Friday, May 27, 2016

Road to Concealed Carry Part 3 - M&P Shield's first ~285 rounds


Hello again /r/ccw, this is the third installment of my "Road to CCW" series where I record beginning my journey of carrying a concealed pistol. You can find my first post here, and my second post here.At the end of my second post I made it pretty clear that I had decided on the Shield. So last Sunday I went out to my local gun shop and picked it up.Here is the obligatory "glamour shot", taken immediately after cleaning it for the first time. Unfortunately not pictured is my Pearce Grip extension that I immediately went out to Amazon and ordered. I did get the grip in time for the first range trip though. I find the Pearce Grip extension necessary to get a decent grip on the gun.The thing I love about the Shield is how great it feels in my hand. I am extremely comfortable holding it and manipulating the trigger, mag release and slide stop. One thing I did run into is the magazine's don't seem to want to seat. I have to really angle them right and not-quite-slam them into the grip in order for them to seat properly. It's probably user error, but I feel I've heard others talk about this before as well. I will have to spend some time practicing and making sure I can properly seat the magazine on the first try every time.Speaking of practicing, I have a lot of that to do. As can be seen by the targets from my range trip.By using this graphic as a reference, I seem to have a tendency to do the following while shooting:a) Jerking the triggerandb) Pushing forwardI know I have a flinch, but have as of yet been unable to overcome it. I will have to work on that.What is most frustrating for me is that I appear to be able to hit the target, but cannot group my shots consistently.There's a couple handgun and self defense classes coming up that I am planning to sign up for. In the mean time I'll be doing dry fire practice and logging as much range time as possible.To be honest I'm not yet comfortable enough in my shooting ability to say I am capable of carrying. I'm not sure what other standards people hold themselves to, but I'd like to be able to shoot 4 inch groups at 7 yards consistently.Of course there are additional milestones I'd like to reach, including a draw and fire time under two seconds, placing shots on multiple targets given a certain time frame, 4 inch groups at 10 yards, 15 yards, 20 yards, firing from cover, etc, etc.Baby steps.If anyone has any additional advice I would appreciate all the help I can get. Right now my focus is on improving my accuracy.I'm looking pretty seriously and a G-Code Incog Eclipse (with the standard mojo) and a 5.11 1.75" belt to complete my edc "system".Thanks again /r/ccw... it'll probably be a while before I post again... but the next milestones will be:ClassesHitting my 4 inch groups @ 7 yards goalHoslter & BeltCarryEDIT: Completely forgot the most important thing to mention: the Shield performed flawlessly. Narry a hiccup when it came to firing. I shot some old crappy ammo that ~2-3 years old that I had purchased during the "ammo crises" a couple years ago, back when finding decent federal or winchester boxes was a pipe dream. I also shot 2 100 round boxes of winchester 115gr FMJ range ammo. No issues at all. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/1sDn75Y

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