Trigger Time...

In addition to hitting the range on Saturday with Daniel in Brookline, I went out yesterday with Matt of Down Range Firearms Training. In addition to being a firearms instructor and all-around good guy, Matt works part time at the local fun store, and transferred my S&W M&Ps when they came in for T&E. He mentioned that he had two for DRFT, and that both had trigger jobs, and volunteered if I wanted to try an M&P without the horrid MA trigger to give him a shout.

Wrapping up the T&E period for the M&Ps, I had a chance to head out to the range with Matt, and wanted to give a shout out to say thanks. Matt didn't just bring his two M&Ps:

M&P45

M&P9

M&Ps in 9mm and .45 ACP, same as the two I have been testing (only my M&P9 is the compact version). Both have had trigger work done by Business End Customs, and both are significantly more fun to shoot than the stock MA trigger versions. Experiencing the difference between the two triggers puts the M&P in a completely different light, that's for sure.

Matt had a few surprises for me as well:

Caracal

That's one of the Caracal pistols from the United Arab Emirates. They had a booth at SHOT Show Media day, but I didn't get a chance to try them out. Matt did, and was impressed by the company enough to request a unit to test for his training purposes. The Caracal ran very smoothly - I put well over 100 rounds through it without a single hiccup (well, not counting my failure to fully seat the magazine...) even under rapid fire. The low bore axis allows for rapid shooting while remaining on target easily. It's a well-built pistol that gives the boys from Austria some competition...

And lastly, we had some fun with longarms:

M&P15s

Matt brought a couple of Smith & Wesson M&Ps in rifle form as well as pistols. Top is a M&P15-22, the bottom is a custom M&P15 with custom touches. Both were insanely fun to shoot - the .22LR version especially, as there's no recoil and it's just a ton of fun to ring a steel plate with every round fired as fast as possible. The .223 version is insanely accurate - given what he's put into it, it better be - and if I hadn't been freezing my fingers off I'd have gone through more of Matt's ammo...

Matt was also kind enough to offer some pointers on my shooting form as pertains to fast, accurate shooting. We discussed the Weaver vs. Isosceles stance, and he brought up some very good points about the defensibility of the Isosceles over the Weaver - definitely going to be working on improving things! Even though we don't see eye to eye on the 1911 being the greatest pistol ever made (inside joke), he's got his head on straight and is one helluva instructor.

Thanks again Matt!

That is all.