Nothing pisses me off more than getting a new pistol shipped from the factory with a crappy trigger. To wit, my new S&W M&P45c. I picked this gun up because the Sheriff’s Office I work for mandates we carry a .40 or .45. Unfortunately, when I moved back to Montana, I only had 9’s, 10’s and 357’s. The M&P fits me perfectly and fills a dual niche of duty carry and concealed carry. It sports graceful good looks that make my Glocks envious, all in a nice “man-sized” caliber (as my sergeant would call it.) Despite everything I like about this gun, the stock trigger was gritty, came with an advertised 7 lb. pull weight and had no noticeable reset. Obviously this would never do.

Anyone who knows anything about M&Ps knows that Apex Tactical is the bee’s knees when it comes to tricking out the internals of these guns. So I jumped on their website to see if there was a simple, do-it-yourself fix for this trigger. It didn’t take me long to stumble upon their 45 M&P hard sear. Apex claims that the replacement sear, “will not only improve the over-travel and sear reset characteristics, but dramatically reduce the trigger pull weight in most pistols.” Challenge accepted Apex; I threw down $40 and waited patiently by the mailbox.

A few days later, a rather large envelope containing a rather small piece of metal arrived. I dutifully set out to determine just how the hell to install this particular piece. Luckily I didn’t have to go far to find this how to video from Randy Lee of Apex Tactical on how to install their hard sear. Following the instructions in the video, I easily replaced the stock sear with the new one. Randy makes getting the gun put back together look a little easier than it really is, but to be fair, it was the first time I had taken an M&P apart.

With everything functioning properly I tested out the new trigger while dry firing. Let’s just say this: if anything Apex was underselling themselves with their description of the sear. While the initial grittiness was still there (I’m told the Apex Ultimate Striker Block eliminates that problem) the take up, trigger pull and reset had gone from ugly duckling to swan.

The trigger weight’s noticeably lighter, over travel and reset is shorter and there was a positive click every time the sear re-engages. Basically, everything I want in a trigger has been achieved in a less-than-fifteen-minute project you can do with a hammer and a punch. Which begs the question: why the hell isn’t Smith and Wesson just installing these things in their pistols before they leave the factory?