While the M&P's long trigger stroke is one of its primary safety features, the design contains trigger, firing pin and magazine disconnect safeties. The trigger safety prevents movement until the pivoting trigger is pulled, while a spring- loaded plunger prevents firing pin movement until the rearward movement of the trigger bar deactivates it.

While magazine disconnect safeties have a reputation for adversely affecting the trigger pull, the system used on the M&P solves this problem. When the magazine is removed, a lever at the rear of the magazine well pivots forward, moving the trigger bar out of alignment with the sear and making it impossible for the pistol to be fired. Reinserting the magazine realigns these two units, allowing the pistol to be fired.

For disassembly, the M&P's slide must be locked open and a sear deactivation lever at the rear of the mag well must be rotated forward. This means that the trigger does not have to pulled to remove the slide from the frame.

S&W is also offering its new .45 self-loader with the option of external, ambidextrous, thumb operated safety levers and a brown colored frame. Known as the M&P45 Dark Earth Brown, it was designed for military forces or police agencies that desire an external safety device on their service pistols. In addition, M&P pistols have a Picatinny rail on the dust cover that accepts all standard tactical lights and laser sights.

When I received an M&P45 to evaluate I was a bit shocked to find that the grip felt the same size as my 9mm M&P. When I queried S&W's Joe Bergeron about this, he told me that the only changes made to the basic M&P design were to increase the front to rear dimensions of the grip frame by .001 inch to accommodate the longer cartridge, and use a slightly longer barrel and slide to get the best performance from the .45 ACP round.

I contacted my good shooting buddy, Butch Simpson, to help me with the range work. And since he has a knack for it, I let him perform the accuracy testing, the results of which can be seen on the accompanying chart.

The M&P45 not only printed to point of aim with all five types of ammunition, it proved to be a remarkably accurate pistol in the bargain. In fact, Butch came awful close to printing one-hole groups with the .45 handloads and Speer hardball.

After chronographing all four loads, we got down to really seeing how the big-bore M&P performed. Using a mixture of ammo, we each ran it through several offhand drills on a pair of D-1 targets, drawing from a CQC SERPA holster.

ACCRUACY RESULTS: S&W M&P45
.45 ACP Ammo Type	BULLET WEIGHT (gr.)	AVG. VELOCITY (fps)	AVG. GROUP (in.)
Lyman LSWC handload	200	886	1.83
Cor-Bon +P DPX	185	1,046	2.50
Hornady TAP	200	994	2.33
Remington JHP	185	943	2.25
Speer Lawman FMJ	230	773	2.0
Velocities are averages of five shots recorded 15 feet from the muzzle. Accuracy tested off a sandbag rest; results are averages of three five-shot groups at 25 yards. Abbreviations: JHP, jacketed hollowpoint; FMJ, fullmetal jacket

We had no trouble whatsoever making holes in the higher scoring parts of our respective targets. Considering neither of us had ever fired this pistol before (in fact, Butch had no experience with any M&P) we found the results of this expenditure of ammunition quite pleasing.

As Butch said, "The Smith & Wesson Military and Police pistol in .45 ACP is--like many .45s--a handful. But it's an accurate handful, a reliable handful, a well-made handful and a thoroughly pleasant shooting handful."

In the course of testing the M&P we had no malfunctions, either mechanical or ammo related, even though we used a variety of bullet configurations. Lead semi-wadcutter hand loads, jacked hollow point and hardball ammunition fed with nary a snag.

If you are of the "bigger holes are better" school of thought, you definitely should consider the Smith & Wesson M&P45 the next time you 'need' to buy another handgun.