The more time I spend around interchangeable backstraps and such, the more theoretical their advantages seem to become to me. Granted, I think it's great that we have more choice and the ability to customize, but invariably what you seem to find is that the stock/default part (medium) is the one that really does best meet the needs of the 97th-percentile shooter.
Not that this will prevent every new owner with a punch and a hammer from trying out at least one alternate panel, but the results rarely seem to be as expected. Sure, you've addressed the reach problem, but now the gun sits in your hand at an odd angle. Yes, now you can get to the mag release more easily, but you're sort of all-bunched-up on the trigger, too. You would think that this would be a no-brainer for those with particularly small or large mitts, but look at most of the guns that are actually out there getting used, and you'll probably see the medium parts on the gun, regardless of who is shooting it ... along with a few scuff marks in the plastic right around the backstrap retention pin hole that they don't really want to talk about. lol
The moral of the story? If you don't have 500 rounds through the gun, you have no idea if a backstrap change would do anything for you at all, and the odds are, it won't. This is not science, mind you, but it does seem to square well with what I have tended to observe over time. When I was paying attention, that is.
Try to adapt to the gun before doing too much to try to adapt the gun to you. As with any new piece of equipment, there is usually a slight learning curve, and you don't want to spend the next six months going back and forth, trying to get comfortable with a gun that was in all probability set up correctly for you out-of-the-box.
AC
Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. -- Captain John Parker, Lexington, 1775.
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