I’ve been dinking around with my M&P9-Pro for a couple of weeks. I’ve owned it for about 2 years but was never satisfied with its accuracy, and pretty much had avoided shooting it this last year. However, after watching some Yuotube videos about the wonders of Apex, I decided to try to improve it with the intent of maybe shooting it in the Combat League next season.

So I sent away for an “Apex Grade” 5 inch barrel and the famed Apex trigger, and spent the next couple of days fitting and installing those parts. The videos lied. They said it would take around a half hour each. Perhaps they work in inverse dog years, I dunno.

Anyways, eventually I succeed in getting the Apex parts installed and then proceed to my local gun range to checkout my new match grade M&P. I set my target at 20 yards, an 8 inch paper plate with a black dot drawn on it as an aim point. Hoping that I wouldn’t have to drift its fixed sight too far, seated and resting the weapon on sand bags, I sent 5 rounds down range and then waddled on out there to see where they grouped. There was a pattern of 9mm holes scattered about 12 inches below the paper plate.

“That’s strange”, or words to that effect occurred to me. Not at all what I’d expected after having spent over $300 in parts and pretty much exhausted my repertoire of expletives during the installation process. Repetition didn’t improve my outcome. Maybe it’s my reloads; perhaps the bullets are too small. Maybe it needs adjustable sights (….yeah right). I moved the target up to 10 yards and I was sometimes on the plate, but still very low and all over the place. Not at all the one-hole group that I should have had at this paltry range.

As I sat there lamenting my misfortune and cursing the internet, another geezer (Jim) came over and we discussed my conundrum. We swapped barrels back to the original without improvement; in fact, it was even worse. Jim shot it with the same results. Jim is around 80 years old and he shakes pretty bad, so he advised me not to take his results too seriously.

But then, another guy walks by who Jim recognizes as a pretty good shooter from the Combat League. Jim says “How about we ask Chris to try it? He’s a pretty good shot. Heck he even beat old Quintin last year. Maybe he can tell us what’s wrong with your gun.”

“Jim, that’s not the cowboy way” says I. But if you want to go waste your time and Chris’s time, then go on down there and talk to him. Which is what Geezer-Jim proceeds to do. It runs out that Chris is indeed a good guy and he agreed to test fire my M&P with my reloads to see what he thinks may be wrong with my gun.

Shooting at his target at 15 yards, Chris proceeds to fire 10 rounds into a 2 inch group about ½ inch high and a little to the right of his bullseye. “Not too bad, maybe drift the rear sight a little to the left. I could probably do better if I shot it a bit more; got to know the trigger better. But not too bad of a gun.”

Flabbergasted doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings as I slunk back to my shooting bench. But Chris was (and is) a good guy and he proceeds to advise me on holding the gun. Turns out that such a light gun needs a semi-death grip and the good old “push-pull” technique of 2-hand shooting doesn’t work well with these plastic-fantastics. Sort of paradoxical.

I’m getting better with it; staying on the plate at 20 yards and I’m no longer searching the internet for Dawson Precision’s 34-004 adjustable rear (discontinued, of course). I’ll probably never beat Chris in the Combat League, but I’ve come to realize that the old saying “It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian” may be right on. I won’t say that I wasted my money on the Apex upgrades; it’s clearly a more accurate gun now. But it probably wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it was. -S2

Your comments reminded me of my inexperience shooting different size sidearms.

It had never occurred to me that shooting different size handguns required different hand gripping of the guns as well as adjusting for different sight radius's.

When I moved from a government 1911 to a Shield, I could not match the same accuracy at 15 yards. A shooter friend saw my frustration and critiqued my gun handling. Once I understood the problem, I adjusted my hand hold and sighting, and as a result matched accuracy with both size pistols.

Thus, It was not the Shield at fault. It was my inept handling of it that caused my decreased accuracy.

I had a similar experience with my shield. luckily early on I wa shooting right next to a Firearms instructor that was watching my frustrations, and he helped me out with my grip. that cleaned up a whole lot of my issues.

A good lesson and reminder that most of the time it is us 'operator error' that is the problem

Why not move the target up for a while for you to build your confidence and as your groups tighten drift back the target another 5-10yds?
Oddly for me I struggled with my 1911 grip to compress the grip safety 100%. I recently picked up a Shield 45, gosh I shoot the Shield better than I did my full size 1911! Shamefully I sold my 1911, now I want to challenge myself and understand proper grip and shooting of the 1911 again..........LOL

It sounds like you will get yourself dialed in, you might just be one tiny step of away from getting things in perfect harmony to make that 9_pro sing! Good luck with it all Also sounds like you have some good folks around you too, that always helps.
Karl

There are times when it's the arrow, but 99% of the time it's the Indian.

I've been "Chris" for many people at the range and in classes. I've watched them curse their gun, the manufacturer, the cartridge, their aunt Susan and whatever else they can think of, but almost never themselves. I've been berated here many times for suggesting that the issue could be the shooter rather than the gun. I'm just glad you've come down to a reasonable solution.

I've installed all the Apex parts in about a half hour, but some aspects can be difficult so, more time is not that surprising.

Even with the excellent Apex trigger, the M&P is just not going to be a great precision handgun. That's just the nature of the long trigger bar.

I look forward to hearing more as you improve with this gun.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

Kind of a similar story albeit without the flair of your story telling....(I caught myself chuckling at parts)

Being a new shooter I was and am happy about my progress with my full size revolver....but then....I bought a shield and was brought back to earth so to speak. I thought for sure the sights must not be right and then I took my adult step son to the range where he proceeded, right out of the gate, to group a magazine of shots in a 2x2 square at 7 yrds. Gulp! Humble pie and more education for me with lots of practice thrown in.

I had bought an FN 5.7 and I couldn't hit an 8" plate no matter how much I messed with the rear sight. The LGS couldn't believe what I told him and he even looked up accuracy reviews on the gun. I had read the same reviews which is why I wanted the 57 in the first place.

First off the gun is so light you would think you were holding a plastic squirt gun and the recoil was next to nothing also. I guess I just couldn't get a good hold on the gun for proper trigger control without moving the gun all over. It wasn't the gun....it was I who couldn't shoot it.

I sold the gun and the buyer shot it while at my place and yep he could hit what he aimed at. I know the grief you felt after making so called improvements didn't help.