My wife's been complaining about how heavy the CZ75 Compact is (the one I spent all the money for the milling/front sight/cerakote and DP Pro on) and she'd rather not carry it. Oh well. She needs to carry. Had an incident a couple weeks back were someone dumped some fighting pitbulls off a few houses down the road from us. My wife and her mom walk down that road for exercise sometimes. Oh, County police and animal control people picked all the dogs up that night, but still, if it happens again will someone be out walking down there while the dogs are still running around.
So, I went and bought an M&P Performance Center Shield 9MM for her to carry. Great price (Cabela's = $399). Picked it up today and headed to the range with my CZ75B .40, too.
Observations at the range on the M&P Shield:
1) very light. Unloaded weight is listed at 18.2 oz. We didn't weigh it loaded with 8 or 9 rounds.
2) you can see a bit of "fire" fly out of the ports when it's fired
3) she started off shooting way low (10 to 12") and the groups worked higher the longer she shot it. Don't know if it was her or the pistol.
4) shoots the 115 grain PD hollow points on top of Blue Dot powder better than the Federal 115 grain FMJ factory loads.
5) darn thing shoots pretty good for barely fitting in my hand (the 9 round magazine ain't bad, the 8 round magazine is a little too short for my pinky finger to stay on the grip, makes it harder to shoot when it's doing that. My group opened up a measureable amount.
6) comes with tritium night sights, too.
7) left side thumb safety (like her CZ75 Compact - manual of arms is the same for her, but she won't have a DA pull option if she gets a dud round).
two more "big" magazines ordered.
Not bad for $399.
She says she likes it. She realizes she needs to practice with it. She shoots her CZ75 Compact better. Heck, she shoot my CZ75B .40 S&W better than she shot the Shield. Good enough to keep it in the face/center mass of the chest at 8 yds., but her targets with the .40 sere much better.
Shield
Shield target (mine) with a magazine of the 115 grain PD hollow points sitting on a charge of Blue Dot. I could live with groups like this from offhand shooting at 7.5 yds.
That spur hammer from CZ USA is awesome. I'll need to dig out the CZ75 Compact I used the first spur hammer in but until I do a side by side I'm saying this trigger feels even better that the first one. The SA trigger pull is the same, but doggone it this one just feels even lighter than the 3 lbs. it actually shows on the trigger pull gauge. Only difference (I know of) is the first one is mated to the standard CZ75 Compact sear. This .40 is mated to a CGW adjustable sear. Just my opinion, for what it's worth, but the SA trigger pull on this one is just awesome. Not quite scary, like the TS .40, but so darn easy/smooth/crisp it's almost a crime.
My CZ75B .40 S&W
My wife shot a group with the 140 grain Missouri Bullet Co. lead bullets sitting on a charge of Herco. It was a bit better than her group with the fast 135 grain hollow points. And better than she shot her new M&P with either the Federal 115 grain FMJ or the 115 grain hollow points. She liked my P09 .40 S&W, too, but those guns are just too big/heavy for her to try to carry concealed.
My best 135 grain Nosler (sitting on a load of Blue Dot) group. Thirteen rounds at 8.75 yds. I think I need to adjust the rear sight over to the left a small amount as I'll most likely keep shooting this load/ammo. This group was shot at a much faster rate than I usually shoot. Not sure why, except the second shot "sneaked out" on my and was a good hit with the first shot so the thought popped into my head to just keep shooting faster rather than taking the usual time to try to make sight alignment PERFECT, like I usually do.
Got both of them cleaned up and lubed right after lunch and I'm going to head out the door to mow the yard before the rains start tomorrow.
