Congrats on the new CS45.
They were generally considered a real sleeper in the world of .45 shooters.
Yours appears to be from the later part of the production period, as it has steel sights, an ambi-safety/decocker and the newer slide which didn't require the angled relief cut under the ambi lever for removal of the safety/decocking assembly. (Mine was from an earlier production period, and came with the plastic sights & single-sided safety/decocker. I had to have the right side of the slide filed & cut by hand to make clearance for adding an ambi lever when I installed the spring-loaded decock-only assembly, so the ambi lever could be removed during disassembly of the slide.)
Having extra recoil springs on-hand isn't a bad idea if you plan on doing a lot of shooting. The spring for the CS45 is painted green (the CS9 is red) and can be bought from S&W for about $3.26/ea (plus shipping, etc). While the armorer class gives armorers the same recommendation for recoil & mag spring replacement in the CS series as in the other 3rd gen guns (meaning every 5 years or every 5,000 rounds), I prefer to lean toward sooner replacement because of the increased slide velocities and the short single flat-wound recoil spring. I typically replace mine either every year or so, or every 800-1200 rounds, give or take. (I know folks who have gone longer, even beyond the factory recommendations, but I'm a bit more conservative when it comes to really small pistols that are subjected to stiff recoil forces.
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The newer guide rods have been coming with the steel plunger instead of the black plastic one, but I don't really have a preference one way or the other. The plastic plunger's tip can get a bit chewed up a bit with frequent field-stripping, while the steel plunger's tip may get a rolled edge that may eventually require very cautious dressing. I've used both.
The magazines for the CS45 are specific to that model in that the magazine body has a set of extra indentations to the rear and bottom of the standard pressed lip indentations. They're put there for a reason, which is to help prevent the top round from being displaced out from under the feed lips by the little gun's heavier recoil (compared to the heavier 457/4516/4513TSW/4566TSW's, etc). They make the mag a little harder to load (and manually unload). However, they also seem to do their job of providing extra resistance to the rise of rounds between them during live-fire, balancing the actual recoil forces and mag spring tension against their resistance to provide optimal feeding timing during live-fire.
(BTW, the black followers, springs, butt plates & butt plate catch assemblies are the same across all the 3rd gen .45 mags. It's just the actual mag body that's made differently for the CS45.)
Something to keep in mind is that as with virtually all the other really reduced size .45's out there, shooting the CS45 is best done with good grip technique, meaning a firm grip and a locked wrist. I've seen an occasional shooter unintentionally relax their grip, or allow their wrist lock to "break" at the wrong moment, and induce a feeding stoppage. (I prefer to call it a grip support/stability issue instead of "limp-wristing", since it can happen to even big, strong men.
) That said, I've even had it happen to me when I was rushing things and got distracted over the years.
I tend to like shooting 230gr loads in mine. When I was first discussing the then-new CS45 with someone from the factory many years ago, I was told they'd used 230gr loads for all of their in-house testing when developing the gun. When I asked why they chose that bullet weight, and hadn't used +P loads, I was told their earlier marketing surveys (and info from the major ammunition companies regarding sales) indicated the 230gr load was far and away the most common choice of .45 shooters, so they used it for their R&D.
The gentleman was curious how my own CS45 did when using +P loads, since they hadn't been using it back then during development. I've run 185gr +P and 200gr +P through my own CS45, but I decided against using the +P loads for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the +P loads produced noticeably more felt recoil in the little lightweight gun. More than when shooting my 4513TSW. That required some additional focus on recoil management & controllability, especially during rapid shot strings for demanding courses-of-fire. I liked the better controllability (in my hands) of the standard pressure 230gr loads.
Secondly, the increased slide velocities seem to change the timing of the slide's cycling in my hands. Faster cycling (of course). Since smaller .45's are already sometimes prone to be a bit less tolerant of shooter & ammunition issues, I decided I didn't want to introduce any further potential conditions that might have an adverse influence on optimal feeding.
I stopped worrying about whether the 230gr bullets might expand when fired from the short 3.25" barrel after I loaned my CS45 to some testing done several years ago at one of the factory mobile gel events. They used my gun to fire a couple rounds of standard pressure and a +P SXT/T-series into a gel block covered by 4 layers of denim. Now, there's certainly no guarantee that any bullet will ever expand when fired out of any particular gun into any particular target medium ... or more rounds fired out of my gun on different days into different gel blocks might do the same thing ... but the newer bullet designs do seem to have generally benefited from LE/Gov demands for better performing rounds. The following pics are of the T-series rounds fired from my CS45. You guess which is which ...
The standard pressure round did 802fps/13"pen/.76" exp and weighed 234.3gr
The +P round did 839fps/12"/.77" & 235.2gr
I'm one of the folks who happens to like the thick and chunky Hogue grips. Yes, they can stick to clothing. (But I learned to deal with that back in the days when I was using rubber grip stocks on my revolvers.
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Yes, they feel a bit unwieldy in my hands when just standing "on the line" holding the gun.
However, once I start shooting ... they do their job and the gun doesn't shift, slip or move in my hands. They also don't seem to lose their grip when my hands are sweaty or really wet, either. (I like the slightly smaller version of the Hogues on my CS9, FWIW, as it exactly fits my hand.) Suit yourself.
Sights are a personal preference. I've tried some different ones over the years. The standard Novak Low Mount 3-dot sights do allow for some good practical accuracy. Anything else is a matter of personal preference, experience and whatever whim may be involved. Again, suit yourself.
Okay, those are some of my thoughts and experiences. I'm certainly not an expert on them, but I've owned one for several years and have been doing a fair amount of shooting with it. Having been a S&W 3rd gen pistol armorer for a while, I have a lot of respect for the 3rd gen guns in general, and the CS series in particular.
I could ramble on about other stuff, but you probably get the gist of my thoughts about them.
Congrats again.
