Gun Appreciation Thread - Page 145

I took my Apex'ed M&P40 to a 2-day pistol course last week. Fired about 600 rounds in the course, and am completely happy with both the Apex trigger group and the Truglo TFO sights. Very smooth trigger with a clean break and improved reset, and the combo fiber optic/tritium sights are really a fantastic way to up the sight visibility. Also learned that Magtech practice ammo burns really dirty--by the end of day 1 I was getting failures to return to battery. Got home and found the barrel was literally sludged. Switched ammo for day 2 and had no problems.

Also had a scary reminder that *nothing* should come near the trigger until ready to fire. We were on the line in the dark and heard "load and make ready!" "low light chamber check and reholster!" then "BANG!" A guy had a stray finger in the trigger guard and pulled the trigger when he let go of the slide with his support hand. In addition to showing that you need to always observe the Four Rules, that guy illustrates that not every system works for every person--I've taken a class with the guy before and he simply does not mesh physically or mentally with the mechanics of his DA/SA Sig Sauer. I think he fumbled the weapon trying to find a good purchase on the slide.

Apex? Is that a reworking gunsmith shop like Salient?

The first time I went to the Knob Creek Machinegun shoot I was shocked at how distinct the boom of the Barret/McMillan/Armalite .50s was from the mass of automatic weapons fire, including other fifties, miniguns, Mg-38s and -42s, etc.

Look up the laws in your home state, step 1.

Gun show 'culture' is, I don't know, very dependent on where you are and what kind of show you are going to. Where I live it is pretty sedate, especially if going to a higher end show.

What, incidentally, is a tactical .22? You mean a .223? Very confused, especially with Springfield or Mossberg in the mix,


Please see step 1 above and try to not attempt to violate the law.

~ H

Apex Tactical Specialties is a gunsmith shop but they also make drop-in parts for the M&P. I installed their "Duty Carry Action Enhancement Kit" or DCAEK which consists of a new sear, striker block, and springs, and the "Reset Assist Mechanism" or RAM which is a bar that pushes back the trigger bar during reset and acts as a failsafe if the trigger return spring breaks. The parts are a pretty easy self-install, a quick job for a gunsmith, or you can send the pistol (sometimes just the sear housing) to Apex for them to install the parts.

S&W has had a better sear for years that the Performance Center would install as part of a factory trigger job, but between shipping and the cost of a PC trigger job, the Apex parts seemed more cost effective to me, and tuned more than just the sear geometry. I have mine set for about a 5 pound pull, but you can get it under 4 or over 6 with different spring combinations.

My understanding is that S&W has changed the M&P trigger characteristics on their production line in the past couple of months and greatly improved the trigger feel, but my 40 predates those changes.

Would you be willing to disclose the cost of the Apex upgrades (parts/labor/shipping)?

Cheaper Than Dirt sells the Apex Tactical parts for a few bucks less than Apex, but doesn't stock the full line. The Action Enhancement kit is roughly $90 and the RAM was $20 (there are two versions of the RAM depending on whether or not you have a magazine disconnect). I had the parts shipped with an ammo purchase so I don't recall the shipping cost but it was pretty cheap.

My gunsmith charged me $70 to install both the Apex parts and my new set of sights. I wanted a professional to work on this, since it is a defensive firearm, but in hindsight I think I could have done it myself pretty easily. The RAM drops into the cavity where the "Hillary lock" would go and can be done in 5 minutes, and the other parts are pretty fast.

There is a Youtube video series from Apex showing how to do the installs, since this is really built as a DIY kit. My gunsmith was pretty pissed that they don't provide diagrams and answer all technical calls with "look at Youtube." His response to them was "I'm a gunsmith. We don't keep computers around solvents and I don't take customer guns home." LOL.

Given that Sig's custom shop quotes $200 (including shipping) for the simple action package on a P-series, and my local 1911 specialist shop is at almost $100 for a trigger job using existing parts (upcharging for tool steel parts), I figure that a roughly $150 trigger job on the M&P is not out of the realm of reason. However, if I had known S&W was about to implement some trigger improvements, I would have waited a couple of months and bought a new production unit to see if any of it was even worthwhile.

Thank you.

Just bought an hk p30 9mm...now have to wait a week to play with my new toy

You have a seven day waiting period out there?

Edited by PhiPsi32 - 12/5/12 at 11:00pm

New P238 and new C&S safety on my HP:

Good old Sig 238. One of my favorites.

I thought the President's response today was very appropriate and moving. I do hope we can do more to keep firearms our of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals. I also think it's worth questioning why all these shooter rampages occur in designated 'gun free zones'. Beyond that, I think we should leave the politics to the CESSpool.

Sigh. Iroh has been given most of December off. He will be back on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas. Ho Ho Ho.

From now on, we are keeping CE in CE. If someone says something CE worthy, do not respond. PM a mod. Everyone clear on that?

Cheers,

Fok.