Thanks again to
HeadHunter for entrusting me with his beloved S&W M&P 40 (for a small deposit! 🤣).
Definitely a smart looking pistol. This is probably my only truly modern pistols in my collection, coming into service in 2005 (according to Prof Wiki again).
My first impression is very good. It does have its flaws (which I will come on to later), but this is one of the few guns that just feels great in my hand. Probably all down to the changeable rear end of the grip, and it fits nicely in my "small" hand. (the medium and large grip came with the gun, and was tucked away safely in the box up in the loft at the time of photos). My 12yo seemed to be ok with it also. Being part polymer, it is rather light as well. If I had to have an EDC gun, this would definitely be on my shortlist.
Other nice touches includes the tilting barrel on slide lock. And the accuracy doesn't seemed to be affect by it either (more on that later).
Fully fieldstrippable, as you would expect from a gun like this.
Another thing that really appealed to a target shooter like me is the adjustable sights. It is adjustable rear AND front. When it arrived, it was shooting about an inch to the right from 5m. This was easily corrected with a quick adjustment on the rear sight.
The front sight requires an even smaller allen key which I didn't have to hand. In any case, only adjust 1 and not both.
Full size dropout mag. No special hole to put the BB in... it's all via the same exit when it is fired. So no quick loading etc.
Polymer frame to reduce weight. The mechanism inside is of course metal (but probably zinc alloy).
What's not to like? Well...
The rear sights.
For some reason, when I tried to screw the rear sights right down, it jams up the slide mechanism. When it first happened I didn't know what was going on! Thought Shaun sold me a broken gun! Then eventually worked out that the screw is pushing something inside down onto the frame, jamming everything up. Backing out on the grub screw a bit solved the problem. Very odd.
The trigger.
This is a "difficult" one. It's a 2-stage trigger. Not too heavy. Probably about 4 lbs at most. The issue I have with it is the amount of slack on the second stage. Let me show you.
Resting:
1st stage uptake. This was probably 2 lbs-ish (I haven't got my gauge anymore):
The slack. Still not there yet!
2nd stage break.
You can hopefully appreciate the travel between 1st and 2nd stage, and the fact that I can hold it between stages... A good trigger should have a clean break. Breaking a (thin!) glass rod with no overtravel. This one? Well, there is a bit of slack, but thankfully it is still considered a light trigger by most standards, so snatching the trigger would still be user error rather than the gun!
And finally the accuracy test.
Let me get the excuses out of the way first! It was cold even when standing in the unheated garage. I didn't have that much spare time (still trying to get Notts County up to League 1 at the time... 🤦🏻♂️). So I had a quick "plink" from 5m, weaver, against a splatter target. I think I had either 45 + 10 or 60 +10 shots at it. I honestly can't remember. I'm going to say 60+10 before the CO2 completely dies out. The last 10 shots were a bit weak also.
Did I say I couldn't be arsed to change target also? So yes, first 15 to 20 ish were 1 inch to the right as I mentioned before. The rest of it was aim directly at the bull (no 6 o'clock hold for this one). Yes, definitely tin-can accurate. And probably will be up to 10m. At 15m one might need to hold it higher and expect some to miss...
...but these things are plinkers. It is great fun to shoot with. Very happy with the purchase. Highly recommended.
