Help: New M&P 9 Spitting brass in face?

[Buckaroo]

My wife just picked up her first pistol: a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm full size. She has been very excited to shoot it. She loves shooting my XD-40, but prefers the grip on the M&P and wanted a slightly smaller caliber.

Yesterday was our first trip to the range. Her first round spit the casing right into her glasses! Kind of a shock, but the third round went down her shirt and actually gave her a slight burn. She had several hit her, including a second down her shirt. I put a mag through it and had several hit my hat and even LEFT shoulder!

The local Firearms trainer happened to be at the range and I asked him. He suggested she work on a firmer grip and put at least 500 rds through to break it in.

Is this normal for a new M&P? Is there a break-in? Will it mellow out and spit brass to the right? Does her grip affect ejection that much? (if so, maybe I need to work on mine!)

She was really looking forward to hitting the range with her own firearm, but after her first trip, she's very disappointed and actually worried about hot brass hitting her every time she shoots.

Any help from M&P users would be very helpful.

[AKC]

So the casings are ejecting straight back instead of to the side?

Often times at the range its usually just the case bouncing of the side wall.

The ejector may need tuning?

[bruce21b]

it it were a glock i would say throw it in the nearest pond and buy another brand gun until glock gets their crap fixed with the ejection issues......

but since its an MP, my guess is her grip........yes, a less than solid grip can cause some reliability issues including fail to feed and erratic ejection...

oh, wait, i just saw where YOU shot it and was ejecting erraticly...

as long as your grip was firm that should not be happening unless something is wrong with the extractor/ejector.........

MP's dont need "break in" periods......i would give it one more range trip and a box of 50.......if it still does it with you shooting it???

time to call smith and wesson

[AKC]

Maybe have her practice dry fire with some snap caps. Thumbs forward grip. Research the grip.

Lots and lots of dry fire practice.

Then go back to the range and randomly load snap caps in the mag and see what happens.

And when she shoots. She should have a good slightly crotched athletic stance. Knees slightly bent, leaning forward a little. Good firm grip and trigger control.

I see a lot of new shooters leaning back with a poor grip and it can induce problems.

[CavScout88]

My XD9 used to bounce brass of the top of my head and forehead. It stopped after a little while though. I'd say just break it in, or maybe Apex has an ejector? With that, don't say "it's sad I need to buy after market stuff to make it run" because from what I hear, the more Apex into your M&P (or any pistol) the better. I;m having an Apex trigger kit put in mine.

My PF9 would throw a casing 20ft front right, then over and behind you 2ft, then 5ft right, then 3ft left, then 30ft right, then at your feet, etc. Would need a 40x40 tarp to make brass pickup easy.

[Minkman555]

Glocktalk.com can help you with your G19

[Brickboy240]

I have never heard of an M&P doing that.

I have a 3rd gen G19 that does it 2-4 times per mag. Currently trying to fix it and nope...the much vaunted Apex extractor did NOT fix my problems. BEYOND annoying.

-brickboy240

[JBubbs]

glockglockglockglockglockglockglock, not really helping the OP. I'd call S&W and have them check it on their dime.

[Brickboy240]

Well...HELLO...shouldn't that be obvious?

Especially since S&W is known for great customer service and a lifetime warranty on their goods.

-brickboy240

[Poneill.45]

I would say it needs to go to S&W. The only thing that needed break in was the trigger on my mp40.