Ed Brown Products S&W M&P 2.0 Striker-Fired Pistol

The S&W M&P 2.0 striker-fired pistol customized and tuned up by Ed Brown Products is one fine-shooting firearm.

March 01, 2024 By Layne Simpson

After decades of building fine custom Model 1911 pistols, Ed Brown Products diversified in 2019 by offering a “Fueled” version of the 9mm Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 polymer-frame striker-fired semiautomatic. For those who do not know, the M&P 2.0’s polymer frame is reinforced by a metal chassis that contains various operating parts. So why that gun? After exhaustive searching, company decision-makers chose the M&P 2.0 due to its ergonomics, responsiveness to custom-tuning, overall performance, and great popularity among law enforcement and civilian shooters.

The first version, introduced in late 2019, was all black and given the name MP-F1. Then came the MP-F2 with a multi-colored finish on its barrel, and it was followed by the MP-F3 with a stainless-steel slide in natural coloration. The MP-F4 featured in this report was introduced in early 2021, and except for a gold-colored, titanium nitride finish on its barrel, it is black.

The Fueled Process

Building a Fueled version of the S&W M&P 2.0 begins with total disassembly. The slide of the pistol reciprocates on rails at the front and rear of the chassis, with the longer forward rails contained by a steel part identified by Smith & Wesson as a locking block. As the barrel moves a short distance to the rear during firing, movement of a ramped cam on its underlug against a shoulder in the locking block tilts the rear of the barrel downward, lowering its hood from a locked position with the slide. At that point, barrel travel is arrested while the slide continues its journey to the rear. Improving fit improves mechanical accuracy, and the best way to accomplish that is by replacing the factory locking block, barrel, and slide with precision-machined parts. Doing so also reduces the slide-to-frame rattle commonly heard and felt when vigorously shaking a standard-factory M&P 2.0.

The replacement locking block is machined with slightly oversized rails and barrel cam surface. The underlug of the new barrel is also a bit larger than on the original barrel. A master gunsmith using his trusty file handfits the mating surfaces between the rails and the slide and between the underlug of the barrel and the locking block. This, according to what I am told, results in the highest level of accuracy obtainable with the S&W M&P 2.0 platform. Replacing the factory pins with precision-machined pins ensures precision fitting of all parts and makes for smooth disassembly and reassembly.

Ed Brown Products S&W M&P 2.0 precision fit of the locking block with the barrel and slide. — The best way to improve the mechanical accuracy of a pistol is to replace certain parts with parts that are a bit oversized in certain dimensions and then fit them by hand. One feature of Ed Brown’s Fueled process is to precision fit the rails and cam shoulder of a precision-machined replacement locking block with the barrel and the slide.

The new slide is machined from 17-4 stainless-steel bar stock and then given a black nitride finish. Recessed lightening cuts in the top and sides increase slide velocity just enough to provide more reliable feeding with a great variety of ammunition. Strength and durability are not compromised. The openings also expose the gold coloration of the barrel for a racy look.

Perfectly mating a custom extractor with the slide improves reliability. The new machined heel plate of the slide is aluminum with horizontal striations and a hard-anodized finish, and special contouring at the muzzle of the slide ensures smooth holstering. Wide, angled slide grasping grooves at the front and rear offer a no-slip grip of the hand when racking the slide. Slide retraction to lock-back on an empty magazine requires 14.25 pounds of pull, which is rather light as autoloading pistols go.

The slide has an all-black, drift-adjustable rear sight with a 0.185-inch notch. Up front is a 0.130-inch-wide Ameriglo ProGlo blade with a red-encircled, green tritium dot. The suppressor-height sights are tall enough to be viewed in the window of a red-dot optic. The slide is machined for low mounting of an optic with a screw-attached plate filling the cut. For those who would rather not attach their own optic, all members of the Fueled series can be purchased with a Trijicon or a Holosun sight installed, zeroed, and ready to shoot.

Ed Brown Products S&W M&P 2.0 recessed lightening cuts in the top and sides of the slide. — The MP-F4 slide is machined from 17-4 stainless-steel bar stock and then given a black nitride finish. Recessed lightening cuts in the top and sides increase slide velocity just enough to provide more reliable feeding with a great variety of ammunition without compromising strength or durability.

Also made by Ed Brown Products, the match-grade barrel is machined from 416 stainless-steel bar stock. It has what Sales and Marketing Director John May describes as Tread-style fluting on the outside, while on the inside the button rifling has a 1:10 twist, which is standard for the 9mm Luger cartridge. The rifling is suitable for use with jacketed or lead-alloy bullets, and that’s good news for handloaders who find jacketed bullets about as difficult to round up as hen’s teeth.

The muzzle of the barrel has an 11-degree crown, and a quick peek through a notch in the hood reveals the presence or absence of a cartridge in the chamber. Speaking of which, due to the barrel’s one-piece integral feedramp, the chamber fully supports a cartridge all the way back to the front of its extraction groove. Not much chance of blowing a case in this gun. With 1/2-28 threads at the muzzle, the gun is suppressor-ready. Exterior grooving on the included thread protector makes it easy to remove and install. I must say, the titanium nitride finish on the barrel of the MP-F4 really stands out against the black finish of the slide. James Bond’s old nemesis Goldfinger would quickly take a liking to this gun.

The straight, flat-faced trigger is made by industry-leading Apex Tactical, and it has a fairly wide articulating blade safety. Trigger reach measured 2.75 inches, although that will vary depending on which backstrap is installed in the grip. According to my Lyman digital scale, trigger pull weight ranged from 2 pounds, 11.2 ounces to 2 pounds, 15.7 ounces for an average of 2 pounds, 13.2 ounces. The trigger free-travels smoothly for 3/16 inch and then breaks crisply with no detectable overtravel. Reset distance is quite short. Everything considered, it is absolutely the best trigger I have squeezed on any striker-fired pistol.

Ed Brown Products Smith and Wesson M and P 2.0 custom extractor, left, and custom machined-aluminum heel plate. — Perfectly mating a custom extractor with the slide improves reliability. And the custom machined-aluminum heel plate of the slide has horizontal striations and a hard-anodized finish.

The grip of the frame has shallow left- and right-side thumb grooves and that along with a circumference of 5.88 inches makes for a comfortable hold by my medium-size hand. Four interchangeable backstraps of different shapes and sizes are part of the package; however, a sneaky gremlin, who gained access to my MP-F4 prior to its shipment, removed the extra backstraps and while the one installed proved to be as comfortable as an old bedroom slipper, each time I drew and aimed the gun its muzzle was elevated so much I had to bring it down in order to see the red dot or to lower the front sight to alignment with the rear sight. That slowed down sight acquisition, aiming, and shooting, but a neighbor who has an S&W M&P 2.0 came to the rescue by loaning me his backstraps. That’s proof positive of the seldom-mentioned fact that switching backstraps can lower or elevate a pistol’s muzzle.

Grip length, including a custom 360-degree, anodized aluminum magazine well funnel, is 3.88 inches. The heavily beveled opening is as good as it gets for smooth reloads while running and gunning in competition without being an issue when carrying the gun concealed. A precise fit makes it appear to be an integral part of the grip.

The grip of the pistol is not modified, and since the funnel is available as a stand-alone accessory item, it is an easy do-it-yourself project for any S&W M&P 2.0. Simply remove the factory backstrap locking pin, slip on the funnel, and secure it with the included locking pin, which is designed to hold the funnel and the backstrap in place. But be aware that it requires all magazines to use bumper pads.

The entire frame remains factory original, which is good because Smith & Wesson does an excellent job there. Stippling in all the right places ensures a secure purchase without feeling overly aggressive to the hand. Unlike some polymer-frame pistols, hand sting when shooting heavy loads does not exist. The dustcover has an integral, three-slot accessory rail.

Included with the gun is a pair of blued-steel magazines wearing machined aluminum bumper pads. The one with a pad of standard thickness holds 17 rounds, with the pad increasing magazine length just enough to make slamming it fully home during a quick reload easy. The magazine with a slightly thicker pad holds 19 rounds, yet it does not increase grip length enough to be a printing issue when carrying the gun concealed beneath an outer garment. A quick glance at small, numbered windows in the sides of the magazines indicates how many rounds are inside.

The factory-original magazine catch is extended just enough to allow ejecting an empty magazine without having to shift the grip on the gun. I had no problem quickly punching it with my trigger finger while shooting weak-hand drills. Tap the button and an empty magazine rockets from the gun. As most owners of S&W M&P 2.0 pistols know, the magazine catch is easily switched for a left-handed shooter.

Field-stripping the MP-F4 couldn’t be easier. With the slide locked back and the magazine removed, make certain no cartridge is in the chamber. Now rotate the takedown lever to its 6 o’clock position. Easing the slide all the way to the front until it stops and then pressing the trigger frees the upper to move forward and off the lower, but be sure to keep a firm hold on it. The recoil spring and its guide and the barrel are now removed from the slide. Being held captive by its full-length steel guide makes the flat-wire recoil spring easy to remove and place back into position in the slide. Putting the gun back together is also quite easy. After installing the barrel and recoil spring, align the grooves of the slide with those of the lower, then retract and lock back the slide. The slide latch can then be rotated to its locked position, and the gun is now ready to be loaded and fired.

Tuned to Perfection

As requested, the MP-F4 I shot came with a Trijicon RMR sight with a 3.5-MOA dot installed. After completing my accuracy tests, I switched off the red dot to check the open sights and found them nicely zeroed. My usual test for trouble-free feeding of any autoloading pistol is to begin all shooting with a round in the chamber and the magazine loaded to its capacity. Regardless of whether I was shooting the MP-F4 over a rest for accuracy or rapidly blasting away at steel and paper targets from the offhand position, I started with a round in the chamber and either 17 or 19 rounds awaiting their turn, depending on the magazine.

Some autoloaders can be quite sensitive to cartridge length, but as shown in the accompanying accuracy results chart, overall length of test ammunition ranged from 1.063 inches for the 70-grain Lehigh Defense load to 1.150 inches for Black Hills ammo loaded with the 125-grain HoneyBadger bullet. The MP-F4 gobbled up everything without a single hitch. Due to the extremely wide (0.203 inch) nose cavity of the 70-grain monolithic bullet in Lehigh Defense ammo, another pistol I tested about a year ago would not feed it, but it flowed through the MP-F4 like green grass through a starving Canada goose.

Accuracy was more than good enough for personal defense, but it would have been better without a flyer in many of the groups fired. As an example, average accuracy for five, five-shot groups with SIG SAUER ammunition with a 124-grain JHP was 2.12 inches, but taking away the flyers, the four-shot group average shrank to 1.44 inches. Interestingly, the gun delivered its best accuracy with Barnes’s TAC-XPD and Black Hills’s HoneyBadger ammunition, both loaded with bullets of monolithic construction. The smallest single five-shot group fired measured 0.97 inch, compliments of Hornady Critical Defense loaded with the 115-grain FTX.

In addition to its line of custom 1911 pistols, Ed Brown Products has long been known for precision-machined parts for that gun. It came as no surprise to learn that the slide, barrel, trigger, extractor, and magazine well funnel I have described in the Fueled MP-F4 are also available to those who wish to upgrade their own Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 pistols.

As full-size, polymer-frame pistols go, the Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 has long been ranked right up there with the best of them. With a tank full of “Fuel” from Ed Brown Products, it is even better, not to mention being a lot more fun to shoot.