Top Handgun Accessories for Your Smith & Wesson 9mm Handgun

As the new or prospective owner of a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol, you may be interested in the options available for accessorizing your new handgun. Accessories can augment the pistol’s capabilities and comfort, maximizing your enjoyment when shooting.

The Smith & Wesson M&P series of striker-fired semi-automatic pistols includes variants optimized for several distinct but sometimes overlapping applications. These range from concealed carry, as with the Smith & Wesson  M&P Shield 9mm, to home defense and duty, to competition.

Some top accessories include iron and optical sights, tactical lights, lasers, and holsters/magazine pouches.

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Sights

If you’ve purchased a Smith & Wesson pistol for either competitive target shooting or self-defense, you may find that the factory iron sights could use improvement. As some of the new M&P series handguns are optics ready, sights will be divided into three separate categories.

• Night sights. Illuminated using tritium or a photoluminescent paint, night sights enable you to see your front and rear sights in low-light environments, which is critical for precise shooting in many tactical and competitive scenarios. 
• Fiber-optic sights. Fiber optics are used to collect and focus ambient light to provide a brightly colored sight picture during the day. As they rely on ambient light, they may not be ideal at dusk or night. Therefore, these sights are sometimes paired with tritium to produce a combination day/night sighting system. 
• Optical sights. Smith & Wesson has begun manufacturing optics-ready variants of its popular M&P series of handguns. This modification consists of a slide that has been cut to accept adapter plates for the attachment of miniature red dot sights (MRD). Often used in the context of competition, reflex or reflector sights allow you to acquire a sight picture more rapidly, regardless of ambient light, simplify focus, and increase contrast. 

There are also alternative sight sets that don’t rely on traditional three-dot design. One example is the express-type system, which substitutes a shallow V-notch rear sight and a large, highly visible white dot front sight.

Inspired by the express sights of big-gaming hunting rifles, this may be worth considering if the three-dot system doesn’t provide you with the quick sight alignment you need.

Tactical Lights

Although dedicated night sights illuminate the sight markings for acquiring a sight picture and maintaining contrast in the dark, they don’t illuminate the environment.

Fortunately, a weapon light can be attached to the MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail found on many Smith & Wesson handguns. If you’re investigating a disturbance at night, whether as a private citizen or in an official capacity, being able to positively identify targets, and distinguish threats, is imperative.

While there are  useful techniques for carrying a flashlight in your support hand while aiming a handgun in the other, a dedicated tactical light attached directly to the gun offers at least one distinct advantage. It leaves your support hand free to perform other actions. The other is having the beam point in the same direction as the muzzle.

In addition to target identification, shining a bright light into an assailant’s eyes can be incredibly disorienting. This is also why some tactical lights have a strobe function.

Laser Sights

The purpose of a laser sight is to show you exactly where the muzzle is pointed. This can help you acquire a sight picture in the dark or increase your hit probability when firing unsighted. It doesn’t illuminate the target itself, but it also won’t reveal your location to a threat in the same manner as a tactical light.

Smith & Wesson offers a variant of its M&P Shield with an integrated Crimson Trace laser. Molded into the frame, the red laser has an activation button that falls under your index finger for easy access.

Holsters and Magazine Pouches

Whether you prefer to carry IWB (inside the waistband) or OWB (outside), openly or concealed, a  high-quality holster is one of the most important accessories you can buy for a handgun. A holster lets you carry your pistol safely and securely while providing you with the access you need to draw it.

While leather is the quintessential holster material, it’s gradually giving way to Kydex holsters due to the latter material’s durability, rigidity, water and oil resistance, and heat-formed custom fitting. A  concealed carry holster should, ideally, retain its shape under constant use.

In addition to holsters, whatever Smith & Wesson gun you choose to carry, spare ammunition can be a lifesaver. Rather than carrying loose magazines in a pants pocket, which can snag, a dedicated  mag carrier or magazine pouch provides reliable access.

Final Thoughts

As part of any accessories package for a new handgun, holsters and magazine pouches are vital — they let you carry your weapon and ammunition securely and in a way that doesn’t impede access when you need them most.

At Incognito Concealment, we take  Kydex holsters and mag carriers seriously. Call us at (586) 333-4240, and we’ll discuss with you the best options for carrying your new Smith & Wesson.