I bounced around a bit in my early shooting years, but quickly became a serious 1911 guy for competition. When I entered law enforcement the 1911 wasn't an option… and I was required to use a Beretta 92FS. It wasn't my favorite, but it has become one of my favorites now. In 2009, Sig Classic Series in DA/SA 9mm/.45 were approved, and I bought a P229R, P220 (West German) and P226R. Absolutely loved them.
The only thing that moved me away from Sigs was a broken trigger finger that was acting up. I could only reliably pull a striker trigger, and the M&P had been approved so… that's how it went.
A lot of time has gone by since then (2011). I worked for a large full-time law enforcement firearm training unit. I did stuff and saw several thousand M&Ps (both 1.0 and 2.0), and hundreds if not thousands of Glocks in use. I saw lots of other pistols as well. I was part of individual pistol testing of over two thousand M&Ps alone for duty issue. (That was only a small percentage of the total number issued.)
1911s and Glocks were approved in 2016 and I have several Glocks, a bunch of Berettas, and a bunch of 1911s. The 1911 is my favorite pistol. I'm retired now and have no need to be politically correct regarding S&W successes and failures. I can cite several examples of both and probably will in other posts. I probably have in some older posts.
If I had to choose a pistol to fight today now with no information other than I'll have to fight to death with a pistol, I'd choose an M&P. Not a Glock. Not a 1911. The M&P isn't my favorite, but I trust it more than anything else, especially when I get to vet it myself.
The trigger isn't bad… in fact it's pretty great for a striker fired pistol. SA pistols and DA/SA pistol reset sure beats it, but reset is the least important part of trigger movement. It should be done as fast as possible to concentrate on the important stuff. Any change takes adjustment and acclimation. I think you'll find that once you've gotten used to the trigger, it's everything you need.
Some will change triggers. All of my triggers are stock. I've put Apex barrels in most of my current M&Ps, and other than my Simunition pistol, which can't accept a thumb safety, all but one has the thumb safety installed. I have the parts for the last one, but have been lazy. Other than that and adding optics, I don't mess with them too much. One has a Floyd's magwell.
I say all this because the M&P is not my first or my only. It's not showy… but it works. I wish my favorite gun was something I could say was "the best", but the M&P is far closer to best. I've personally seen M&Ps with well over 100,000 rounds and going strong. I personally abused an M&P with no cleaning or lubrication for 3-4 years (man… now that I think of it, it's been a while… older posts…) and 30,000 to 40,000 rounds. This included burying in sand, mud, dunking in water, spraying with salt water, crazy rapid fire for hundreds of rounds, a broken recoil spring (still continued to fire for don't know how long until I noticed it), and even freezing it in a block of ice. Yes… Not normal or realistic. I was impressed, and I didn't even carry an M&P at the time.
All that to say… the M&P is a phenomenal pistol and well worth converting to.
