I looked at the mid-size gun too, but ended up buying a full-size. They're both nice guns, but since I didn't anticipate carrying the gun, the longer gun appealed to me. My gun was ordered with night sights. Unfortunately, it shoots a bit high for me, with 230-gr. loads, but I would rather have it shoot a bit high than a bit low. With 200s or 185s, it might be right on.

I always hesitate to talk about recoil here since I feel like a big sissy when I hear how fond everyone on the revolver forum is of their 4-inch (or shorter ) 44 Magnums, but I think the M&P45 is pretty soft-shooting - actually more so than a 1911, if not quite as soft as the world-champion soft-shooting .45, the 4506. It is definitely more enjoyable than the M&P40, which, with racy loads, is downright bouncy.

My gun seems to have a rather tight chamber. One of my handloads using a cast bullet that every other .45 I own feeds and shoot just fine absolutely will not work in the M&P. But it can't be faulted for accuracy. My gun has a rather gritty trigger, but even so, I can cover most of my shots at 25 yards with my hand, which is better than I normally shoot a striker-fired pistol. With the large backstrap in place, I like the gun a lot. I need to do a bit more testing with it, but it is about to get put on nightstand duty, if it continues to behave properly.