Muddy River Tactical on the S&W Equalizer

Kevin of Muddy River Tactical spent about a year with his S&W Equalizer 9mm and filmed this review in 2023. He got it to review when it came out, liked it, kept it, and kept shooting it. He says plainly it isn’t the pistol he carries. There’s no sponsor read, and the only plug is for the channel’s own holster shop, since Muddy River Tactical also makes holsters.

Smith and Wesson Equalizer 9mm |. Most Underrated S&W Pistol? Watch on YouTube — Muddy River Tactical.

The nits come first. His one real complaint is the grip safety. He’s “just not a super fan of grip safeties,” though he says it never got in his way. The white dot sights are “nothing great,” in his words, but they work. He calls the trigger break a little heavy and says there are “pluses and minuses to the trigger.” The flush 10 round magazine leaves his pinky hanging. He also admits it isn’t the gun he’s looking for to carry.

Then the good news. By his count he put about 1,400 rounds through it over the year, in heat, cold, and rain, with “not a failure at all,” and he says he still hasn’t cleaned it. He says it “shoots very soft,” and the easy rack slide he first took for a gimmick won him over. He, his wife, and other shooters all ran it, “and everybody has loved it.” He likes that it takes Shield Plus magazines, and with a 15 round magazine he says it “feels and shoots like a full‑size gun.” He finds it more controllable than the Shield and Shield Plus, and he calls it “a way better pistol” than the Shield. His bottom line is “do not pass up the Equalizer” if you’re shopping for a gun like this, and he suggests renting or borrowing one first. Specific claims in the video are his, not ours.

Here’s our take. The Equalizer is an internal hammer fired 9mm, and the one Kevin shows has a grip safety, no thumb safety, and an optics ready slide that he ran with iron sights the whole time. A year of his shooting is a good sign, not a reliability guarantee.

We stock the configuration he shot. On the shelf: the Smith & Wesson Equalizer 9mm, no thumb safety, 15 + 1, with 15 + 1 capacity per our listing. S&W also makes it with a thumb safety, as Kevin notes, and that’s the Smith & Wesson Equalizer 9mm with thumb safety. He didn’t shoot that version in this video. If you want the magazine he ran most, we carry the S&W 13 round extended magazine for the Shield Plus and Equalizer. Complete firearm. Indiana FFL transfer through Wulfy’s. Ask us for current fees.