Range report: Smith & Wesson M&P9c + Aguila FMJ + Speer Gold Dot JHP

[skatalite]

Yesterday I took ownership of a brand new Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm Compact that was born August 2012. After a nice post-factory clean, I headed to the local range with 200 rounds of Aguila 115-grain full-metal jacket, and 50 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 124-grain jacketed hollow point. I shot all rounds from seven yards away using S&W 12-round magazines.

As you can tell by the image, I'm tightening my fingers and slapping/jerking the trigger nearly every time. It's something I plan on correcting. But, overall, I'm pleased with the results. I find this gun to be very comfortable, and it's main reason I chose it over a Glock 19 Gen 4. I shoot both equally, but ergonomics won out.

I shot the Aguila first, and had a total of 23 failures to feed, and three failures to eject. I ended the range time with the Speer and had no issues. None of the FTFs or FTEs were isolated to any specific magazine, as I was using six mags and they all had FTFs and FTEs. Also, the FTFs occurred throughout my entire range time, not just at the beginning, middle or end. Each instance of FTE seemed to have been caused by dirty bullet cases.

Thoughts: The reason 10 percent of the rounds of Aguila I shot had issues is due to me riding the slide (which I definitely was doing), and I am limp wristing it. However, I can't help but think it's also due to the Aguila and my gun not getting along, since I shot the Speer without issue. I've read about M&Ps have trouble with Aguila ammo, but I have a case of the stuff to shoot.

So, more range time and more practice will make perfect. Due to the recent political climate, I'm hesitant to run through the remainder of my Speer for comparison's sake, so I'll buy some other 115-grain FMJ to test side-by-side with the Aguila.

I'm aiming to make this my everyday carry pistol. I'm not concerned yet with the issues I had, because I think it's mostly operator error.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and any pointers/thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mugsy]

FWIW - I have used/fired two M&P9Cs and a full size for over two years. I have exclusively used American made factory rounds - FMJ and HPs - and had no (zero) FTFs or FTEs that weren't traceable to poor operator technique and darn few of those.
I think you have probably got a handle on the main cause of the range issues you experienced - a mix of operator error and dirty Russian ammo.

 

[RollingRock]

when I first got my mp9c in 2009, I had a couple of fte and ftf. I know for a fact that steel case wolf ammo caused most of it, and my limp wrist probably the other. since then I have popped off 1k or so, + a pistol class last weekend and no issues at all. i use only sw 10 & 12 round mags with speer, hornady and magtech SD rounds. and blazer brass, wwb, magtech, speer lawman fmj for practice.

 

[ripnbst]

Ive run WWB, Hornady Critical Defense, and Federal Champion value packs and have had absolutely zero issues of any kind. I would say it was probably your crummy ammo causing most of your issues. I have tried to limp wrist my 9c by holding it perpendicular to my wrist and shooting it to attempt to induce a malfunction and I couldn't make it happen, granted I only tried maybe 5 times.

I did what they are doing in this video and couldn't induce the malfunction.

 

[skatalite]

Thanks for the responses. I'm certainly not that limp wristed, as shown in the video posted by ripnbst. I didn't even try shooting the gun with only one hand, and took my time shooting. So, maybe it's not limp wristing that's the issue when it comes to user error - maybe it's riding the slide, though none of the Speer tests resulted in FTFs or FTEs, and I was shooting it exactly the same.

Sigh. On one hand I hope it's just the ammo. On the other hand I don't because I've got a lot more of it to go through, haha.

Thanks again.

 

[F16mickey]

I had a few FTE with a M&P9c that I bought and took straight to the range. For me It was just the pistol needing some lube as it was dry from the factory.
if it keeps on having issues try some speer lawman if the issues persist send it back to smith.

 

[vicsinner]

I've had my 9c since October WWB Remington 100 round and S&B worked well The white box NATO stuff works good too. I've only had one bad round out of about 600 and it was a no charge and a bad primer from a 100 count wwb. Pick up some Critical Duty if you can find it. I'm still playing with the backstraps. If you own an M&P keep your eyes on the parts area on gunbroker I've seen 40 kits going for under $200 picked one up a couple weeks ago everything except the frame. So I got a spare for every part and a caliber change. And with 9mm selling like crack in Watts in the 90's .40 is available. And 44mag.com has .40 m&p Mags. check it out.