I went through great pains to ensure that no test pistol had any technological advantages over the competition. All four utilize a variation of the double-action-only trigger system: Glock's Safe Action, Springfield's USA, Smith & Wesson's New Age and H&K's LEM. The S&W and H&K both feature interchangeable grip inserts so the shooter can adapt it to his particular hand size.

All four of the polymer pistols had rails for mounting tactical lights or laser sights.

Our quartet of handguns all feature high-tech metal finishes, Picatinny rails for mounting tactical lights or laser sights, fixed sights and accept post-Clinton high-capacity magazines. The H&K stood out in the pack because it uses an external hammer to ignite cartridges, while the other three were striker fired.

Springfield's XD was notable as the only one with an external safety device and grip safety, and while the M&P's magazine releases can be switched from port to starboard, the XD and H&K were ambidextrous. The M&P and H&K had ambidextrous slide releases, while all four had some means of providing visual and/or tactile indication when their chamber was loaded. The Glock was unique in that it was the only one that used polymer (albeit metal-lined) magazines rather than stainless steel.

To further level the playing field--and because it's my favorite pistol cartridge--all of our test guns were chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartridge. Jeff Hoffman at Black Hills provided us with a sufficient quantity of ammunition, loaded with 115-grain FMJ bullets.

For the sake of comparison, the group of shooters fired an all-steel Para-Ordnance 18.9 LDA during the test of the four polymer-framed pistols.

It was obvious that our four polymer pistols have more in common than not, so it was going to be very interesting to see how they compared in our test. To do so I contacted my good friends Larry Mefford, Jim Tosco and Kim and Dave Nichols, who--along with your humble author--are avid competitive shooters who shoot in a number of USPSA and steel matches each month. After discussing the matter for a while, we decided to run the four pistols through a series of Action Pistol stages that would emphasize handling qualities, accuracy, rapid-fire capabilities, ease of reloading and reliability.

I suggested that it would be interesting to fire the same stages with an all-steel pistol to see if it provided any advantages (or disadvantages) over our plastic quartet. The Para-Ordnance 18.9 LDA was chosen. This stainless steel, 9mm pistol uses Para's Light Double Action trigger system and accepts high-capacity magazines, which puts it in the same ballpark, tactically speaking, as our four contestants.

The author and his companions each ran all five pistols through a UPSA-type field course and then set up an El Presidente drill and did the same thing over again, and again, and again. Seen here is the author showing them how it is done with the M&P.

Before we began, all five pistols were cleaned and oiled, and that would be it until we were done shooting. The only maintenance permitted from that point on would be wiping off visible grit or residue with a cloth. If they choked up, we would clear the malfunction and, if possible, keep on shooting.

Black Hawk Industries provided us with versions of the CQC SERPA holster and magazine pouches for all of our test pistols. The day before we met at the range, I checked each pistol for zero and accuracy and then set up my PACT chronograph to see what type of performance I was getting out of them. The results can be seen in the accompanying chart.