I know the 52 is popular as a centerfire choice in bullseye shooting but has anyone ever done well with any S&W non 1911 .45?

I use a 845, prefer it over the 945. I also use a PPC9 and Briley PC5906 in centerfire.

I ask because I tend to be contrary. I like to be a bit different. Bullseye shooters seem to be tried and true bunch. Not a lot of experimentation.

I have a model 41 and shooting all Smith would be cool.

How do the 645, 745, 845 compare grip wise? I have small hands.

The stock grips on those models are not very large, I don't have big hands and I switched to the larger Hogue rubber grips on my 845. The trigger will kill you on the 645, the 745 has a great trigger but I've had both good and poor shooters of them. The 845 is harder to come by because of the limited runs of like 500 & 150 but are great shooters, they are based on the 4500 series guns.

Given that bullseye shooters are almost all tinkerers, and that they shoot enough that they need to adjust/rebuild/improve their guns on a fairly routine basis, I think they all gravitate to the 1911 because the expense is less, the guns, parts, and associated technology are all readily available, and the results are very good - not so much because they don't like to experiment. I assure you, they experiment - and if any particular handgun produced an advantage, even a small one, they would be on it.

I don't know a lot of competitive bullseye shooters, but I rarely see any one using S&W autos (including 52s) in the major competitions I read about. Everyone who shoots big scores, and those who want to, seem to do it in the simplest, most direct way possible.