I finally got the money to spare, had the time, had nothing else to do at the moment, so I went to Blu Core shooting range in Lakewood, Colorado, paid my $21.75 or so, got out my still unshot Smith and Wesson Military and Police .45 ACP full size pistol, and shot 50 rounds thru it for the first time.
My impression is this: the .45 recoils a LOT more than I remembered. Those 230 grain full metal jacket round nosed bullets flying out that barrel at 850 feet per second or more, carry some more energy than the 9 mm bullets of 115-125 grains I have been used to sending downrange ! As a consequence, my shooting SUCKED ! No way do I have accuracy at all; it was all I could do to keep the pistol on the target and centered for several groups of shots, I was flinching I’m sure, and this didn’t help to keep a tight group.
I shot 50 rounds of PMC ball, 230 grain full metal jacket bullets, and boy, is the .45 ACP a POWERFUL pistol cartridge-no wonder the US Military used it from 1911 to 1985, and many well trained and experienced shooters in the military, law enforcement, and civilian users still favor this big cartridge for self defense. I will get there, again. My first pistol was a Government Model 1911-A1 in .45 ACP, way back in the dark ages of 1979. I managed to get good with it, but it was a heavier pistol than the M&P .45 full size, so recoil seemed to be less as I recall.
The M&P 45 worked perfectly, Im very happy to say. No failures to feed, fire, or eject. I even recovered about 20-25 empty brass shell casings, to examine them for whatever damage the extraction and ejection process did to them, as well as pistol brass I don’t have to buy to reload, then shoot. I wish I’d recovered them all, but many bounced off the walls and rolled underneath the shooting tabletop in lane 8, where I was, and are unrecoverable, except by the workers at Blu Core.
I even managed to not only take stills at the range, I took five movies of each of the five magazine’s full of ammo I shot thru my M&P 45. I need a Lot More Practice to get even halfway good with it, no way am I going to be blowing candles out or cutting playing cards in half, much less getting a group inside a playing card sized area of two dimensional space.
The pistol seemed to be shifting in my grip, and I used both hands to hold it. I was Not afraid-I’m not afraid of firearms, or shooting them, having them around, or anything else, but the pistol did seem to shift in my hand during and after recoil. I did not death-grip the pistol, but did have to take a firmer grip on it, and since it is a double action only pistol, each shot could potentially be a bit different as to point of aim and impact, so one would have to make sure the sighgs were aligned perfectly in the 10 X spot on a target, and carefully pull back the trigger till the sear releases the striker, and the pistol fires. When I did this, my wanted to be groups were smaller, but they were all clustered low on the targets, and I’m not sure why - maybe I was pulling down in anticipation of the pistol recoiling upwards, but I’m not sure. I will have to do a LOT more shooting with this pistol to get good with it, and I do intend to be a good shot with this pistol, even if it takes several hundered rounds of full power ball ammo to get used to it and then be able to shoot it accurately and not flinch or shift my grip.
All in all, I am not happy with the terrible groups, if they can be called that, from my first outing with my M&P 45, but I’m glad as can be I finally took the plunge, and shot it after having had it since early February. Took long enough to shoot it, I know, but I finally did shoot it, and am glad of it. Smith & Wesson still makes a Quality semiautomatic pistol, and the M&P 45 is a good, dependable, but POWERFUL pistol. It’s Way More than a .40 S&W or a 9mm Parabellum, I can tell you. I’ll get to a state of accuracy and control with it, in time. And I will Keep on Shooting, no matter what.
First Shots thru my M& .45 and Wow !
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