December 2011 Archives

IDPA this time.  After my last range day I wanted to just do two things: slow down and call my shots.  

I met up with Hsoi and another instructor from KR Training this morning at the range.

Hsoi has a new M&P to try out, and I just needed some trigger time in general.

I started out shooting my M&P Pro, and switched to my M&P after a while. I got to shoot the M&P at 25 yards off a rest, and it turned out to be not as accurate as I thought, roughly 6" group at 25 yards. They said I was going too fast to gauge accuracy, but the sight picture was good, and that's how I always shoot from a rest, so I think that's a pretty good representation.

Hsoi's new gun was also grouping on the order of 6", until he tried 124 grain bullets (his is a 9mm) and then it tightened up a lot. I was shooting 165 grain bullets (mine is a 40 S&W), and I'm wondering if 185 grain wouldn't do better in mine.

I got to try the FAST drill. I sucked. It didn't help any that my gun is shooting low, but I can't blame it all on that. Lot of trigger slapping, lots of rushing things. Also had a problem getting a good grip on the gun, it was wobbly at first.

I probably won't do the drill much, but it did point out that I need to be better at coming from the holster and making a precise shot. That's not something I am used to doing. At a match, I just want to come out fast. If I get a C on that shot, it's probably not a big deal and in many cases the difference between a fast C and a slow A is not that much.

There's always something to work on I guess.

I was flicking through the channels today and our President was discussing "sacrifice" on 60 Minutes. To be honest, I didn't really listen very long because I have almost no interest in what the man has to say, but the gist of the response was that if we don't hit rich people harder that those who can least afford it will have to sacrifice more.

Ok ...

Explain to me how getting paid for not working is a sacrifice.

How is getting free food, free healthcare, and free lodging a sacrifice?

To quote the great Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Be careful folks, there are some first class idiots out there.

We took the kids out to get pictures with Santa. I haven't even made it out of the neighborhood before the first incident happens. A Hummer H3 pulls out in front of me without even looking. Anti-Lock brakes worked well, thankfully. At least this person wasn't intentionally trying kill me ...

The next incident happened as we left the mall. We were about to cross the street when my son pulled on my arm to prevent us from going into the street. There was plenty of distance between us and the oncoming truck, but this probably saved our lives. The person driving the truck, being polite, stopped and waved us across the road. We just get past the truck when the idiot gangbanger in a silver and purple POS Buick behind the truck, floors it go around. He nearly hit us. I can't help but think that if we had crossed in front of the truck like I had planned, this idiot would have done the same thing except we would have been directly in his path then. This guy is apparently unable to stand any minor inconvenience without acting like a complete asshole. His antics continued and he floors it again after we are just barely clear of him. I was seething mad, but I had to let it go. There were some things I wanted to yell, that I couldn't. Hopefully, he only ends up killing himself, and not someone else. I was too distracted to get his plate number, I wish I had.

So, a simple trip to the mall to get pictures with Santa and we end up in two near serious accidents.

You can see Karl's comparison here

I've owned all of them except the XDm, so it's interesting to me.

Personally, I think the M&P wins, but it doesn't win "out of the box" as they say. To me it definitely needs some love from Apex Tactical to cure the trigger reset.

Sure, you can get trigger jobs on all of them, and if we're just talking about which gun has the best aftermarket trigger it would probably be the Glock, but as a whole I like the M&P better.

These are all my opinions, of course, but the XD feels very blocky and the Glock is not exactly slim either. The XDm appears to add more blockiness and things to snag your shirt on. I imagine that if you got your calipers out there wouldn't be a whole of difference between all four of them, but the M&P is better where it counts

Having said all that, the gun I would recommend to someone wanting their first handgun would be a Glock 17. You can't really go wrong with any of them, but the Glock 17 is the standard by which all these pistols are judged. It's simple to operate and has a great reputation for reliability. Most people will just need to practice and clean it occasionally to have a good carry gun.

If someone is really unnerved by carrying a loaded gun with just a trigger safety, I would recommend the XD, as it adds the grip safety which is mostly unobtrusive. (Though Karl does point out some disadvantages to having one.) I did find that in 1 out of 1000 times (+/-) of practice drawing from concealment and dry firing that I would manage to not engage the grip safety properly. In all those times the fault could be remedied by squeezing harder.

So, I may have drank the M&P coolaid, but I still can see advantages to the other models. (I also want to say that both of my M&P's are well under 6" at 25 yards, but I do know that it's not uncommon to get one that suffers from inconsistent lockup and will show vertical stringing in shot groups. I imagine that Smith and Wesson would fix these for free, but that's just a guess based on how their customer service has treated me when they warrantied my Pro's barrel.)

The new striker did the trick. 200 rounds and no light primer strikes.

I swapped the shell on my MTAC holster and my new carry setup is complete.