M&p vs Glock?

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beastep

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Taken from a Glock Forum:

“Glock advises against using lead bullets in their polygonally rifled barrels, which has led to a widespread belief that polygonal rifling is not compatible with lead bullets. Firearms expert and barrel maker, the late Gale McMillan, has also commented that lead bullets and polygonal rifling are not a good mix. Neither H&K nor Kahr explicitly recommend against lead bullets in their polygonal rifled barrels, suggesting that there might be an additional factor involved in Glock's warning. Kahr's warns that lead bullets can cause additional fouling and recommends special attention to cleaning after their use. While H&K doesn't insist on a copper jacket, at least one well-documented catastrophic incident in an H&K pistol may be related to this issue. Furthermore, Dave Spaulding, well-known gun writer, reported in the February/March 2008 issue of Handguns Magazine that when he queried H&K about their polygonally rifled barrels that they commented: "It has been their experience that polygonal rifling will foul with lead at a greater rate than will conventional rifling."

One suggestion of what the "additional factor involved in Glock's warning" might be is that Glock barrels have a fairly sharp transition between the chamber and the rifling, and this area is prone to lead buildup if lead bullets are used. This buildup may result in failures to fully return to battery, allowing the gun to fire with the case not fully supported by the chamber, leading to a potentially dangerous case failure. However, since this sharp transition is found on most autopistols this speculation is of limited value. The sharp transition or "lip" at the front of the chamber is required to "headspace" the cartridge in most autopistols.

Another possible explanation is that there are different "species" of polygonal rifle and perhaps Glock's peculiar style of polygonal rifling may be more prone to leading than the particular styles employed in the H&K and Kahr barrels.”

I shoot lead in mine all the time.
 

Shadowrider

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Guide rod yes, slide and barrel not so much. A stainless slide and barrel aren't as strong as 4150 slide and barrel that are on the Glock. Plus the Glock barrel is cold hammer forged.

The only benefit of stainless is the corrosion resistance, but the Nitriding on the slide and barrel destroys that resistance. Even though the Nitriding itself is corrosion resistant and surface hardens the steel.

Nitrided steel only has a micro thin surface hardness though. The Glock slide that is 4150 steel is harder throughout the steel. THe cold hammer forged barrel is also harder through out.

Does it make a difference? Yes, if you shoot 1000 or more, rds through one gun a month. And yeah there are some guys that shoot that much.

Even the glock not having a stainless guide rod is going to shoot many thousands of rounds without a stainless guide rod upgrade, which are pretty cheap by the way.

The M&P is still a excellent gun, but its not a glock. You dont hear stories on the net about M&Ps having 50,000 plus rds through the barrel like Glocks do.

For general purposes, you could go with either one and never notice a difference between the two. The same goes with any of the top names, like Walther, HK, Sig, etc.
Gotta correct some stuff here.

The M&P's stainless slide and barrel are heat treated through before it goes to nitride finish. I don't know what specific steel they use or what heat treat condition they take it to, but it's just wrong to say that stainless isn't as good as 4150. I've machined tons of precipitation hardened stainless heat treated to 205KSI which is quite hard and a real ***** to machine. Higher chromium grades can go higher than that but very much higher and you are talking about grinding or EDM rather than cutting with a cutting tool.

I also know a guy that shoots about 30k a year and most of that goes through his M&Ps. There is a thread on another forum where they shot over 60K through a M&P 9. I believe the slide cracked at 63k rounds. I've seen where Glock slides cracked at 20K. Every brand has quirks either way but the M&P is every bit as durable as Glock if not even more so.
 

rc508pir

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Gotta correct some stuff here.

The M&P's stainless slide and barrel are heat treated through before it goes to nitride finish. I don't know what specific steel they use or what heat treat condition they take it to, but it's just wrong to say that stainless isn't as good as 4150. I've machined tons of precipitation hardened stainless heat treated to 205KSI which is quite hard and a real ***** to machine. Higher chromium grades can go higher than that but very much higher and you are talking about grinding or EDM rather than cutting with a cutting tool.

I also know a guy that shoots about 30k a year and most of that goes through his M&Ps. There is a thread on another forum where they shot over 60K through a M&P 9. I believe the slide cracked at 63k rounds. I've seen where Glock slides cracked at 20K. Every brand has quirks either way but the M&P is every bit as durable as Glock if not even more so.
They are 416 stainless and no, stainless isn't near as good as 4150. Yes you can heat treat stainless to be NEAR as hard as 4150 but that totally destroys the corrosion resistance. Also of you notice, A M&P is thicker and heavier than the Glock slide. It has to be to hold up. THe fact is that Stainless gun parts are not heat treated to the hardness of 4140 or 4150. To get that hardness they nitride them for surface hardness and call it good.

There are also lots of Glock slides that have gone over 100k rds
 

Snake

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Read Chuck Taylors longtime report on a Glock 17 he set out to destroy. He finally gave up and the only malfunctions were one of the mags was so worn it wouldn't lock back anymore and the front sight had worn down some from so many presentations. Won't change the haters minds but I'll stick with my proven Glocks. I trust my life to a Glock. Can you say the same about whatever you carry with confidence?
 

druryj

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Read Chuck Taylors longtime report on a Glock 17 he set out to destroy. He finally gave up and the only malfunctions were one of the mags was so worn it wouldn't lock back anymore and the front sight had worn down some from so many presentations. Won't change the haters minds but I'll stick with my proven Glocks. I trust my life to a Glock. Can you say the same about whatever you carry with confidence?

I would trust defending myself with any of the name brand guns like Glock, SIG, S&W, Beretta, HK, CZ, Springfield, etc. Let's take the junk guns like Jimenez, Bryco, Davis, Lorcin, out of the mix. I think this whole Glock vs M&P thing is all about personal preference, not so much as which one is "better," has the longer lasting barrel, (as if any of us will ever shoot one smooth anyway), or whatever.
 

zghorner

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I would trust defending myself with any of the name brand guns like Glock, SIG, S&W, Beretta, HK, CZ, Springfield, etc. Let's take the junk guns like Jimenez, Bryco, Davis, Lorcin, out of the mix. I think this whole Glock vs M&P thing is all about personal preference, not so much as which one is "better," has the longer lasting barrel, (as if any of us will ever shoot one smooth anyway), or whatever.
agreed. they all basically do the exact same thing the exact same way. I go with glock for the aftermarket support and parts availability...I shoot my 19 and 34 the same I did my P-01 and 75B, mediocre at best lol.
 

JD8

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Read Chuck Taylors longtime report on a Glock 17 he set out to destroy. He finally gave up and the only malfunctions were one of the mags was so worn it wouldn't lock back anymore and the front sight had worn down some from so many presentations. Won't change the haters minds but I'll stick with my proven Glocks. I trust my life to a Glock. Can you say the same about whatever you carry with confidence?

They should have taken him to the NYC where Glock had sent a trailer they had set up for nearly a year fixing all the NYC guns. Not a hater, probably owned every glock out there at some point until the 4th gens were out. Personally, I had one of the 3G G22s that wouldn't run right with a WML, also have a G30SF that had the FTRB issues. Got tired of Glock refusing to acknowledge issues and sweeping them under the rug and moved on.

In terms of Glock vs M&P, M&P has upped their game with the 2.0 guns whereas I'm not sure what glock is doing.... G19x??? WTF lol. If glock would come out with a platform with a truly modular grip system, halfway decent sights, and a halfway decent trigger they'd corner the market. But they aren't the brightest when it comes to market trends. By the time they entered the single stack 9 market, S&W had sold 1 million Shields. God knows all they had to do for years was produce a G43 and a Carbine that takes glock mags and there would be a line around the corner of every shop.
 

druryj

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They should have taken him to the NYC where Glock had sent a trailer they had set up for nearly a year fixing all the NYC guns. Not a hater, probably owned every glock out there at some point until the 4th gens were out. Personally, I had one of the 3G G22s that wouldn't run right with a WML, also have a G30SF that had the FTRB issues. Got tired of Glock refusing to acknowledge issues and sweeping them under the rug and moved on.

In terms of Glock vs M&P, M&P has upped their game with the 2.0 guns whereas I'm not sure what glock is doing.... G19x??? WTF lol. If glock would come out with a platform with a truly modular grip system, halfway decent sights, and a halfway decent trigger they'd corner the market. But they aren't the brightest when it comes to market trends. By the time they entered the single stack 9 market, S&W had sold 1 million Shields. God knows all they had to do for years was produce a G43 and a Carbine that takes glock mags and there would be a line around the corner of every shop.

Okay. You've convinced me.
 

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