Thank you all for information and suggestions.
I'll keep them in mind when buying and when practicing.
Most common ones like trying different guns is something I'll definitely do.
Indoor ranges around here allow swapping handgun during the same rental session.
I checked few guns at the shop today from Glock, Smith & Wesson, Sig, HK and few others I can't remember.
I tried them with holsters from outside and even the compacts felt huge.
I think it'll be hard and uncomfortable concealing a Glock 19 or M&P of that size inside the waist.
BTW, those of you who have this size handgun (G19, M&P 2.0 compact), how much is above the waist and how much is under it?
Could you post pictures of inside or outside waist conceal holsters please?
How much are we hiding under the waist? Belt is 1.5 - 2" so the gun is only 3" below the waist, right?
In that case... be sure you try the s&w m&p that is available with or without a thumb safety... if you get one with a safety once you confidence/experience grows you can delete the safety if you with without changing guns with just a phone call to s&w customer service for some free safety delete plugs... I have done this.
Also the m&p is available in 4 different sizes with identical controls so you could have the option of a big one and a little one for different uses with the same magazines and muscle memory for both
Thanks for that info.
I didn't know safety can be removed on M&P. That adds one more vote on my option.
A lot of good suggestions have already been given in this thread, so I'm just going to focus on this one. It's common for people who are new to guns to want an external safety, I think mostly because of the word "safety". They, (possibly you?) have the impression that the gun is automatically "safer" if it has a safety. It can be in some ways, but here's the kicker. It's only safer if the safety is actually used religiously. If it's not, it's more dangerous than a gun that was designed without a manual safety to start with. It's easy for newer (and sometimes not so new) shooters to forget to use that safety every single time the gun come on and off the target. I see it all the time as a concealed carry instructor. I'm not necessarily trying to talk you out of it but just keep in mind that a gun with a manual safety requires arguably more training and is potentially more dangerous than one without.
Yes, thanks for the warning.
I realized that. I'll still treat the gun as if it doesn't have external safety.
That's extra comfort in case something accidental happens.
I'll make sure to include external safety during practice.
I've been comparing those two M&P compacts for weeks now and still can't decide between 3.6" vs 4.0" models.
Both are same height and capacity but the 4.0" is .5" longer.
The more I think about my situation, I probably will get a M&P 4.0" compact for home and range and for ccw, I'll get a single stack much smaller gun later.
Again, thank you all for actively engaging in this thread.
