The New Smith & Wesson M&P .22 LR Pistol

Hello everyone! Today we will be looking at the new Smith & Wesson M&P Pistol chambered in .22 Long Rifle:

The S&W M&P .22 LR Pistol

The S&W M&P .22 is chambered in .22 Long Rifle caliber and is based upon S&W's highly successful line of M&P service-style automatic pistols.  Primarily intended as a sub-caliber trainer to a larger M&P service pistol, the M&P captures the look and feel of the it's larger caliber brothers, while shooting the relatively inexpensive .22 LR cartridge.

 The M&P 22 is a striker fired pistol just like the larger caliber M&P's.  This is notable, as there really aren't that many .22 LR pistols out there that use the striker-firing mechanism, with most using a conventional hammer firing system or other proprietary method.

All controls are in the same location as the larger-caliber M&P's.

The M&P .22 comes with all the controls in the same exact locations as the larger caliber M&P. This is an important feature, as it allows all the training conducted with the sub-caliber M&P .22 to be transferred over to the larger duty-sized M&P pistol, thereby allowing for inexpensive practice with the same techniques used on the duty gun. One notable difference is that there is NO magazine safety on the M&P .22, where the larger caliber M&P comes with a magazine safety.  Also, on the larger caliber M&P's the manual safety is a factory option, but on the M&P .22 the ambidextrous manual thumb safety is standard.

A thread adaptor is required for attachment of suppressors using a standard 1/2x28 thread pattern.

The folks at S&W also took into account the ever-growing market for sound suppressors and made a threaded barrel standard on the M&P .22. This allows those who have .22 LR suppressors to use those devices with the M&P .22 pistol very easily.  The threads on the M&P .22 are NOT your standard 1/2x28 thread pattern; therefore, a thread adaptor is required for the use of a suppressor using the standard thread pattern.

The M&P with suppressor attached.

One more thing worth mentioning when using a sound suppressor with the M&P .22 is that most .22 LR suppressors will allow for the use of the standard sights on the M&P .22.  Typically, a special tall front sight blade is needed to allow for the use of iron sights with suppressors. In the case of the M&P .22 with the .22 LR suppressor, the sights are easily visible with the suppressor attached to the pistol.

Unlike some guns, even when the suppressor is attached, the standard iron sights can still be used.

 In roughly 150 rounds fired with the M&P .22 both suppressed and unsuppressed, the pistol has been utterly reliable. With the suppressor attached and the proper ammunition loaded in the gun, the report is minimal, similar to a loud cough.  The only real negative thing I can find with the gun is that the trigger is really quite heavy and has a spongy feel to it.  However, this was not too detrimental to accuracy, and you may find the trigger will feel fine to you. Purely a personal thing.

All in all, the Smith & Wesson M&P .22 LR pistol is a fine handgun.  It is extremely useful for inexpensive practice with a pistol almost identical to the full size M&P line of handguns, but would also serve as a fun plinking handgun. Smith & Wesson has hit a home run with this .22 LR pistol, and hopefully their innovation continues to put out more products like this one.

-Michad