Anything better than S&W M&P for first handgun?

[tstand]

Today I rented six different 9mm pistols at Vandalia Shooting Grounds in SW Ohio. All the guns were very nice and I think I would be happy with any of them. This is my rank order of preference based on felt recoil, grip comfort, and to a lesser extent, accuracy (I'm not consistent so hard to rate a gun on my spread)

1. Ruger SR9 (lowest felt recoil, fairly accurate for me, most comfortable grip - is it the rubber backstrap?)
2. Springfield XD
3. Beretta 90-two
4. Springfield XDM (the grated grip kind of bugged me)
    SIG P??? (Poor aim with it)
    M&P (good grip, but felt recoil is higher)

If I could get the SR9 with the DPM recoil reducer, I think it would be perfect for me. But they don't make it for Berettas.

Tomorrow I'm firing some revolvers at another location.

I wanted to try the Beretta PX4 but they did not have it in 9mm. Can anyone compare the PX4 to the guns above?

[SynapticSilence]

My full size M&P .45 home defense weapon is an amazingly soft shooting pistol even without any recoil management add ons. Same goes for the M&P .40 I had. Don't trust all the things you read. Plus, anything you add to a gun that changes the slide dynamics can reduce reliability. One thing you can do that I did that gives you great flexibility and won't affect reliability at all is to buy an M&P .40 and then buy a 9mm drop-in conversion barrel from Storm Lake for $125 or so and a 9mm mag.  All you have to do to change caliber is to field strip the pistol, swap barrels, reassemble, and put the appropriate mag in. That gives you the option of shooting 9mm or .40 S&W, two pistols in one. You have to get the .40 model and swap to 9mm, though. You can't buy the 9mm and go the other way.

[alfsauve]

And not that I'm pushing Glock but you can do the same thing with Glocks.   Among others Lone Wolf has a 9mm barrel for G: 27, 33, 23, 32, 22, and 31.  And I think others (BarSto?) have conversions for XD.

I have one for my 23 and when I travel, I take 3 mags of .40 and 3 mags of 9mm with the conversion barrel.  Anything serious happens I should be able to find ammo for one or the other.