Range Report: How Good Is the Smith and Wesson M&P FPC 9mm Folding Carbine?

Among the criteria new shooters seem to have adopted is that the gun should be fun to shoot. I agree on principle. A firearm should not have sharp edges. It should not be difficult to make ready. There should be good safety features. I would also like to see the firearm have good reliability and present a formidable response to armed intruders.

The Smith and Wesson Military & Police FPC 9mm carbine neatly checks every box. There is nothing lacking and the FPC is fun to shoot. So much so, I seriously depleted my 9mm Luger ammunition reserves. I had plenty of help from interested shooters.

Folding Pistol Carbine

The FPC is intended for home defense and area defense. It may serve as a firearm easily deployed for defense of spots often targeted by robbery gangs. These include pawn shops, jewelry stores, and pharmacies. The carrying bag supplied with the FPC would allow a business owner to carry the FPC to and from home or work with little attention.

I like the FPC. If properly understood and deployed, it is a great all around defensive tool. The FPC solves a lot of problems, it is affordable, and fun to shoot.

Let’s look at the FPC’s weight and overall length. The FPC weighs but five pounds. It is 30.3 inches long. Folded, the piece comes in at 16.3 inches. This allows the FPC to be easily stored.

The storage bag is among the best factory supplied designs I have encountered. There are compartments for accessories and magazines, including spare grip inserts. The FPC’s blowback operation works fine in this size firearm. The FPC 9mm is delivered with a 17-round flush fit and two 23-round extended magazines. These are compatible with Smith and Wesson 9mm M&P handguns.

Ammunition is widely available and increasingly affordable. The Folding Pistol Caliber 9mm features the obligatory 1/2x28mm threaded barrel. The 16.3-inch barrel is covered by an M-Lok handguard. A 1913 rail on the upper receiver allows easy mounting an optic. You will want a red dot for this carbine.

A set of AR sights is fine, whether you opt for plastic to Troy battle sights. The red dot offers superior speed and combat accuracy. The receiver is hinged at the front, allowing the operator to press a robust latch to rotate the handguard and barrel to the left side of the carbine.

The rifle folds horizontally rather than vertically. This prevents the optic from taking a bump. While I hope we are smarter than this, things happen. The FPC cannot be folded with a chambered cartridge.

A generous ejection port is on the right side of the receiver. While a carbine is a carbine and a pistol is a pistol, I enjoyed using the M&P pistol-type grip. I am not lazy on testing firearms, but I did not change out the backstrap with the supplied optional inserts.

A carbine is much easier to handle well than a pistol and the supplied grip feels fine. Perhaps later, I will fine tune the grip to fit my hand. I do not use a two-handed pistol grip but keep the forward hand on the handguard. This also affects how the grip feels to the hand.

This grip correlates to the Military & Police compact grip frame. This allows the full range of magazines from 15 to 23-round capacity to be used. If you have a compact size 9mm S&W M&P, your magazines fit.

The FPC features ambidextrous bolt releases, a reversible magazine release, and cross bolt safety. The safety is positive in operation. After cleaning away the packing grease and a few dry fire operations, the FPC trigger broke at 5.1 pounds.

The racking, cocking, or charging handle is behind the receiver. This handle reciprocates as the weapon is fired. Be certain to keep your cheek and chin out of the way of the cocking handle while firing. It will brush your cheek if you do not maintain a cheek weld on the proper buttock area.

While well suited to recreation, the FPC is a serious personal defense firearm. As such it fills a real need. The FPC is much easier to shoot well than a handgun — any handgun. The 9mm Luger gains some velocity over a handgun in a 16-inch carbine barrel. This makes for improved expansion potential and greater accuracy.

I am not enthusiastic concerning any pistol cartridge at 100 yards, but the energy boost from a longer barrel allows the FPC to shoot flatter. An 8-inch plate will be rung every time at 100 yards, but this is kind of a trick or stunt and not very practical. At 50 yards, the FPC outshoots any pistol in most hands. The bottom line is that the FPC allows a shooter with a minimum of training and marksmanship skills to put a lot of hits into a threat very quickly.

The FPC has good features. The stock carries two spare magazines in a secure carrier. They are not particularly easy to detach and that is good — they will not be lost. The paddle-type release works well when the stock is oriented upside down. Some practice is needed to operate the magazine holder release.

I see the carriers as more of a convenience than something you will really need in a gunfight. Just the same, if awakened at night or in any type of forced deployment, you have spare loads in the gun stock and ready. The stock is not adjustable but fits most of us well. It is really just a cheek rest.

The KelTec Sub 2000, a similar carbine, folds end-over-end while the FPC folds sideways. This means that you will be able to mount an optic on the FPC and still fold the piece. This is important. The wear and tear on a folding mechanism is minimal… if you don’t play with the FPC every day. Plastic wears slowly and gives a little. Try a one hand slap and you may not convince the latch to catch either by too little force or too much force causing bounce back. Handle the FPC with the same respect you give any firearm.

I chose the SIG Romeo 7 red dot sight for the S&W M&P FPC 9mm. What’s not to like about over 60,000 hours of battery life? I mounted the SIG red dot easily enough and proceeded to sight in the FPC. I initially chose 10 yards, a reasonable distance for home defense engagement. I lubricated the bolt (about the only maintenance the FPC will need) and began firing.

Firing impressions were good. The Smith and Wesson M&P FPC carbine, like all 9mm carbines, has some momentum but recoil is light. I don’t consider the .223 AR a kicker, but the 9mm is more pleasant to fire as there is less muzzle blast. It wasn’t difficult to keep all the rounds in the X-ring, obliterating the X with the first magazine at 10 yards.

The trigger features a sharp reset. Accuracy is good to very good. I fired the first 120 rounds of ammunition in fast paced combat drills at 7, 10, 15, and 25 yards. There was little difference in my ability to cut the X away at any of these ranges. The little gun will shoot.

Velocity Testing

Most of the original firing was done with a variety of FMJ loads. At the second outing, I added a good mix of jacketed hollow point loads and chronographed these loads. Performance was good to excellent without a stoppage.

At the 25-yard line, it wasn’t difficult to plow a furrow in the center of the target and keep off the holes in line. I fired the FPC from a benchrest for accuracy at 25 yards. The smallest group was 1.2 inch. I would guess, if you can hold off a solid rest you will be able to get a 5-inch group at 100 yards, or perhaps a little larger.

Specifications: Smith and Wesson M&P FPC

• Type: Blowback-operated, semiautomatic
• Caliber: 9x19mm
• Capacity: 17- and 23-round S&W M&P pistol magazines
• Barrel: 16.3 inches
• Overall Length: 16.3 in. (folded), 30.3 in. (fixed)
• Weight: 5 pounds 
• Stock: Tubular steel with 13.2-inch length of pull
• Finish: Blue
• Trigger: 5.5 pounds 
• Sights: None, MIL STD 1913 Picatinny rail
• MSRP: $659

This is a defense carbine for home and area defense. Just the same, you would not be helpless at extended range. I like this carbine a lot. It is friendly to use and has advantages over the handgun, shotgun, or rifle in many situations.

I recommend the Smith and Wesson M&P FPC 9mm carbine for anyone needing a measure of authority that they may not find in another type of firearm. As for the bag gun concept, the Smith and Wesson is so good and handles so well, that the concept just went from my ‘maybe aisle’ to the front row.

How would a folding carbine such as the Smith and Wesson M&P FPC 9mm fit in your defensive plan? Do you think the 9mm chambering in a carbine is enough? What caliber would your prefer? Share your answers in the comment section.