On the range at PASA Park, I had to compete with a flurry of writers and the "Guns & Ammo TV" crew to get my hands on the weapon's black Melonite grips. Everyone wanted a piece of the excitement, and after sweating in the tumult (August in Illinois), I gave up and waited until after an air-conditioned lunch.

Winchester white box and Silver Bear both performed flawlessly in the M&P's hybrid action.

The prototype I fired ran like the Energizer bunny. For yucks I ran some loose Federal through it, then that weird zinc-coated Silver Bear and finally, the Winchester white box that was the ammo du jour at the roundtable.

Lubeless, the M&P munched the varied .40 S&W fodder as contentedly as Bossy the Cow grinding silage. The Silver Bear's zinc-washed cases were the subject of much comment among the writers and reps. "It feels like they're coated with lapping compound," said one. To which the guy from STI said, "Hey, you can shoot and polish your chamber!"

Humor aside, the Silver Bear cases are completely safe, and every one went bang and to the intended point of impact--not bad stuff at all.

Heckling the gun is always my favorite part. I shot several mags through the piece, which dropped the plates with alacrity, and then I started my jam-provocation protocol, much to the disgust of Lee Atkins, the range officer.

I shot it upside down, sideways right and left, then limp-wristed it in the extreme. Placing my left thumb behind the grip, left finger on the trigger, and pinching the front of the triggerguard with the thumb and index finger of my right hand, I squeezed off a magazine. Then I did it again with two thumbs on the strap and two fingers on the trigger. It kept on running, as if the pistol were saying to me, "So, what else do you have?"

Finally, it was time to do the sideways overhead, pioneered by actor Jason Patric in the 1991 cult classic Rush and made famous by Brad Pitt in 1993's Kalifornia (several police officers have commented that this ridiculous technique, widely adopted by ignorant gang members, has saved hundreds of lives, and they offer their thanks to these two movies). Even partially inverted, with a weak grip and firing down at a 20-degree angle, the M&P continued to perform flawlessly--even as Atkins boomed out, "And just what are you trying to prove?" Range officers are born with no sense of humor.

But I digress. These techniques have turned other guns into non-functional objets d'art and didn't phase the M&P, so my hat is off to Bergeron and Curry. Too, the M&P feels good in the palm and, oddly, didn't have the hand-smack normally associated with .40 S&W--so O'Clair gets a nod, too.

Finally, the time came to test the author: accuracy. The PASA support staff put up a standard cardboard silhouette with a six-inch Birchwood Casey stuck on it. I backed off to 10 yards and tossed out a careful five rounds, off-hand. The group was good, except for my flier, and although it seemed fine to me, I could see on Bergeron's face that he wished a better shot (there were a lot around, including sheriff Jim Wilson) had done the testing.

On a note of confidence, several of us were discussing a torture test for firearms, and Bergeron unhesitatingly volunteered his baby for whatever we had in mind. Considering some of the twisted minds where I work, that took some real confidence.

Will I trade in my Argie 1911 for an M&P? Naw, I'm too used to old iron. But if I were purchasing for a department or an agency, I'd make darned sure that an M&P was brought in for competition.