Trey Veston
Member
I bought a S&W M&P40 compact back in 2007 as my primary CCW and it was wonderful. Reasonably compact and carried 10 rounds of .40 S&W. I never officially bench tested it for accuracy at 25yds, but it always delivered 1" or so groups at 7yds and I actually shot an unbelievable 40yd 3-shot group of 1" once. Loved it!
I ended up selling it and trying other guns for CCW. Most recently an XDS 40 which will regularly give me sub 2" groups at 25yds. But, it only holds 6 rounds.
So I snatched up a NIB S&W M&P40c with night sights for $349 a couple of weeks ago. Did some impromptu shooting and it returned some impressive 7yd groups. I was very happy.
Then I decided to load some new self-defense carry rounds using 165gr Speer Gold Dots and 7.0gr of Ramshot Silhouette powder. I use 6.0 grains behind RMR plated bullets for my GSSF match ammo and it does very well in my Glock 35.
Went to the range today to wring out the pistol with my new carry load and results were unimpressive. Best I could get was 4"...
But then it got worse. I shot a 5-shot group at 25yds using a rest and my preferred carry ammo; Hornady 165gr Critical Defense ammo. 9" and all over the target.
Now, I know some guns really prefer a certain bullet weight and accuracy can really be affected by shooting too heavy or too light of a bullet. But my old M&P40c seemed to digest whatever I fed it.
This new pistol has been 100% reliable and most importantly, the 10yd groups shot off hand with my CCW reloads today did 1". Perfectly acceptable. At typical self-defense ranges, it is outstanding.
But that awful group with the Hornady load and the sub-par groups with my reloads are troubling.
It's evoking bad memories of my S&W 9mm PC Shield back in 2015 that delivered 12" groups at 25yds and after S&W replaced the barrel, would only do 8".
I will be loading up some 180gr and 155gr recipes to see how it does, but so far I am not impressed.
I ended up selling it and trying other guns for CCW. Most recently an XDS 40 which will regularly give me sub 2" groups at 25yds. But, it only holds 6 rounds.
So I snatched up a NIB S&W M&P40c with night sights for $349 a couple of weeks ago. Did some impromptu shooting and it returned some impressive 7yd groups. I was very happy.
Then I decided to load some new self-defense carry rounds using 165gr Speer Gold Dots and 7.0gr of Ramshot Silhouette powder. I use 6.0 grains behind RMR plated bullets for my GSSF match ammo and it does very well in my Glock 35.
Went to the range today to wring out the pistol with my new carry load and results were unimpressive. Best I could get was 4"...
But then it got worse. I shot a 5-shot group at 25yds using a rest and my preferred carry ammo; Hornady 165gr Critical Defense ammo. 9" and all over the target.
Now, I know some guns really prefer a certain bullet weight and accuracy can really be affected by shooting too heavy or too light of a bullet. But my old M&P40c seemed to digest whatever I fed it.
This new pistol has been 100% reliable and most importantly, the 10yd groups shot off hand with my CCW reloads today did 1". Perfectly acceptable. At typical self-defense ranges, it is outstanding.
But that awful group with the Hornady load and the sub-par groups with my reloads are troubling.
It's evoking bad memories of my S&W 9mm PC Shield back in 2015 that delivered 12" groups at 25yds and after S&W replaced the barrel, would only do 8".
I will be loading up some 180gr and 155gr recipes to see how it does, but so far I am not impressed.