Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
No "maybe" about it, I won't own a S&W M&P without one, after seeing those results. Actually, the guy said he shocked himself with the results. Even the guys behind the counter that carry M&Ps may have heard about Apex Tactical (I keep forgetting everything after "Apex"), but nobody has seen the results, until now.
I've also learned store/customer loyalty pays dividends for both parties. I get a personal alert about "interesting" items before they hit the shelves (that's how I got their first CZ P09 in .40), a couple free boxes of ammo with a major purchase, and lifetime free range time, space available. Of course, that's all "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" from the owner's son, with dad's permission.
He, in turn, confessed that the entire gang has been slobbering over the remaining P09, but it can't be fired, and added to their stock of rental weapons, until they get another one for sale. So tomorrow, while I'm auditioning some .40S&W defensive ammo, he gets to try out my P09 to his heart's content, ammo on the house, until I'm done with the Shield and FNX-40 and try out my CZ.
Nothing like free, or low-cost testing to establish a performance baseline to use in determining whether further tweaking is needed or not. And I've come to the conclusion that rather than agonize over grips comfortable enough for a hundred rounds on the range, I'll buy some good Wiley-X shooting gloves.
I know I'm good-to-go for the first half-dozen mag-loads in the Shield, so I'm not going to sweat any comfort-related problems on the street. I just need my customary 200 rounds of ball ammo for mechanical confidence, and find a defense load it likes. On the range, good shooting gloves will solve a lot of naggling problems, too.
Figuring out how to afford ammo, despite my price-hunting skills, in another matter. :(
Morning - Squantos, thanks for posting the link; if I get a Shield, that’s one part set I would definitely get.
Win-Mag, scrounging for ammo is almost as much fun as scrounging for components. Except for .22s, 90 percent of my shooting is with reloaded ammo. Unique is my go-to smokeless powder. Goex XXX is my go-to black powder.
Can ya still find “Elephant” black powder ?
Here maybe ?
https://www.schuetzenpowder.com/
Stay safe Buddy !
.22 is not unusual for a defense gun... low recoil, accurate, and you should always shoot until you hear a “click”...
I was gonna recommend .22 WMR , but I see winmag beat me to it...
I’m reaaaaally pleased with my XDS right now... pleasure to shoot, accurate, (I shot 2 mags at 18” steel plate at 50 yds and hit every time)... I just used NanLube at all the critical points...
We need one of those. Can’t have too many XD variants. I just got a new carry purse that lets me carry my XD9 subcompact and ditch the piece of crap Kahr I was carrying.
:D Nice to hear. The XDS is on top of my ‘buy list’... has been for a while though. Need to pay a couple bills first. I keep telling Jen she might like the 45 version but she wants to wait for the 9mm that is supposedly due out soon.
Glad to hear about another satisfied Nanolube customer. I estimate my successful projects depend on Nanolube for about 50% of that success.
Speaking of success, I'm already testing defensive ammo in the M&P Shield while putting another 100 rounds of ball for break-in. Out of three different brands tested so far, the Glaser Pow'RBall in .40S&W has performed the best by far in vey limited ($32/20 limits a lot of testing) study. But it produced the best results of the three different brands, along with being an absolute creampuff to shoot in this small a handgun.
I have also discovered that placement of my trigger finger has a major influence on accuracy. In three-out-of-three different handguns, I got much better results with the fingertip joint on the trigger, rather than the pad of the fingertip. YMMV, and I don't think this may apply to rifles.
And the CZ P09 has already proven itself right out of the box, and will be fed a diet of dog-and-cat ammo, along with testing the remaining defensive ammo left over from the Shield tests. Not bad for the first mag, out of the box, but with a quick Nanolube treatment.
After about the first six rounds, I was disappointed because I thought I was missing the target completely. I brought the target back, and saw they were all in the black. Then I remembered that all my CZs do that. So I went back to shooting, testing out trigger pull, shooting comfort, etc.
Basically, everything was flawless. 7.5 lb long trigger pull, 3.5 lb short pull, and it will probably go down a bit more with break-in. Short, audible and tactile trigger reset, this gun makes double-taps a no-brainer. Comfortable grip, especially with the smallest backstrap insert. Felt recoil was definitely less than some 9mms I own. Overall, equal or better performance than some quality handguns costing $300-400 more.
If you don't mind an ugly weapon, but one that is more comfortable to shoot than a lot of 9mm brands out there, and carries 16 rounds in the magazine, this is definitely a "best buy".
Interesting bit about the finger placement. I noticed something similar when I shot a friends M&P a while ago. He was having trouble staying on the paper. I think we actually pinned it down to massive over travel in the trigger. I had similar problems with that gun to. I think shifting his finger position helped. Also I did a little work on the trigger and (if I remember right) cut the over travel to almost nothing. It was a real sweet shooter after that thought it had excessive pretravel.
I keep meaning to get some nanolube haven’t yet.
“Elephant Powder” Nope, haven’t seen it in a good long while. Most folks at the range use Goex, and a few use Swiss. That’s a fairly limited sample size though.
That is one darlin little hobbit girl you have there. I’m mighty partial to those red-headed kids and that one is as pretty as her mama.
Hello! Glad to hear you enjoyed your shooting. My first home protection handgun was a .22 revolver. My daddy gave it to me when I moved off to Austin. Population about 200K at that time. Huge city. LOL. Instructions were “shoot to kill and unload in the SOB or I’ll make you wish you had.”
By the time I got my CCL I was carrying a .357 and keeping the .22 handy still. My CCL instructor was a retired Houston SWAT officer who described many occasions when he arrived at scenes of folks who “got dead from those .22 caliber bullets.” He worked hard to dispell what he called “the myth” that a .22 wouldn’t kill with many of his personal experiences.
That said, a couple of the range safety guys over there have been awesome about sharing knowledge and allowing me to fire dozens of different handguns. I became really fond of a Bersa .380. It wasn’t a caliber I particularly wanted or a brand I thought about but its a perfect fit for me. Also its a little smaller and lighter weight in the purse. I say this not to advocate you get a .380 but to emphasize that finding the perfect fit is the key. Like perfectly comfy clothing. Try them on till you know its you, then use it a lot to break it in perfectly and you are good to go.
From the upper left, the M&P in .45ACP, with both standard and threaded barrels, and extended magazine. Next to it is the one that hooked me on M&Ps and Aprex Tactical performance parts, the M&P in .357SiG, with a Storm Lake barrel in .40S&W, giving me a common defense caliber while enjoying all the under-appreciated benefits of .357.
The bottom row consists of the S&W Shield in .40S&W (I can always hope someone will make a .357 barrel for it), and the M&P .22, just because it's a close fit style-wise with the two "grown-up" guns.
I took the box-stock .45 out to see how it works before all the tweaks are applied. Like the other factory-stock M&Ps, it gives good value for the money, but does not set the world on fire as a race-tuned competition gun. I didn't do badly, but things were stiff and gritty enough to remind me that the efforts I put into the other two centerfires were well worth it.
I even bought a special sight-removal too for the M&P series. With four handguns in the series (I must not be tempted by the "compact" versions), it seemed only sensible to get that special tool. I had varying degrees of holy hell removing and replacing the rear sights so I could replace the firing pin block with the precision version from Apex Tactical. The button controls the length and smoothness of the trigger take-up, with the precision of the sear the final element in firing.
I was prepared for all-out war this time with the special sight pusher. I had run Nanolube through it to remove every bit of internal resistance on the precision screw threads, so all mechanical work could go to moving the sight.
I even had a "cheater bar" ready to apply unauthorized extra torque, as I've had to do so many other times on so many other weapons.
I spun the screw with my finger, like dialing a rotary phone, until the pusher touched the sight. Then I twirled it some more with just finger pressure. Then twirled it some more with no effort until the sight was 90% removed. The last little bit required two fingers. I just about fainted in relief and surprise.
I studied the dovetail and sight surfaces, and they were both slippery and nearly perfectly-machined. Why can't this be done for any $500 handgun? I could loosen the setscrew, and make minor rear sight adjustments just with thumb pressure.
I'm not asking for miracles, but perhaps St Barbara kept an eye on this one as it went down the assembly line. I may have to put up a formal shrine to her in the basement. :)
So with this first modification, the standard trigger now has a 2-pound "weightless" silky take-up, followed by the standard 5-pound sear disengagement. This is to be expected, since the trigger and sear are next on my to-do list. But it was sure nice to have a pleasant surprise for once.
Good read as usual .... Haven’t even touched a SW auto in decades. Last one I was issued was a 469 . Carried the SW469 all over the DC area, very comfortable and was reliable. Familiarization was twice a week at the Springfield VA annex range and loved that little 9. Now I have an ASP in the safe yet it sees daylight rarely these days.
As for carry guns I have gone Gault with Glocks. I can shoot them well, they are reliable unless ya start adding aftermarket crap etc .... A stock, out of the box Glock 31 is my choice of carry for self defense. It has the tenifer finish, it is dehorned, it is just combat Tupperware IMO . When paired with Speer Gold Dot Hollow Points at 125gr’s its as close as I can get to the old tried and true SW Model 19 or the smaller FBI issue SW Mod 13 for 357 magnum stopping power for personal defense in a semi auto.
I shoot IDPA and 3 gun with the Glock 31 twice a month and run 50 rounds a week at our range thru it on paper silhouette .
I have a Glock 35 I converted to 357sig with a KKM aftermarket barrel and spring and use it as well for IDPA and 3 gun with a X400 surefire rail light as an experiment in progress. Sticking with a out of the box Glock 31 as my carry gun for now till I am SURE the Glock 35 has no bugs. My shakedown in progress per se...:o)
Hope yer well and your summer is easy Sir !
Stay safe !
That's on hold right now because SirKit had a mild heart attack last week, and is in the hospital awaiting bypass surgery. He was worried about the 'pump-head' syndrome he'd read about, from the use of the heart-lunch machine during the surgery, which could take the edge off some functions of the brain, because his life's work is mathematics at a very high level. But we talked to the surgeon, and Doc said they could do the surgery without having to use the heart-lung machine; what a fascinating modern age we live in! So we're both at peace about the surgery, because we know it's gonna fix the problem. He'll probably meet with the surgical team tomorrow, and we'll go from there.
Please keep him in your prayers!
Evening Win-Mag, welcome back, you’ve been missed, cutting edge & insightful narratives with film at 11.
Spent an enjoyable weekend at the MVACA KC Arms Show. No beef jerky at this show. Good stuff on every table. Many droolable items, cased Smiths, attributed Colts, Engish doubles and German Drillings to hit a few high spots.
Good news for Bass Pro in Springfield and the NRA Firearms Museum. Jim Supica with the NRA Firearms Museum has been setting up another facility at Bass Pro in Springfield MO. Grand opening this coming Friday. Me thinks a road trip is in the not-to-distant future.
Sounds like a great show. Michigan has always been too cheap for a show like that, and is now too poor, too. :)
Just some quick results from the first fire of the S&W M&P45 after (almost) all the Apex Tactical parts were installed, and all proper magical procedures invoked. I also shot my Gen1 Glock 21 as a control, and because I have new plans for it in the near future.
Both handguns started out box-stock at about the same price. Both performed adequately, and rpovide good value for the money. I spent $250 on a Bar-Sto target barrel for the Glock, because the stock barrel was rather notorious for its poorly-supported chamber. It also shrunk group size by about 25%, nothing to sneeze at.
The money spent on the S&W, plus my own blood, sweat, and Nanoloube, changed it from a Chevy Cruze to a Corvette Z01. The Glock went from a Ford Escape to an Escape with a bigger engine. The trigger pull on the S&W went from a sane, sensible, dull, gritty 7 pounds to high-performance 4 pounds, 14 ounces (so far), with about four pounds of long-but-near-weightless takeup, and a barely-detectable sear letoff of under one pound.
YMMV, but for me, these Apex-equipped M&Ps are like building an F-16 from a parts kit. If I hadn't done all the work myself, I'd probably be afraid of the weapon if someone just handed it to me. But three-of-three successful projects have me so "sold" on the process that I'm fighting the temptation to buy an utterly redundant M&P compact or 9mm just to do it all over again.
And to think this all started from buying a plain vanilla M&P .357SiG that had sat on a shelf for four years before I bought it on a whim. So now I know how to build a "pet" AR15 and a "pet" S&W M&P that perform insanely well, with several successful examples of both already completed.
g’morning!
Lately I have been messing with my new XDs45. I wanted to love the gun but it was jamming like anything. I checked the scuttlebutt on the forums and tried nanolube and replacement mag springs. It got worse. What had been a few FTRB and a few FTF turned into FTF all the time. Bad ones too, where the round was really jammed in there. I decided perhaps stronger mag springs were actually making things worse and I swapped them back. The next range trip the owner of the shop/range offered to give it a try if it was still jamming. It was, even with more nanolube and the old springs back in. I let him give it a go... and it worked perfectly. Now I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that no way no how was I ‘limp-wristing’ it. But he put 4 mags through it with no problems. User error is user error even if I don’t want to admit it. Especially since I was shooting tiny little groups, 5 mags in one big hole at 20 feet. And the other two compact guns were happy as a clam. And darn it I am a good shoot and a trained pistol instructor... My pride was smarting but I listened and learned. He gave me some stance points involving leaning forward and sticking your butt out more. seemed dumb but it worked. But the stance is not what worked. it just caused what worked. I figured out that I just was not gripping well enough with my last two fingers. Even with a solid two hand grip, somehow just a little weakness in that area was causing too much flip. I realize now that ‘limp wrist’ is a very deceptive term. There was nothing wrong with my writs, or even the AVERAGE strength of my grip. But the lower two fingers were not as tight as they could be. My theory is that shooting tiny guns like my LCP made me stop paying attention to my pinky.
I tightened things up. My groups got bigger, need to practice the new grip, but the jams vanished. Now I just need to take this thing to the range often enough that I am confident I can shoot it reliably EVERY time.
It was certainly a humbling reminder that you always have something more to learn.
I’m glad that I like my Model 36. LOL
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