M&P Sport 2 Accuracy Potential

I took my M&P to the 100 yard range at our club yesterday and met with a friend, who works at a large gun store in West Michigan and is a very good pistol and rifle shot (Camp Perry competitor). It was a rare windless day in West Michigan and I told him that I have shot my M&P Sport 2 into 1moa, using IMI 55 grain ammunition and a Vortex Spitfire 3X prism scope and he gave me one of those looks, like I was crazy. He had a couple of rather expensive AR's with 1X6 scopes with him and we were averaging 1.5 inches with them. We then shot my M&P Sport 2 and proceeded to shoot 1 inch and a couple of 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards. He could not believe we had just done that, with military factory ammo yet. It doesn't produce any flyers either. Looking at a 4 inch splatter target at 100 yards with a 3X scope, is like slicing a piece of fly sh*t into quarters, but we did it. Remarkable rifle and ammo combination. The only internal changes I made were polishing the trigger contact surfaces and a set of JS springs (red).

It is a remarkable in every way. Whatever SW is doing with this rifle is spot on. I have never had a factory combat type rifle ever function so flawlessly or be as accurate using M193 ammo. The parts they are using are fantastic and the platform is stable in every way. When I sighted in my aimpoint I was shocked at what it was doing and how accurate it was/is. Like you I changed the trigger set up to reflect what I was used to.

I know there are several reviewers on youtube who did remark about the accuracy and in general the accuracy of many of it competitors (being very good)

The Sports, both 1+2 have acquired a remarkable reputation for being very accurate rifles, even among critics. S&W sure must be doing something right.
Im happy to hear how well your Sport 2 performs.
Jim

Some rifle/ammunition combinations just play well together. Glad you found one that works well. With modern machining methods the factories should be able to produce rifles that are very accurate and ammunition that is consistent if they keep up the quality controls.

vonn said:

Some rifle/ammunition combinations just play well together. Glad you found one that works well. With modern machining methods the factories should be able to produce rifles that are very accurate and ammunition that is consistent if they keep up the quality controls.

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Yup sometimes you just get lucky and get the right combination on a factory rifle. It seems like S&W has been able to achieve very good results based on the statements of a lot of new and existing owners from multiple sources.

That is one of the factors that makes the Sport II one of the best bargins in AR15s right now.

Scotiapilot said:

It is a remarkable in every way. Whatever SW is doing with this rifle is spot on. I have never had a factory combat type rifle ever function so flawlessly or be as accurate using M193 ammo. The parts they are using are fantastic and the platform is stable in every way. When I sighted in my aimpoint I was shocked at what it was doing and how accurate it was/is. Like you I changed the trigger set up to reflect what I was used to.

I know there are several reviewers on youtube who did remark about the accuracy and in general the accuracy of many of it competitors (being very good)

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Being a complete AR noob, I agonized for a while choosing between a Ruger AR556 and S&W Sport II. Ruger was actually cheaper and with the "cool" 1:8 twist rate and I hated the white lettering on S&W (still do). But S&W had practically no complaints about it, and many prized it's accuracy. Ruger had a few reported issues. I am very glad I went with S&W.

I shot my Sport at a spot on a creek bank (ricochets hit the opposite bank) and from 130-140 yards shooting off hand, standing up I was able to keep my shots in about a 5" area. To me that's exceptional accuracy based on the other AR's I've shot including my other AR which would have cost considerably more (not sure about the exact price because I traded for it). I haven't shot any AR's that were actually bad when it came to accuracy but none have come close to what I was able to do with the Smith.

I waited a long time for the right entry level AR before getting into the game. I've been a shooter for over 50 years but I shot several entry level AR's at the range and watched how others operated. Nothing in the same range was anywhere near as reliable as the Sport and they weren't as accurate either. I trusted Smith to do it right and I read countless rave reviews even from those that wanted to find fault because they didn't want a cheaper rifle doing better than the AR they own. I've seen video reviews where the person was looking hard to find fault and the things he found were pretty much trivial. The trigger could be better was about the only real issue he found. Well duh. It's not a target trigger. It does the job for me quite well.

I love my Sport and I'm glad I waited for the right one.

agksimon wrote:
M&P Sport 2 Accuracy Potential

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More accurate than I am capable of exploiting.

And I would think that goes for the vast majority of its owners.

hdwhit said:

More accurate than I am capable of exploiting.

And I would think that goes for the vast majority of its owners.

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Same is true of most gun in general. I don't think I own a gun that I can outshoot.

WVSig said:

Same is true of most gun in general. I don't think I own a gun that I can outshoot.

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Agreed. Lots of glorified urban snipers doing sub MOA with every stock rifle out there on forums. Take what you will with a grain of salt. I'm only as good as the last group I shot. Somedays thats good and somedays thats terrible. Its a lot like golf. You may have a dude that claims a 7 handicap and you go play with him and he shoots 95 and blames it on an off day. More often than not, thats pretty common for the guy. I also don't own a gun I can outshoot. Right trigger, optic, rest, and ammo, the Sport II will pack them in pretty good. Good enough for what you're normally shooting with an AR platform. If one is expecting constant sub MOA, well they make rifles for that too.

I buy a $500 Sport to shoot inexpensive bulk ammo and generally hit what I'm shooting at (3" target at 100yds at the max for most purposes) most of the time. If I'm missing, its likely me.

I have outshot a lot of guns that I tried. I'm a rather good bench-rest shooter, who happened to get lucky with the Sport 2, that I bought. Coupled with the right bulk ammunition (IMI), I was shooting 1 inch, hundred yard groups the other day and so did my friend, who is a Camp Perry high-power and bench-rest shooter. This may not happen on every grouping (though it did the other day), but they are very close to it. If you don't believe this happened, come up to West Michigan, on a windless day and I'll give you a demonstration, at the club I belong to. The friend that was with me works at Silver Bullet Firearms, in Wyoming Michigan and he will vouch for the group sizes. PM me if you want to pursue this further.

agksimon said:

I have outshot a lot of guns that I tried. I'm a rather good bench-rest shooter, who happened to get lucky with the Sport 2, that I bought. Coupled with the right bulk ammunition (IMI), I was shooting 1 inch, hundred yard groups the other day and so did my friend, who is a Camp Perry high-power and bench-rest shooter. This may not happen on every grouping (though it did the other day), but they are very close to it. If you don't believe this happened, come up to West Michigan, on a windless day and I'll give you a demonstration, at the club I belong to. The friend that was with me works at Silver Bullet Firearms, in Wyoming Michigan and he will vouch for the group sizes. PM me if you want to pursue this further.

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No one is saying you didn't shoot the groups you are claiming.

There are some pretty good shooters around. I tend to take people at their word unless it's just obviously not possible. I've seen people do amazing things with firearms. I guarantee if I told what I have seen people wouldn't believe it. That's sad because they miss out on too much by doing that. I won 13 of the last 15 contests I shot in. That's all I'll say about my own shooting.

I've seen world class shooters leave boards because people didn't believe what they were saying. That is a real shame. One guy in particular set a whole bunch of records but people accused him of lying about how he shoots.

I like this board because we don't see so many people running down the claims people make. That's a good thing IMO even if the person is obviously exaggerating. People will know it anyway. No sense causing hard feelings.

It works the other way too. People who are absolute newbies one week are running down others as if they were experts of 40 years of shooting the next week. Not everyone saying "no" knows what they're saying.

Every gun I have shoots better than I do.
The trick is making it easier to shoot better.

How do you know if you are outshooting a gun? If the thing won't group and you have a consistent hold, wouldn't the rounds be hitting all over the place anyway? Or do you guess where the round is going to wonder off to and aim accordingly?

Flash_80 said:

How do you know if you are outshooting a gun? If the thing won't group and you have a consistent hold, wouldn't the rounds be hitting all over the place anyway? Or do you guess where the round is going to wonder off to and aim accordingly?

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The way I look at it outshooting a gun (or not) is assessed at the group level - not an individual shot level.

I kind of had an experience on this topic recently: With my Sport I can consistently pretty much get 1 MOA off the bench. With a Rem 700 (.243) I have and match grade bullets I can get 1/2 MOA.

So....when an old .22 rifle I have was shooting ~3 MOA I knew the problem was with the gun....because I knew what I could do with other guns. It turns out there was significant leading, as well as issues with the stock being old and not fitting the action well. When I resolved those issues the groups tightened up.

Whether I can get sub-MOA with the Sport or even tighter with the .243 is more-than-likely on me rather than the guns.

Accuracy is defined differently by different people but most of us don't put enough shots into the groups we call moa proof. The big time bench rest shooters probably do but most of us don't. It takes a lot of work to wring out all the accuracy in a rifle. Some rifles are one shot cold barrel accurate but go to h after three shots,some become more accurate after thee shots. I personally go for the cold barrel because the first shot is the biggie for hunting,for competition type shooting the hot barrel is the ticket.

Flash_80 said:

How do you know if you are outshooting a gun? If the thing won't group and you have a consistent hold, wouldn't the rounds be hitting all over the place anyway? Or do you guess where the round is going to wonder off to and aim accordingly?

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As I posted earlier, the Sport 2 will group 1 inch with the right ammo. The best I've found is IMI. I had another AR that I sold, a CMMG and no matter what ammo brand or weight I found, I couldn't get better than just under 3 inches with it. If I can shoot 1 inch with one and three inches with the other, I can shoot better than the CMMG could produce.

WVSig said:

No one is saying you didn't shoot the groups you are claiming.

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Bragging rights is part of the game!
Jim

jimbo728 said:

Bragging rights is part of the game!
Jim

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He can brag all he wants. What struck me as odd was that he was challenging people who said he did not shoot the groups that he claimed but if you read the thread from the OP no one questioned "his" groups. Yet he felt the need to display a lot of vibrato even offering up a friends testimony when no one asked for it.