M&P Shield police handgun qualification course story

So at work (sheriff's patrol deputy) we have to qualify twice a year on our pistols/rifles/off-duty guns and the duty pistol course is actually pretty legit. Its a 36 round course that goes out to the 25 yard line and requires specific head/chest/pelvic girdle shots in specific order, strong hand and support hand only, from the holster, while moving, close combat (looking over the sights) and with very short times to complete each section (4-10 seconds). Any thing off a silhouette is a DQ and the groupings are scored too, with a minimum score to pass. A lot of police aren't into shooting as a hobby and do the minimum required training each year (and require multiple attempts to qual....), but I actually shoot and train quite a bit on my own time recreationaly.Our off-duty guns have to be on an approved list and there's a separate, much easier, 20 round off-duty qual course that goes out to the 7 yard line and is set up so people can actually pass the course with normal CCW guns, j-frames, LCPs etc.Before recently, I've always felt most CCW guns are a huge compromise in terms of accuracy and gun handling compared to my duty pistol (Glock 19), so for years I just carried that as my CCW if I felt I needed a "real" gun. I've shot j-frame revolvers and .380's/.32's but was never good with them and had little confidence in them. My work gun has a TLR-1s and a Hogue overgrip on it, I've put my many thousands of rounds through it as well as a 3 week combat pistol course and consider myself pretty proficient with it, almost always scoring "expert".Anyhow, about two weeks ago I caved in and bought a M&P Shield in 9mm and practiced with it twice before this morning. Much more comfortable for IWB and I was pretty impressed with it.This morning I took it to qualification so I could start carrying it, expecting to just do the off-duty course. I ran the 36 round duty pistol course with my Glock and scored 175 out of 180, but with some pretty iffy outlier shots right on the edge of the silhouette and not the tightest groupings.Then I went to do the 20 round off-duty course with the Shield, but I was the only one needing to do that course at the time and there were a ton of people needing to do the 36 round duty pistol course, so one of the instructors told me to just do that course with the Shield. I really didn't think I would be able to but what the hell, it will be good practice and when I DQ I can just wait and re-do it on the 20 round off duty course.Sure enough, the Shield did amazing, 178/180, with a much much tighter grouping, one shot off from a perfect score; the head shots were almost on top of each other. I was topping off mags constantly but otherwise no issues at all.Anywhoo, just bragging I guess, but my confidence with the Shield has gone way up, highly recommend. via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2f6PGWQ