Hi all,

Back from my second trip to my local indoor range with my new M&P9 and it still impresses me. Only gun I've ever fired that was more solid feeling were metal-framed revolvers. Fast and easy sight alignment, excellent recoil control. It's just great.

I wanted to share this video of a practice drill I thought of. My indoor range trips have been getting boring because it's now no longer difficult for me to shoot a tight group at 3, 6 and 9 yards. I have the isometric balanced grip in a stable Weaver stance, equal height and equal light sight picture and trigger control figured out under controlled circumstances: a well lit, non-moving target while I'm standing still, directly facing it. When it was difficult, I needed all 10+1 rounds to master it but after a few minutes of warming up, it's not hard.

So I wanted to do something that felt more engaging, yet practical. They don't allow double taps, usually, which I'd love to practice since it's hard to get that second shot to be just as disciplined as the first. There's Limited moving and shooting in an indoor range, but hopping from side to side is neither realistic, nor interesting. Just exhausting. But then I got the idea of cycling through my magazines by loading just one round. In other words, shoot-reload-shoot as fast as I could do so without: 1) missing the mag well, 2) improperly racking the slide, or 3) below combat-accurate shots on target.

That ended up being a Lot of fun. On my second set of 25 shots, I had a Pretty good pattern:


(Apologies for the incorrect orientation; the JPEG file looks right on my PC.)

Once I had gotten comfortable with the drill, I took some video:


I've only been at this for a year, so I'm pretty sure my technique and speed look silly compared to what some of you might be used to, especially if you have a military or law enforcement background. Already, I know that gripping the mag by the base plate and trying to point the tip into the well is not as effective as holding the whole thing, and using my index finger to guide it in. And, on my follow-up shots, I have a tendency to let go of the trigger instead of holding it down, and only allowing it to advance in order to reset and take the next shot. Hopefully, I will practice those bad habits out of my muscle memory on my next trip!

Attached Images

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Hi there. From a fellow lefty and MP9 owner, I can certainly appreciate this video. :-) Question, I noticed when you seated the mag, you didn't ram it in which causes the slide to move forward and eliminate the extra step of racking it. Why do you prefer this method?

I actually did it that way at first by accident, and my #1 reason for disliking the "auto-rack" that happens when I aggressively slap the mag is that it disrupts my muscle memory habit to Always rack the slide if my gun is out of battery for any reason (e.g., type 1 malfunction, type 2 malfunction, reloading, etc). When it racks itself, my brain goes, "uh, what happens next?" Because my default motion is to Always rack the slide before I point in. You Could just skip that part as soon as it's in battery, and point in, but it makes me have to stop and think, which I don't want to do. I want the training to automatically be correct in any situation, and fall back on it if necessary under high-stress circumstances.

Let your magazines drop to the deck . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

This might not be great advice, since they could easily end up in front of the firing line in an indoor range.

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Something really smart

Gotcha...and not everything works for everyone. We all have to find what is most comfortable for us and practice it so when and if we're in a high stress situation, it's natural for us. Thanks for explaining. Happy Shooting!!

And you can easily end up attempting to catch a dropped magazine while being shot at . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

" And, on my follow-up shots, I have a tendency to let go of the trigger instead of holding it down, and only allowing it to advance in order to reset and take the next shot. Hopefully, I will practice those bad habits out of my muscle memory on my next trip! "


In holding your trigger down after the shot, you are practicing a faddish but very bad habit. When the gun fires and recoils, you should have the trigger reset and be prepping it for the next shot by the time the gun comes down from recoil. This is the only way you are going to be proficient at quick follow up shots.

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Science plus Art

Have you seen that happen often? The only magazines, I have seen in front of the firing line, are those where someone let them fall, or someone accidentally knocked one off the bench. and I've never seen anyone stupid enough to chase one out onto the range...I'm sure it has happened...I'm just saying, hanging onto the mag seems more prudent when indoors, rather than letting it fall where it may, at a busy range.

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Something really smart

As you can see from some of the footage, I am letting the mags hit the deck. I am intentionally catching the last mag because I knew it was the third and final mag after the 2nd and final round (I'm counting everything the entire time).

Allowing the recoil to manipulate where in the trigger's range of motion my finger is, is not something I'm that comfortable doing. Perhaps I'll get there at some point, but for now, I prefer my moves to be intentional (like not letting the slide shift back into battery from having slammed the magazine into the well). I just thought of another reason I don't do that (to avoid a double-feed malfunction).

I know that several, several years ago some FBI agents died with empty shells in their pocket after being taught to take time to put them there on the range when they reloaded their revolvers. Do what you want . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Of course I can't find it now but Ernest Langdon (Beretta shooter) has a video about NOT pinning the trigger back. Basically he agrees w/ OKFCO5. His point is that, if you hold the trigger back, once the sights line up again, you need to do two things-release the trigger and then pull the trigger. this is hard to do w/o jerking the trigger. If you use the time the gun is recoiling and the sights moving up and down to get the trigger released, then all you need to do is pull it. I am, like you, still trying to work on quick accurate double taps, so I read what I can, watch youtube vids, and try to do it at the next range trip. Langdon's thoughts make sense to me so I wanted to pass them on.

Well that is the ironic thing. The natural inclination is just to let go a little bit once the shot goes off. It's my instructors I've had that said "stop letting go." Now I know what I was doing was taking my finger all the way out the trigger guard at first, but I don't do that anymore. If I'm still ready to fire, my finger is on the trigger. So maybe I stop fighting the natural inclination to let the trigger reset as a reaction to the shot, and just focus on my magazine handling.