If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’re already a fan of the S&W M&P 2.0 series of striker-fired 9mm pistols. So, I’m going to jump right into the custom improvements you’ll find in the Ed Brown Fueled M&P 2.0 guns that make them worth the $2,200 -$2,500 price tag. Simply stated, you can’t get a better M&P.
The Ed Brown Fueled M&P 2.0
Ed Brown made its Fueled M&Ps to be the apex predator of its species. The company basically tore the original factory production gun down and re-engineered it. As a result, it is as reliable and accurate as the platform can be. Then the company added practical custom features to help you run it better.
That’s the crux of what Ed Brown does. Over the past 50 years, this now second-generation family business built a reputation for doing that for the 1911 platform. Now, the M&P is given the same treatment.
By the way, they don’t have any special agreements with Smith & Wesson. In fact, every Ed Brown Fueled M&P (there are five different models) begins as an ordinary pistol off the S&W production line. The stock guns retail for $600 to $800, depending on whether they have a polymer or aluminum alloy frame.
Inside the Fueled M&P 2.0
At the heart of an accurate autoloading pistol are a quality barrel and tight tolerances between barrel, slide, and frame. It takes a lot of know-how combined with precision manufacturing capability to accomplish this. Doing it consistently requires intense quality control oversight.
Since Ed Brown makes nearly all of its parts in-house, the company can maintain that level of supervision in the manufacturing process. Rest assured, every firearm that leaves the Ed Brown shop has been scrutinized by a member of the Brown family.
For the Fueled M&P, Ed Brown makes its own suppressor-ready 4.75-inch match grade, 1:10 twist, button-rifled barrel from 416 stainless. Correspondingly, the muzzle is finished with an 11-degree target crown to protect the rifling.
For comparison, a standard S&W M&P barrel is only 4.5 inches. The extra half-inch on the custom barrel is threaded ½”-28 and fitted with an octagonal thread protector.
As an artistic embellishment, the barrels have the distinctive Ed Brown Tread Flutes. In addition, they are finished in black nitride or gold-hued titanium nitride (TiN) for wear resistance and lubricity. However, the full-color Spectrum decorative finish is available at the customer’s direction.
For their Fueled M&P, Ed Brown also machines its own slides from 17-4 Stainless. To speed up cycling time and reduce dipping of the muzzle when the slide slams into battery, the slide thickness from the ejection port forward is thinned on the exterior sides. Likewise, sometimes windows are cut on each facet just behind the front sight to reduce weight in the front.
The thickness transition also forms a natural gripping surface just behind the ejection port. Finally, all surfaces are dehorned for comfortable handling and carry and are finished in tough black nitride.
An Equally Precise Foundation
To provide an equally precise foundation, Ed Brown replaces the factory frame’s locking block, a metal-injection-molding (MIM) part, with its own Custom Accuracy Rail. The company mills the rail slightly oversized from bar stock. As a result, its mating surfaces can be hand-fit to the slide rails and barrel locking cam.
You can feel the improvement in barrel lock-up. Unlike a S&W production M&P, if you shake a Fueled Ed Brown, there’s no noisy rattle of metal on metal at the front of the pistol.
Dave Biggers, Director of Sales & Marketing for Ed Brown, tells me he is certain “there is no way to get more accuracy from the platform.”
I’m inclined to believe him.
Ed Brown even replaces the three factory roll pins that hold the Custom Accuracy Rail and sear housing block in the frame with precision machined solid steel frame pins. As a result, this ensures those key parts stay exactly where they belong, with no flex or slop in the part-to-frame fit.
The inherent accuracy of a precisely fit match barrel, slide, and frame can’t be fully realized without an excellent trigger. Quality knows quality, so Ed Brown chose Overwatch Precision’s patented OP TAC Trigger System.
The system combines re-engineered components with NP3 coatings, providing high lubricity, surface hardening, and corrosion resistance. This provides a short, smooth, two-stage pull with a light, crisp, predictable break and reliable primer detonation every time.
I measured the second-stage trigger pull weight at 2.5 pounds. This would be an excellent trigger pull in any pistol. In fact, the OP TAC trigger eliminated 35% of the pre-travel and 36% of the over-travel in the factory trigger, which allows for faster shooting.
The Finer Details of the Fueled M&P 2.0
With the basics of a custom masterpiece established, Ed Brown dived deeper. The original S&W factory extractor was made using the MIM process. Though efficient and nearly as strong as a part properly made from solid steel, it doesn’t have the same reputation for durability.
Ed Brown engineered a new extractor for enhanced reliability and cut it from aircraft-quality, heat-treated, 4340 alloy steel bar stock. For this reason, the company guarantees it for life against breakage.
The slide is dovetailed for Glock-style sights in the rear and milled out to accept the direct mounting of Trijicon RMR and SRO red dot optics. Correspondingly, a cover plate is included if you opt for iron sights only.
Standard on the Fueled M&Ps are solid steel, suppressor height Ameriglo sights, with an eye-catching orange-outlined green tritium front sight. These irons will allow co-witnessing with many red dot optics.
Inside the slide, Ed Brown replaced the factory striker with its own custom stainless steel skeletonized striker. The stronger material and approximately 25% reduction in weight allow it to move a fraction of a second faster than a standard striker without compromising durability.
Even the guide rod and springs got the Ed Brown treatment. They use a flat wire (#15) recoil spring with up to ten times the service life of conventional recoil springs. It’s the longest-lasting recoil spring available, with a recommended replacement schedule between 30,000 and 40,000 rounds.
The guide rods are made of heat-treated stainless steel and black nitride. This allows for easy disassembly for spring changes as your preferred suppressor/sub-sonic loads dictate. Personally, for the $30 or so that it would cost, I’d just make up another complete guide-rod/spring assembly and keep it with the pistol.
Feeding the Machine
Ed Brown’s custom ergonomic enhancements include a substantial hard coat anodized aluminum, 360-degree, flared magazine well extension. This helps guide in magazines and acts as a hand stop at the bottom of the grip.
It has cutouts on the right and left, so you grip the magazine’s baseplate on the sides to pull it free if necessary to clear a jam. The magazines themselves have factory S&W steel bodies and custom Ed Brown anodized aluminum baseplates.
The pistols come with a 16-round standard magazine and an extended 18-round magazine. It’s hard to tell which is which at first glance. The “extended” magazine has a baseplate that’s only 0.18” thicker.
Characteristic of Ed Brown’s obsession with quality and precision, I noticed the company replaced the plastic factory slide-back plate with one of their own. It is machined from aluminum bar stock, grooved along the rear face, and anodized for durability. Details, details.
Shooting the Ed Brown Fueled M&P 2.0
I found the pistol functioned perfectly on the range. Its ambidextrous slide-release levers needed only moderate pressure to operate. Similarly, the magazines dropped freely, and the trigger pull was perfect for target shooting.
I shot a box of ammunition through it in old school, one-handed, Bullseye competition style. Of course, this was just to show my younger friends raised on the action shooting sports how it was done back in the day.
Though not quite as accurate as my old Colt Official Police target .38 Special revolver, with several loads, the Fueled M&P 2.0 demonstrated remarkable accuracy. The best are included in the performance table below.
Though Ed Brown guns are custom-quality, hand-crafted products, the company keeps several popular models in regular production, shortening delivery times. If the M&P you want isn’t in stock, your wait time won’t exceed four months. Perfection can’t be rushed.
For more information, please visit www.EdBrown.com.
Ed Brown Fueled M&P 2.0 MP-Metal-F1 Specs
| Caliber | 9 x 19mm |
| Operation | semi-auto, locked breech blowback, striker-fired |
| Capacity | includes two magazines, 16 round, and 18 round w/extended floorplate |
| Barrel | 4.75-inch stainless steel match barrel w/14-degree target crown, ½” x 28 threaded muzzle w/ protective cap |
| Slide | stainless steel, black nitride treated |
| Frame | aluminum alloy finish in tungsten gray Cerakote® |
| Overall Length | 7.5 inches |
| Overall Height | 5.5 inches |
| Width | 1.3 inches |
| Weight | 31 ounces empty |
| Trigger | two-stage, 2.5-pound pull |
| Sights | steel Ameriglo, suppressor height, front and rear (tritium dot front & dovetail windage adjustable rear) RMR/SRO optics cut w/ cover plate |
| MSRP | $2,495 w/o optics, $2,995 w/ optic |
Performance
| Brand | Bullet Weight & Type | Velocity | Best Group |
| Federal Premium Personal Defense | 135 Hydra Shok JHP | 1,092 | 1.13 |
| Black Hills Ammunition | 115 EXP JHP | 1,134 | 2.51 |
| Winchester USA Ready | 115 Flat Point FMJ | 1,214 | 1.42 |
Performance was tested with a series of five-shot groups fired at 25 yards from a bench rest with a Competition Electronics Pro-Chrono Digital Chronograph set 15 feet from the muzzle. Bullet weight is in grains, velocity in feet-per-second and the group size in inches.
