If you happened to be someone who just got interested in firearms, it would be easy for you to assume that modern handguns have always had their slides cut from the factory to accept the myriad red dot sights that are available. After all, somewhere around ninety percent of the guns behind the glass at your local gun shop are billed as “optic ready.”
Another reality is the fact that in today’s market, when a firearms manufacturer announces a new handgun model and states that it’s optic-ready, no one gets excited. It’s no longer noteworthy. If a company were to release a new model EDC or Duty gun minus a slide cut for an optic, that would be a bigger news story.
While everyone likes to talk about Smith & Wesson versus GLOCK versus SIG, it was actually FN with the FNX-45 Tactical that got the optic-ready ball rolling back in October of 2012. GLOCK didn’t release their factory Modular Optic System pistols until 2015. However, the subject of this piece, the Smith & Wesson M&P C.O.R.E., was just a month behind FN with a launch date of November 2012 and the big public fanfare at SHOT 2013.
Smith & Wesson M&P C.O.R.E.
I have had this pistol since the spring of 2013, if memory serves, and was certainly not the first Smith & Wesson M&P pistol I’d tested and reviewed. When the modern M&P launched in 2005, I was writing for several publishers of dead tree magazines; Combat Handguns, Shooting Illustrated, S.W.A.T. Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, and American COP, which was one of my favorites, among many others. Just as the internet is always hungry for content, so were the gun magazines. I tested and reviewed M&P pistols chambered in 9mm, .40 S&W, .357 SIG and .45 ACP.
What set the M&P C.O.R.E. apart from the self-defense/duty line of pistols was Smith’s attempt to grab some of the “out of the box” competition pistol market. While there was the stock or limited class where iron-sighted guns were welcome, the trend at that time was for shooters to send their pistols off to a gunsmith to have the slide cut to fit their favorite optic. Keep in mind that ten to fifteen years ago, there might have been five or six companies making pistol red dot sights. In today’s world that probably seems strange.
C.O.R.E. stood for Competition Optics Ready Equipment and my pistol came with five optic plates to adapt the M&P to accept the most popular footprints at that time. The uber-popular Shield RMSc mount was still a few years away back then.
The first optic I had to mount on the M&P C.O.R.E. was the generation one Leupold Delta Point. It worked, but I hated using the microscopic Allen wrench to make adjustments. That particular optic, released in 2010, has since given up the ghost and gone on the scrap pile. I suppose fifteen years of use isn’t bad.
From a functional standpoint, the C.O.R.E. was built on the basic M&P action and design; a polymer-frame, steel slide, and striker-fired action. All full-sized M&P 9mm pistols used the same magazines with a 17-round standard capacity and fit in the same holsters. That was good as I already had a bunch of magazines and holsters for that platform.
The original C.O.R.E. pistols were available with either a 4.25 or 5-inch barrel. The model on display here has the 5-inch barrel. Keep in mind that the barrel length includes the chamber, so you don’t get five inches of rifling, but that’s not too big a deal. The extra length did give you a bump in the velocity department.
For the current setup, I installed a Trijicon RMR with the red 3.25 MOA dot. The power source is a standard CR2032 lithium battery with an average life of 35,000 hours. In order to keep the profile low, the battery is mounted under the optic. Some folks don’t mind that and some do. That’s a 3.9 year run time and I don’t feel like taking the optic off to replace the battery every three years is much of a burden, but to each their own.
The first generation C.O.R.E. pistol included everything you needed and nothing you didn’t. These pistols had no forward cocking serrations, no ridiculously stupid holes carved into the slides and no comp/ports. After all, it’s a 9mm pistol, not a .44 Magnum.
All the standard M&P features are found on the frame; small, medium, and large palm swell grips that can be switched out by removing one pin, no special tools needed. An accessory rail is located on the dust cover, though we doubt many folks were running weapon-mounted lights in competitions. The C.O.R.E. disassembles for cleaning and lubrication by locking the slide open and rotating the takedown lever 90 degrees south (down).
In addition to the optic slide cut, S&W added steel suppressor-height sights. The slide lock lever is ambidextrous and the magazine release button can be swapped to right side. Super Dave Harrington, who shot IDPA matches with a .45 M&P was right handed, but he ran the mag release button on the right side so he could activate it with the middle finger of his right hand. I know this for a fact because Dave used to run mag change drills in the living room of the house we shared for a while.
Range Time
I won’t bore you by getting into the reliability discussion. As with 99% of all modern, out-of-the-box 9mm handguns, the M&P C.O.R.E. will reliably cycle every style and brand of ammunition you care to run through it.
As far as accuracy is concerned, if you really want to cut the center out of a bullseye, 147 grain match ammo is the way to go. You will get perhaps five percent tighter patterns if that’s what you’re looking for. Even with inexpensive FMJ training ammo, cutting ragged holes in cardboard at ten yards isn’t difficult as long as you don’t have a 10 MOA flinch.
With the RMR zeroed at seven yards, I was clanging a ½-size steel silhouette from 25 yards with monotonous regularity. And that’s with the stock trigger, no aftermarket parts required.
While the newer 2.0 version of the M&P might include the Gucci features that people are craving for their Instagram pics, when it comes to performance, all of those fall into Jeff Cooper’s P.I.I. category. So if you see a C.O.R.E in your gun store’s used gun display, you won’t go wrong by taking it home.
Specifications: Smith & Wesson M&P CORE
Caliber: 9mm
Action: Striker-fired
Capacity: 17+1
Barrel Length: 5 inches
Overall Length: 7.75 inces
Weight: 26 ounces
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.