Intro
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good morning my name is Seth i spent
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over a decade in special operations and
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I'm Tyler i spent over a decade in
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special operations and at the Army
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marksmanship chip unit and today we are
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going to evaluate the Smith and Wesson
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M&P 2.0 Ed Brown Fueled series at the
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We'll do a range day and then come back
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and chat about it and as a comparison we
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have a bone stock M&P 2.0 you know uh as
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a standard
Range Day
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i can see why Ed Brown chose Smith and
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Wesson for their
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canvas the the the brake and the reset
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and everything is a good base to start
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with but this thing this thing this this
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one's a whole another level but that's
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just my take on this stock one the the
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the trigger feels like plastic on
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plastic kids toy yep
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i see what they were trying to do i feel
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like I mean they're trying to keep a
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certain price point for sure so the
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materials aren't going to
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be without
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compromise this is the stock M&P
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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2.0 still relatively accurate yeah it's
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pretty accurate
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[Music]
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[Music]
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that's about 1 inish at 10 m
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now some of this is going to be the
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product of being a with a dot on there
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[Music]
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but that's about a/ inch tighter group
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at 10 m on a five round group
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[Music]
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[Music]
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should I do the same thing with that one
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yeah see if you notice any recoil
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difference cuz to me just the only
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difference is going to be less mass on
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this one than that one by probably not a
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whole lot but you might notice it okay
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notice anything i felt like this one
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recoiled slightly better
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felt like it it handled better maybe
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with the increased weight it keeps the
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muzzle from rising as snappy
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[Applause]
3:16
[Applause]
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i see what you mean so I think the the
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less reciprocating mass gives a more
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snappy recoil i think it returns faster
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because there's less momentum that you
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have to bring back down so I think it's
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probably just a shooter preference of
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how you like to do that plus whatever
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load you're shooting cuz if you're
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shooting competitions they're going to
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be loading them down as much as they can
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but still meeting the power factor they
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have to i felt like there was a slight
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difference this one stayed on target
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slightly better yeah yeah which is
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probably better suited to like
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Winchester White
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Box interesting that's not even a whole
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lot of weight they cut out of this but
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it's definitely noticeable
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dude wait till you try this in
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comparison to the two Ed Brown
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[Music]
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guns yeah i mean it still runs good for
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a little gun but there's you got a
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holder down yeah so we spent about an
Gear Review and Performance Breakdown
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hour long range session with these guns
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and
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uh I've got to say this Ed Brown version
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of this Smith and Wesson M&P is above
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and beyond what I expected it's hands
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down the best striker fire gun I've ever
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touched um couple of the features that
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stood out the most to me were the
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trigger for one that's the best striker
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fired trigger I've ever touched the uh
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accuracy was enhanced above and beyond a
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stock M&P as would be expected with a an
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Ed Brown product and then the lock up
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between the slide and the frame was way
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better than any stock striker fired gun
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because they went in and remachineed or
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machined new pieces in there that slide
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on the uh have the rails of the slide um
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reciprocate on um
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ergonomics
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are the same as a a Smith and Wesson M&P
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but better because the frame is aluminum
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the grip panels are uh have a more
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aggressive
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texture and the slide cuts
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were I think just right as far as
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aggressiveness and not being too
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um too textured where it was hanging up
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on a holster or your clothing or
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anything like that
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yeah we didn't have an opportunity to
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test on different holsters but I do
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think I I agree with you the the
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tolerances typically historically I've
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been a bolt gun guy
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and this the tolerances on this upper
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mating up to the lower it feels custom
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for sure compared to most stock pistols
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that I've shot and used it uh I do agree
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with you that the the trigger was a an
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upgrade they they clearly started with
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a good frame to begin with i did like
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this stock in 2.0
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um but this Ed Brown version clearly has
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a an upgraded trigger and it
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uh it it the accuracy even at you know
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that minimal distance at 10 m a half
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inch shot 2in groups and it was a/ inch
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better with the Ed Brown same ammunition
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same distance same it
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uh
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clearly you're you're upgrading yeah for
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sure i mean like if you were going to
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choose
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a full-size duty
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pistol for anything whether it's
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protecting your own house or if you were
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using this professionally like this is
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the one I would choose hands down it's
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like Ed Brown learned a whole lot about
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their 1911 engineering and brought it to
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a striker fired platform with all of the
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best features that they know how to do
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so this isn't shocking that Ed Brown
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made a really awesome M&P but it's a
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treat to shoot that's for sure and
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surprisingly I didn't
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notice much of any of a weight
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difference the Ed
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Brown has a larger grip
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feels solid in the hand and did not have
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a noticeable weight difference between
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the standard M 2.0 mhm and the slide on
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the Ed Brown is like roughly an eighth
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of an inch longer it has an aluminum
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frame versus a polymer on the stock one
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it has magwell it's got an optic on it
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it's got a threaded barrel so there's an
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additional half inch of of steel there
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and it's still an iniccernable
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difference in weight between the polymer
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frame stock M&P and the uh Fueled series
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so obviously there's a price difference
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between these two but I feel after all
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of the things that Ed Brown's done to
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this gun I mean from the match grade
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barrel to the match grade trigger new
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sights
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uh better grips texture aluminum frame I
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mean custom
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extractor it's I think still a great
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value at right around $2,000 without an
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opic like I would pay 3,000 for this
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without an opic yeah i mean quality they
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did i I think they started with the
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right frame i've got a multitude of
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pistols and this Smith and Wesson M2.0
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is a is a good pistol mhm i mean they
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put the proper materials into it but you
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are getting upgrades with this pistol
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from everything you mentioned you know
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to include the uh retextured grips the
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extended uh
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magwell
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the optic is clearly uh it's an upgrade
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and you're getting what you pay for for
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sure yeah yeah i mean you and I both
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grew up in the army trusting cheap black
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guns and they did their job most of the
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time most of the time but we just we
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went to the range and fired 300 rounds
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through these pistols and never had a
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single failure to feed misfire failure
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to eject slide lock reload zero issues i
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mean that's a product also of the like
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the extreme
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uh fine machining for like the feed ramp
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the extractor the chamber all of that
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stuff all come all builds into the
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reliability of this gun
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and you know I have I have a
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uh I have a love for cheap black pistols
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but because it's a safety blanket that
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I've grown to trust but these things are
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the best version of that kind of gun for
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sure so I'm happy Ed Brown actually put
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their put their brain power and
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engineers on enhancing a striker fired
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pistol to their level yeah I agree with
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you and it when you pick up this pistol
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uh it is built solid and ready for abuse
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mhm you know from the aluminum frame to
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the milled steel upper it feels like
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it's it's
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ready ready to be used hard yeah I like
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it yeah I would have confidence in this
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gun for sure and while you're getting a
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you know on face value this is a Smith
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and Wesson M&P this is a whole another
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animal and so whether you like a stock
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M&P or not you should evaluate this one
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as like a completely separate gun from
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the line of products that Smith and
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Wesson puts out themselves the
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combination of all of these
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modifications and new parts that Ed
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Brown has put into this is greater than
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the sum of their parts so it's a whole
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new whole new animal compared to a stock
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M&P and you know what's interesting
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about these is the level of quality
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brought to a like a combat pistol
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essentially is the level of guns twice
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this price that Ed Brown puts out so
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it's got essentially matchgrade quality
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parts performance all in a tactical
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pistol which is kind of a rare thing
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absolutely i mean I was impressed even
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there was at the the level of detail
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that was put into almost every aspect of
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the pistol even when I disassembled it I
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noticed that there
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were slight arterial notches in the
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thread protector that somebody took the
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time to intentionally put that there you
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know they got a fluted barrel like
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they've put a lot of thought and
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attention to detail into
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producing this pro shop level pistol
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yeah and it's I mean usually in match
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grade pistols or any kind of gun the
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tolerances are so tight that your
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reliability goes down in order to
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achieve that kind of accuracy but that's
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not the case here this is a truly
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reliable combat pistol with matchgrade
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performance so having shot both of these
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what do you think about the trigger
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impressed my initial reaction was well
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this is what you would expect on a
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standard Mhm factory pistol mhm
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[Music]
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the smoothness and the the break on this
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Ed Brown pistol was what you would
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expect from a high-end pistol i I
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thought it was uh
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super you know it had a clean break i
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thought that you know you were able to
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run it quick had a great reset and it
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was fluid yep i like that on a striker
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fired gun you can still feel the reset
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on this trigger and it's crisp but it's
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not heavy it was not heavy no it's it's
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a really And there's almost no overt
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travel so they did a really good job
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working up the geometry on all these uh
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trigger parts
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yeah the reset was not aggressive but
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you were able to run it effectively mhm
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yeah your split times will be fast if
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you're running competitions with this
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thing uh so the exact pistols we have
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here today uh they're both the M&P
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Fueled series by Ed Brown but this is
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the
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uh the tactical version and that one
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there is the match version the only
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difference being the slide cut there's a
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void in this slide right here that
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allows for a little bit less
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reciprocating mass during recoil changes
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the balance of the pistol slightly um
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what I noticed in the performance
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difference between these two pistols is
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since there's a little bit more mass up
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front on this
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pistol it dulls the recoil of heavier
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bullets a little bit better and that one
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snaps a little bit harder but it resets
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quicker so it depends on what you are
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looking for as a shooter between the two
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but everything else is is the same it's
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got the the tread pattern fluted barrel
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that Ed Brown is famous for
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and like Ed Brown is known for their
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heirloom quality 1911s and a bunch of
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variations of them this is in my opinion
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the first heirloom quality striker gun
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I've known about so that's pretty cool
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so having shot quite a few of other of
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the other Ed Brown pistols like the
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1911s their aesthetics they have on
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those guns are fantastic and they've
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brought some of those
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um skills to this combat gun and while
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you know aesthetics are not the primary
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reason you would buy a combat gun it is
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somewhat important that attention to
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detail was was brought to this uh this
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pistol and I mean even down to the tread
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pattern fluted barrel i mean it's
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they've gone above and beyond in every
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category agreed you can tell that that
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like like I said before the the detail
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and the
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intentional upgrades that they've made
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to this pistol while you know it is at
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the end of the day shooter preference
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you know if you want to have a pro shop
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gun this is this is a very very good
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platform i I think it it looks good it
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shoots good it feels good um
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it's reliable i'm impressed
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yeah and then
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also on the Ed Brown website you can
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choose options of with or without an
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optic um their option for optic is a
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Trigicon RMR which is a great choice
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made in the USA as is everything that Ed
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Brown does and it's extremely rugged and
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reliable optic for this P platform and
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then Ed Brown has also paired it with I
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think the correct height iron sights so
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you can actually shoot the iron sights
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through the glass of the RMR without
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interfering with the dot so I think they
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did a great job with that
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the iron sights on this Ed Brown model
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are upgraded as well if you've got the
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financial capacity to buy one of these I
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think you'd be silly not to me
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personally I try not to buy a lot of the
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same thing i try to buy one thing that's
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really good whether it's vehicles
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chainsaws guns you name it this is
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something that I would invest in for a
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performance pistol yep and if I were to
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be asked by a friend to either confirm
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or deny a endorsement of this I would
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say they if they did not like it there's
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something wrong with
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them agreed
