Apex Tactical posted the following to their Facebook page, regarding the M&P Shield.

But instead of me reposting here, just go read the full “Info Release”… it’s long, but worthwhile.

So they are developing a “Shield Carry Kit” (SCK), but I guess it’s not yet a product. Everyone’s asking tho, so they’re releasing info as they have it.

I know one guy that put the regular M&P Apex hard sear in and saw major improvement. Based upon Apex’s Info Release, that seems solid and good to do, at least in preliminary testing. I know some have also applied regular M&P trigger job mods (Google around) and achieved good results. It all makes sense, given the same internal parts.

At this point I’m not going to change from the factory trigger, because I want to see how some novice students fare with the gun in stock form. But I am thinking that I may just get the Apex hard sear for the regular M&P, drop that in, and be happy. If they later come out with the SCK that changes more things and provides more overall improvement then I may upgrade to that too. We’ll see, no rush.

But cool to see things moving in the Shield world.

I got me an M&P Shield. I’m one of the cool kids now, right? No… it’s me, I’ll never be cool; always a geek. 😉

I first wrote about it here, then shortly thereafter got to play with one. That left me wanting one, and I put in an order for one. Happened to get lucky and got one.

Yes I know, I should probably decorate this with pictures, but sorry… I’m lazy. 🙂  But now that I’ve taken it to the range, I wanted to give some further impressions on it.

The Gun

It is thin. It’s almost too thin for me. I am going to have to shoot it a lot and dry practice with it a lot to adjust to it. My trigger finger wants to go really deep into the trigger guard, almost to my distal joint. That’s too far, and then it causes me to either push or pull the gun and hit left or right. It all depends, because well… it’s the trigger. Because of the ergos of how much finger I put on it, then when I try to adjust because the trigger is hard, it’s all… rough.

Yes, this will need an Apex Tactical trigger upgrade. I did hear that installing the existing M&P hard sear from Apex smooths things out and improves the trigger a lot, but I’m unsure about installing that until there’s solid word this is OK to do. The tolerances might be just different enough. But honestly, I would reason S&W worked to keep as much between the full-sized M&P and the Shield the same, using same parts, to help keep manufacturing costs down and thus supporting the Shield’s low price-point. Still, word posted on Apex Tactical’s Facebook page leads me to believe Shield parts are coming soon.

The sights aren’t that great, but as I said on the full-sized M&P, they are some of the better factory sights I’ve used. At least the front post is narrower than the rear notch, so you do see light on either side of the front post. That’s great! I did take a Sharpie and black out the dots on the rear sight, and while not a wicked awesome set of sights, they are alright and will certainly do. I know Dawson Precision has a Shield in their possession now, so they should be able to figure out all the details to make sights. Just have to stay tuned.

But the big thing is, how does it conceal? Pretty damn well. When you use the short/flush magazine, the butt of the gun is about an inch shorter than my full-sized M&P. The Shield does fit somewhat into my Comp-Tac MTAC holster (the gun profiles are generally the same, and the leather back to the MTAC helps it fit better since it collapses a bit, but by no means is the gun secure), and when holstered… geez… it just disappears. With the extended mag in, it’s a little more obvious. I’d say it’s almost to the point of “might as well carry a full-sized”, but the thinness of the Shield helps to further abate “sticking out”. I was able to see a size comparison vs. an M&P Compact; the height is about the same, the Compact is wider of course.

Carrying it is pretty nice. I wore it in my MTAC for a while, using the flush magazine. You barely notice it, because there isn’t stuff jutting out everywhere. No beavertail jutting into your ribs, the butt doesn’t rub against the back of a chair, no clothing hanging up on it depending how you move around. One thing is that with the gun fully loaded there’s enough “backpressure” on the magazine that the magazine’s basepad it pushed back from the bottom edge of the magazine well, leaving a space. The edges of everything are rounded off, nothing truly sharp, but it did notice this area “scratching” against the skin of my side a bit. Nothing horrible, just a minor irritation, but there. I’ve got sorta sensitive skin, so I wonder how this will fare over the course of wearing it all day every day. I think it’ll be OK, just something to get used to and then the body will tune it out.

All in all, I like the Shield, and will like it a lot more once Apex allows for a better trigger.

Shooting

I didn’t shoot much, only 200 rounds. 50 rounds of American Eagle 124 grain. 50 rounds of PMC Bronze 115 grain. 50 rounds of my handloads. 50 rounds of Gold Dot 124 grain +P. Everything worked fine, and boy that PMC has a TON of muzzle flash (never shot it before today). But everything fed and shot just fine and dandy, and I consider this a good first sign that the gun runs well, especially with my chosen social ammo.

Accuracy was acceptable, shooting out to 15 yards (didn’t try any greater distances). I know I blew some because of the trigger issues, either because I had too much finger and pulled the gun towards me, or too little and thus yanked it because it is a heavy trigger. In a close up fight, it’ll be fine, but for finer control and longer distance group shooting well… I’m back to wanting the Apex trigger. I wish I could convey the trigger over the Internet somehow so y’all could know… it’s not horrible, I’m sure most people will be fine with it. But once you know there are better triggers to be had in the world, you’ll find the factory trigger to be serviceable but with a lot of room for improvement. Which is why Apex has such heavy business. 😉

It is a little hard to control, because it’s hard to get all your hands on it. Of course, it’s more controllable with the extended magazine since you can get your pinky on there, and pinkies play a large part in recoil management. What I really want to try tho is some faster shooting, like Bill Drills. Just can’t do that at the local indoor range. Also try some one-handed and see how it goes. I will probably try something like the “3 seconds or less” drill.

Reloading actually isn’t all that bad… a little hard to seat things because your palm’s in the way, but really not as bad as some small guns I’ve tried. I did notice that, try as I might, it doesn’t auto-forward. I admit the auto-forward is something I do NOT like about the M&P, so if this doesn’t auto-forward I’ll be happy.

Speaking of that… because of the limited magazine capacity, you’re likely to follow the practice of loading the magazine fully, seating and racking to put one in the chamber, then dropping the magazine and topping it off. Thus with that flush 7 round magazine, you can have 7+1. Thing is, when you do that? It’s VERY difficult to seat the magazine; you really have to slam it home, which is kinda hard when your palm is a bit in the way. It’s do-able, but you need to be careful.

Conclusion

Well… it’s still to early to draw any conclusions. All I did today was start to break it in, throwing lead downrange, some accuracy checking, does it feed different ammo brands, does it function, etc..  The trigger does feel a little better than when I first got it, but it doesn’t matter… it needs Apex improvement. But apart from the trigger, all seemed alright today.

I also want to do more serious shooting with it, like Bill Drills, the 3 Seconds or Less drill, and just put it more through its paces and see how it runs.

Finally, I want to let students try it. I want to see how folks with small hands can handle it. Can they rack the slide? Can they control it? Can they work that factory trigger? All too often small hands also come with “small strength”, so just because they can grip it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good/right gun for them. I had Wife and Daughter try it, and there was a bit of struggle in working the slide, but with better technique (e.g. racking over the top of the slide, bringing it in close to the body like opening a pickle jar) they could manipulate it.

But I’m starting to like it… a lot.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dry fire for a while. 🙂

I just returned from the southern chapter of the local indoor gun range.

The reasons for my visit I’ll detail at another time. I wanted to write about something else that happened while I was there.

While shooting, two gentlemen came to the adjacent lane to shoot. I overheard one of them express their newness, in asking the RSO for some help in how to load the gun. Yes that was a red flag to me to be more aware and mindful of what was going on a lane over. But to the range’s credit, I’ve been seeing RSO’s actually in the shooting area actively watching what’s going on. I must give them credit for that improvement.

Afterwards, I was able to talk with those gentlemen for a bit as they were parked next to me. They are new and very eager to learn. Of course I gave them a KR Training pen and disclosed my assistant instructor status there. We went back inside to look at a few things, and here’s where I winced.

The guys behind the counter… I guess they’re used to being muzzle swept all day and are jaded and don’t think anything of it, for they had no problem walking in front of the muzzle of the gun I was helping the gentleman look at. One guy behind the counter chimed in, and as this was their house I just let him talk and did my best to keep my mouth closed. To his credit, he gave a lot of good advice. He was spot on about getting a good holster. He recommended larger guns and not compromising. And much of what he said was pretty good stuff. That’s a welcome thing to hear, as all too often the guy’s behind the gun counter don’t know what they’re talking about and dole out bad advice.

But what bothered me the most was his gun handling.

I should have counted how many times I was swept by his muzzle. I’ve been muzzle swept enough, and I still don’t like it and still don’t take it casually. Maybe in my case I know the guns are loaded, and in the store they reckon the guns aren’t, but that’s a little too much complacency for me (Cooper Rule 1 and all that).

The store clerk took what I assume is his carry gun out of a bag, to show his Raven holster to the customer. He was very casual in the handling of the gun. I have no idea if the gun was actually loaded or not, but we all (should) know Col. Cooper’s Rule #1, right? I will assume it was loaded with one in the chamber tho, because the way he spoke implied it was his carry gun, there was a magazine in… and so I’m pretty sure it really was loaded. But again, it doesn’t matter — rule 1.

And that’s why it bothered me even more with how casually he held the holstered gun… with one hand on the grip, and the other hand holding the muzzle. And he kept doing it… just a fiddling thing, like you know how you might punch your fist into the palm of your other hand? it was a motion like that, punching the muzzle of the holstered gun into the palm of his other hand. Just one of those mindless things where you’re keeping your hands fiddling with something, but wow…. what’s Col. Cooper’s Rule #2?  And NRA Rule #1?

I was all ready to be impressed with how things are improving at the local indoor range, and then I saw this sort of gun handling.

The thing is, this customer was coming to these guys for answers. It’s completely understandable for customers to expect gun store clerks to know something about guns. The trouble is, when you don’t know anything about guns, you don’t know if the information you’re getting is good or bad… but based upon what you expect — gun store should know about guns — these newbie customers are going to take what you say AND DO as gospel.

So come on… you know people are coming to you expecting you to be the expert. Behave like one. This is not just what you say, but what you do. Walking in front of muzzles, not respecting safe direction, fiddling with loaded guns behind the counter, violating fundamental gun safety rules, violating your own store policy (that big sign at the front door about all actions must be open…). I was all set to be impressed, but was just let down at the end.

You’ve heard it before…. “guns kill”, and the retort that no guns don’t kill people, people do. And the fingers are stuck in the ears, and the back and forth yelling drags on.

I would say that, some years ago, I would have more closely aligned myself with the “guns kill” camp. But some events happened in my life, and I also started listening to reason and logic, which made me realize that line of thinking — that guns kill — doesn’t make sense.

If guns kill, then pencils cause typos and forks cause obesity. When someone gets drunk and drives a car, we don’t try to ban alcohol or cars, we blame the person for their behavior and sanction that behavior. For most things in the world we look past the objects and implements and look at the person using them — the person is the cause of the behavior. Yet for some reason when it comes to gun, the object is focused upon.

Too many believe that guns mean violence. That guns mean death. That guns only bring about evil.

I cannot deny that many times when violence occurs, guns are involved. I cannot deny that people die every day due in a manner involving firearms. I cannot deny that men bent on doing evil like to use guns to impose their evil will.

But if we only look at that one side of the coin, then we’re only seeing part of the story.

For every story of “bad things” happening that involve a gun, there are stories of “good things” happening that involve a gun. Trouble is, we don’t often hear about those things. Sure, some of it comes from media bias because showing how guns can be used for good doesn’t further an anti-gun agenda, and a large majority of the mass media holds anti-gun stances. But a lot of it comes from the fact that a gun may be used for good purposes, to stop evil being done, but there’s nothing to trigger a “news event” because the situation may not get reported to the police, it may not have enough drama to earn ratings, or what have you. But rest assured, these events happen.

For example, Sarah Connor at BrainBang retells her story:

I’ve carried my piece countless times, and have used it to prevent things from going bad to worse. I’ve never shot my pistol at a perpetrator. I only used a gun to reinforce my words.

“Leave. Her. Alone.”

Words I said to a male stranger, who kept touching a woman at the laundry mat, against her will. She was visibly nervous, shaking, terrified.

Other customers in the laundry mat didn’t know what to do. All I had to do was give the verbal command for him to leave her alone. Most folks won’t intervene in a situation like that, even if it’s the simple act of saying, “Stop.” Too risky. Too unsafe. I wouldn’t have ordered the man to leave, unless I had the backup of a gun in my pocket.

See? Crime prevented. No gun violence. Just peace. And I didn’t even show my piece.

Some might say that it was a bad thing she only gained her courage because she had a gun. Well, I would say that wasn’t all bad because without it, who knows what evil could have happened to the woman at the laundry mat… because no one else was speaking up. Some might say she shouldn’t have gotten involved, but I’m sure the woman is thankful someone did get involved. Sarah’s gun was her force equalizer. I’ve written on the notion of “force equalizer” many times in the past. We must accept that while we may have been created equal, a moment later we became different. A 5′ 100# woman vs. a 6’6′ 300# man? A frail elderly gentleman vs. a pack of teenage hoodlums? These are very real situations with massive force disparity. Think about the reality of the situation for a moment and tell me how yelling “NO! STOP!” is going to be effective. Tell me how calling the police, if you can even do that, is going to stop the immediate threat of harm? But put a tool in the hand of the disadvantaged one, and the disparity is lessened.

Case in point:

[89-year-old] Fannie Mae Brown says she saw the burglar’s flashlight inside the house and realized the intruder was headed toward her bedroom. She fired one shot toward the light, police said, which sent the suspect running off into the night.

We don’t know who broke into her house, but you can bet elderly Ms. Brown wouldn’t be much of a physical match for them. Oh sure, there are other things one could use, like a loud voice, a baseball bat, pepper spray, taser, golf club, and the list goes on. But these require coming in close contact with the individual. Do you think Ms. Brown would want to get within arms reach of this person? Do you really think a physical confrontation would be to her advantage? But for this good woman, having a gun allowed her to ward off evil.

Then there’s Holly Adams, mother of Leslie Sherman who was killed in the Virginia Tech massacre. Some people took the VaTech tragedy and claimed to speak for all the victims, that they all want more gun control because that’s the only way to stop these things from happening. Of course, even in countries with the tightest firearms restrictions, massacres still occur. Despite mountains of data and evidence that gun control does not reduce violence, some still call for it. But then, Holly Adams calls it otherwise:

Speaking for myself, I would give anything if someone on campus; a professor, one of the trained military or guardsman taking classes or another student could have saved my daughter by shooting Cho before he killed our loved ones. Because professors, staff and students are precluded from protecting themselves on campus, Cho, a student at Virginia Tech himself, was able to simply walk on campus and go on a killing rampage with no worry that anyone would stop him.

I ask a simple question: Would the other parents of victims be forever thankful if a professor or student was allowed to carry a firearm and could have stopped Seung-Hui Cho before their loved one was injured or killed? I would be. I also suspect that the tragedy may not have occurred at all if Cho knew that either faculty members or students were permitted to carry their own weapons on campus. Cho took his own life before campus police were able to reach him and put a stop to his killing spree.

When you use the force of law (or other regulation) to put good people at the losing end of force disparity, evil people will know this and take advantage of it. Look at Nidal Hasan. He was able to go on a rampage at Fort Hood because, despite what you’d think about a military base, all our soliders are disarmed on base in the USA. They were forced into a disadvantageous state, and an evil man took advantage of it. Look at all the school shootings. Schools are another place where good people are forced to a disadvantageous state. If you examine all of these horrible events, a common thread is their location and how the victims were forced to the losing side of force disparity. Does that not speak to what might be playing a role in these events?

Some think that the way to overcome this disparity would be to ban guns. I can understand that approach, because it works to overcome the  disparity — no one has guns, no one can have the advantage there. True enough, but it doesn’t work out. When guns are banned, evil people still find ways to do evil. Countries that ban firearms have huge problems with knives. Are we going to ban knives? They can’t… because no one would be able to cut their food or open boxes. Besides, try as you might, evil people will always find a way. If say they banned knives, good people would have to live without cutting their food, and bad people would just find a piece of metal, sharpen it against a rock, and hide it on their person. If you think rules and laws stop bad people, go to any prison and look at their collection of makeshift weapons. And besides, guns still turn up in places that ban guns. Criminals aren’t stopped by laws — that’s why they’re criminals.

Abridging good people from taking care of themselves serves no useful end, unless your end is to control and dominate those good people (and then, who is the wicked one?). Yes sanction evil people. Yes make it difficult or impossible for bad people to continue to do bad things.  But realize that bad people exist, and will always exist, and good people need a way to deal with that reality. We accept that forks don’t make people fat, so don’t think that guns make people bad. Sarah Connor was able to do good, because she had a gun. Fannie Mae Brown was able to chase of an evil-doer, because she had a gun. The capacity to do good or to do evil lies within the person, not with what implement they hold in their hands.

Just returned from running some errands. While out and about, I stopped into a Thai restaurant for lunch.

While there, I noticed a gentleman in plain clothes with a Glock openly on his hip. Surprised me a wee bit because you just don’t see that here since open carry isn’t legal in Texas… unless you’re in law enforcement. But that’s the thing. I saw nothing that led me to believe this man was in law enforcement, as most cops I see doing this wear their shield on their belt, typically right next to their holster. Nada, that I could see.

He was sitting with a woman… who also had a Glock openly on her hip.

What struck me tho was the holsters they were using. His appeared to be some cheap leather thumb-break retention holster, and hers was some sort of kydex “slide” type of holster, and I didn’t see any retention on it. But I could be wrong about this stuff because I didn’t exactly stare at them to figure this all out. I was curious to ask them, but how do you start this conversation without being really awkward? 🙂

So while all curious, probably only curious to me.

Because the bigger thing?

No one seemed to care.

Lots of people in the restaurant, and no one was flinching or freaking out or running screaming… nor any blood flowing in the street.

It was just… no… big… deal.

I caved.

I have put in an order for an M&P Shield in 9mm.

I like what the gun has to offer. It’s not too small, but it’s small enough. I also think it’ll be good as a teaching gun for folks with smaller hands.

But, from the factory the M&P Shield needs work, as is the case with most factory guns.

The big 3 I wondered about:

1. holster support.

2. replacement sights

3. Apex Tactical trigger kit

I sent an email to Comp-Tac asking about holster accessories for the Shield. Their response (as of this writing):

Hi John,

Thanks for checking with us on the M&P Shield. At this point we do not have any official timeframe on if/when the Shield may become an available model for our holsters. I’ve recorded that we received another request for it though. Hopefully as we get more requests and are able to track the sales of this firearm a little better it will get moved up on the To Do list.

Once it looks like we have some solid info on this model we’ll be sure to announce it on our monthly newsletter and Facebook page. Thanks again for checking with us and have a great day!

Tiffany F.
Sales/Marketing

A most acceptable response at this time.

It also says that you should drop them a line because they are keeping track of the requests.

As for sights, I emailed Dawson Precision, but as of this writing I haven’t heard anything.

And I emailed Apex Tactical wondering if there’d be a DCAEK for the Shield. Don’t need the RAM, in theory, since the Shield has a tactile reset. But who knows….

My thinking is, if I can replicate my full-sized M&P9, that would be great.

Folks: the bottom line is to speak up. These companies are all good about listening to their customers (which is one reason I give them my patronage), so speak up!