"Stuff and feathers!" I muttered to myself. "Jerry told me to cover Smith and Wesson's 'innovative new pistol,' the M&P, and all it is is combat Tupperware."

Think of it as a steel pistol with really big grips. Designed for government use from the mag well up, S&W's new hybrid has all the features associated with current law enforcement handguns, plus a few other refinements. Photo by Lynn Pedigo

How wrong I was.

If you're a dyed-in-the-wool 1911-ista like myself, you can skip this article…that is, unless you have a curiosity about firearms development and would like to see where the next generation is going.

My boss, Handguns editor Jerry Lee, dispatched me to Primedia's semiannual roundtable so I could get up close and personal with the new pistol and the corporate team that gave birth to it.

Smith & Wesson's Joe Bergeron first revealed this new hybrid to an assemblage of writers at Pike County's lush PASA Park shooting complex, near Barry, Illinois. As handguns product manager, Bergeron headed up the design program.

SPECIFICATIONS Smith & Wesson M&P
MANUFACTURER:	Smith & Wesson
ACTION TYPE:	Locked-breech semiautomatic with double-action-only trigger
CALIBERS:	.40 S&W, 9x19, .357 SIG
BARREL LENGTH:	4.5 inches
OVERALL LENGTH:	7.5 inches
WEIGHT:	24.25 ounces
CAPACITY:	15 + 1 (17 +1 in 9mm)
GRIPS:	Stripped polymer
FINISH:	Black Melonite
SIGHTS:	Three-dot fixed
TRIGGER:	Pull -- 6.5 punds, Reach - 3 inch
PRICE:	Not establish

"How did you come up with the parameters for the design?" I asked.

"We put everybody into one room and threw 'stuff' against the wall for 12 hours," he said matter-of-factly. "Sean O'Clair did the ergonomics, which was really important to us, and Brett Curry led the engineering team on the chassis design."

Cutting to the chase, the big deal about S&W's M&P pistol is that it is just another plastic pistol in the same way in which the gull-winged Mercedes is just another commuter car. There is a stainless chassis embedded, or rather cast, into the polymer portion of the frame. Think of it as a steel pistol with really big grips.

The fully tempered stainless slide rides on four ovoid metal tabs at the corners, and unlocking occurs on the same chunk of metal. Viewed from the side, the chassis middle is in frame defilade, with the ends--the tabs--sticking up like a curved hot dog sticking out of a straight bun (but without the ketchup and mayo). The slide has a finish hardened to a Rockwell of 68.

The advantage here over all-metal guns is the lightness and grip comfort of a polymer gun combined with the durability and precision of an all-metal design. The reason for the tabs being ovoid is so that as wear occurs, the points of contact remain centered and don't wander up and down what appears to be a straight surface. This feature assists in maintaining zero throughout the life of the weapon.

In the prototype tested, these tabs and other hard-working parts were severely discolored from S&W's endurance testing. The pistol had been through more than 6,000 rounds without lubricant, including rapid-fire, high-heat tests. It had been cleaned, but to check wear patterns, it was left as dry as that August was in Sarcobatus Flats.

As the LE target market is fraught with legal issues, Bergeron's team decided to go with a double-action-only striker but is entertaining options. This is one of those set-ups, so common now, where about 70 percent of the cocking is accomplished by the slide, leaving only 30 percent for the finger. If you get a click, chamber a fresh round and get back to work. "Cooper-ites" will shake their heads and wander off muttering, but this is what has resulted from trying to please the shooter while taking a heads-up from decades of litigation. In this sense, the M&P takes a lead from Glock with a passive trigger safety and does not require a decocker or manual or grip safety. No pullem trigger, no go bang. An action lock is located on the left rear of the slide.