Is the New S&W M&P a Double-Action-Only Pistol?

Recently a visitor to my website took me to task for calling the new Smith & Wesson M&P pistol a double-action-only (DAO) gun. And, indeed I did. For that matter I generally categorized all striker-fired pistols as double-action-only guns. This is probably due to my early distasteful experience with the Taurus Millennium, which is truly a double-action-only pistol.

The Taurus Millennium is actually the literal definition of what double-action-only means. The trigger action both cocks and fires the pistol with a single pull. It's a long and hard pull that draws the striker spring all the way back, and then finally releases it. The specific characteristic of the DAO trigger is that it will cock and release the striker every time you pull it. No other action is required, such as racking the slide. You can keep on pulling the trigger and that striker will keep on retracting and releasing.
 
For that matter, the trigger on a double-action/single-action (SA/DA) pistol performs the same cocking/firing function if the gun is not already cocked. It is only in the single-action pistol where the trigger pull just releases the firing device, and cocking must be performed separately. The most notable example of the single-action pistol is John Browning's classic 1911 semi-automatic.

So what's the deal with the M&P, or for that matter the whole family of striker fired pistols to which the M&P belongs? That family includes the S&W Sigma, the Glock and the Springfield Armory XD, just to name a few.  Well, I took the opportunity to fully disassemble these guns and see for myself.

While their triggers may have some length in their pull and they may not be as sensitive as a single-action match 1911 pistol, in all actuality these guns truly meet the definition of a single-action pistol.

First and foremost, you cannot cock the M&P, the Sigma, the Glock or the SA-XD by pulling the trigger. The striker in each of these guns can only be cocked by the action of racking the slide. Pulling the trigger only releases the striker to fire the gun. So by definition then, these guns have single-action triggers.

While the striker assemblies in these guns are very similar to each other, their trigger actions vary to some degree. The older trigger designs deployed in the Glock and the Sigma may have led to some of the double-action-only confusion. In those pistols the trigger does indeed push back a bit on the striker before releasing it. But, this is more a function of how the internal safeties in those pistols work, causing some reward motion on the sear before it can drop to release the striker. The strikers are otherwise fully cocked and the additional pressure that is applied in the process of tripping the sear is insignificant.

In both the M&P and the SA-XD though, the trigger applies no additional pressure to the striker for the sear to trip. In those pistols the sear rocks straight down when the trigger is pulled.

So, I stand corrected.  It appears that true double-action-only pistols are somewhat a rarity (and in my book should stay that way), and that the family of striker fired pistols that the M&P belongs to are indeed single-action pistols.

Any comments?

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 Update to PX4 Magazine Loader

I was recently informed by an associate on one of the gun forums that I regularly visit that Beretta sells a push-style magazine loader that fits the PX4 double-stack magazines. It can be found on the Beretta website at their online Pro Shop. Here's the LINK.

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 2005 - 2006 Handgun Price Comparison

Well, we finally made it through updating the pricing for all the handgun models that are in the Genitron Handgun Database. In general we saw prices go up anywhere from one to ten percent, although some prices held steady and a few actually dropped.

We looked at the 2006 retail prices of a selection of ten major manufacturers ' production models and compared them against their 2005 retail prices. Here's the list of companies with summaries of who's prices...
went down, held, or went up. The detailed list can be seen HERE.

		First up is Beretta, and they get a happy face. This is because Beretta's pricing dropped by an average of 6.5% across the product line in 2006, which is a pleasantly noticeable amount. Retail pricing dropped anywhere from $15 to $65 on various Beretta production models.
		Colt gets a happy face for having the most significant drop from 2005 pricing, a 9.5% decrease. This drop is only reflected in Colt's pistol line where savings range from $90 to $180 over 2005 pricing. Revolver prices had no change.
		CZ gets a pass for not changing any pricing of its product line between 2005 and 2006.
		Glock gets a pass for not changing any pricing of its product line between 2005 and 2006.
		Heckler & Koch gets a pass for not changing any pricing of its product line between 2005 and 2006.
		Even though the price didn't change for the P226, P229 and P232 models, we give the sad face to SIG for raising the price of the P220 and P245 by 5% and their 1911 GSR by a whopping 27%.
		Smith & Wesson gets a sad face for having the highest average price increase amongst the ten manufacturers. They average over a 5% increase across their entire product line. With their already high price, expect to pay on average about $35 more on each model.
		Springfield Armory is just behind Smith & Wesson with over a 5% increase across their entire product line as well. They get a sad face too. Expect to pay over $20 more for their XD series this year.
		Even though their pistol prices didn't change this year, Sturm Ruger gets a sad face for raising the price of their revolver line as much as 5%. Expect to pay $30 more for a Redhawk.
		Taurus was all over the place this year, but ended up with a sad face as their increases outweighed their decreases. Their Millennium Pro series had a significant price drop, which is understandable if you know the Pro. But it didn't offset their increases across the rest of the product line.

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 One Mean Magazine

I just finished reviewing the Beretta PX4 after finally getting some decent range time with the pistol. And boy did it shoot. I must say that I really did enjoy that gun. Loading it though, was a completely different story. Let me tell you that the magazines that came with the PX4 were the toughest  ones to load that I have ever come across. There was definitely no speed-loading  these guy's by hand, and that last round took about as much time to insert as all of the thirteen before it together took.

So I went on a quest to resolve this tough loading magazine problem, with the help of a good magazine speed loader… and a quest it was. It seems that these new double-stack high capacity magazines are just a hair wider than most. And so, just about every double-stack speed loader I could find on the market simply wouldn't fit.

Now this isn't just a problem with the Beretta PX4. I found that the Smith & Wesson M&P magazine is also slightly wider than most and has the same problem.

The first  loader that I tried was the HKS Lever-Action Speed Loader . This unit actually fit onto the PX4 magazine. But, being made of plastic, it was not strong enough to hold up to the pressure that the PX4 magazine spring asserted. And, after only about five load cycles the plastic around the lever pivot began to crack. Not good for the PX4 magazine, but it worked fine for the M&P magazine.

So I decided that maybe metal might be be the best way to go. The only metal loader I could find was the ProMag LDR01 double-stack loader. There are no moving parts or pivot points that could fail. This is one tough push style speed loader. The problem though is that it is too narrow. It will fit a Beretta 92 or 96 double-stack magazine, and even an SA XD 9mm/40SW/357SIG magazine. But it wouldn't fit over either the PX4 or M&P magazine.

Finally I picked up a SafariLand double-stack speed loader. This is a push style loader just like the ProMag loader, but it is made of plastic. Now  the plastic is pretty heavy and could stand up to the  stiff magazine spring, except like the ProMag, it's opening was also too narrow to slide over the PX4 magazine.

Fortunately though the Plastic SafariLand loader employs plastic spacer ribs inside its opening that align the magazine. I was able to use a small wood chisel and flat file to remove the spacer ribs from inside the loader's opening, and without those spacers, the SafariLand speed loader fit perfectly over both the PX4 and M&P magazine. This modified loader is now a permanent companioin to my PX4, and easily loads the magazine all the way to the last round.

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