Until this week, where they've been posting teaser photos of tiny portions of the gun for twelve minutes at noon each day.
There's been LOTS of speculation as to what it might be; the dreamers want a 10mm (how sweet would that be?), but the leading guess now is a single-stack 9mm compact. (For what it's worth, my guess was a mid-size similar to the Glock 19. I'm okay with being wrong.)
This image hit reddit today. No idea if it's a 'shop or legit, but it looks pretty sweet. "M&P9 SHIELD". Fits right in with the existing theme (Bodyguard .380, Shield 9mm...)
Interesting. Very interesting. Looks to be nearly the exact same size as my PM9, and has a +1 mag on it. If they can hit the price point right ($450-500 street) they'll have a winner. If the image is correct, this has a few key things the CM9 ($450ish street) is lacking, most notably a dovetailed front sight. The manual safety is a big negative to me, but they've offered ALL the other M&P autos both with and without the manual safety. Finally, I can't tell if that has a removable backstrap; it looks like it's missing the pin/plug at the back of the grip to make the change. That would be a pretty serious loss, since the interchangeable backstrap is one of the key selling points in the M&P line.
And, of course, this is all just speculation: we won't know until noon on the 12th!
4 comments:
I'll stick with my Kahr... I can't shoot any of the M&Ps without concentrating on it, because they don't point NPOA for me.
I'll have lots of pictures from the NRA convention, that's for sure!
(and if it ever gets MA-approved, you bet I will try to snag one for T&E!)
Is the lack of removable backstrap the sort of thing they might do to get the price point down?
The staggered release of tidbits of info is kinda fun. :-)
NFO - for giggles, after you posted that, I did a few quick draw-and-aim drills. Once I have a grip on the Kahr, it sure points naturally - but achieving that grip is more effort than the M&P. Six/half dozen, I reckon. Of course, my M&P is a compact .40, not the Shield... so we shall see.
Jay - I can't wait to see it. And hopefully a T&E around August... ;-)
MHA - the backstrap is absolutely the kind of thing to change price point; it means one molding instead of four, no pin to build and insert, etc. I'd agree with you on the staggered tidbits being fun except for the three week gap of nothing. They had tons of chatter in the usual places right after the video, and then people lost interest. If they'd dropped teaser photos every few days instead of waiting, they could have built a much bigger buzz. IMHO.
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