by Rich Grassi

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It started out earlier in 2011, when Scott Folk, gunsmith at Apex Tactical Specialties, asked me if I wanted him to re-work a Smith & Wesson M&P pistol as a Limited gun. I told him that a truly competition piece was wasted on me, that a court-defensible carry gun was more in my line. He preferred that I send an M&P45 and there happened to be one close to hand - a M&P45 with a "flat dark earth" colored frame.

I told him the gun needed sights and asked that, if I sent some along, he would install them. He agreed. I contacted Brownells, my usual source of parts, tools and accessories, and found they had Richard Heinie's justifiably famous #409 SlantPro Ledge Tritium Night Sights for the M&P.

Following his shipping instructions, I bundled gun and sights and sent them away. The photos show what returned.

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The trigger is ATS's Forward Set Sear and Trigger from their trigger kit (like nearly all their parts, available from brownells.com). Starting out with a decent (for the M&P45) trigger of just under six pounds, Scott got the break down to 4.8 pounds, as measured by his Trigger Scan, a fixture that holds the gun and pulls the trigger while creating a graph of the weight and travel.

The Apex Failure Resistant Extractor was fitted up, replacing the factory Metal-Injection-Molded unit. The FRE is steel, less flexible, with a changed hook geometry.

"I wanted the best possible part to be in that gun," Scott said in a phone call, referring to the fact that it's a street gun.

He hand-stippled the frame where my hands need to grip - not all over the piece. "It does what it's supposed to," he said. "Enhance grip. And, I think it looks good."

As the frame is brown, an observer said it looked like the frame was covered in leather that had stitching holes. The underside of the trigger guard was smoothed and polished "to reduce middle finger abrasion." That's a fine point most people don't think of - I was taught that the base of the trigger guard against the knuckle of the middle finger meant your hand was in the right place to close into the high-hold on the frame we need for fast, accurate shooting.

He brought other parts up to date - my gun was fairly early and had an earlier sear housing block and striker.

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I took the gun out with a Blade-Tech "slide" holster - open at the end to accommodate the longer slide of the M&P45. The ammo was ASYM Match ball and HP as well as some ASYM +P Barnes TAC XP solid HP and Federal Gold Medal Match 185 grain SWC "soft-ball." I had a few "failures to go into battery" with the light load. Everything else zipped through the gun without issue.

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My first rounds out were a test, in fact "The Test," a drill from Ken Hackathorn calling for 10 rounds in ten seconds at ten yards from low ready or Sul on an NRA B-8 bull's eye target. The object is to stay in the black of the target. I failed with one out in the "8" ring. Scoring numerically, I had 97/100. Actually, I was elated.

Mixing ammo in magazines, I put up the FBI-QIT and worked on singles, pairs, failures to stop, and some one-hand unsupported shooting with each hand. The picture tells the tale.

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I asked Scott why he wanted to do the job on the M&P45. I intended it for carry and that figured in. Is this the new service pistol a year after the Centennial?

"That's what I consider it," he said. "It's the ultimate combat handgun, a .45 that holds 11 rounds, with the same accuracy and better ergonomics than its predecessor - at a lower cost."

I don't know about ultimate, figuring that I won't be here with y'all with ultimate comes to pass. It's damn good though with a 1911-like trigger, great sights and a feel that has to be felt to be believed.