About a M&P Shield and the Apex Shield Carry Kit, that is. I purchased a 40 Shield a few months ago and have been mostly very satisfied with it. It has shot everything that I put in it without the slightest hickup, but it has always shot a little to the left. After reading all of the posts suggesting that it was probably shooter error, I decided to work on my technique. After trying everything, it still shot to the left slightly, and no amount of changing my grip or finger position on the trigger made a difference. Plus the trigger pull was so hard that no matter how carefully or how slowly I pulled the trigger, when the trigger finally broke, the whole gun would jump to the right. I figured that had to do something to affect accuracy. That and the fact that the factory sights were ever so slightly not centered, made me believe that I was going to have to do something with the gun to make it right.
I began by sending the Shield to James at xd-2000 for the installation of some TruGlow TFO's. And by the way, James did a fantastic job of installation and also helped out by installing the Apex striker block kit while he had the slide apart. I was so impressed that he might be getting some additional work on my 40c. The TFO's are great and are much easier to use that the original sights. The sights are now perfectly centered so that might help with the accuracy problem. We'll see.
After getting the slide back, I put the gun back together just to check it out, and was amazed at the difference with just the striker block kit installed. The grittiness was all gone, and the trigger felt much improved even with just that change, so much that for a while I almost considered not installing the rest of the trigger kit. But I finally decided to install it, and I'm glad that I did.
The difference is amazing. It is light, but not too light, and the tendency for the whole gun to jump when the trigger breaks is gone. I'm no shooting expert, but I do have a collection of S&W Performance Center 945's and a couple of Kimber 1911's for comparison. After the Apex kit install the trigger on the Shield almost feels as good as the trigger on my 1911's. It has a just slightly harder trigger pull, with a crisp break, and a reset that you can feel and hear (the original trigger had that too). I can now practice dry firing it and for the first time, the whole gun doesn't jump when I fire it. I'm betting that will have to help improve accuracy. All in all it's like a different gun. In my opinion, it's now how it should have been built originally.
I realize that S&W is in business to make a profit, but if they would only utilize a little better set of trigger components they could improve their products immensely. I have heard so many people on this forum complain about the original triggers on most of the M&P products, that it seems that S&W would listen and do the upgrade. But I guess that spending the extra few cents per gun, times the millions of guns that S&W builds each year, eventually adds up to quite an additional manufacturing expense. But from a customer standpoint, it's unfortunate to have to purchase a new gun and then turn around and have to spend more to improve it, especially when S&W could do it in the manufacturing process for a fraction of what it costs the buyer.
At any rate, the Shield is a much improved firearm. My 40c which had a better factory trigger than my Shield, now doesn't feel as good as the new and improved Shield and may have to eventually have the Apex kit installed in it now. But I now finally have seen firsthand what all the hoopla is about concerning the Apex trigger parts in the M&P Shield, and the addition is definitely worth it. The folks at Apex definitely know their stuff. I hope to be able to make it to the range soon to see if my accuracy problem has been resolved, but with the much improved trigger and the new sights, I feel confident that it will be better.
I began by sending the Shield to James at xd-2000 for the installation of some TruGlow TFO's. And by the way, James did a fantastic job of installation and also helped out by installing the Apex striker block kit while he had the slide apart. I was so impressed that he might be getting some additional work on my 40c. The TFO's are great and are much easier to use that the original sights. The sights are now perfectly centered so that might help with the accuracy problem. We'll see.
After getting the slide back, I put the gun back together just to check it out, and was amazed at the difference with just the striker block kit installed. The grittiness was all gone, and the trigger felt much improved even with just that change, so much that for a while I almost considered not installing the rest of the trigger kit. But I finally decided to install it, and I'm glad that I did.
The difference is amazing. It is light, but not too light, and the tendency for the whole gun to jump when the trigger breaks is gone. I'm no shooting expert, but I do have a collection of S&W Performance Center 945's and a couple of Kimber 1911's for comparison. After the Apex kit install the trigger on the Shield almost feels as good as the trigger on my 1911's. It has a just slightly harder trigger pull, with a crisp break, and a reset that you can feel and hear (the original trigger had that too). I can now practice dry firing it and for the first time, the whole gun doesn't jump when I fire it. I'm betting that will have to help improve accuracy. All in all it's like a different gun. In my opinion, it's now how it should have been built originally.
I realize that S&W is in business to make a profit, but if they would only utilize a little better set of trigger components they could improve their products immensely. I have heard so many people on this forum complain about the original triggers on most of the M&P products, that it seems that S&W would listen and do the upgrade. But I guess that spending the extra few cents per gun, times the millions of guns that S&W builds each year, eventually adds up to quite an additional manufacturing expense. But from a customer standpoint, it's unfortunate to have to purchase a new gun and then turn around and have to spend more to improve it, especially when S&W could do it in the manufacturing process for a fraction of what it costs the buyer.
At any rate, the Shield is a much improved firearm. My 40c which had a better factory trigger than my Shield, now doesn't feel as good as the new and improved Shield and may have to eventually have the Apex kit installed in it now. But I now finally have seen firsthand what all the hoopla is about concerning the Apex trigger parts in the M&P Shield, and the addition is definitely worth it. The folks at Apex definitely know their stuff. I hope to be able to make it to the range soon to see if my accuracy problem has been resolved, but with the much improved trigger and the new sights, I feel confident that it will be better.
