S&W Shield 9mm

[Joe357]

Went to the LGS today with my wife to do a little shooting and check out the inventory. Well I see a shield and ask the salesman to take it out of the display case so I touch it and see how it feels in my hand. Before the salesman had a chance to take it out mother nature calls, so I go to the bathroom. I get back to the counter and my wife is filling out the paper. Now I think she is buying it for me. Wrong, she is buying it for herself :( She now has a new carry gun and I have to wait to see if they can get me one. We took it in the range and fired 32 rounds through it and it functioned perfectly. I did get to shoot 2 rounds through it and I liked it. The trigger was excellent, I guess when S&W had the recall fix they made improvements to the trigger. This gun has a test round dated 8/1/2013. So,it was built after the recall. Edited October 26, 2013 by joe45

[Garufa]

Shields are excellent pistols.  The triggers have been very nice since they first came out.

[CQB Elite]

I have one in .40 and love it.

BTW, anyway I can introduce my wife to yours? Mine needs a role model like yours in her life......

[hipower]

Second Garufa's comments. I own 2 of them and other than mine liking 124 gr over the 115, I love them.

[chances R]

finally got one myself.  Great pointing gun.  Definitely one of the best quality and best shooting carry pistols I have.

[Joe357]

Second Garufa's comments. I own 2 of them and other than mine liking 124 gr over the 115, I love them.

The one wife bought ate 115 gr fmj but the defensive is 124 gr. She is carrying with one in the chamber with safety on. She said it reminds her of her 1911's that she was carrying before. Now the Glock 19 gen 4 that she was carrying will be one of her range guns. Hard to believe when we lived in FL (10 years ago) she wouldn't go to the range with me, now we go every weekend. Edited October 27, 2013 by joe45

[hipower]

I have heard and read of some recoil spring issues with Shields. My first one had a tendency to have ejection issues til I started using 124 gr loads. That immediately cured the issue. I've continued to use them and am very satisfied with it.

 

 

After a few hundred more I'll go back to the 115 and give it a hard range session. From reports, that should do the trick on it.

 

The second I got has had no problems with anything at all.

[Joe357]

Went to the LGS today and I now have my own shield and another 1911. ;)

Also,after 30 plus years of not seeing Mike, I met him at the store. He is as nuts as he was 30 years ago and still a super nice guy.

[hlb14]

Really glad to read all the happy Shield comments, bought my wife one a few weeks ago and she loves it. So far only 50 rounds of 124gr fmj through it with no problems at all, may try some 147gr but wont try any 115 til at least 300 or so down the tube.

[johnboy]

My wife's shield runs good on the 115 and 124.No problems to report.

[c.a.willard]

So far mine has been fed a varied diet with no issues.  90 grain frangible, 100grain frangible, 115 FMJ and JHP, 124 FMJ and JHP, 147grn FML, 135grn Hornady Critical Duty. 

 

So far around 1500 total through it with about 75% being my loads and 25% being factory loads.  Ive had about 40 malfunctions, which seems like a lot, but all of those were caused by low charge rounds developing loads. 

 

I've never had any form of malfunction from the gun with anything factory.

Edited October 31, 2013 by c.a.willard

[Luke E.]

My wife just decided on a Shield today so I will be picking it up for her soon and some of y'alls post have me wondering. What is the deal with Shields and the lighter weight bullets? I don't know anything about the issue and since there is about to be one in the house i'm curious.

[hipower]

Luke, I have no real information on the situation with mine. Just seemed that initially, it didn't feed reliably with the 115 grain loads. But after a couple hundred rounds of 124 and 147 grain, it's all good.

Now feeding anything I load into it.

[Luke E.]

Luke, I have no real information on the situation with mine. Just seemed that initially, it didn't feed reliably with the 115 grain loads. But after a couple hundred rounds of 124 and 147 grain, it's all good.

Now feeding anything I load into it.

Thanks for the heads up. My wife did let me hold the shield while we were there and I noticed that the springs were a bit stiff but nothing 200-300 rounds won't work out but the biggest thing I noticed was how roughly the slide interacted with the frame. The full frame M&P's are this way to a lesser extent but usage does smooth it out some but not completely. I stripped my full frame and polished the bearing surfaces of the chassis which made a HUGE difference! It honestly gave it the feel of a hand mated custom pistol which translated into a much lighter feel when racking the slide. It still has the same weight when holding the slide all the way back or anywhere stationary but when you are actually moving the slide, you are only over coming the spring tension rather than the spring tension+overcoming the friction. When I pick the Shield up I will probably run some assorted ammo through it just for testing purposes and then polish it really good. Once I polish it I will run some of the same assorted rounds through it and compare notes. My guess is that polishing it will allow it to only fight the spring rather than spring and friction, which should let it cycle the lighter bullet weight loads. I'll take notes of the before and after and post my findings here. I'm rather excited for her to be getting such a fine pistol and at the price I'm getting it at, I may end up with two of them if he'll sell me the second one at the same price. If I decide to go ahead and buy two of them it should total up to $500 for both total plus tax and government fees.y only hesitation comes from me being in the middle of building a 6.5 Grendel out of my TGO receiver set. Decisions decisions.

[Trekbike]

I'm rather excited for her to be getting such a fine pistol and at the price I'm getting it at, I may end up with two of them if he'll sell me the second one at the same price. If I decide to go ahead and buy two of them it should total up to $500 for both total plus tax and government fees.

Where are you getting that kind of deal? Most places run high $300's to low $400's each.

[hipower]

Where are you getting that kind of deal? Most places run high $300's to low $400's each.

 

Really good pricing. I paid  then current retail for mine. Of course that was in the days of the mad rush for them last year.

 

What did you use as a polishing agent when you did your M&P? May have to try that with my 9c, it's a little stiff as well.

[Luke E.]

Where are you getting that kind of deal? Most places run high $300's to low $400's each.

 I've got a buddy with an FFL and he said he bought several a while back at a good rate and is giving me at least the one for my wife at his cost. He has done better than cost on a couple occasions when a birthday or something fell around the time. I will give him some extra if I decide to buy one for myself as well though. I don't like to take advantage of the situation and him doing one at around $250 is a big favor as it is. I saw that PSA had them for $359 but if my friend didn't have one I was going to get it from On-Target because I would have only saved probably $50 and it's worth that to me to deal local and keep my money close by. 

Edited November 18, 2013 by Luke E.

[Luke E.]

Really good pricing. I paid  then current retail for mine. Of course that was in the days of the mad rush for them last year.

 

What did you use as a polishing agent when you did your M&P? May have to try that with my 9c, it's a little stiff as well.

 

 My bag with dremel and polishing compound is in the shop but i'd be glad to look and see what it is and let you know tomorrow. If I haven't let you know something by noon, shoot me a PM and remind me. I will say that it doesn't take much with a dremel to get the job done and after that you're basically adding wear to the bearing surfaces. As I was polishing I remember thinking to myself that if I ended up being able to tell the slightest difference that i'd be lucky. Just to see if it was worth doing I only field stripped it and polished the tops of the surfaces and then fit it all back together. The first time I racked the slide I couldn't believe how big of a difference it made! I'm not exaggerating when I say that it felt like the slide was floating over the frame! I get busy and forget easily so be sure to remind me if I you haven't heard from me by noon.

[hipower]

Thanks, since you got good results; I figured I'd be lazy and ask rather than experiment on my own.

[Luke E.]

Thanks, since you got good results; I figured I'd be lazy and ask rather than experiment on my own.

 

 Sorry I didn't get this to you earlier, i've had computer troubles and have just now been able to get Windows to open up.

 

 Anyways, I looked at the polish I used and it is Northern Tool brand Green polishing compound. I'm not finding it on their website by itself but they have kits that come with all the different compounds and a few polishing wheels and what not. The Northern Tool here in Murfreesboro has round plastic tubes with sticks of the differents compounds in them, on one of the end caps. Each color is representative of a certain grit and i'm fairly certain all the manufacturers stick with the same color/grit so any should give you the results you want. I know the surfaces that you want to polish are steel but I went with the polish that is for brass so that I would get a slicker finish. I snapped a pic of the tube with me cell so if you want to see it, PM me your cell number and i'll send it your way. Also if you can't find the same stuff just send me your mailing address and i'll grab another stick and send it to you. It was only a dollar or two.