I purchased a 5 in 9mm M&P a couple of years ago. I hated the mushy, hinged trigger so I put in an Apex forward set sear trigger kit. I installed my favorite Ameriglo I Dot sights. I keep shooting it expecting that the problem is me. However I think that this may be the one gun I have that I shoot better than the gun. For those of you in the know, should I put more money into this dog and try an Apex barrel. Or should I give up on the platform even though it feels great in the hand? Is it asking too much to want less than a 3 inch group at 4 yards. I can do better than that with my SW 640! I’ve read about issues with the barrels, but would hate to spend the money if it won’t make a difference. Thanks.

Have you had others shoot it?
If your on, and the accuracy is truly that bad, I would send it back for repair.
I have a 45 and 9mm both shoot well.

Nobody has shot it well. It’s not like I’m missing the target, but everything else I shoot I’m much better with.

One of my buddies got a 9mm years ago that patterned like a shotgun for the first 50-75 rounds. Something "broke in" and after that it was great. Another buddy had a .40 he was struggling with. I punched out the bullseye with 5 shots, then hit a single paintball at 7 yards. I'd expect a 5" to be that much more accurate.

Is it possible something is off with the pistol? Sure. But I would have a known good shooter try it first. Perhaps the range has a someone that can test it for you. A lot of companies will charge you shipping unless they're sure the problem lies with the product, because a lot of people are the cause of problems and don't realize it. So companies don't want to spend the money on shipping a pistol that's perfectly fine back and forth because the shooter isn't capable. I'm not saying that's the case here. My point is to make sure the problem is repeatable. If it is repeatable, definitely contact S&W.

1.0 accuracy issues were hit and miss. I bought and subsequently traded several M&Ps that out of the box shot a 6 or 8 inch group at 25. There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it.

About the only choice I see is to drop in an Apex barrel if what you are telling us is the case. And then it will shoot like a house on fire.

I have or have/had 8 different M&P 1.0's in both 9mm & .45 and accuracy was never an issue with any of them. I never understood peoples accuracy issues with them. I guess I'm just uber-lucky!

When you bought the 9 Pro (the 5" barrel), was it new or used?
IIRC, the earlier 9 Pros suffered from accuracy problems, due to the rifling twist in the barrels. S&W changed the twist rate after that.
Again...going on spotty memory here... the barrels with a dimple on the bottom of the barrel were the good ones.
I hope this is accurate (pun intended) recollection of the situation.

About 7 or 8 years ago I bought 3 M&P 40s that were range guns and a Pro9 5 inch. None were accurate except for the Pro. Rebarrelled the 40s with KKM conversion barrels and put a KKM in the Pro. All now are accurate but I have since gone to the 2.0 series. Still like them.

Two of my buddies bought early M&P pistols for 3-gun use.

They both had issues with accuracy, and one of them shot very, very high POI.

An Apex barrel helped the one, but it has never shot what would be called a good group. It is still marginal for small steel plates at 25 yards.

quote:

IIRC, the earlier 9 Pros suffered from accuracy problems, due to the rifling twist in the barrels. S&W changed the twist rate after that.

Another issue was dwell time. The barrel would unlock way too soon.
Add that along with the twist rate issue and you have the recipe for crappy accuracy.

My Pro fell into that category - anything beyond double digit yardage and you'd have thought I was shooting a shotgun. Needless to say it's begging for an Apex barrel.

Sell it and get a 2.0 if you like the m&p Platform. I will say the new guns are quite a bit better.

I mentioned in another thread...I had to mix and match barrels, slides and frames on 3 different M&P 9's in order to get them to shoot well. They were all a mess out of the box.

I got lucky...they all shoot well...now...

I bought a full-size 9mm M&P 1.0 when they first came out. I tried and tried, but I could not get it to group. Other shooters had the same problem. At first I thought that it was the articulated trigger, but I heard that there were barrel issues with some pistols. So, I called S&W about a year ago and told them that it wouldn't group. The CS rep sent me a shipping label, and off it went. I got it back in about 2-3 weeks, and the barrel was replaced. It now shoots very well. I am pleased with outcome.

With my 5" 9 Pro (2010 or 2011 vintage) I've been happy with my accuracy with it. I do better with it than I do with my G34G4. I suppose I should consider myself among the fortunate with this one that I have.

My 1.0 9c however has never been a gun that I or anyone else could shoot with any satisfying accuracy. I initially attributed this to its gawd awful trigger, but even with a Apex kit makeover it still is painfully 'all over the place', only its rather generous groups were slightly less so.

From what's been posted in this thread I suppose a barrel replacement is next up if I ever build up the determination to try to fix the damn thing. However my level of initial frustration with and later indifference towards this gun had me set it aside in the darkest, dankest corner of the safe for at least the past couple of years. And has me considering just dumping it on more than several occasions.

When I was an instructor at the local indoor range we had three different 1.0 m&p pistols, in different calibers.

None of them would group. Probably due to their lousy triggers. The one that shot the smallest pattern was a 9c.

I think those guns are junk. Both LE agencies local to me have dumped them and gone back to Glock. After only 3 years. And they both turned down an offer from smith to replace the inventory with 2.0 versions - for free. Good call. Regards 18DAI

I will second the comment about selling it and picking up a 2.0.

I was just meh on the 1.0. I bought a couple of them, but sold them all and went back to my Glocks.

I'm extremely happy with the 2.0's and am selling my Glocks as a result. I've purchased 5 of them in the last several months.

I'm absolutely convinced they changed the grip too. it's even more comfortable than the 1.0. I have small hands and the the small backstrap on the 2.0 feels much better than the small on the 1.0.

There are other upgrades you'll get in the 2.0 besides the barrel, so I'd go that route.

I have heard the accuracy issue about the 1.0 before. My M&P9 and M&P 5", however, were dead nuts accurate. I picked up a 2.0 and now a 2.0 Compact and they are super out of the box and even better with the APEX I recently added.

Kick that dog to the curb and start over.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was leaning towards trying 1 more time to confirm it was the gun and not me before buying the Apex barrel. Then I realized this would be my 5th one more time! I’ve spent enough time and coin on the platform. Trading fodder it has become!

if you can rent one at a range, Try the Walther PPQ 5 inch

quote:

Originally posted by VictimNoMore:
When you bought the 9 Pro (the 5" barrel), was it new or used?
IIRC, the earlier 9 Pros suffered from accuracy problems, due to the rifling twist in the barrels. S&W changed the twist rate after that.
Again...going on spotty memory here... the barrels with a dimple on the bottom of the barrel were the good ones.
I hope this is accurate (pun intended) recollection of the situation.

Yes, this is true. I have one of the older barrels on my early 1.0. They did change them about a year or two into production.