I want to really like the S&W M&P series, BUT..

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Wethepeople01

New member
It's that POS trigger!!! Seriously, why should a new replacement trigger be necessary on a new gun purchase?? I understand that the Shield is known to have an improved trigger. However, I prefer the overall size and fit of the compact M&P's - especially the .45 ACP. So, S&W fanboys and girls - tell me why I shouldn't pass up on the very next big SALE online or in store?? Your turn.. :)
 
To each their own as they say! I picked up several M&P40 and C models and I'm fine with the trigger. I even heard Hickok45 on one his videos call the trigger "sweet". I won't go that far but the M&P works for me, your mileage may vary!
 
I don't agree with the 'to each their own' on triggers. Rather, a good shooter is okay with almost any trigger. Now we all may *prefer* one style to another, but when I hear someone say 'I don't like that trigger' I hear 'I don't shoot well with that trigger' to which I say 'then you don't shoot enough.'
A good shooter can shoot well regardless of the trigger, unless it's rusty and frozen up.
So, move past your trigger preferences and shoot enough that the less than perfect M&P trigger is really a non issue when deciding on a stock duty gun.
 
Radny, while I totally agree that someone can shoot all triggers well with enough practice, my question is, why settle? The M&P doesn't do anything that a Glock, XD, PPQ, VP9, etc etc, won't do. And the others do it with a better trigger. IMO of course.

I had a M&P9 for a year or so. I had switched over from Glocks, I wanted to try something new and I liked the ergos. But even after a year with it, I couldn't warm up to the trigger. After being away from a Glock for a year, I was able to pick up a 17 and shoot it better than the M&P. I know, I know, "buy an Apex kit for it". But why spend that extra money on a gun I'd be settling on when I was able to trade straight up for a Gen 4 17 that I much preferred? Life's too short to settle on guns that don't fit you right.
 
I honestly havent thought about it. I have a full size .40 and I picked up a 9c for my girlfriend. They triggers are fine for me and they shoot well enough. If the trigger is as bad as what I am hearing I would really like to fire one with a proper trigger.
 
While I can shoot just about any trigger accurately, if I take care... It does slow you down when focusing on a bad trigger. That's not the best for defense. Even if you are well practiced, a poor trigger can slow you down.


As far as the M&P... You can get a significant improvement just by changing the crappy hinged trigger for an Apex poly trigger. They cost around $30. So it's a cheap upgrade.

Smooth out and polish the striker block deactivation tab on the trigger bar, and polish the "candy cane"... and the trigger will be smoother.

Polish the sear surface, and the break will smooth out considerably.

For $30 and a little time, the trigger feel is improved a good deal over stock.

Yeah, it's a little time and money, but the M&P shoots well and has great ergonomics, so I make the small amount of effort.

I do not suggest you try to reprofile the parts unless you are experienced in doing such things... But hitting parts with a buffing wheel is easy.
 
I might have to give it a try, never thought about it much but if it helps make a nice gun noticeably nicer it could certainly be worth it.
 
The M&P trigger doesn't bother me at all. I shoot it plenty accurately and quickly. In my mind, it's like a Glock trigger minus the "BOING".

I actually prefer a trigger with a nice firm "wall" before the break. I feel a lot more confident staging the trigger that way. Works for me.

Also, the M&Ps manage recoil amazingly. It's hard to image how soft they shoot until you actually try one.
 
I want to like my M&P 9mm, too. It has an APEX sear which improved the trigger break a lot.... but I still cannot get the accuracy/consistency that I want from it.
I do not know if it is me, the trigger, ammo, or just the pistol. My groups with my Glock, STI, Kimber, and Sig are more consistent and more accurate than with the M&P.
 
Huh. I've generally liked the M&P triggers. Not a 1911 to be sure; but a capable stock trigger. The false reset on some older models annoys me; but that appears to be fixed on recent production.
 
Pilpens...

Try adding the Apex poly trigger as well. Maybe play with the back straps... One may feel a bit better than another, but the other may shoot better for you. I found that as a factor.


But I do find that the M&P starts to drop off in accuracy quickly as distance increases.

Between 5-10 yards, I can shoot very nice groups with FS, but pushing out to 15yds or more, and groups expand quickly.

During some training a little while back, where we increased distance each course of fire... By the time we hit 10yds, I had a nice hole in the middle of the target that you could cover with a fist... When we finished at 20yds, you could see all of those course of fire impacts radiating outward. No misses, but not as good as other pistols I own.

I don't shoot much past 10-15yds often, so that may also be/likely is at play,
 
I want to really like the S&W M&P series, BUT..

I find the stock M&P triggers have come a LONG way from the first few I owned. They're at a point now where the standard DCAEK from APEX I used to install doesn't seem as essential as it once did. That said even if you can get a great deal if you like another pistol better then go with that.

Personally I use and carry Glocks wth stock triggers. I found that in actual courses of fire the differences I felt in slow fire with aftermarket parts sort of disappear, but that's not true for all. You do want a pistol that you can shoot well and I get working on a pistol so it's the best it can be, but I do think there are some advantages to using a pistol stock and if one stock pistol isn't to your liking there are so many these days that it's likely one is to your liking.

I also found that regularly using a 12.5 lb. Grip Master Pro has made pretty much all handgun triggers easy, though I've lost a bit of feel for light rifle triggers.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I picked up my M&P (M&P 45 w/thumb safety) right after my first armorer class (late '07). I ordered it and finally got it in early '08.

The trigger pull was at the high end of the normal weight range (which was 7lbs +/- 2lbs for the .45's). Mine averaged 8 1/2 - 9lbs, and the initial pull was a bit rough. One of the things about having been a long time revolver, 1911 and TDA (DA/SA) and "DAO-ish" shooter, and a firearms instructor, is that I adapt to the trigger of the gun I'm using.

In other words, once I got out to 25-50yds, I had to work a little harder to get reasonable groups, but the practical accuracy was there. I just didn't have the trigger to use as a "crutch".

The next time I checked the trigger on that M&P 45, it was a few months and more than 2,000 rounds later. It averaged 5 1/2 - 6lbs, and was smooth. It was pretty much identical to the same model M&P 45 another instructor owned, and in which he'd installed aftermarket parts (for a range gun).

Naturally, when a revised striker and sear plunger was available from the factory (part of the ongoing revisions), as an armorer I tried them in my own gun. The new striker spring/striker and sear plunger & spring brought the trigger pull back up to about 7+ lbs.

I've tried and used a lot of different M&P's over the 10 years since they were released on the market (Jan '06), and have been through the armorer class 4 times, I think (I have a number of different armorer certs for different guns, and I've lost count of all of them without actually counting them, but it's in the 20's). I learned I have another M&P armorer recert coming up later this year (after a 5th Glock class, since I counted those recently). I have no doubt I'll hear some new things about ongoing revisions of the M&P's.

The 9's & .40's have gotten a lot better and are more refined that the early ones. The company got enough complaints about the lack of feeling a distinct "reset", that they've addressed that in recent guns. (Give someone a semiauto pistol with a non-distracting mechanical reset point, and not everyone is happy about, it seems. ;) )

They've also changed over to using the Performance Center sear in the production 9/.40 guns, and have tweaked the angle of the trigger bar cam, to not only keep the trigger pull within the current industry standard for duty/service pistols (5 1/2 - 6lbs), but to change the trigger pull characteristics and "feel". They've also revised the slide stop lever design to provide increasingly more inboard tension against the trigger bar tail, so it has more of a felt "snap" against the reset sear. (Lots of new shooters have become accustomed to the connector & trigger bar tail "slap" of the Glock design, and have come to expect it to be "normal" in other guns.)

Personally, since I'm not a "shoot-to-reset" target shooter, but a "trigger-recovery" shooter - (and since I shoot and have to train people to use different makes/models of handguns for duty & off-duty defensive roles) - the lack (or presence) of a distinctive mechanical reset in some particular gun or other doesn't bother me.

The M&P 45 hasn't yet received the same trigger treatment of the smaller framed M&P's, but I keep hearing they're working on it. The problem, as has been described to me, isn't to get the trigger light enough. They can do that, but it's apparently to make the improvements in such a way that they can keep it heavy enough remain within the industry standard for a duty pistol, in the larger .45 frame. They've made some competition-type 9's/.40's, with lighter triggers, but not any .45's. Maybe some increased market demand for competition-ready .45's may change that in the near future. Dunno.

Now, with the release of the Shield 45, maybe they've changed something. Dunno. The Shield armorer class is actually a separate 4hr class (prerequisite of the regular M&P class). The Shield is the little brother of the regular M&P, but I'm told there are a couple differences they felt significant enough to make them add a supplemental 4hr class for armorers. Haven't had a chance to go through it, yet.
 
Some M&Ps have pretty good triggers out of the box, that get even better with usage. Other M&Ps benefit from two very simple changes:

1) Apex Hard Sear
2) Apex Ultimate Striker Block

My stock M&P40 and M&P40C have very nice triggers that have gotten even sweeter with some shooting.

My M&P45C came with an incredibly heavy trigger that I disliked very much. All it needed was a simple swap to items #1 & 2, above, to drop the pull from about 8 lbs. down to about 4.5# and now I love the trigger and in just a couple hundred rounds of use has smoothed out very nicely.

I particularly LIKE the trigger shoe that the M&P uses, as I dislike the little lever-thingy that is found in the middle of the trigger shoe on many models. I just find it a bit irritating. So, with the M&P, the lack of that lever thingy is most welcome. This is also one of the reasons why I love the trigger on the P320, as well - no lever thingy in the middle of the trigger shoe. :)

So... Don't sweat the decision to go with an M&P. If you don't like the trigger, shoot it some and it will improve. Or do #1 & 2 and enjoy a major improvement right off the bat - that even continues to improve with some use.

As for my Glocks, they all needed trigger help in my view. They have all received a 3.5# connector (which gives about a 4.5 to 4.75# pull) and a "fluff & buff", where I polished the fire control contact parts. Some of the Glocks also have serrations on the trigger shoe, which I don't like - so I replaced those triggers with triggers having no serrations on the trigger shoes. Nice improvement and good quality guns. But I still prefer the M&P and Sig P320 platforms over my Glocks.
 
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The trigger sucks.

When you think about it that is only important on the first shot.

Still there are plenty of aftermarket triggers to address that issue. I keep my expectations low for a $400 gun. If it performs better than a Glock I am happy.

So I am happy. :)
 
I can recommend the M&P45C. Feels great in the hand, carries well, shoots well.

Just consider that you may want to swap in those two simple, small parts that I mentioned above.




With 10-round magazine. I have since removed the thumb safety and have added the Talon rubberized grip.
 
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