The culprit?
I get where you're coming from... a man with one gun is a dangerous man because he knows how to use it.
I have been thinking hard about making the switch from a Glock 19 for daily carry to the M&P 9.
I've been evaluating the handguns side by side for several months now and have decided the M&P won't be my next daily carry gun.
I started considering the M&P because of how good it felt in my hands. It's not perfect, mind you, but it seemed to be more ergonomic than most other pistols in its class in most areas, except for one (for me). I also liked that it doesn't use a polygonal barrel so it's safe for me to shoot my lead target loads without having to swap barrels.
The grip fits my large hands perfectly. The only thing that doesn't fit quite right is the trigger. I should say the reach of the trigger is too close to the grip frame for my hands. It's designed for someone with much smaller hands than mine. I am forced to hook my trigger finger over the trigger which is something I don't really like doing and it feels odd to me. But I was trying to get used to it. That alone may not have prevented me from adopting the M&P as my daily carry gun. There's one more problem with the trigger.
I dislike the trigger itself. It's creepy, lets off all the way back where it's practically touching the grip frame (see my comments above about it already being too short) and it lacks a reset that I can feel or hear. The issues with the trigger keeps me from shooting the M&P as well as I do my Glocks. Even when dry firing, no matter how careful I am with my trigger control, when it lets off I can see the sights move slightly. With my Glocks the sights remain rock solid on the target, so this tells me something with the ergonomics and the trigger are conspiring to make super accurate aimed fire difficult for me with the pistol.
I can easily keep them in the kill zone on a man size target and the pistol is more than accurate enough for me in terms of self defense, it's not like I can't keep the rounds where they belong. But I also like to target shoot with my pistols to keep myself sharp with my carry gun, and I can't shoot the M&P as well as I can my Glocks.
I know I can install an aftermarket trigger to fix the short comings of the M&P's trigger but I'm not into installing aftermarket fire control parts into my carry guns. Sights, grips, and other non-critical components I'll swap out but not critical parts like trigger components. I know, it may seem goofy but it's a comfort thing for me.
I'll keep my M&P 9, it's a very good firearm. I'm also pulling for the M&P in the US military trials. But unfortunately, the gun just isn't well suited for my daily carry gun when I don't feel it's superior to the one I already have.
Plus... something else has popped onto my radar in the last couple of months. This something pushed the M&P out of the running and is now being considered as my future CCW gun. It has several more months of evaluation to go before it gets that honor but the last two months of shooting it has shown me that better alternatives are on the market that don't require me to make concessions on things like the trigger. This new contender has a very Glock like trigger that's a bit lighter and more crisp than a factory Glock trigger. It also fits my hand much better in the trigger reach department, it mirrors the feel of a Glock. It also has a more ergonomic grip than the Glock, but not quite as ergonomic as the M&P... but it is a marked improvement in ergonomics when compared to the Glock. It also features an ambi-mag release.
The culprit?
I don't believe its performance was sub-par. Most handguns would fail being stomped into such a soupy mud hole (I did it 3 times, the video shows the 3rd dunk). The Caracal was packed full of mud, even the magazine. No firearm I've done that to has worked 100% afterwards.
