S&W m&p22 10rnd mag issues

[mchava]

Ok folks here is something for everyone to look at. I just recently got some extra 10rnd mags for my m&p22 from a thread on calguns. Another user posted some issues with his mag not being able to remove the floor plates to clean so I went to check mine out. All of the new mags were the same. I could not take to floor plate off with my fingers when depressing the pin. So I used a little force and tapped the floor plate out. Here is what I found, all of the mags had the floor plates glued to be perm attached. Don't know why s&w did this but I will call them tomorrow and find out. Here is the picture to show you what I found.

[SDM44]

You can use a hairdryer and heat up the floor plate area, and then work the floor plate off and the glue will give on its own.

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Thanks for making this its own thread, mchava. Yikes, that certainly looks "wrong" to have that glue there. The mag that came with my pistol worked normally - floor plate slid right off - and it didn't even have that annoying grease that these recently acquired mags have.

I have emailed S&W. You said you're going to call them. Why don't we both return to this thread when he have a response from S&W to post updates? I will certainly be using the info/photo you provided here if S&W doesn't have a full explanation in their first reply.

SDM44, that's interesting - I thought of applying some heat. But then I stopped and thought that these are brand-new mags, I'd like them to be good out of the box, and certainly don't want to do anything that is possibly damaging just to do an initial cleaning.

These things have certainly been scarce, and I expect "replacements" might take a while, if there's no easy home-remedy. But that might be nature's way of telling me to just put this pistol away until mags - and reasonably priced 22LR ammo - return to the market .....

[SoCal Choppas]

It's because SW doesn't want you to convert these 10 round mags to 12 round mags, so they sealed the mags.

10 round mags for the M&P 22lr pistol are actually 10/12round mags....like the AR 10/20 and 10/30mags

[SDM44]

SDM44, that's interesting - I thought of applying some heat. But then I stopped and thought that these are brand-new mags, I'd like them to be good out of the box, and certainly don't want to do anything that is possibly damaging just to do an initial cleaning.

Using a hair dyer is plenty of heat to loosen up most glues, and the pic above looks like a standard type of glue used (nothing like red loctite or JB weld). Also, a hair dryer isn't going to melt plastic, not unless you let it sit on the same spot for a few minutes, and even then it probably won't melt but will soften the plastic to where you can possibly change its shape if you press hard on it. The amount of heat that a standard hair dryer puts out usually won't allow that to happen.

That's why I recommended a hair dryer, and work around the area blowing it all over the floor plate - not just keeping it pointed in one spot the entire time. You won't ruin anything. I wouldn't use an industrial hear gun (a good 4x in temperature) or any open flame like a blow torch..... that's just asking for trouble, especially if you don't know what you're doing.


My M&P22 mags just got delivered to my work this weekend, so I'll take a look at them tomorrow night. I assume they'll also have glue on them, so I'll use a hair dryer and report back with the results.

[SDM44]

It's because SW doesn't want you to convert these 10 round mags to 12 round mags, so they sealed the mags

Well they did glue the spacer onto the follower on their 10rd mags, but left the floor plates unglued. That alone was good enough and legal, but it seems heating up that spacer and popping it off was too easy for most (lots of people I'm free states did that when 12rd mags were sold out for months last year, but 10rd mags were available).

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Hmm. "Sealing" the mags so they can't be converted from 10 to 12-rounders seems like an odd thing for a company to do with their product. It renders them useless for any use where they might get dirty - as in, action shoots where they will very likely be used. Hard for me to believe this is what S&W has in mind.

The mag that came with the pistol (bought just a few months before the imminent disappearance off the absurd CA "roster") has the "normal" floor-plate (that is, not glued on).

SDM44, thanks, depending on S&W's response I will try the hair-dryer method.

mchava - have you removed the glue? Does it come off easily?

[fast318]

Hmm. "Sealing" the mags so they can't be converted from 10 to 12-rounders seems like an odd thing for a company to do with their product. It renders them useless for any use where they might get dirty - as in, action shoots where they will very likely be used. Hard for me to believe this is what S&W has in mind.

The mag that came with the pistol (bought just a few months before the imminent disappearance off the absurd CA "roster") has the "normal" floor-plate (that is, not glued on).

SDM44, thanks, depending on S&W's response I will try the hair-dryer method.

mchava - have you removed the glue? Does it come off easily?

I didn't use a hairdryer on mine, all I did was put it on a mouse pad on the edge of my nightstand and gave it a couple of whacks with a gunsmithing hammer. I used the short end of an allen wrench to depress the base plate plunger while the floor plate got tapped.

[mchava]

The glue does come off easy so it not really permanent. After I disassembled mine I took a xacto knife and it peeled right off. I still haven't had the chance to call s&w but will try once I am off work later in the afternoon.

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Thanks all. Did not hear back from S&W today, but I do know they received the email as a I got a ticket # auto-reply.

Going to hold off doing anything until more "official" info is available.

However, sounds like the floor-plates can be removed, the glue cleaned away, and the mags will be usable.

Probably will use a combo of hair-dryer/heating and fast318's allen wrench/rubber hammer technique. We'll see.

[deckhandmike]

Those mags get filthy too. One of the few mags I actually have to clean. I would be furious if that's a factory mod.

[16in50calNavalRifle]

OK, so S&W responded to my email. They were surprised at the problem, said that no glue was supposed to be used to keep the floor-plate on, and said they might want to look at the mags. I took the liberty of sending in your photo from above, mchava. Also mentioned that others who posted above had encountered the problem and used some force to remove the floor-plates.

For many reasons my M&P 22 can sit idle for a bit, so I won't mind sending in my mags if S&W wants to look them over. We'll see.

mchava, did you call them yet?

[mchava]

Yes I was told the same thing and they were going to look into it. I did take the mag to the range today and they are working fine so not sure what the deal is. Might hAve been a mistake on some one part at s&w.

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Thanks, mchava. My completely unfounded speculation is that, as you say, it was just a glitch by someone at Walther. Normally I don't hesitate to "fix" things like this myself, but as I'm in no great hurry to use these extra mags, I'll just wait and see what S&W says. Glad to hear yours worked normally at the range.

[16in50calNavalRifle]

S&W emailed me today and asked me to send in the mags for evaluation and replacement. So, there we are. Obviously more time and hassle than just prying them apart myself, as some of you have done. I'll look up this thread when the saga ends and let you all know how it turned out, for future reference by other M&P 22 owners.