The Smith & Wesson M&P is a series of polymer framed semi-automatic pistols. It is also a line of AR-15 rifles produced by Smith & Wesson. The M&P, or Military and Police, designation, is all of those things. But for most of that trademark’s history, the M&P described a medium-frame .38 Special revolver. The M&P .38 has been in continuous production since 1899, although the exact lines and nomenclatures have changed with every generation. It is the M&P, a Hand Ejector model, the Victory Model, and finally, the Model 10. No matter what it was called, the M&P revolver was intended as a military and police pistol. It found success that translated over to the shooting public. This unassuming six-shooter became the generic handgun of the 20th century just as the Glock or modern M&P has so far with the 21st. Follow along as we explore the history of the Smith & Wesson M&P.
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Where Did the Smith & Wesson M&P Come From?
Smith & Wesson’s longstanding rivalry with Colt is a century and a half on and still going. In the 1890s, Smith was running behind Colt, who had pioneered the first American revolver with a swing-out cylinder and simultaneous hand ejection. The Model 1889 was subsequently improved and adopted by the US Army in 1892 and the Navy followed suit. The Colt New Army and Navy revolvers also found their way onto the civilian market and it made in roads as strong, fast shooting design that could be rapidly reloaded. Smith & Wesson answered in 1896 with a hand ejector model of their own–the First Model Hand Ejector in .32 S&W Long. It was a small framed handgun that could not compete directly with the larger .38 caliber Colts.
After the sinking of the USS Maine in Febuary 1898, the US government approached Daniel Wesson to develop a new .38 caliber handgun. The Colt guns that were standard issue with the Army and Navy were experiencing pronounced mechanical wear and the start of hostilities spurred the government to contract with Wesson for 3,000 revolvers.
The handgun Wesson came up with is the M&P, which hit the market in 1899. It was an improved handgun over the Colt and Wesson also improved on the .38 Long Colt cartridge by chambering his new handgun in the new .38 S&W Special. But by then, the Spanish-American War had ceased and the Army became embroiled in the Philippine-American War and the .38 Colt cartridge was found to be lacking in power. That prompted the Army to start a twelve-year effort to replace it.
The M&P appeared to be the solution to the Colt problem, when, in fact, it debuted before the war heated up and complaints with the Colt materialized. Nonetheless, Smith & Wesson’s M&P designation demonstrated they wanted to compete. The M&P was a stronger gun and the .38 Special cartridge, consisting of a 158-grain bullet traveling at over 800 feet per second, was heavier and more powerful than the .38 Colt. But within a few years, the M&P was out of the running as the Army wanted a bigger bore. With domestic military sales not forthcoming, Smith & Wesson reoriented their new revolver toward police use. At that, it was an unqualified success.
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The Long Career of the Smith & Wesson M&P
Law enforcement at the turn of the 20th century were starting to compare notes and adopt more effective and uniform police pistols. That started with major metro forces in New York, Chicago, and Baltimore adopting Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers chambered in .32 caliber. As this was ongoing, the Smith & Wesson M&P arrived on the scene and offered a much more powerful alternative in the .38 Special cartridge. By 1908, Colt had given up the ghost on its own .38 caliber cartridges and developed their own revolvers to take the .38 Special round. The Colt was initially more popular, but the M&P started to gain traction when the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner to the FBI, issued their agents with Smith’s gun. The replacement of .32 revolvers with .38s and the competition between Colt and Smith continued in earnest, as either revolver became the most popular authorized sidearms from federal to state to local law enforcement. That popularity would last for decades and would filter down to the shooting public.
Initial Design Changes
Although its overall function and lines remained the same, there were some small engineering changes to early M&P revolvers. The Model 1899 had an exposed ejector rod and a leaf spring that rebounded the trigger and hammer. The 1902 model added an underlug under the barrel that locks the ejector rod in place. The Model 1905 did away with the leaf spring in favor of a coil spring and rebound slide. In 1915, the Model 1905 was given a hammer block safety to prevent accidental discharge. In 1918, Smith & Wesson began to heat treat the cylinder of the M&P to reduce wear on the cylinder notches.
From Police Pistol to Military Service: The M&P Goes to War
This perfected M&P would continue in production and see its first large scale military contracts after the outbreak of World War II. The British Purchasing Commission contracted with Smith & Wesson to produce a 4-6 inch barreled M&Ps chambered in the .38-200 cartridge. The United States entered World War II in December 1941 and nationalized the weapons industry. Existing stocks of Model 1905s were purchased by the US Navy and Marine Corps, while the US government contracted with Smith & Wesson to produce the model for general issue as a substitute for the standard Colt 1911 and as an arm for defense industry security personnel at home. This revolver came to be known as the Victory Model, as it had the suffix V in the serial number and a parkerized finish instead of the factory blue. Otherwise, it was a stock 4 inch barreled M&P.
The 5 inch .38-200 M&P continued in production as well and were given as Lend Lease Aid to British and Commonwealth forces, while the American Victory Model was issued to DOD security units at home to guard factories and facilities as well as a substitute standard where the Colt M1911 was unavailable or undesirable. By the end of the war, Smith & Wesson had produced over 800,000 of these revolvers. Toward the end of the war in 1945, an improved hammer block safety was added and the post-war years saw a greater broadening of the design.
The Post-War Era: The Smith & Wesson M&P Becomes the Model 10
Smith & Wesson continued to produce the M&P for the Commonwealth after the war and the M&P line expanded at home. The immediate post-war years saw the creation of the K-22, a .22 caliber revolver built on the M&P’s K-frame. Likewise, the Combat and Target Masterpiece revolvers were introduced in the late 1940s. These K-frame .38s featured adjustable target sights and 4-to-6-inch barrels respectively, although other barrel lengths would also be offered.
In 1957, Smith & Wesson renamed their line of revolvers numerically. The Chief’s Special became the Model 36. The Combat Masterpiece became the Model 15. The fixed-sighted M&P became the Model 10. In subsequent years, each slight engineering change was denoted on the cylinder yoke with a dash. The Model 10 continued in production in barrel lengths ranging from 2 inches to 6 inches, but the 4 inch model predominated.
Through the 1960s, Colt began to lose its market share in the revolver market. In 1969, the Model 10’s chief competitor, the Colt Official Police, was discontinued. The Model 10 in .38 Special became even more prolific, particularly with urban police departments where the more powerful .357 Magnum cartridge was seen as a liability.
In 1962, the K-frame line was given a boost when the USAF, under heavy pressure from revolver enthusiast Gen. Curtis LeMay, adopted the Model 15 revolver as its general issue handgun. The US government continued to purchase small lots of Model 10 revolvers for military police, security guards, and aircrewman.
That same year, starting with the Model 10-5, the distinctive half-moon front sight was replaced with a serrated ramp and the rear fixed sight was enlarged to a deep square notch. The following year, a heavy barreled version of the Model 10 was introduced alongside the standard tapered barreled model. In 1970, both versions of the Model 10 were made in stainless steel. This model became collectively known as the Model 64, which remained into production until a few short years ago.
The bull-barreled Model 10 became a test platform for what would become the Model 13 chambered for the .357 Magnum cartridge. The Model 13 was introduced with the New York State Police in mind in 1974. In 1980, the FBI began issuing the Model 13 to its field agents. But through that decade, police departments began to look more seriously at higher capacity semi-auto pistols. In the aftermath of the 1986 Miami Dade Shootout, the FBI replaced their revolvers with semi-autos in 1990. Law enforcement departments around the country followed their lead.
In 1985, the US Army adopted the Beretta 92 9mm pistol to replace its stock of aging 1911 pistols. As the 1911 began to leave the service, thousands of M&P .38s, some of which dated back to World War II, left with them.
Smith & Wesson Model 10 For Sale
Where to Find Your S&W M&P
The M&P .38 Special Today
The M&P/Model 10 family of revolvers are the most produced handgun of the twentieth century, with over six million units and counting. Shrinking interest in revolvers led to gradual discontinuation of the K-frame line up. The Model 10 itself continued on until it was discontinued in 2010, at which time another handgun became the face of the M&P brand–the M&P polymer framed pistol in 9mm. But in 2012, the 4-inch bull barreled Model 10 returned to limited production as part of Smith & Wesson’s Classic Series. In recent years, interest in revolvers has piqued and it is fitting that the one that defined the genre is still with us.
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