Any flies on the Shield?

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Arizonan

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I've owned my 9mm Shield for about a year now. I cant say one thing bad about it. It looks good, shoots real good. It carries great for ccw. No ftf/ftf. And for the $369 I paid I know I have a darn fine weapon.
Any fellow gunners have a negative experience with theirs?
 
If there is one common complaint about the Shield it's the difficulty in racking the slide for many people. If you don't have this problem either you are strong fellow or you have one with an easy to rake recoil spring. Otherwise it's a great gun that conceals well, is accurate for a compact and handles recoil well for a light pistol.
 
I agree with Ron, only con I have is the difficulty to rack the slide. With the beginnings of arthritis in my hands it is can be a little of a pain. I make sure I carry with one in the chamber. Other than that it has been a very reliable and nice shooting small handgun. With extended mags it fits well and is consistently accurate, again for a small pistol. Its no full size 1911, but for a CCW I really like it.
 
M&P Shield...

I purchased a new(not a floor or display model) no thumb safety 9x19mm Shield. It was test fired & left MA on 11/14/2014. :D
I have not shot it yet but plan to in the next few days.
I too noticed a few issues with the short slide but I chalk it up to the engineering & basic physics.
A short slide has less weight/mass so not going to function quite the same with springs or other moving parts.
I do not have large hands but I've been bit 2 times loading & unloading the Shield, :mad: . Be careful not to have your palm blocking or near the opening of the mag well as you insert it. :uhoh:
I've noticed too my hand/palm may cover the muzzle :eek: too when I load a 9mm round quickly or work the slide.
Be careful with the Shield.
I also had a minor flaw where the 9mm pistol didn't go click when I did the M&P re-assembly. :uhoh:
I've owned and cleaned many firearms but never had a brand new gun not function properly after cleaning/inspection.
I took the small pistol apart and re did the steps. It loaded and could dry fire without any other problems. I was concerned that I broke something. :eek:
I'm not real thrilled that S&W no longer puts Melonite on the M&P series guns. I owned a older 9x19mm full size that had minor scuffs & knicks on the flat black surface but this brand new Shield already has a long streak on the inside frame. I might get the Shield upper coated with Cerakote or Metalife so it's not a big deal. It could have better QC.

Finally, I'm not happy that the Shield pistols don't share the M&P line ambi magazine release that can be quickly converted. :(
I'm left handed and prefer to switch the release on carry-duty pistols.
I looked into buying a new 9mm S-A XD mod 2 sub compact but the Shields had a lot of holsters & gear + a good reliability rating with many S&W owners.
If the M&P Shield falls short or becomes unreliable, I might buy a new Mod 2 XD.
 
Arizonan said:
I've owned my 9mm Shield for about a year now. I cant say one thing bad about it. It looks good, shoots real good. It carries great for ccw. No ftf/ftf. And for the $369 I paid I know I have a darn fine weapon.
Any fellow gunners have a negative experience with theirs?
Click to expand...

How many rounds through it?

Have you had any other malfunction types?
 
Probably pushing several hundred mixed rounds and weights through my 9mm Shield.

Zero problems to report.
 
I'm happy with mine, except for the mentioned "harder to rack" issue that others have stated. I think the design of the serrations is lacking. They should have stuck with common serrations instead of making "a design" [and a design that is really too shallow] out of them.

I've had zero issues with mine, functionally.
 
Mine has ~500 rounds on it with exactly 1 FTF. IIRC this was with Winchester WB 115 grain ammo.

The Shield wouldn't be my 1st choice for a range gun but a shooting buddy does just that. I'm guessing his has 1500-2000 rounds through it by now with 2 FTF reported. Again, the ammo would have been whatever cheap range ammo was available.
 
While I don't own a Shield, my neighbor bought one in .40 S&W for his new CCW. We've since put upwards of 500 rounds through it. It was bought on Black Friday, new. He has been carrying it daily since the following Saturday evening, after I showed him how to field strip, and clean, the firearm. First outing revealed that it shot about 6" to the left. I had a local gunsmith drift the sights to center (the rear wasn't centered), and it has been POA/POI with 180 gr loads ever since. We put 250 rounds through it that day, with zero failures of any type.

The man isn't exactly a pistol champion, having most experience with rifles. Yet, he was quite capable of ringing a 12" steel plate at 20 yards, with a new to him gun. After a while, we were ringing 6" steel plates at 20 yards, as well.

Neither of us has a minutes problem racking the slide. Even his wife, who suffers from fibromyalgia, found the slide easy enough to operate.

I have large hands, and am left-handed. An ambi, or reversible mag release has never bothered me, even in combat in SE Asia. I use my trigger finger to operate the mag release.

Then again, using due diligence would have revealed both of the issues of covering the muzzle, or the magazine release. If they were actually problems, one should choose a gun that doesn't exhibit them.

Snappy little thing with the .40 rounds, but easily controlled, especially with the extended magazine S&W provided.
 
Warp:

I have shot 1000 rounds Federal Aluminum 115 ball out of mine.
250 rounds HST 124 grainers. Not problem one. It is in my ccw carry rotation.
 
I bought a Shield 9mm within one month after they came out.

After extensive shooting all types of ammo, mine has seen more "on my hip time" than any other gun I own.

acc39508-1bdc-4662-9ff6-e8a7c04064e8_zps051fb15f.gif
 
I bought one for my wife.....I carry it all the time.... ;) I find it to be very accurate and very easy to conceal. It's a fine handgun.
 
Best of the subcompacts. When I first got mine, I couldn't get the slide to stay back after the final round. That was my problem, not the gun's, as I was hitting the slide release with my hands. Overall great gun, no malfunctions, 300 rounds through.
 
My only complaint is that I have to shrink my reloads down to 1.10 OAL or they won't chamber. Maybe I need more crimp...

So now all my 9's get the same 124g 1.10 5.0g of power pistol load.


My Shield has been perfect for over 3500 rounds so far. My normal practice distance is 15-17 yards and I can peg the plates shot after shot.
 
Here is mine:
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I carry the .40 and have a 9mm for practice which I run 50 rounds a week through -- zero issues with either during the ~8 months I've had them.

Doesn't take too long for the 9mm to pay for itself in practice ammo savings. Bummer that my old eyes now need sights that cost more than the gun :(

Doing the "final" sight in off sandbags with my .40S&W carry ammo, five shots went into 2" at 25 yards.

The triggers have improved greatly with a little usage, which I sped up with a dab of Butch's Bore Shine on the striker engagement surface.

Its the only sub-compact that I can come close to my times with a full sized pistol on the plate rack.

I like having the thumb safety. YMMV.
 
I have had mine for over 2.5 years. Have about 2500 rounds thru mine. The ONLY issue I had had is with CCI Blazer. The casings stick to the wall of the barrel after about 50 rounds, and eventually won't eject. Only ammo that I don't use and the ONLY problem I have ever had with it.
 
I like mine and I shoot lefty. No problems. Looking for a new holster for it. What do you guys use?
 
I currently have a OWB kydex, which is nice, but I would like to find me a good OWB leather holster.
 
S&W triggers suck out of the box. Most people suggest getting the Apex trigger kit. I suggest getting a different pistol with a good trigger out of the box (Kahr, Ruger, Springfield, Glock, etc...)
 
I bought my first one about two years ago. I had been advised that the slide would be tight. I cleaned it, racked the slide and left it open for two weeks,which helped some. It loosens up as you put more and more rounds through it.

Great gun. Haven't had any problems with it.
 
I suggest getting a different pistol with a good trigger out of the box (Kahr, Ruger, Springfield, Glock, etc...)
Click to expand...

I'll take my out of the box Shield trigger over any of these out of the box.
 
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