m&p 40 range report

[jhblaze1]

On tuesday i bought a new m&p40, joined a club wednesday and hit the range last night to try it out. I plan to get a trigger job in the very near future and i attribute my god awful accuracy to the trigger.

The gun fired perfect for all 100 round i put through it. Not one hiccup.

I don't have a scale or anything with which i could accurately measure the trigger pull and I'm not sure how good my estimate would be since i am new to handguns, but I would venture to say if FAR EXCEEDS 10lbs (like maybe as high as 15+lbs) and it is not a consistent pull. It pulls easy until right before it breaks and then you have to really pull hard. So hard, in fact that my hand starts to shake.

At 50' I wasn't even hitting the paper for some shots so i pulled it back to 21'. All shots on paper, scattered at first.

After a little practice, I was consistently putting shots at 7 o'clock which a chart i saw indicates that I am "jerking". This is probably the case since i have to pull so god damned hard.

So within the next week or so, my gun will be headed out for a trigger job to bring it to a smooth 5lbs.

As is, i would not feel confident that i could rely on this gun in a self defense situation unless the BG is within 20 feet of me.

Do you guys think that the low left (7 o'clock) shot placement is the result of the grotesque trigger or do I just suck?

Thanks.

 

[Chris]

The trigger doesn't help. But you would need a qualified instructor to watch you to really determine the problem.

One issue with a heavy trigger is that most people when forced to stress one part of the hand tend to also grip tighter with the rest of the hand. Very much a likely situation for the case in your statement that you started to shake.

It CAN be worked out over time, but its likely a better idea to get a decent trigger first.

 

[jhblaze1]

The trigger doesn't help. But you would need a qualified instructor to watch you to really determine the problem.

One issue with a heavy trigger is that most people when forced to stress one part of the hand tend to also grip tighter with the rest of the hand. Very much a likely situation for the case in your statement that you started to shake.

It CAN be worked out over time, but its likely a better idea to get a decent trigger first.

Makes sense. When i took basic pistol at GOAL in January i shot the their m&p9 very accurately with the MA trigger. I don't remember that trigger being anywhere near as heavy as mine though, and Jon Green said that gun was new.

I think there is a huge variance in the MA triggers and that s&w puts them in very quickly and cheaply so they can get the guns to the MA market.

Just hoping it's not also a sight problem combined with the trigger....

 

[dbhn]

I usually shoot 7 o'clock too. I attribute it to not being able to control the terrible triggers on my few handguns.

I would suggest though to take it out a few more times with the heavy trigger and try to get better with it. If you can shoot that trigger with some effectiveness you will be that much better with lighter ones. I think the heavy ones are a great place to learn trigger control on (which I still don't have). But, if I pick up and shoot someone's Glock my groups are amazing. Just my two cents though.

 

[Fsorrent]

PS. You'd have a tough time explaining a self-defense case if the guy wasn't within 20ft of you. Most SD scenario's happen much closer than that, your talking 7-10ft area.

 

[jhblaze1]

PS. You'd have a tough time explaining a self-defense case if the guy wasn't within 20ft of you. Most SD scenario's happen much closer than that, your talking 7-10ft area.

haha ya i suppose that's true. Wait you mean you can't use a sniper rifle on a BG that's 300 yards away and claim self defense?..

 

[Fsorrent]

I'd suggest next time out, put your self 7ft away from the target, and point at center mass. Shoot 5x If they all hit the target, then I wouldn't mind carrying it until i got the trigger work done.

 

[jhblaze1]

I'd suggest next time out, put your self 7ft away from the target, and point at center mass. Shoot 5x If they all hit the target, then I wouldn't mind carrying it until i got the trigger work done.

can't shoot less than 21 feet at my club. I'll go back tonight though and put a few more rounds through it. Gun's going out for trigger work within the next couple days.

 

[JimConway]

Shooting at 6 or 7 o'clock could, as you said be caused by jerking. I often see the same thing caused by trying to ambush the target. By ambushing, I mean the you are trying to make the shot just at the moment when the sight alignment is perfect. In this case, you must learn to ingore any movement of the gun (some call this the wooble zone). Simply, Get a good sight picture and keep pressing the tigger until the gun fires. This is called the surprise break and means that you did not know the exact moment when the gun would fire.

If you can get to the Westford Sportsmen's Club on a Sunday just after 1:00 PM, I would be pleased to work with you to see if we can solve the problem. There will be no charge for this.

I suggest that you down load an article called "The Anatomy of one Perfect Shot" at
http://www.neshooters.com/anatomy.pdf

 

[jhblaze1]

Shooting at 6 or 7 o'clock could, as you said be caused by jerking. I often see the same thing caused by trying to ambush the target. By ambushing, I mean the you are trying to make the shot just at the moment when the sight alignment is perfect. In this case, you must learn to ingore any movement of the gun (some call this the wooble zone). Simply, Get a good sight picture and keep pressing the tigger until the gun fires. This is called the surprise break and means that you did not know the exact moment when the gun would fire.

If you can get to the Westford Sportsmen's Club on a Sunday just after 1:00 PM, I would be pleased to work with you to see if we can solve the problem. There will be no charge for this.

I suggest that you down load an article called "The Anatomy of one Perfect Shot" at
http://www.neshooters.com/anatomy.pdf

pm sent

 

[BruceP]

I'd suggest next time out, put your self 7ft away from the target, and point at center mass. Shoot 5x If they all hit the target, then I wouldn't mind carrying it until i got the trigger work done.

At 7ft you should be able to put them all on the target with a 20lb trigger and your eyes closed.

 

[Hawkeye]

Do you guys think that the low left (7 o'clock) shot placement is the result of the grotesque trigger or do I just suck?

Thanks.

Yes you suck but that can be fixed. You need to work on fundamentals. Work on them and learn how to shoot you gun. It's the shooter not the gun.