Springing Emotions

Happiness: Finding an AR-15 buffer spring that you thought had gone into the dimension of lost springs while you’re crawling around on the floor.

Sadness: The reason you’re crawling around on the floor and found the buffer spring in the first place is that an extra-power Glock extractor spring and bearing was launched at high speed to either somewhere in the room or into the dimension of lost springs, never to be found again.

Update:  In awesome customer service news,  I contacted Apex about purchasing a new spring to replace mine that had sprung as they did not shown them for sale individually on the website.

They quickly replied that they’ve been in the searching for springs situation before and they just went ahead and shipped a replacement out to me for free.  Apex has both great parts and great customer service - highly recommend.

WECSOHA Range Results

So I took kids, and packed the M&P9 with its new Apex RAM installed and the M&P40 with its new Apex Sear and Apex RAM installed, along with the trusty Ruger Mark II and headed to the range.

The M&P9 with the new RAM installed this morning worked flawlessly - here's the first magazine shot through it rapid to try and work the reset:

Then it was the M&P 40's turn, again very rapid:

The kids had their own targets for shooting with the Ruger Mark II, each of which had 2 balloons on them for their shooting enjoyment.

Abby's color choice had a distinct MSU Spartan flavor:

Leah got up and popped her two balloons with her first magazine.

Abby missed with her first magazine, but got them with her second.

I kept putting rounds through the M&Ps, first running a  box through the M&P 9, then a box through the M&P 40, doing magazine changes with each and trying to really wring them out to make sure the WECSOHA hadn't been a Wreck-So-Ha!

All mods worked, the guns worked 100% and function better than they did before. The trigger pull on the 40 is so much nicer than it was originally, and the reset on both guns are now very nice indeed. I can highly recommend the Apex sear and RAM as very useful modifications to enhance your shooting of the M&P.

The kids took turns using the Ruger Mark II and loading the magazines for it. Both had a lot of fun and were very safe while doing so.

The kids ran my shot timer for me and I did a few FAST drills with the M&P and a few other drills.

They were really getting into running the timer.

Then Abby wanted to give it a go with Leah giving the range commands:

Coming soon to a USPSA match near you.

A fun time had by all, then we headed to lunch at Smashburger and had some tasty burgers, and then home.

A great range trip indeed.

WECSOHA: The Apex RAM And The M&P9

This morning was WECSOHA time.

WECSOHA of course meaning the Willie E. Coyote School Of Home Armoring. Genius I tell you, Sheer armoring genius. Note it's not gunsmithing as I'm not a gunsmith. I can take pistols apart and install parts but I sure can't make parts for them or do other gunsmithing kinda stuff.

Today I was going to install the Apex Tactical Specialties RAM on my S&W M&P to improve the reset.

Step 1. Check and make sure the pistol is unloaded.

Step 2. Check and make sure the pistol is unloaded.

Step 3. Check and make sure the pistol is unloaded.

Why three times? Because of the 3 Cs - Carelessness, Complacency, and Catastrophe. If you check it three times, the chance of one of them biting you becomes vanishingly small. Check only once, or even worse forget to check, and someday you will get bit.

Step 4. After checking, remove the slide from the frame. Using the Apex Armorer's Block helps keep the frame in one place and protects it when you start removing the roll pin.

Step 5. Then take a #4 roll pin punch and remove the rear roll pin from the frame, hammering from the left side towards the right.

Step 6. Then remove the sear block from the frame by pulling up on the rear rails, this becomes easier if you pull the trigger while doing so. Expect the ejector to fall off while you're doing this. That's normal, but don't lose it.

Now's a good time to clean the sear block, trigger bar, ejector, and other areas you don't usually get to cleaning.

Step 7. Then put the spring on the RAM, have the RAM with the flat spot and hook facing upwards and place in the hole in the middle of the sear block.

Step 8. Put the trigger bar back into place on the side of the sear block, pressing in on the right side of the RAM so the tail of the trigger bar fits into place right in the flat sport on the RAM and with the pointy tail resting back in the sear block.

Step 9. Put the sear block back halfway into the frame, then put the ejector back on the sear block, then push down until it drops into place and then hammer the roll pin back into place.

Step 10. Check for function, and you're done. The trigger reset is now seriously improved.

Now off to the range to do a full check.

The whole process took about 15 minutes, including chasing around parts that fell off the bench. Quite an easy upgrade to perform. Overall, the Glock is much easier to work on and only needs the Glock tool, unlike the M&P which requires a few different pin punches to fully take down especially if you replace the sear. But, with a little care and perseverance, the M&P is not that difficult to work on.