Bad trigger on an m&p 45

[Latheman]

I have an m&p 45 and I cant get it to shoot accurate. I blame the trigger as it has a lot of take up on it. Is this normal for these pistols. The loads I have been shooting 230 grain cast and jacketed bullets over IMR 800x and bullseye. I have also shot 185 grain rainiers and factory Remington hollow point loads. Is there a fix for this. I may end up looking to trade this pistol. Is there another striker fired service pistol with a better trigger?

[Tackleberry41]

I have a 9mm shield. I went thru and cleaned up everything in the trigger, so its much better than factory. But the gun is just not that accurate.

[blpenn66502]

Lots of take up is normal in the M&P. I just put one of the Apex trigger kits in my S&W. They are spendy, especially if you get the forward set sear, which i didn't but their basic action enhancement kit did smooth out and reduce the trigger pull.

[MrWolf]

+1 on the Apex. I knew going in when I bought my 45 compact that it needed a trigger job. Worked great for me and not hard to install. Just dont keep the magnetic cover for your Ipad next to the area you are working as you watch the repair video. Took me about half an hour to find part attached to magnet.

[Latheman]

When you say cleaned up everything on the trigger. How hard was that can you elaborate?


I have a 9mm shield. I went thru and cleaned up everything in the trigger, so its much better than factory. But the gun is just not that accurate.

[Tackleberry41]

The 25 cent trigger job as its called, a you tube video. Get rid of any edges, polish up things. Fun part is taking out the rear site to get at the firing pin block, round and polish the edges. You could feel each part as they began to stack pulling the trigger. Now you can't. Also S&W goes overboard with 'safety' as in they go heavy on the angle of their seer. Its striker fired but not like a glock, so you had the sear pulling back the striker when it doesn't need to. I cut the angle to eliminate that, still works fine, just much less effort to pull the trigger. My S&W compact 22, is hammer fired, but again S&W went way overboard, that last little bit of trigger pull is a bit much as the sear angle pulls the hammer back further. Its a bit more to take it apart as the trigger is under the pinned barrel.

[Tackleberry41]

The trigger is better in the shield, but didn't do anything for its accuracy. Its just not very accurate. I know its the gun, same ammo in other 9s is fine. The shield is just not a target gun.

[nicholst55]

I did the 25-Cent Trigger Job on mine, and installed an Apex sear. The trigger pull is much, much better than what it originally was, which makes it easier for me to shoot well. It's not a match pistol by any stretch of the imagination, but it is definitely service pistol-accurate.

[FergusonTO35]

Latheman, how long have you been shooting this type of pistol? Is this your first M&P? This type of pistol takes alot of getting used to. I am just now getting to where I can make somewhat respectable groups with my Glocks at 20 feet after owning and shooting them for well over a year.

[Tackleberry41]

The striker fired guns just feel different to shoot than a 1911 or similar w a hammer to cock. I never had a striker gun for a long time, stuck with what I had. Always picked on friends who had Glocks. Im still not a Glock convert, have 1, most who have glocks have several. Striker guns just take some getting used to, and but limiting what you can do to the triggers, without spending a pile of money on something like an Apex unit to drop in. Even striker guns are not the same, glocks you pull the striker back some more as you pull the trigger, the S&W its more of a hybrid with a sear you can polish or change the angle on.

I think in the S&W M&P, your limitation might be the barrel. My little shield does not have much of a barrel, doubt they go with a nice tight match anything on it. You can bench rest it all you want, fix the trigger, it still won't group that good. But its more of a snub nose with better sights. Might need to find an aftermarket barrel to improve your groups in a S&W M&P. My new S&W compact 22 isn't much of a target gun either.

[fourarmed]

My M&P .45 had a horrendous trigger, but after looking at the Youtube video mentioned earlier, I smoothed it out to where it is very nice. It has always been extremely accurate, as have been all the others I know about. I am surprised to hear that yours isn't.

[zomby woof]

I have three M&P pistols now. A 45, 9mm Pro and a 9C. It took me a while to shoot the pistols well. I've found that using a larger backstrap that feels comfortable I shoot better. I have a medium hand and the large backstrap for the 9 Pro keeps my finger more at 90 degrees to the trigger instead of curled towards you. I have the Apex kits in the Pro and 45. I bought the Apex spring kit only ($25) and polished the USB and sear for the compact. This works great.

[Kevinakaq]

My MP9 trigger was beyond horrible. Polished what I could which helped, but was still sub par by a long shot. Installed Apex Tactical Trigger kit which is pricey as mentioned above. Debated purchase for months but glad that I went this route as I would have sold pistol off if I was forced to live with trigger as is. Was more accurate to throw it at target.

My SD40 trigger wasn't nearly as bad but an Apex spring kit and some careful polishing made this one acceptable. Trigger on MP9 (post kit) was better that just the spring kit in the sd40...ymmv.

as an aside, both pistols are now great shooters and function flawlessly.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Yeah, the M&P's are good reliable guns but the factory triggers are pretty poor. Kinda the bain of these guns. My edc is an M&P 9C and i just got a Shield 9mm and a 9L Performance Center Ported/CORE. The Shield is terrible and the 9L is decent but its a Performance Center gun. Honestly i expected it to be better than it is. It feels like what the standard model guns should be like never mind that its like a $1000 msrp gun. My 9C was pretty rough too. The 9C already has a full Apex treatment, forward set flat shoe trigger kit plus sear and springs, etc. That trigger is spendy but it is marvelous! I already have the full works from Apex for the 9L and a competition kit. That will be a competitive gun only. All of them but the 9L needed the slide stop worked on too, way to hard to drop the slide on them. The Shield i'm going to just have a hand fitting session with it first before dropping parts in it. I also have the M&P Bodyguard 380 and even though it is a hammer fired DAO, it needed trigger attention. It has the full works from Galloway in it. Your M&P 45 is no different from my 9mm's except the parts are 45 specific. Apex has multiple options for your gun.

I wished they were better from the factory, it is bordering on unacceptable honestly. We all know they can do better. But I am still a Smith fan. I like Glocks for the reliability and I know they are good guns but they just don't fit me, can't grow to like how they fit my hands. And just not big on the other popular auto pistols. I do like the magazine commonalities with products. I do want to get some of the CZ75 variants and would like to check out a TP9 V2. I hear Canik is working on a TP9 compact which is likely to be a winner.

[Tackleberry41]

I think S&W is just taking safety to an extreme. Everything is overdone so its idiot proof. With the extra angle on the sear, they know you need a deliberate trigger pull to get it to go off. Yea to us its dumb, people used to a nice 1911 trigger, but your average person just the way it is.

My S&W 22 compact, the trigger is terrible so they could get all the safeties to work. It has a really long trigger pull, but thats for the mag safety to work. Why it needs one not sure. Its not bad until it gets to the end, then you need to overcome the hammer spring as the sear pulls it back more. Very safe, but does not make a very good trigger. These companies are terrified of lawyers, so have to dumb everything down. Probably wouldn't be to hard to have a decent trigger, but then some moron somewhere will shoot themselves or someone else and of course its the guns fault for not being 'safer'.

[Latheman]

Ferguson. Its my first M&P. Ive had this pistol for about a year. I just made a couple hundred reloads. To take to the range and get some more time on this rig. Im hoping with more use I can get better with it. The pistol is utterly reliable and I've probably put over 500 shots through this pistol.

Thank you Tackberry for all the info you've given me


Latheman, how long have you been shooting this type of pistol? Is this your first M&P? This type of pistol takes alot of getting used to. I am just now getting to where I can make somewhat respectable groups with my Glocks at 20 feet after owning and shooting them for well over a year.

[Latheman]

I think S&W is just taking safety to an extreme. Everything is overdone so its idiot proof. With the extra angle on the sear, they know you need a deliberate trigger pull to get it to go off. Yea to us its dumb, people used to a nice 1911 trigger, but your average person just the way it is.

My S&W 22 compact, the trigger is terrible so they could get all the safeties to work. It has a really long trigger pull, but thats for the mag safety to work. Why it needs one not sure. Its not bad until it gets to the end, then you need to overcome the hammer spring as the sear pulls it back more. Very safe, but does not make a very good trigger. These companies are terrified of lawyers, so have to dumb everything down. Probably wouldn't be to hard to have a decent trigger, but then some moron somewhere will shoot themselves or someone else and of course its the guns fault for not being 'safer'.

Its funny you should say about S&W taking safety to an extreme because my Dad was firing the pistol and I noticed he was squeezing the trigger than kinda tilted his head to the side and got a funny look on his face so I took a couple steps toward him and he started to say the gun wasn't firing and just then it went off. The trigger definitely takes some getting used to. Thank fully he's a responsible shooter and never once was the gun not pointed down range. But could see a less disciplined shooter causing a safety issue.

[Latheman]

I'll definitely have a look at the you tube video. I was surprised at how bad I was shooting that day as well. Than I picked up my Colt trooper in .357 mag and started hitting clay targets left and right and realized how bad the trigger really is. I sure hope I can fix it.


My M&P .45 had a horrendous trigger, but after looking at the Youtube video mentioned earlier, I smoothed it out to where it is very nice. It has always been extremely accurate, as have been all the others I know about. I am surprised to hear that yours isn't.

[Tackleberry41]

Its funny you should say about S&W taking safety to an extreme because my Dad was firing the pistol and I noticed he was squeezing the trigger than kinda tilted his head to the side and got a funny look on his face so I took a couple steps toward him and he started to say the gun wasn't firing and just then it went off. The trigger definitely takes some getting used to. Thank fully he's a responsible shooter and never once was the gun not pointed down range. But could see a less disciplined shooter causing a safety issue.


Yes but your dad was used to a decent trigger even a marginal trigger. S&W and has pushed their safe triggers into a whole new place. Yes safe, but its like the overly safe elderly driver, they actually make it unsafe for everybody else by driving so slowly and carefully. Now if S&W hadn't tried to idiot proof the guns, you can't make anything idiot proof. A decent yet still safe trigger that broke as its supposed to and your dad would be going 'hmm whens the dang gun gonna go off.....bang'. I mean how did people possibly survive the last century without firing pin blocks in every gun?

The trigger in my S&W 22 compact, is about 3/4 of an inch of sponge, feel as the small springs start to stack, then when it feels like it should break (being a hammer gun w a sear) no theres more travel as the extra angle on the sear pulls back the hammer more, then finally it goes bang. You do get used to it....eventually. Funny that ancient Ruger mark 1 trigger works pretty good out of the box, yet is still perfectly safe.

[FergusonTO35]

The triggers on my Glock 26 and 43 are bone stock. They have a nice break but are pretty heavy. I actually prefer this setup as they are my carry guns so I don't want it too light. Also, I have a bad flinch and a light and/or creepy trigger just makes it worse.

[Kilosierra]

The H&K VP9/40 is the only striker fired gun I've seen that has a better trigger pull. The box stock M&P is about the same as a Glock factory 4.5 lbs trigger used in the G34/35 and doesn't break as often either. The new Sig striker fired gun is also about the same as a M&P. The FN FNS is about the same as the Glock 5.5 lbs trigger. Honestly the only M&P trigger I've had any complaints on is the newer ones used in the last year or two that came on my M&P9C. After dry firing and firing it a few hundred times the grittiness went away but it's still noticeably heavier then my 2007 and 2013 production M&P9 full sizes I have and the 2007 production M&P40 full size I had.

[fourarmed]

The principal bad actor in the M&P trigger has always been that sear angle. It cams the striker way back before releasing it. If you stone that angle a little squarer, everything else will smooth out with just some polishing - or use.

[Ric-san]

Lots of folks change over to the Apex trigger to smooth things out...

[nicholst55]

It's really a shame that the trigger is so poor on the M&Ps from the factory. At least for me, their ergonomics are much, much better than any Glock I've handled. My M&P 45C is almost identical in size to the single-stack G36, but it holds an additional 2 rounds with factory mags - 4 with the correct mags and spacers.

I got the trigger on mine to a very manageable 4-3/4 pounds with just minor polishing and the Apex sear. It sure ain't a 1911 match trigger, but it'll do.

[Lloyd Smale]

trigger on my full sized m&p 9mm is terrible. The shield I have is a lot better. Its sure not perfect but good enough for what that gun is for. The shield is substantially better then my glock 43. Next time get a few bucks Im going to get a disconector for the glock and buck up for an apex for the m&p.