Perfected S&W M&P

The Smith and Wesson M&P has been around for a decade now as a contendor with Glock as a service pistol. Recently the M2.0 also debuted. It’s about time the M&P gets an upgrade, and I’ve finally made enough modifications to my original M&P that I’m happy with it.

I don’t remember if I even shot my factory M&P when I first bought it. I remember feeling that very gritty, heavy trigger then throwing it in a box to ship to Doug over at ATEi to be fixed. In addition to the trigger work I wanted to be like all the other cool kids and put a Trijicon RMR on the slide along with a few extra slide serrations. I chose the RMR06 to have the smaller adjustable dot so I could shoot more precise at longer ranges.

The modifications by ATEi were great. However, even with the upgrades, the gun was horribly inaccurate. I tried the stock barrel, factory threaded barrel, and even a drop in competition barrel (I forgot if it was Storm Lake or BarSto) but nothing would redeem the terrible accuracy issues I had. It was around 5-6” at 25 yards. The only thing I could do to improve accuracy was shoot it with a suppressor. It seemed that the extra weight delayed the unlocking of the barrel and slide and I had tighter groups.

But then I tried the new Apex barrel. I chose the gunsmith fit version and decided if this didn’t work I was going to trash the gun altogether. But boy did it work! While I don’t waste much time on paper targets, you can see the practical results in the attached video. I’m nailing a 6” steel target with 100% accuracy at 50 yards.

Tech staff at Apex filled me in on the issues with early model M&Ps. The barrels would unlock too early and accuracy suffered. Some M&Ps were fine, but ones like mine developed a reputation for inaccuracy. Apex fixed this issue by moving the unlocking block just a few thousandths of an inch. The results speak for themselves. If you are looking for an aftermarket barrel upgrade for your M&P, look no further than Apex.