BOULDER CITY, Nevada -- Smith & Wesson put its new M&P M2.0 pistol on the range for the first time at SHOT Show 2017.
This is the first upgrade to the M&P since the company introduced it about 10 years ago.
The M2.0 pistol features new, aggressively textured grips, forward cocking serrations on the front of the slide and a new two-piece slide-stop design.
“It’s a stronger slide stop design,” said Jan Mladek, general manager of Smith & Wesson’s M&P brand. The current M&P slide stop has a tendency disengage when a new magazine is slammed hard into place. The new assembly will prevent that, Mladek said.
The M2.0 pistol also has an extended steel skeleton in the frame to make the polymer frame more rigid. The M&P has always had an embedded stainless steel chassis, Mladek said. The new design just extends the steel chassis out further.
It also has an improved trigger, a feature many users of the original design have longed for over the last decade. One of the key criticisms of the M&P’s trigger is that it’s much more difficult to sense it reset compared to the Glock trigger.
“It’s a lighter, crisper trigger pull,” Mladek said. “It has a nice tactile, audible reset.”
I only got to shoot a few rounds through the 2.0, but the improvements, especially the new trigger, will likely please M&P fans.
The M2.0 pistol retails for $599, compared to the original M&P’s $560 price tag.
