a professional defensive handgun course. If you master the fundamentals of grip, stance, etc that getting popped in the head thing will probably go away and you'll find good workable solutions to the presence of the magazine disconnect - unless it is a bad extractor. But I am a blame the shooter first and the gun second kinda guy. 99.99999999% of the time life proves that theory right.

M&Ps are a VERY well made gun. Vastly superior to most guns on the market in my opinion. They are striker fired, which I consider an exceptional design, and one of the best striker fired guns on the market. I personally prefer the Glock, but I wouldn't balk at an M&P is handed one. Odds are one will end up in my collection in the coming years. The Shield in particular looks appealing to me. So before you sell it at a loss - get a really skilled firearms instructor to give it a go. If they don't experience the same problem then you know you just need to take a course and get a nice solid foundation built up.

Again, not trying to insult you. It's just you're describing a problem most commonly attributed to people who don't have the fundamentals mastered so I have to assume that's the case.

Wow, in just one post I gave women, plinkers who think they are too good for a course, liberals, and Glock haters a reason to flame me. But I stand by my comments. You have a good gun. Best case you take a really fun shooting course, learn a ton, and problem goes away. Worst case you end up replacing an extractor. Sounds like a win to me.

Actually the brass to face issue is well documented and not all that uncommon with late gen 3 and gen 4 9mm Glocks, and it's related to the MIM extractors (and secondarily, a few other things). Limpwristing isn't good, but on a bad Glock the firmest grip possible won't make the problem go away. Usually on a G19 or G17 an Apex extractor fixes the issue. I had a G26 that was unfixable, last I heard Apex was still working on a solution for the subcompact model.

My M&P experience is limited to full size guns (and to helping a lady clear a FTE on a Shield last week while I was on RSO duty), but I'm not surprised to read that in this case it appears to be an ammo-related issue. It could be underpowered loads or a bad batch, or the extractor may just not like the configuration of the cartridge on that brand of brass.

Although my M&P 45 has never hit me in the face with brass, it did have an occasional FTE... not often, but three times in several hundred rounds is too many for a defense gun. I put an Apex FRE extractor in the gun, and it now ejects much more strongly and consistently and there have been no issues since the installation. Since M&P 45's aren't really known for extraction issues, this suggests that some very small percentage of guns get slightly out of tolerance extractors. It's a relatively inexpensive and quick fix, and I'll probably swap out the extractor on any future M&P's just to be sure.