New S&W M/P, southpaw's perspective

[Rob1035]

I checked out the new M&P pistol from Smith today in my local shop, and figured I'd give ya'll a few impressions.

grip- the grip felt OK, not great, maybe good, definitely OK. I only tried the medium rear panel (comes with three, S, M, and L), so that might be part of the issue.

controls- this gun is supposed to be pretty ambidextreous, but I found it to be less than perfect. The slide release (lock, whatever you want to call it), which is on both sides, is so flat that I couldn't operate it with either my trigger finger (like I do on my glock) or my thumb, so that's no good. The mag release was fine for me, as I'm used to a traditional mag release. Thats really all it has for controls.

trigger- I'm not impressed. Its better than a stock glock, sort of. It really feels like an enhanced 9VE trigger, not quite as long, not nearly as heavy, but it still has the mushy and weird feeling hinged trigger deal.

mag safety- i hate these with a passion, so i'm biased, but i think they suck.

Overall, its an interesting gun, shooting one will be the true test I suppose, but its always nice to have options.

[sheepdog]

I am a bit disappointed to hear about the trigger, I was sort of hoping for something good. I may be back looking at XDs now. As to the slide release, I believe that they intend for or expect more people to use them as slide stops only, releasing the slide by the "slingshot" method. That is just a guess, but look at the Glock shooters. I don't like that method, but many do.