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I'm so frustrated....my M&P hates me..help??

jenlynn724

jenlynn724

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I have fired many pistols, and have always been fairly accurate.. I bought a M&P 9c, and I'm lucky if I can hit the target at all, nevermind where I'm aiming. The other day I shot horribly, then picked up my husbands Browning, and shot so well. What is wrong?? I have tried changing my stance, and my grip.. I don't know what else to think.. Maybe the M&P was a bad choice for me...
 
Close your left eye? (Sorry, too easy).

If its in budget, pick up or borrow a Crimson Trace? You could then figure out how your squeeze affects your end result.
 
Where are your shots hitting? Are you a righty? Are the shots going low and left? If so you are flinching. Don't close your left eye you should keep both eyes open when shooting. The problem is most likely your triggering of the gun. Your husband had basically a 1911 and that is the gun all triggers are compared to. The trigger pull on a 1911 style pistol has you pulling the trigger straight back but on many striker fired pistols you actually need to curl your finger which causes a poor trigger pull.

Pete
 
Du510 said:
Close your left eye? (Sorry, too easy).

If its in budget, pick up or borrow a Crimson Trace? You could then figure out how your squeeze affects your end result.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say the same thing, I have the 9c and I shoot much better with my brothers Sig P229, but I also have not yet gotten a trigger job done and the pull is insane compared to my brothers gun. Just have patience with it, when I first shot it I was all over the map, now that I've put a couple hundred rounds through it I'm learning to anticipate the factors involved (including trigger pull) and already I'm narrowing down my groupings. I'm also going to be picking up the Crimson Trace Grips soon
 
RichM said:
Practice dry firing to watch for flinch or other technique errors.
Click to expand...

Good advice but you won't flinch in dry fire. You can try loading up a mag and shooting it. As soon as the gun runs dry, drop the slide and pull the trigger. You need to try convincing yourself that you just loaded another round. Now you will prob. see that you're wacking the trigger and the muzzle on the gun will dip quite a bit.

Now do some dry fire and pull the trigger straight back. Do this a ton of times and watch what happens. Load a mag with 3 rounds and do exactly what you just did. If you pull the trigger straight back the bullets will go where you want them if your sights are in proper alignment.
 
Aside from the dry-fire mentioned already - which is a good idea to practice all the time to re-enforce the muscle memory, take a close look at your grip with the two guns side-by-side...

Using myself as an example - with a 92FS, I really have to be on my game to be "Accurate". I can still keep them all "vital", even at speed - and I am getting better, but I have a nasty pull down/left (7 O'clock) unless I take care to watch my trigger position...

Pick up a Sig226 and I can make nice tight groups in the center with my eyes closed (ok, slight exaggeration[wink])... Though I've fired the Sig in the past (prior to a long hiatus from guns), I've put 10X+ the number of rounds through the 92 vs the Sig at this point and the Sig is still night and day more accurate.

When I look at my grip on the two - the longer sweep of the Sig trigger and the shape of the grips puts me in just the right position. The 92 does not... So, no shocker that I have the consciously adjust my grip and position to compensate...

If your grip is wrong, you are using too many muscles in your hand and will pull one way or the other.

I've only had limited experience with the M&P, but have you changed the back-strap?

In my case, putting a bigger grip on the 92 would do the trick too, but would make it harder to carry... the M&P allows for easier adjustment, though it may not have enough range depending on what your geometry issues are...
 
Wall Drill
developed by George Harris, SIGARMS Academy

Range: 0yd
Target: blank wall
Start position: any
Rounds fired: 0 (dry fire)

This is a dry-fire drill; all weapons must be completely unloaded and double-checked before the start of this drill.

Shooter stands with muzzle at eye level less than one inch from a blank wall. There should be no aiming points (targets, holes, light switches, etc.) to distract the shooter.

Shooter practices proper sight alignment, front sight focus, and trigger manipulation without the distraction of a target. Two-handed, strong-hand, and weak-hand shooting should be practiced. For TDA (traditional double action) pistols, both the double- and single-action trigger pulls should be practiced.

The goal is to maintain focus on the front sight, pulling the trigger without upsetting sight alignment.

The Wall Drill was the Drill of the Week and you can read that entry for further
 
M & P 9mm Compact trigger job

anyone know a good local gunsmith that will do that trigger job......I live in the Fall River/New Bedford area
 
fbirdquik6 said:
Im guessing your not used to a double action trigger pull. Practice practice practice.
Click to expand...

you a well as others who have psoted are right.. With help from my husband I have come to realize that I am wrapping my finger around the trigger, intead of pressing straight back.. Practice, is what I need, and patience..
Thank you all for the help, and suggestions..
 
I had an issue with my M&P full size when I first bought it. but after practicing with snap caps and slowing down my trigger pull to a crawl with a boresighter in place I found out I had some grip and pull issues. I am not perfect yet, but I am more confident with my M&P than anything else I own. I highly recommend dry-firing slowing with snap caps on ANY gun when you first get it to help you feel the break on the pull until you get comfortable.
 
I recently got M&P9 back from Burwell Gunsmithing. He does very nice work too. Prior to getting the trigger job, I was awful with my M&P9 - now its much better, but I still have to concentrate on what I am doing to get the hole where I want it.
 
jenlynn724 said:
I have fired many pistols, and have always been fairly accurate.. I bought a M&P 9c, and I'm lucky if I can hit the target at all, nevermind where I'm aiming. The other day I shot horribly, then picked up my husbands Browning, and shot so well. What is wrong?? I have tried changing my stance, and my grip.. I don't know what else to think.. Maybe the M&P was a bad choice for me...
Click to expand...

Glad you figured it out
 
I just realized something else. You have a compact gun with the M&P. Compacts are MUCH more difficult to shoot than a full sized gun. You get much more felt recoil, a shorter sight radius, lighter weight all of which make the gun harder to shoot. This is why most experienced shooters will tell newer shooters to NEVER buy a compact for a first gun.
 
PistolPete said:
I just realized something else. You have a compact gun with the M&P. Compacts are MUCH more difficult to shoot than a full sized gun. You get much more felt recoil, a shorter sight radius, lighter weight all of which make the gun harder to shoot. This is why most experienced shooters will tell newer shooters to NEVER buy a compact for a first gun.
Click to expand...


Exactly... like shoot a snubby! Hurts after 50 rounds and hard to group anything!
 
PistolPete said:
I just realized something else. You have a compact gun with the M&P. Compacts are MUCH more difficult to shoot than a full sized gun. You get much more felt recoil, a shorter sight radius, lighter weight all of which make the gun harder to shoot. This is why most experienced shooters will tell newer shooters to NEVER buy a compact for a first gun.
Click to expand...

It is the first gun I have purchased myself, but not the first I have shot. I shoot proficiently with a G27, Colt GoldCup 1911, Browning Hi-Power 9mm, and a Ruger Sp101 357, (These I shoot regularly) I chose to purchase a compact because it is to be my carry weapon as well, and I am on the small side..
 
I have also come to the conclusion that I don't like the M&P trigger, even after an awesome trigger job by Greg Derr.. I refuse to quit though, so I will practice, until I outshoot my husband.. ;)
 
I forget if this was mentioned or not in this or the other thread . . .

Have you tried both Small and Medium grips? I found that the Medium seemed OK in my hand, but when I shot with both, I found that my accuracy was better with Small grips (I have small hands).

See if that makes a diff in your case.
 
I'm so frustrated....my M&P hates me..help??
Click to expand...



I dunno but I heard my Sig on the phone last night with your M&P and they were talking up a storm.... I can't even tell you the things they were saying. OF course, you probably already know about the drinking problem, right? I mean, you do know your pistol's a drunk, right? Don't worry, a lot of Polymer's are like that. Runs in the family, don't you know?
 
i had the same problem with my M&P, the trigger is not forgiving at all

practice, practice, practice!
 
Without seeing you shoot, it would be hard to give practical advice. I'm an NRA firearms instructor and have some experience teaching new shooters. It sounds like you have been shooting for some time however you may have not started off with a good set of fundamentals, as I had happen to me, therefore just practice might only re-enforce those not so good habbits.

In the NRA Basic Pistol course I teach, you learn the proper fundamentals of Position, Grip, Breath Control, Sight Alignment, Trigger Squeeze and follow through. All these must be done well in order to shoot well. What is your standard of shooting well? Target size? Distance? Timed fire? An answer to these questions will help isolate where you need to work harder.

Some of the most important aspects of shooting well that most of the "top shooters" agree on is sight alignment and trigger control working together is the single most important part of shooting well. A stronger grip of the non firing hand holding the gun in a 70/30 ratio over the firing hand will help dramatically. You want your shooting hand to be looser than your support hand to aid in speed shooting but also concentrate on not tightening the shooting hand while moving the trigger finger to break the shot. Ultimately you would like the trigger finger to operate as independantly from the other fingers of the hand as possible thus disturbing the sight picture the least.

A hand position with your thumbs pointing toward the target will help stabalize your shooting platform and aid in recoil control too. (Look at some of the top IPSC & IDPA guys hold their guns) If you still have trouble, try to find someone who shoots well and have them analize what you are doing. I reccomend not taking advise from just anyone as there are many good intentioned people out there who don't have the shooting thing figured out either, and further frustrate you with less than helpful advise. Good luck.
 

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