Just took possession of a NIB M&P 2.0 Shield EZ 9mm. Looking forward to learning to shoot.

Handguns are harder to learn to shoot well. Not a very long sight radius, and of course hand held. Practice, practice. Start out with some lower velocity loads. Grip and sight alignment are the key.

Congratulations. Nine millimeter Luger is nice to own because you can save a lot on practice ammo by using LVE, Tula or Barnaul.

If I may ask, are there good tutorials online for proper grip? I am LH and notice when I bring my right hand in to support my left hand it feels strange with the right palm area covering the left thumb. I am spending time with the firearm and the owner's manual before taking it to live fire.

Get some training from someone in your area that knows what they are doing, not just someones that says they know what they are doing. If you have any local competitions you can likely find someone there willing to help a newb. Short of that try the NRA, some instructors know their stuff some don't. If you can get hold of one of the NRA booklets they are pretty good for explaining grip, stance, breathing, follow through, trigger control and aiming.

If your support hand palm is over your firing hand thumb, your grip is wrong from the start. Don't develop bad habits then have to fight to correct them. Trust me, it's much easier to start with good habits. Been there, done that and still fight bad habits from time to time.

Also, consider picking up a .22 rimfire. Easier to learn with because there isn't near as much recoil and noise to deal with and has the added advantage of being even cheaper to shoot. From time to time I'll find myself fighting a flinch, usually after shooting a bunch of stout loads with fairly heavy recoil and blast. A session or two with one of the rimfires will straighten me out.

Don't overlook the importance of dry fire practice. Get yourself some snap caps and just 15 minutes every night can quickly make a huge difference. Without the distraction of noise and muzzle blast it is much easier to concentrate on the fundamentals.

Hope this helps some.

Definitely. Snap caps for a pistol? Does one load a full magazine or just a couple?

If you purchase the book “The Perfect Pistol Shot” I’m confident you will quickly become a more accurate shooter. Be patient, handguns take time to master.

Congrats on your new handgun!

I load up a full mag of snap caps for my EZ 9. Great practice for trigger control- with no recoil, you can see clearly if your trigger pull is straight back, or pulling you off target.
Just focus on a target, squeeze off a shot, rack the slide, repeat. Great practice

Range time with an expert is the best. Another good book is U.S. Army Combat Pistol Training Manual.

Good point.

Here is a question: I have been shooting the gun quite a bit. At 7 yards, no matter what I do when I hold the sight on the bulls eye I am 6 inches low. Operator error? Sights need to be different? Thoughts? Thanks.

try a load with a heavier bullet and lower muzzle velocity.

Yes, a heavier bullet has been going higher for my new CZ during it’s break in period. I’ve been shooting any 9mm stuff that I can get my hands on and shooting at 10 yards. The 115’s go low, the 124’s go a bit higher and the 147’s go point of aim. Not that there won’t be a new set of better sights in my future, but for now it is mostly finding 115’s and living with 3” low.

Carefully fire a magazine from a rested position with the top of the front and rear sight on the same plane. At seven yards you'll quickly find out which one of you has an issue.

S&W M&P-series all use combat sights. I don't know why.
You need to learn to place the front dot where you want the bullet to hit. Do that and it will magically stop shooting low.

Of course if you really mean "low and right", then you need to work on your trigger stroke (for a southpaw).

Bullets are landing below the bull just 6 inches low. 115 grain fmj.

This is one of the most common "problems" reported by new shooters of S&W pistols. It is made worse by all the self proclaimed "experts" on forums. The following is what your sight picture should look like:

That is exactly what I'm seeing when I aim the gun. Just like that and they are all hitting at bottom of the target at 7 yards.

Has nothing to do with S&W pistols.

You are anticipating recoil and dropping the muzzle.This is more common than the cold for new handgun shooters.

You must learn to keep the sights aligned until after the recoil, not until just before recoil, follow through.

Poor choice for what I'm assuming is your first handgun. Your LGS should have advised you otherwise if in fact that was your point of purchase

Ammo isn't cheap my friend,

Great info. I'll keep.working.on it and will look for an NRA certified instructor.

So, we're looking at two questions:

1. How well does the gun shoot?
2. How well do you shoot?

Answer those questions in order. Find out how well the gun shoots first. If you are new to handgun shooting, have a proficient shooter shoot your gun. Somebody you trust when they say, "I can shoot your gun at 7 yards, and wherever the bullets go, that's where your gun shoots." At 21 feet, from a rest, 5 shots should be touching or at least darn close. The answer to this question might shed a lot of light on the answer to question #2.

As for instruction, look further than simply NRA credentials. NRA instructor credentials are basically sold, not earned. (I know, because years ago I bought some). If you have the money for the class and can hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle, you'll pass and be ordained as a NRA Certified Pistol Instructor. I am not criticizing such credentials, but they only cover the most basic principles of safe gun handling a marksmanship. Such credentials do NOT qualify the person to diagnose and remedy flaws in technique. I am certainly NOT saying that all NRA instructors are incompetent; I am saying that if your NRA instructor is awesome, it wasn't the NRA instructor class that made him that way.

I do wish you all the best! (And, hey, if your gun truly is shooting low, that's an easier fix than if it's shooting high. So at least you've got that going for you!)

Bluefish I would shoot that pistol with your hands/wrists rested and determine whether it was me or the sights. Form your description it is shooting way low, particularly at the short distance involved.

I think you are correct. Usually I see noobs yanking the trigger - so lefties going low and right. But given what this person has described, I think they anticipating the recoil.
The Shield is not the best gun for new shooters.

After shooting one (friend's gun) a few times I have to agree.

Buying a 22lr revolver with adjustable sights at this point would not be an entirely bad idea. Consider parting company with the Shield

My 2 cents.

Move closer to the target. Handguns are short range firearms. Never no need to be farther than 3 or 4 yards from the target. That way you wont see your bad habits as much and you will be able to hit a big target easier.
This what I do.

Get training from a professional, keep the gun, and get a 22 to shoot shoot shoot. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

I was helped by this one:

That guy has more mouth than ten people and wonder how long he had to practice those hand gestures to make that video. He must have went to the same hand gesture school that Nancy Pelosi went to.
He is painful to watch.

That's fugkin' brilliant.

You do not need snap caps for the EZ.

I recommend you not use them actually.

Size of the group?

Since the subject of zeroing fixed sights keeps popping up, here's a note from Bill Laughridge of Cylinder& Slide on the topic, Worth a read.

https://cylinder-slide.com/PDFarticles/Fixing-Sights-Zeroing.pdf

It's very common for many new shooters (and some not so new), to subconsciously anticipate the recoil and push into it, driving the muzzle down. Low hits.

Your EZ is a fine choice.

S&W put a lot of design into that pistol to make it ergonomic and user friendly for folks who are not 'gun people'.

You finally got a video.....and now all you want to do is complain, complain, complain...….grin

I only started shooting handguns around 2 years ago and I'm still far from experienced in the matter, but I found the videos by Paul Harrell on the topic very helpful.
He explains grip, stance and all the other essentials well and in a no-nonsense manner with a little bit of dry humour sprinkled in.
It even made learning on a .44 Mag Colt Anaconda (had no other gun to train with at the time) a fun and relatively simple affair.
Here, I put them in a YouTube playlist for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCR...MfWpad5FbrzzQg7REx0&index=2&t=0s

you started with a 44? I can't imagine THAT learning curve.

Wahoo and McDaniels and glory to all of you. I am sure you have satisfied the OP's question with your Illuminated help. A sincere thank you and a grand and glorious day, evening and night to all of you involved.

Congrats on your purchase. I bought a standard 9mm Shield in April 2019. Price, around $300 and usable for civilian ccw were the main reasons I bought it. At first I couldn't shoot it near as well as my heavier, longer barreled handguns but the more I shoot it the better I shoot it. You've gotten some good advice here from some handgun shooters that are more knowledgeable than me. Use what works for you and keep shooting, you'll figure it out.

All I can say about the Shield is it's not a target pistol but it's easy to conceal and mine has been dead reliable, never malfunctioned in over 1500 rounds. At what I consider civilian ccw distance, inside ten yards mine's plenty accurate. S&W's been making handguns for a long time. For what this gun was designed for IMO they did a pretty good job.