NEW Folding Carbine from Smith & Wesson: The FPC

I'm a fan of consistency. My 9MM (bigger than pistol) guns are ARs. Same safeties, same way of dropping the magazines, same grips, same way to clear a malfunction, etc.

Try to do it with pistols, too. Even my striker fired pistols have thumb safeties. If I carry it, it's got thumb safeties. I no longer (for many years) carry a revolver. I stopped taking my M1A to the range (M1, too) because after using the safeties I'd find myself dropping the magazine on the AR15's next time I took to the range. That trigger finger has the need to do something after I stop pulling the trigger and with no safety in the trigger guard of the AR it finds it's way up to the mag. release and the mag. falls to the bench or ground.

I like that it uses the M&P pistol grip, magazine release, use of the pistol magazines and the storage method (I do wonder how the folks that value balance of a long arm will like loaded mags at the butt of the carbine, till you use them. Balance will change as you fire it. Being at the extreme rear it'll be more noticeable.

I don't like the safety. Different than what you carry - if you carry an M&P pistol. Under stress, you're in danger of either not using the safety (if you carry an M&P without thumb safeties) or wasting time looking for the thumb safety (if you carry M&Ps with thumb safeties.)

Just my opinion. Fun looking gun but I have my reservations.

If anyone here buys one please, please start a thread with pictures and your experiences using it. It would be helpful for all of us to hear from the people we "talk" with all the time about M&Ps vs. watching a reviewer on youtube. The more people that buy/use them and communicate about them the more things (good or bad) will be discovered.

Yeah, the AR15 goes with me these days. The desire/familiarity for the M1A rifle dates back to my time in the Army where I carried M14 TRW 1490317 for almost 4 years. Shot both in the Army. Carried both (M14 more than the M16A1) and I got called out for the hard shots or the possible hard shots. I'd get pulled aside, told my job was going to be different than the rest of the squad (or the platoon) and I needed to hit certain targets (all but once was training exercises and the other time we never left the barracks so it was more of an opportunity to consider what might happen/what I might have to do than anything else, Funny thing, I carried civilian style deer rifles, surplus US bolt action rifles and my M1A deer hunting in the mountains when I lived in WV. Not once did I have a deer show up to get shot unless I war carrying my M1A. I used to joke with my buddies that the deer would see the rifle, wonder what it was and then come walking up to see that strange looking rifle none of them had seen before. Curiousity (and a 150 grain bullet) killed the deer. AR15's are so much cheaper to shoot (and harder to clean) than the M1A or M1 Garand.

Sorry for going off topic. How do I remember the serial number after 40 plus years? We had an old Army armorer. You'd hand him your weapons card and he'd take it. Then he'd ask you which rifle was yours. When you told him "the one on the card" he'd say, "This is a piece of paper son, which rifle is yours?" Repeat that serial number every day for years and you'll remember it.

I find it "interesting" that people who prefer a pistol with no manual safety don't mind a long barreled pistol/carbine with a manual safety.

If you were a M&P fan who carried the full sized pistol (whichever size you prefer) could it cause a problem with the M&P PCC because that safety is there? Or would they carry it with the safety in the FIRE position? If it got moved to the SAFE position when carried in a bag would they develop the habit of always checking/moving the safety to the FIRE position if they ran it that way.

Got me thinking about that when I was checking the ammo in the old 1.0 PC 9MM. I was going through some magazines sorting out the ammo loaded with the Everglades 115 grain hollow points based on my range trip the other day and moving it into the 19 round mags. I carry with that 9MM pistol. It's got those nice big ambidextrous thumb safeties that are so different from the safety on the PCC (which is like my shotgun safeties, the ones that have a safety).

Really not trying to upset anyone, just wondering about the effects of training/muscle memory/stress when two things that similar are just a tiny bit different.

As the man said, when things go bad you really don't have have time to think about what you're doing/going to do. You react the way you've been trained to react.

Do you take your eyes off the road to mess with your radio in the car/truck? Or do you just reach down (since you've done it so many times before) and your hand/fingers know exactly where the knob/button is and what you have to do to make the changes you want to make? I hope not.

When you drop a magazine and insert another do you have to think about which finger to use? Do you take your eyes off the surroundings to look for the magazine release button? Do you have to think about where the spare mags. are? Do you have to look at them to grab one? Do you have to take a moment to look at the pistol to insert the magazine? Do you have to think about how to get the pistol to chamber that top round in the magazine? I hope not.

If you've trained you just do it. Your mind and eyes should be insuring you are aware of what is around you so you can respond to any other threats.

I have a couple 9MM AR types. If I stop to think about it I might be able to say the carbine kicks more than a .223 caliber carbine, but I'd have to have both laying on the bench and shoot both, one after the other, to say for sure.

Rick, are you on blood thinners? I take coumadin every day for a condition called Factor V Leiden. My blood clots too quickly, too easily (got a clot in my lower right leg - why they checked and found the hereditary condition). I've come back from the range, pulled my shirt off and found a bruise on my right shoulder (the same pattern as the little bumps on the back of the carbine buttstock - wild looking bruise for a couple days).

I look at a 9MM carbine as an intermediate range gun. More accuracy/velocity out past a pistol's normal range, but it's not in the same class as a .223/5.56X45 carbine.

Should allow the shooter to be more accurate/precise past normal handgun ranges and carry more ammo than the majority of handguns.

Mine won't fold up and go into a case like the S&W will.