New 9 mm owner issues

[D L B]

Brought home a new 9 mm M & P with trijicon night sights yesterday. My first five rounds showed that I have accuracy issues. I'm new to semi-auto's. My groupings at 30 feet were primarily to the right although I wouldn't say they were consistently right.

I immediately started looking at the sights as a possible issue......I'm going to gave a gunsmith check this out.

I wondered about barrel and ammo but these seem to be unlikely and it's more likely it's me.

Any suggestions for a new person? I know practice but I would prefer practicing the right way.

I also had two failure to fires in the first 50 rounds. Was this me or is there something I should look at?

Thanks for any help!

 

[hatt]

"failure to fires" as in the gun went click and nothing happened? That's certainly an ammo problem if the pin is contacting the primers correctly. I suspect you meant a jam of some sort. What ammo are you using?

 

[Meeko]

Without watching you shoot it's hard to tell. It could be any number of factors. Here are a couple. Are you right or left handed? The gun shooting right could be too much or too little finger on the trigger causing you to pull the trigger to the right causing the gun to "go right" instead of the trigger coming stright rearward. Or do you place your support hand index finger on the front of the trigger guard? If you are left handed and do that with your right then that could pull the gun to the right.

 

[Dragon88]

Don't blame the sights or the pistol or the ammo. You clearly need lots of practice by your own admission, so concentrate on that. None of us are born good pistol shots, it takes time and practice to be accurate with a handgun.

There are many good resources on the internet for improving your pistol shooting. But I can almost guarantee the two you need to research and work on the most are trigger control and flinch.

 

[cpippen]

Congrats on getting an M&P they are great guns. However, as it has been said practice practice practice. M&P's can be dry fired and I would recommend that you unload and triple check that there are no rounds in it and make sure to remove and do not reinsert a magazine then dry fire. This will help with you being able to get comfortable with the trigger pull. It can also help with flinch. Secondly when you are firing make sure not to limp wrist the weapon. This can cause jams and stove piping.

 

[Dueeast]

This may help before you blame the pistol.

 

[D L B]

Thanks for the responses.

I used Federal American Eagle 115 grain FMJ's. I'm right handed. The gun was test fired on 5-11-09 and came in a black case with three magazines if that helps date the gun and any possible issues.

Both failure to fires there was a shell in the chamber. I took the magazine out each time, pulled the slide back (not enough to eject the shell) left the shell in place and fired again and the gun fired. I wouldn't consider them jams.

I understand most of my problem is me but I want to rule out everything. I do think that I'm a better marksman than the results that I achieved. That's why I'm here asking questions to see what I am doing wrong.

Your suggestions are helping.

Thanks!

 

[Dragon88]

You say you are a good marksman, but you are new to semi-autos. What other types of firearms do you typically shoot? Semi-auto handguns are a whole different bag of worms than revolvers, rifles, etc.

I personally don't like the target posted above. It may provide some buzzwords to a new shooter, but gives no indication of how to correct the issues.

 

[D L B]

You say you are a good marksman, but you are new to semi-autos. What other types of firearms do you typically shoot? Semi-auto handguns are a whole different bag of worms than revolvers, rifles, etc.

I didn't mean I was a good marksman but that I believe that I'm better than what I was doing.

Yesterday at 15 feet I could only hit a can 50% of the time and at 30 feet I rarely hit the can. I had cardboard behind the cans to tell where I was hitting, often low and to the right. Today, at 25 feet with my hand on a rest I hit a can 70% of the time....with the same ammunition. That's a little humbling.

I still wonder about the failure to fires yesterday, I didn't have that issue today.

The gunsmith snickered at me just like many of you when I asked if it could be the gun and not the shooter. He mentioned running a few hundred rounds through it to break it in and use better ammunition for better results.

He thought Smith and Wesson test fired at 50 yards (feet?) to set the sites. Does anybody know actual distance and method that the factory uses to set sites?

 

[WashMP9]

your bad groupings might be because of the heavy stock trigger. Apex has made a fortune fixing that with their trigger kits.

Seeing that your gun is an 09 gun, does it have the black striker or silver striker?Complaints of light strikes are usually solved by the silver striker.

 

[xopher88x]

I've been shooting handguns for a good number of years (for a youngster), and to this point it's never been the gun's fault.

 

[Meeko]

I'm just asking. Are your FTF's on the first round you chamber? If so could you possibly be riding the slide forward? That will cause it to not seat properly. I am an instructor and I see that a lot with folks that are new to semi autos.

As far as ammo try some different types. Every gun has one type it likes more or less than others.

 

[D L B]

Once again thanks for the help.

I've improved a bit. New stance (weak foot forward in a triangle rather than both feet straight, learned to use the sights a bit better. I also put the large grip on so I would quit pushing so hard with the pad of my thumb (I think it helps when I squeeze the trigger). Plenty of work left to do.

I've done a little reading and found another reference to the black vs silver striker. Mine is black.....as far as I can tell. I may look more into this if necessary.

I'll enjoy the search for the perfect ammuntion for my M&P.

On my salary, I think I'm glad I bought the 9!

 

[bobkarno]

When I got my first M&P I couldn't hit a 20x20 target at 21 feet for my first 7 or 8 shots. After a little over a year, an Apex DCAEK, and many shots later I can shoot the center out of a target without even trying that hard. I would also say that S&W likely doesn't test fire for accuracy as the 3 M&Ps I own were all off when new. I think they knock the sights somewhere near the middle of the slide and leave it at that. I would also add that with shorter barreled pistols any accuracy/technique issues are quickly magnified the further out you shoot. Due to the short sight radius, a mere .020" out on a sight will add up to inches down range

 

[C4IGrant]

Brought home a new 9 mm M & P with trijicon night sights yesterday. My first five rounds showed that I have accuracy issues. I'm new to semi-auto's. My groupings at 30 feet were primarily to the right although I wouldn't say they were consistently right.

I immediately started looking at the sights as a possible issue......I'm going to gave a gunsmith check this out.

I wondered about barrel and ammo but these seem to be unlikely and it's more likely it's me.

Any suggestions for a new person? I know practice but I would prefer practicing the right way.

I also had two failure to fires in the first 50 rounds. Was this me or is there something I should look at?

Thanks for any help!

Attend a professional shooting school. This will help a lot.



C4

 

[scooter123]

I do think that I'm a better marksman than the results that I achieved.

You may want to think about that statement. You may be good with a rifle but shooting a handgun is a whole different ball of wax.

The best advice I can give you is to start out SLOWLY. That means taking your time with each shot fired and pulling the trigger in SLOW MOTION. If you are concentrating on pulling the trigger very slowly and keeping the sights aligned on the target you'll find that it's very difficult to anticipate exactly when the trigger will break. If you do this, you may find that you have a "hitch" when you think the gun will fire but it didn't.

That is called a Flinch and every centerfire handgunner has to deal with a flinch at some point. For me the solution is to spend a bit of time in Slow Motion and concentrating on staying completely relaxed. One I stop trying to anticipate when the gun will fire I can then start speeding up.

Finally, I would suggest that you engage in a bit of shooting from a benchrest. If your range offers sandbags grap one and plant your hands on top of that sandbag. If they don't have sandbags, take and old towel and wrap it tight with duct tape to make your own rest. BTW, you can shoot from a hard bench but a lot of that will tend to beat up your hands. Shooting from a rest will serve two purposes. One is that it will give you a much better idea if your gun is shooting to the sights. Two, it's a great exercize to engage in to develop and refine your trigger release skills. Finally, it's encouraging to see that you can shoot really small groups, even if it is with a bit of support.

BTW, the standard distance for sighting a centerfire handgun is 25 yards, or 75 feet. With most centerfire calibers sighting at this distance will result in a gun that groups within an inch of the sight from 10 feet all the way out to 120 feet or even more provide the ammo is loaded to standard pressure.

Finally, one additional thing you may want to remember. That is Bore Transit Recoil. This is the deflection of the barrel that occurs under recoil while the bullet is transitting the barrel. As a result of this, heavier bullets that spend more time in the barrel due to lower velocity will shoot HIGHER to the sights than a faster moving lighter bullet. It's why when someone complains that their gun is shooting high/low, many will respond by asking the bullet weight being used.

 

[BlackRain17]

Congrats on getting an M&P they are great guns. However, as it has been said practice practice practice. M&P's can be dry fired and I would recommend that you unload and triple check that there are no rounds in it and make sure to remove and do not reinsert a magazine then dry fire. This will help with you being able to get comfortable with the trigger pull. It can also help with flinch. Secondly when you are firing make sure not to limp wrist the weapon. This can cause jams and stove piping.

Any gun can be dry fired but I heard you need snap caps.

 

[TxM&P9]

I'm an exceptional shooter. Expert rifle and pistol in the USMC... Some M&P's just have terrible triggers. Buy the new Apex FSS and it should be fine.. My M&P40 FS test fired in march of 2011 did the same thing.. My M&P45 FS on the other hand was perfect out the box.. Go figure...

 

[Meeko]

Any gun can be dry fired but I heard you need snap caps.

Old wives tale up there with "don't shoot 38's in a 357 or the ring etc etc etc. Any modern firearm except rimfires are perfectly fine to be dry fired without snap caps.

 

[mkygod]

Just find someone who is a good shooter or better shooter than you are and see if problems still arise. It's good to get some second and third opinions before you decide its the gun. Also, you can try benchresting the gun to give it a more stable platform when testing for accuracy.