The 10mm can be a real thumper, but you don’t have to always use Godzilla-level loads. (Photo Provided by Author.)
January 27, 2025
By Patrick Sweeney
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I was at Smith & Wesson when they showed a room full of gun writers the first M&P pistols. That was in December of 2005. If you had told me then that at some time in the future the hottest new S&W would be an M&P in 10mm, I would have laughed so hard I would have snorted coffee out of my nose. The hot thing then was .40 S&W, 9mm was on the outs, and the 10mm was dead. As dead as a Blue Northern.
The Performance Center 10mm is ready for your red dot, and ready for whatever ammo you care to feed it with. (Photo Provided by Author.) Well, things change. And the change has been good. The M&P went from a compact .40 to an every-sized 9mm, and now it is a 10mm, with a comped barrel as well. The S&W M&P 2.0 Performance Center 10mm (a name almost as big as the pistol itself) is a controllable beast. The starting point is the full-sized big-frame M&P 2.0. PC takes the 10mm version and fits it with an extended slide and barrel. The barrel is just over five-and-a-half inches long, and the slide extends out the extra length, coming short just enough to let the crown of the barrel protrude.
The cover plate for the mounting section. If you don’t want a red-dot optic on your 10mm, then leave this alone. (Photo Provided by Author.) The slide is skeletonized forward of the usual stopping point, to keep the weight down to the usual and expected weight, and the barrel is machined with two ports so it vents gases up through the slots cut in the slide. This gives the exhaust gases a route up and out, to drive the barrel and slide back down, to keep the 10mm under control. Oh, one detail to take note of, and it is so-marked on the slide: the 10mm does not have a magazine disconnector.
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The barrel is the M&P ramped barrel, with a loaded chamber indicator notch on the center of the back end of the hood. As with all M&P barrels, it is rifled so as to be amenable (very, as it turned out) to the use of lead bullets. So, hard-cast lead, plated, coated, and jacketed bullets are all on the menu for this pistol.
With one of the adapter plates, you can mount almost any modern red dot like this Shield RMSx. (Photo Provided by Author.) The PC leaves the expected raft of goodies on the M&P, so you have a slide with a hefty external extractor and cocking serrations in the rear with extras on the slide rib forward. The slide, as is the now-accustomed pistol option, comes with an optics plate, and as a bonus the sights on the PC 10mm are tall enough to let you co-witness should you wish to. The sights themselves are a notch rear and a white-dot front.
The sights on the M&P PC 10mm are tall enough to co-witness with a red dot made with a low-enough base. (Photo Provided by Author.) The 10mm M&P comes with the plates you’ll need to adapt the red-dot optic of your choice to the slide. They also come with the array of screws you’ll need for each plate, to do your mounting, since the red-dot world has not yet converged to a “one size to fit them all” mountings and hardware footprint. The process is simple: consult the chart in the owner’s manual to see which plate and screws you need. Unbolt the cover plate, fit the adapter and sight, and bolt it and the red-dot on. I would suggest that once you are happy with the arrangement, and have tested it, do it again: disassemble, degrease, use some Loctite, and bolt it back on. Life is hard for a red dot riding on a slide, and the 10mm is particularly hard.
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The red-dot and a plate get bolted on with the correct screws. Consult the chart, it is in the owner’s manual. (Photo Provided by Author.) The Performance Center takes extra care on the frame. Yes, it comes with the replaceable backstraps, but it also comes with an ambi thumb safety. As a Performance Center item, you have Hobson’s Choice here: you get the safety. Works for me. The trigger is the new 2.0 trigger, but with Performance Center tuning to provide a clean break, and for those who fuss over it, an audible reset. This is aided by the embedded stainless steel frame inside of the polymer, to eliminate frame flex. No flex means the trigger system can be tuned to a better level than your non-rigid polymer-framed pistols. The frame has an accessory rail up front, and the serial number can be seen on the embedded chassis, through one of the ports left in the injection molding process.
To swap backstraps, rotate the bottom ledge of the mag well opening. You can then withdraw the pin the ledge is part of. With the pin out you can hinge the old backstrap out and off, and then pivot the new one into place in its stead. Takedown on the M&P 2.0 is simple: unload, lock the slide back, rotate the takedown lever to down position, and control the slide when you press the slide stop lever, releasing the slide. The slide assembly comes off the frame, and then you extract the recoil spring assembly and barrel. By using a barrel ported through slots in the slide, S&W has avoided the problem of a comp, which usually means you otherwise can’t get the barrel out of the slide during disassembly.
The M&P in 10mm uses the same backstraps to change the grip shape and size as the other M&P models. To swap them, you rotate the bottom lip of the magazine well opening, and pull the retention rod out of the frame. Pivot the backstrap off, hook the new one in and press it into place and then shove the rod back in and rotate to lock. With three sizes, and plenty of backstraps to be found, you could even do mods to the backstraps and see if you can get a better fit to your hands. It is popular to get out a soldering iron and make the frame texture more aggressive on some polymer pistols, but I suspect you won’t have to be getting that medieval on the M&P 10mm.
With the porting, and the M&P aggressive texture, you’ve got a good grip on handling the recoil of 10mm ammunition. Which is good, because the M&P magazine holds 15 rounds of 10mm. That S&W can fit a double-stack magazine inside of the full-sized M&P, and still make it a size that average hands can handle, is amazing. But S&W has been amazing us for quite a long time now. In addition to the usual goodies, the lock, manual, three extra backstraps and six adapter plates, the M&P 2.0 10mm comes with a pair of magazines. I requested a couple of extras because I had additional plans for the 10mm.
The lengthened slide and barrel, showing the ports in the barrel and the slots in the slot the ports vent through. (Photo Provided by Author.) The fun started with the usual steps; collect ammo and do the chrono and accuracy work. Even a short while ago you might have been hard-pressed to find more than the usual suspects in 10mm ammo, but now that it has been fully accepted as a hunting cartridge, you have plenty of choices. I rounded up a variety, but I also included a special reload, meant for use on bowling pins. There, you want something in the .45ACP+P range, but not the full-turbocharged hunting loads power level. So, I took an oldie but a goodie load out of my reloading logs, and used a Blue Bullets flat point for it in tuning and setup.
The trigger has a safety lever in the center of the bow, and the pull has been tuned by the Performance Center wizards. (Photo Provided by Author.) The M&P worked like a charm through all the loads and accuracy testing, and for the testing and competition I mounted a Shield RMSx on top, for a widest-possible field of view. Riding on a slide is a tough way to make a living, but on a comped big bore like the 10mm it is even harder.
With the usual testing and investigation done, I headed off to the The Pin Shoot (PinShoot.com) to use the 10mm in the Space Gun Main Event. Here, a full-sized bowling pin has to be rudely shoved three feet straight back, and off of the back edge of a steel-topped table. (This is through the 2024 match. In 2025, the Space Gun Main becomes a 9mm event.) Wimpy loads need not apply, and a Power Factor of 195 is generally considered adequate in the Main Events. That means a 200-grain bullet at 975 fps, or a 220 at 885 fps. Child’s play for the 10mm. The S&W served me well, but proved once again that one really should get in some practice before stepping up to the line when in pursuit of loot and glory. I did well, but I didn’t come home with loot in the Space Gun category. A few people edged me out, and that’s all it takes.
The trigger has a safety lever in the center of the bow, and the pull has been tuned by the Performance Center wizards. (Photo Provided by Author.) Now, if you want to deer hunt from a tree stand with the 10mm, the PC is already set up for you. Just add your dot, and zero with the hunting load of your choice. Oh, and you’ll have to find a way to block the magazines so you only have them holding five rounds, not fifteen. The DNR would be quite cross with you over that. Since you aren’t going to be doing any reloads, (I hope five rounds will be enough) a single magazine made to hold only five will do. Those looking to use the S&W M&P 10mm PC RDO as a bear gun when hunting with a rifle in the wilderness will find this an adequate tool, if not as powerful as the really big bores like .454. .460, .480 and .500. But then, you’ve got sixteen rounds of deeply-penetrating 10mm at your disposal, compared to the five of six of the others. It’s a free country (still), so you get to decide.
The 10mm M&P, and the hefty extractor, the ambi thumb safety and the ambi slide stop lever. (Photo Provided by Author.) If you are looking to have the 10mm for defense, then no need to modify the magazines. Fifteen rounds of 10mm per magazine can be quite comforting. There, you will find that the hunting-level loads will be more than you need. In fact, a 220 hard-cast bullet at 1,200 fps would be counter to your needs, giving excessive penetration and stout recoil. However, for bear defense, hard cast projectiles are what you would want.
This is the kind of accuracy you can expect, and this with full power 10mm ammunition. (Photo Provided by Author.) As far as a holster goes, the world’s your oyster here. The M&P in the big frame has been around long enough that pretty much everyone who makes a holster will offer something for it. For defense, I suggest that appendix-inside-the-waistband holster (AIWB) would be out, the pistol is just too big, and long, for that. But an outside-the-waistband (OWB) in the FBI cant angle and location would be stellar. And for those hunting, or for bear defense gun use, a chest holster would serve you well.
As I said, The Pin Shoot goes 9mm in 2025, but that doesn’t mean the S&W M&P 10mm is out of the running. I have been loading the 10mm since the very early 1990s, and I have a lot of loads I’ve worked up to make the 10mm a softie. To do good work in 2025, I’d just need to dial back a 165-grain JHP to 900 fps, and I’d be set. I’ve got a five-gallon bucket of 10mm brass around here somewhere.
Whacking pins at speed, with a downloaded (“only” .45ACP+P power levels) ammo load. As in, a 200-grain bullet at 989 fps. For defense, there are now a lot of factory loads that do that, and for bear, well, Buffalo Bore has what’s needed. The 10mm may be old, originating in a time when hair was blow-dried, shoes were worn without socks, and MTV was the hottest new thing on the planet, but it has aged a lot better than those have. These days, the S&W M&P 2.0 10mm PC RDO is hot stuff, and at the listed price, practically a steal .
(Data Provided by Author.) Smith & Wesson M&P Performance Center 10mm Specs Type : Striker-fired semi-automaticCaliber : 10mmCapacity : 15+1 roundsBarrel : 5.6 in.Width : 1.3 in.Height : 5.6 in.Weight : 31.4 oz.Finish : MeloniteGrips : Textured with 4 inserts (S, M, ML, L)Sights : Fixed rear, white dot frontTrigger : 4 lbs. 4 oz.MSRP : $749Contact : Smith-Wesson.com , (800) 331-0852