As I walked into my local gun store the other day (Guns Warehouse in Cedar Park) the friendly salesman greeted me and said “I think I have something that will interest you!” He was right — he had the new Smith & Wesson M&P9 M2.0, which I had yet to fondle.

The first thing I did was try the trigger and I can confirm that it is indeed miles better than the original version. The trigger blade itself was pretty much unchanged but the updated mechanism provided a trigger pull with just a hint of roll before cleanly breaking. Reset was relatively short, but you could definitely feel a “click” when you hit the reset point. The difference is damn near night and day but we need to get Jeremy on the case with his trigger testing gear to give you the full run down.

While the original M&P was relatively slick sided, the M2.0 shows more stippling than my acne-afflicted face during my high school years. In my opinion it’s just a hair over the line between “grippy” and “painful,” but that’s not a bad thing. As the gun wears in and get used that stippling will wear down a little bit and be more comfortable to hold.

First blush impression: I like it. It’s definitely an improvement over the original M&P design. But we need to run it through its full paces out on the range. We’ve got one winging its way to us from Smith as I type. Watch this space.