Upgrading the M&P M2.0 for CCW

Last month I did a review on the Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 Compact.  I bought the gun back in June, almost as much out of nostalgia and curiosity than any other reason.  I ended up liking more than I thought I would and decided I’d make it a couple of minor customizations to the gun to make it ideal for concealed carry.  To that end, I purchased a set of TruGlo TFX Pro sights for the M&P 2.0 Compact, and I bought the Apex Tactical Action Enhancement Duty/Carry Trigger kit for the M&P 2.0:

I picked the TruGlo sights because I had the opportunity to see them on a friend’s full-size M&P 2.0 where they are offered as an option straight from S&W.  My complaint about night sights has always been that they aren’t as easy to see/pick up to my eyes as regular, non-luminescent sights in well-lit conditions.  The Trijicon HD night sights on my M&P Shield are a great example – sure, they’re great when the lights go out, but I can’t pick them up as easily in bright lights as regular white painted iron sights.  A notable exception this problem (for me) are SIG Sauer X-Ray sights (first seen on the Legion series of handguns) – I think they’re equally easy to pick up in any lighting condition.  My friend’s M&P 2.0 with the TruGlo TFX Pro sights was the first set of “night sights” I’d ever tried that I thought provided as good (or better) of a daylight shooting experience as they did in low-light.  That’s because they use a combination of both fiber optics and tritium tubes to create a high visibility, high contrast sight picture in any lighting condition.  Here’s how they look in bright light:

Low-light:

I’ve seen complaints online that the tritium tubes aren’t quite bright enough in “twilight” conditions where there’s enough ambient light to effectually neutralize the glow of the tritium tubes, but not enough to make the fiber optic visible.  That’s a VERY specific, narrow level of ambient light that apparently I couldn’t duplicate because I never had the problem in the various light conditions in which I tested the TFX Pros.

The problem I did have with the TruGlo TFX Pro sights is their “Combat Hold” – all my shots were 1-2 inches below the intended point of impact.  I’m used to lining up my iron sights with “equal height, equal light” with the dot of the front sight square in the middle of my intended point of impact.  That’s how all my other iron sight guns line up, and I’m also used to putting the red dot of my optic equipped pistols right where I want the bullet to go.  A Combat Hold requires you either aim at a point higher than where you actually intend to your point of impact to be, or you have to hold with your front sight raised up slightly relative to your reach sights.  Again, all my other pistols with iron sights don’t line up this way.  And even if this was my only gun with iron sights, I’d still think a “combat hold” is stupid.  I mean, OK… for a defensive/CCW pistol, an inch or so low probably still qualifies as being “combat accurate.”  Particularly at the close range you’re likely to be in a defensive shooting.  But still…

Another problem I have with the TruGlo TFX Pro sights is the lack of a “shelf” on the back of the rear sights which affords the opportunity to rack your slide off your belt or shoe in the event you can’t use your support hand to rack your slide.  I guess I just took it for granted that all modern sights were designed in this way…but the TruGlow TFX Pro sights aren’t.

With regard to the Apex trigger kit I purchased, I was similarly disappointed.  When I first got serious about concealed carry and shooting, I carried a S&W M&P 9c – the first generation precursor to the current M2.0 Compact, and I installed the Apex Tactical FSS trigger on the gun. To this day I think it’s the nicest trigger I’ve felt on a striker fired pistol.  So you can imagine my surprise when I got my M&P M2.0 back from my local gun smith with the Apex Action Enhancement kit, and I really couldn’t tell much of a difference between the Apex trigger pull, and the stock trigger pull.  When I got the pistol home, I measure the pull weight and found out the newly installed Apex trigger was actually (marginally) heavier than the stock M&P 2.0 trigger:

Here’s the measurement I ran on the stock trigger last month:

To be fair, after I live fired about 300 rounds through it, and dry fired quite a bit more, for giggles I re-tested the trigger weight – it had dropped down to just under six lbs., or about the same as the stock trigger test I ran.  So I can see the trigger pull weight reducing to about 5.5lbs or perhaps even less with continued use and wear.  But the trigger also exhibited a take up that felt even longer than the stock trigger.  From one perspective, this pull weight ~ six lbs. isn’t necessarily bad.  It really doesn’t feel that heavy – I re-ran the test several times because I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the trigger gauge.  Doing further research online, it appears as though you can actually reduce the Apex trigger pull weight by NOT installing the included in the kit Apex springs – apparently it will pull lighter with stock S&W springs…which makes no sense to me.  So unless you positively can’t stand the feel or aesthetic of the stock M&P polymer trigger (like me) I can’t really recommend the Action Enhancement Duty/Carry trigger – there’s simply not enough of an improvement over the stock M&P 2.0 trigger (which to be fair is pretty great).

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Both of the upgrades I made (trigger and sights) didn’t go entirely as planned.  So what now?

In terms of the sights, I could just seek out a different set of iron sights for the M&P, but I think I’ve come up with a better idea.  I recently ordered a Trijicon RMR “Type 2” 3.5moa for my SIG P320 Compact that’s been milled to accept the Trijicon RMR.  Right now it has the Type 1 (previous generation) but I was curious to try the Type 2 and placed an order.  I’m thinking the Type 1 would be a great addition to my M&P M2.0.  So stay tuned for more on this front.

In terms of the trigger, I wrestled with whether or not I wanted to change out the APEX Duty/Carry trigger and put in the APEX FSS.  For now, I’ll put the stock S&W springs back in the gun, and see how I like it.  I have a sneaking suspicion that S&W will release an FDE version of the M&P 2.0 Compact at SHOT Show this year.  If so, I’ll snag one and probably put an FSS trigger kit in that one.

Ultimately, I do like the M&P M2.0 quite a bit and am willing to do a little trial and error to get one just the way I like it.  So look for a “Part 2” to this article soon.