After You Buy - Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact OR

A while back we took a strong look at the very affordable and capable Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact OR (Optics Ready) pistol. While it often goes underrated by many, the M&P line has been a reliable and affordable series of handguns that have seen use in both law enforcement and concealed carry applications.

The model we’re going to be going over today is the 9mm compact version of the pistol, but since pretty much every M&P pistol is assembled and maintained the same way, this could also be a handy guide for you when it comes to cleaning and maintaining other M&P 2.0 series pistols.

Unloading and Field Stripping

Start by unloading and clearing your handgun, remove any ammunition from your magazine(s), and set the loose rounds aside for now. Your workspace should be clean, clear from any live ammunition, and on a surface, you don’t mind getting a few solvents and oil on. You should also have a few paper towels or clean rags around and some CLP, oil, nylon brushes, and some bore brushes.

To field strip the Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact, first retract and lock the slide to the rear using the slide stop. Next, rotate the takedown lever clockwise (down) 90 degrees until it stops.

Look down into the handgun through the ejection port and use the small frame tool stored in the heel of your backstrap to push the sear deactivation lever down into its lowered position. If your gun is still relatively new, the lever should be painted yellow and green. Mine is quite old and the color has worn away.

Next, carefully retract the slide again and then let the pressure of the recoil spring ride the slide forward till it slides off the frame rails. Set the frame aside and then proceed to remove the recoil spring and barrel. The slide is now properly field-stripped.

If your magazines are particularly dirty, you can also disassemble and clean them out. To disassemble your magazines you can use a small punch or other small tool to push in the small circular plunger in the baseplate of the magazine. While keeping the small plunger depressed, push forwards on the magazine baseplate to slide it off of the magazine body taking special care to retain the magazine spring and slowly release its pressure to avoid injury. I would not recommend disassembling your handgun any further than this for routine maintenance.

Magazine Cleaning

I’d only recommend fully disassembling and cleaning your magazines occasionally rather than every time you clean the firearm. The M&P’s magazines require very little maintenance and aside from the follower, don’t seem to pick up that much fouling or other residue. As with other magazines, it's always safe to wipe down the exterior and interior of the magazines with a very light coating of CLP followed by a dry/clean rag.

The follower should be cleaned with CLP and then wiped dry. After these few steps, the magazines should be ready for reassembly and reloading. Function check your magazines after you are done cleaning both your handgun and your magazine to ensure they feed ammo properly (you can use snap caps to be safe), and also to ensure the follower is properly engaging the slide stop when the magazine is empty.

Barrel, Recoil Spring, and Slide

The barrel should be wiped down with CLP both inside and outside taking special attention to make sure the bore is clean and free from any pitting. You should also closely inspect the feed ramp to make sure it is free from any fouling. If yours is fouled like mine, it can often be difficult to remove the buildup. I use a small scraping tool after soaking the feed ramp in CLP to remove the buildup and then follow this up with a good wipe-down to bring the feed ramp back to its shiny factory condition.

The recoil spring assembly should be wiped down with only a very light coat of CLP to remove any carbon fouling or debris buildup. The slide itself should be scrubbed down inside and out with a soft nylon brush to remove dead skin, dirt, carbon, and unburnt powder fouling. After the slide assembly has been scrubbed down with CLP, go over it again with a clean dry rag to remove any excess CLP. Once this is done, you can reassemble the slide assembly.

The slide’s extractor should be scraped clean as well. One of the most common issues when M&P pistols start to malfunction is an overly fouled extractor which can prevent the pistol from stripping spent casings out of the gun reliably.

Exterior Cleaning (Frame)

Once again we’re dealing with a large polymer pistol. The entire exterior can be wiped down with CLP if you wish but I would recommend only brushing it off with a dry stiff bristled nylon brush to remove all the dirt and dead skin in all the little corners, nooks, and crannies.

The main area of focus for the frame should be the rails that the slide rides on and the fire control group. These parts are often easily fouled and routinely need cleaning so the firearm can cycle smoothly. Wipe all of these down with CLP and brush the debris away with a nylon brush. Wipe any excess residue away and then apply one tiny drop of gun oil to each of the four rails.

Once this is done, you can recombine the slide and frame, lock the slide to the rear, and then rotate the takedown lever back to its original position. You can also preemptively return the sear deactivation lever to its original position, but this is unnecessary as when you go to load a magazine and chamber a round, the lever will be pushed into the correct position by the loading process.

Special Areas of Attention

The only other major area of the M&P 2.0 Compact OR is the addition of the optic. In this particular example, we are using a Crimson Trace red dot fitted with a top-loading battery tray. If you have a a similar optic that doesn’t require you to remove it to replace the battery you can ignore this next part and simply replace the battery with a fresh one, and check the torque of your optic.

Also, take this time to wipe down your pistol’s weapon light (if attached) as well as the lens of your optic to make sure they are both clear. A good product for these two jobs is made by a company called Paragon which sells their WLC (weapon light cleaner) and OLC (Optic Lens Cleaner). And finally, check your M&P 2.0 holster if it isn’t damaged, clean it, and make sure all hardware is tight. After another final check, be sure to function check the entire pistol before you head to the range with it!

The M&P 2.0 Compact OR pistol is a very simple one to own and maintain. Given a pretty typical shooting regime, the M&P 2.0 Compact OR should only need replacement parts when it is approaching round counts in the tens of thousands. So unless you’re shooting this handgun daily and spending thousands upon thousands of dollars in ammunition for it, your pistol should just need regular maintenance every couple of range sessions or so. We hope this guide has been helpful in keeping you and your pistol at the range and shooting!

Author: Luke Cuenco