After a lengthy back order I received my new full size M&P 45 yesterday.

The Good: It is extremely accurate right out of the box. My groups were tight from 5, 10 and 20 yards and equal to or better than what I get from my Sigs. I fired 150 rounds of 230gr Lawman and 100 rounds of 230gr Gold Dot. Everything cycled perfectly and there were no failures of any kind. I was very pleased with performance and accuracy. The recoil was very mild and I would compare it to what I feel with my P226-9. It was absolutely not snappy at all.


The Bad: The take up of the slack on the trigger feels very gritty. Though I don't have a tool for measuring the trigger it felt like it broke at 9 or 10 lb. rather than the 6 lb. stated in the specs. It was also hard to predict the break. After the range session the pad on my finger was sore. I guess I'll have to work on the trigger.

The Ugly: It was the dirtiest new pistol I have ever bought. It was caked with carbon and it looked like they must have put a hundred or more rounds through it at the factory and didn't even wipe it down. The inside of the barrel was black. It did clean up ok though. Also the finish was very poor. The frame has a blotchy look in places that look like uneven oil but is not. Even the texture of the finish of the frame is uneven and gives it a worn look. One of the white dots on the rear sight is poorly painted and is almost grey. I painted over them with high viz orange paint so I guess that's ok.

Over all I am very disappointed that Smith would let a pistol that looks like this out of the factory. I guess I'll keep it and work with it because I like the accuracy and the smooth and easy recoil.

odd that it would be dirty... maybe your LGS sent some rounds down range with it which is why the wait was so long....

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-Scott James

The bad we can fix, but the ugly just aint' right. Out of curiosity, what is the date on the spent cartridge envelope?

BTW congrats on the new .45

Did your LGS shoot it any before giving it to you?

Born on 8/28/12

It's possible but I know the owner pretty well. I would think probably not. I'm thinking there may have been some issues they had to work out and kept firing it and didn't wipe it down.

i too got a dirty gun, a nib sd9ve at academy sports. i checked it in when it came in, i work there. when i got home the first thing i did was field strip it. guys this gun look like it was shoot for days. it took me about 30 min. to clean. so i called cs to find out why it came this way. i was told they wanted me to know it was well shoot and in working order. o k I said, how much do you shoot it to check it out . at least 2 mags , more if it has a problem. outside looked great and shoot great. why they didn't clean it, don't know.

This is why we put in apex parts in our M&P's.

Doesn't sound exactly right to me. S&W can do better than that...hmmm.

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Lt. Dan, what R U doing here?

I also purchased a new s&w not an m&p but a e-series 1911. it was so dirty it took about an hour to make it look new. I was not happy about it so I call s&w they said the same thing "test and tune" and yes the 1911 is the best gun I've ever shoot

You know, this is getting old, why cant they Make right the first time. You want to buy it , so clean it.

I'll take putting a little elbow grease into cleaning it right out of the box for the best gun I've ever shot.