Back in November 2010 I bought a M&P 9L.  I ran 2000 rounds without cleaning to break it in and see if anything would fail.  Well it's broken in nicely and nothing failed although I did add APEX parts and swapped the sights a couple of times.

I included my notes and musings for reference.  

I also cleaned it when I got home today.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be.  The barrel is tougher to clean than the GLOCK's but the rest was not bad.  In fact, when I have run my GLOCK for 1000s of rounds it is way dirtier than the M&P.  Pre-clean pics are at the end of the thread.

Date                  Rounds    Ammo                            Notes

27-Nov-10  200    WWB 115

Just got back from running 200 rounds through the M&P. Bone stock, I was very impressed. I shoot it better than I shoot my Glocks. I do however hit low if I switch to auto pilot due to 20 years of Glocking. The Apex parts are inbound and should make that decent trigger better. The reason I shoot it better has to be the way it fits in my hand, it is very natural. I tried all three grip sizes and went with the medium as I shot the best with it even the  large "felt" better. I am pretty siked about my initial results. I will post more as changes are made and how well I am adapting.  Dummy rounds mixed in with live rounds are helping.  I have to hold 1.5" high at 7 yards.

4-Dec-10  300         WWB 115

With Apex parts installed.  Noticeable difference.  Gun is smothing out.  I am shooting it very well.  Does not look good for me keeping the GLOCK 34.

11-Dec-10 100Fiocchi

30 degrees out, only shot at the 25 yard line.  Heavy winter jackets restrict movement and bind up the arms.  Kept all rounds on an 8.5 X 11 inch target.  Not a huge accomplishment but this was after 3 hours of rifle shooting so I was a little fatigued.

19-Dec-10  200     Fiocchi  

Fiocchi is definitely hotter than WWB.  I shot 5 rounds of Remington 115 grn after the 200 and it felt like I was shooting a BB gun.  I am getting dialed in, I still drop a shot or two due to the different grip angle but it is getting to be the exception.  The gun is breaking in real nice.  Oh, the white dot flew out of the front sight on the last round as the slide locked back!  I saw it fly past my head.  S&W needs to work on QC, my cheap ass plastic factory GLOCK sights would never do that!  Oh well, the stock sight's time was marked any way.  My grip is getting better.  Still focusing in on the reaction hand grip.

26-Dec-10  300      250 F/ 50 Rem

"300 rounds using the TFO TruGlo sights.  Sights are closer to a 7 yd zero than the factory sights that hit about 1.5" low from POI. Gun is smoothing out still but much slicker than out of the box.  Still no cleaning no lube.  I was able to run an 18 round mag very quickly in to a 2" ragged hole at 7 yds.  I did some 25yd work and did better than I expected, much better than I ever did with the Glock.  I will call it a 6" group and I was not using a rest, just free style. Not anything special but a good indicator that I am adapting to the new platform.  Gun ran flawlessly.  Zero failures to date.
I think I will call it broken in but I am going to run it out to 2000 rounds before I clean it."

30-Dec-10  200       100 WWB / 100 Fed non lead

Another 200 rounds down the pipe.  100 WWB and 100 Federal non lead projectile.  The Federal stuff was pretty hot and had a muzzle flash John Woo has yet to replicate, it was impressive.  More 7 yd, 25 yd, and a little 15 yd work.  The M&P is feeling pretty natural in my hands right now.  I can't wait to run through a USPSA/IDPA match.  

16-Jan-11  350               100 WWB / 250 Fed non lead

Ran dot Torture Targets at the indoors and the first time shooting with the Ameriglo ProGlows.  The Ameriglos are very durable and the standard, the sight picture is better than the TFO TruGlows.  As time and money permits, I will switch all my sights to the Ameriglos.  The M&P ran flawlessly again.  I did have 2 misfires from old ammo, both had good primer hits.  I was able to get one to fire the other one was a complete dud.  Oh well, that was the last of that ammo.  The Dot Torture drills were tough (http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture) and we did them at 5 yards instead of the 3 yards by mistake (my bad).  We all shot them cold, no warm up shots, no dry firing.  This showed what you got as is. The holdover for the Ameriglos is higher than the TruGlows so I had to make some adjustments but all is well.  We all shot the drills at least twice and it was amazing how much better the groups got the 2nd time through.  This drives home the need to keep the skills up.  There is no warm up in self defense.  A good practice session with good friends and the M&P is earning more and more of my respect.  I am 1650 rounds in and still no maintenance with zero failures (although it is on its 3rd set of sights).  It is getting very dirty and I am not looking forward to cleaning it at 2000 rounds.  I will take pictures to chronicle the cleaning.

16-Jan-11  350                100 WWB / 250 UMC Remington

2000 rounds without issues.  No maintenance.  I am confident in the guns reliability.  My adaptation is coming along, the first match will tell when the stress hits.  I measured a 3.5" group at 25 yds adn this was with the cheap UMC Remington 9mm.  Speaking of UMC 9mm, it has a noticeably lighter recoil than WWB.  Accuracy seemed similar.  It is cheaper than WWB too.  Might be good match ammo.  I ran two torture dot drills (without holster, indoor range you know).  I scored 47 on both, kind of disappointing but I was trying to add some speed and that is when I hit low (grip angle learning curve, I have been pointing GLOCKs for a long time).  Oh well, that is why I practice.


Now for the dirty pictures!

Nice report. You should copy/paste it into this thread:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=5&f=4&t=103044

Very interesting thread.

I'm surprised that the pistol wasn't much dirtier after 2000 rounds without cleaning; I wouldn't know what to expect from experience because I clean my guns after every shoot which averages only between 100-200 rounds per pistol per range session.

Thanks for posting; I always enjoy learning something new.

I was surprised it was not dirtier too.  I could be the newer powders burn cleaner.  Good for you on the regular maintenance!  I will not let it go for 2000 rounds again, probably after 500 or so.

Thanks!  I will post a link.