I shot my new full size .40 cal M&P yesterday for the first time and put about 300 rounds of factory Remington green box and Federal white box range ammo (not reloads) and the gun functioned fine with no failures at all but I was all over the place with the thing...It seems to print 12 inches low and left...I even used a rest and thet helped but I still couldn't keep it on a pie plate at 15 yards...Had my son who is a pretty good shot (much better the me with the old eyes and all) and he didn't do any better than me...There was a fellow in the next lane shooting pretty good and I asked him to try and his groups were not so good either...I was worried that I had lost it but then shot my 4506 real good so my shooting wasn't off...My question is should I send it back to S&W to look at or is it considered normal in a gun of this type which I hope it isn't as I like the feel of the gun but if this is the best it will do I'm going to have to try something else...As always thank you all...

When I first got my M&P 40 I was all over the place too. Never having shot my Service Six as a double action very much, I was spoiled by my 1911 and shooting the revolver SA.

My first few sessions were all over the paper at 10 yards. Eventually I got better control of the gun and 1000 rounds later I am generally in a 3" circle 19/20 times with the miss still maybe an inch or so off.

Move the target in halfway and shoot carefully off of a rest if possible. If they are still way off, then there may be something wrong with the gun. You really need to shoot slowly and not jerk the trigger or be overanxious if you feel that grittiness. That's if your trigger has grittiness.

Mine had a very tiny amount of grittiness which is completely gone and the break is as good as my 1911 now.

Make sure there is no play in the barrel with the slide closed and make sure both sights are tight with no wobble. You said the bullets rattle in the mag in your other post. They aren't rattling inside the chamber are they?

You might also try a mag full with each size backstrap to see if you shoot better with one than the other. I thought the medium to be the right one, but my shooting really improved when I switched to the small.

That accuracy seems unacceptable considering 3 shooters had the same results. I would call S&W for a call tag....it's too bad considering it's a new pistol. Seems like a bad one got through QC. Insist they fix it and test fire it before returning to you.

Good Luck!

Thanks fellows, to answer your question rsrocket1 no everything is fine wirh the chamber...I figured out that if after loading 15 rounds in a mag if I gave the base plate a good whack it would seat the rounds and the rattle stopped...In the past I would just whack the rear of my single stack mags to seat the rounds to the rear...This is my first double stack pistol and I really like everything about it so I'm going to go back next weekend and try it again and I hope I was just not used to the M&P yet...I have the small backstrap and it feels right as I have small to med hands but I did install the medium one and it didn't feel as good to me...If things don't get any better I may just send it back to have Smith look at it but in my experience they will just test fire it and send it back as no trouble found...Most people that get a gun and can't shoot it blame the gun and not the shooter and it may be that I'm the problem but with three different shooters getting pretty much the same results I don't know...I am also thinking about getting an Apex trigger installed to see if it helps...I have dry fired it several hundred times and the trigger isn't too bad and I dont seem to be pulling it off target but yesterdays range session has me wondering if it's the gun or just me...Thanks again...

Well, I can't diagnose your gun over the internet. Maybe it has something wrong with it, can't say.

What I can say is that among my students learning how to shoot combat tupperware, about 20% shoot low and left and swear the gun is at fault.....until I demonstrate otherwise. The classic symptom for "milking" the grip (tightening all the fingers as the trigger is pulled through the long arc) is shooting low and away from the strong hand.

In my experience, it does not matter how many people you have shoot the gun, until you find somebody who has mastered the M&P and holds the gun stil through the long trigger pull. Like shooting a revolver double action.

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Science plus Art

Gun Smoke:

The stock trigger has to wear in a bit before it's not going to get in the way a bit. The Apex DCAEK kit will fix most of this, but if you don't want to spend the money right now, grab a snap cap, and dry fire the thing as much as possible.

Once the gun is smoothed out, it should be easier. Remember, although the trigger is relatively light (unless you have the Massachusetts version), it's still not quite an SA, and S&W just mucked up the drop safety plunger, too.... However, dry firing (or just plain firing ) will smooth it out quite a bit.

Regards,

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Stu.

Have you measured your trigger pull?

I bought my m&p9c without knowing it was an MA model and I shot horribly with it at first which i attributed it to 10lb+ trigger pull. After installing an apex sear and the ultimate striker block kit, the trigger pull went down to around 7.5 lbs or so and i shot noticeably better.

This could have a huge impact to your accuracy/consistancy because you metion that you are used to the 1911 and SA revolver which typically have a very low range of 3-5 lbs for trigger pull. For the record, I also shoot a lot better w/ my 1911 compared to my M&P.

mkygod:

You might want to talk to the guys at Apex.... You should be able to take that trigger down closer to 5# without much effort, and that's still safe enough to carry....

I inherited my first 1911 from a guy who had diabetic neuropathy. He'd set the trigger at about 10# so he could feel the thing. Didn't take long to figure out what had to be done, but it sure didn't shoot like it was supposed to.

Just FWIW, somebody else told me that the only really accurate way to measure trigger pull is to hang weights on the trigger.... Going by my cheap gauge, I tend to agree....

Regards,

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Stu.

Doesn't sound right, I fired my M&P 40 Pro for the first time last week and it grouped very nicely -about 3 inches at 10 yards. Maybe because it's the pro series but I was very pleased with all aspects of the gun.


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Mike Wenzel
Oklahoma City

No way to decide online whether there's anything wrong with your gun. I will say, though, that your problem is identical to that sufferred by 100 per cent of the shooters I know when they were new to a striker-fired DA pistol. These guns are, to put it simply, different from any other type of action encountered, and you have to learn a whole new style of trigger-and-sight control. Those with lots of DA revolver experience have the easiest time transitioning, but even that is a diffferent kind of shootiing technique and some adjustment is required.

I have"cured" the problem for several folks in the same way I cured it for myself -- telling them to do LOTS of dryfiring, picking a small target and focusing entirely on a smooth trigger stroke and keeping the front sight welded on-target throughout the stroke. Try it before you send your gun off anywhere. You may well be surprised.

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Pisgah