maximus83
06-05-09, 10:53
Finally got a chance to try out my M&P 9 Pro.
I found the experience of shooting with the Pro to be even nicer than shooting my M&P 9 full-sized (FS) model. Reliability, feeding, and extraction were all perfect: no issues of any type, and brass was flung briskly over my shoulder landing 4 to 6 feet behind at about 4:00.
Some details I noticed:
* I liked the extra weight and length, and the resulting balance of the pistol. Of course that's subjective, but I always have preferred full-sized pistols.
* The Pro absorbs recoil at least as well as the FS, and it may have a bit less muzzle flip.
* REALLY liked the sights for daytime/range shooting (a plain black rear, with a green FO front). Others who wanted to hold the pistol also remarked on sights.
* The Pro trigger (with the S&W Perf Ctr sear) is slightly lighter and smoother than my FS was out of the box. And it improved considerably even during that first shooting session. But the reset is no better, and it still has that "crunchy" feeling that it seems most new M&P's have, and some stacking. Man I wish they would clean up these triggers a bit from the factory. They're functional, but I am somewhat disappointed with the factory triggers on the M&P's. Obviously I'm spoiled by having smooth, custom triggers on all-metal guns like my CZ's and 1911's.
* Accuracy was decent: at 25 yards shooting the Pro off-hand, several times I was able to keep sets of 10 rounds grouped into about 4", whereas with my FS, typically in the same scenario, the groups are 0.5" to 1" larger. I was having a significant issue with my groups landing to the right side of the target (I'm LH). After checking the pistol more closely when I got home, I think the pulling to the right was due to my operation of the fairly stiff new trigger.
Wrapping it up, my first impression is that the Pro is a really nice addition to the M&P series, I'm glad I got one. The one thing that I think will need improvement in my case is the trigger. I'll put 500 or 1K rounds through it, and if the trigger doesn't improve, I'll probably send it off to David Bowie.
I found the experience of shooting with the Pro to be even nicer than shooting my M&P 9 full-sized (FS) model. Reliability, feeding, and extraction were all perfect: no issues of any type, and brass was flung briskly over my shoulder landing 4 to 6 feet behind at about 4:00.
Some details I noticed:
* I liked the extra weight and length, and the resulting balance of the pistol. Of course that's subjective, but I always have preferred full-sized pistols.
* The Pro absorbs recoil at least as well as the FS, and it may have a bit less muzzle flip.
* REALLY liked the sights for daytime/range shooting (a plain black rear, with a green FO front). Others who wanted to hold the pistol also remarked on sights.
* The Pro trigger (with the S&W Perf Ctr sear) is slightly lighter and smoother than my FS was out of the box. And it improved considerably even during that first shooting session. But the reset is no better, and it still has that "crunchy" feeling that it seems most new M&P's have, and some stacking. Man I wish they would clean up these triggers a bit from the factory. They're functional, but I am somewhat disappointed with the factory triggers on the M&P's. Obviously I'm spoiled by having smooth, custom triggers on all-metal guns like my CZ's and 1911's.
* Accuracy was decent: at 25 yards shooting the Pro off-hand, several times I was able to keep sets of 10 rounds grouped into about 4", whereas with my FS, typically in the same scenario, the groups are 0.5" to 1" larger. I was having a significant issue with my groups landing to the right side of the target (I'm LH). After checking the pistol more closely when I got home, I think the pulling to the right was due to my operation of the fairly stiff new trigger.
Wrapping it up, my first impression is that the Pro is a really nice addition to the M&P series, I'm glad I got one. The one thing that I think will need improvement in my case is the trigger. I'll put 500 or 1K rounds through it, and if the trigger doesn't improve, I'll probably send it off to David Bowie.