Hey fanboy. My opinion will be stated as I wish. You can have yours too. So rude.

After thinking about this, I just want to say your comment pi$$ed me off. You do have you opinions ans I respect everyone's. I don't want to start a urinating contest because I see your in Fl and I am sure mine won't go that far!

Let me finish by saying I loved how my shield shot, when it would shoot. It was so frustrating seeing a great design suffer from what is obviously manufacturing quality problems. What really set me off is a recent thread I read where the factory said there were no real problems, yet said they had taken the experiences and made "improvements". I also noticed they are now replacing fames on some 40 shields . Ths clearly indicates the problem s in a core tolerance and is not a minor problem. I can accept this, but using a patch on faithful customers product is just not acceptable to me. It is a shame because it is a great design. I have over 30 years automotive manufacturing engineering experience and understand quality problems. There is no way Ford,GM or any other manufacturer would accept this. My protest is not about the gun, but S&W. I expect better from an American company.

Wish everyone luck with their products. I know the 9mm is working well and that's great

I did buy the XDs and do absolutely love it. I've bought 2 more springers since. Of course, that's why they make fords and Chevys, to each his own. No hard feelings, Ok?

absolutely no hard feelings dude, that's why i put a at the end of my post my fellow free American.

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NRA life member

i just want my damn pistol back... I know i have never had to wait this long for a return and for the rep to tell me they were waiting on parts has me wondering!

I shot another 200 rounds through my Shield .40 today. (this makes 400 total). NO mag drops. I made sure I had 6 or 7 (depending on which mag) plus one on every mag. I did notice that the mags became easier/looser as I shot. Didn't seem to matter...

My issue is every shot is low and left. I shot two clips through my Glock 23 G4 and they all landed right around the bull - not great but my usual. Why can't I get my Shield to shoot accurately? I still think it is me but... Very frustrating. I bought a laser bore sight and it did show that the sights were very left so I made the adjustments... (my front sight now has a little marring on the right)

Btw... I put Talon grips on since my first visit to the range and they work AMAZINGLY WELL! No more feeling of slipping on the 6 round mag - at all!

My son-in-law is like "dead eye Jack" with a hand gun and he will be coming with me to the range next Saturday. If he can't hit center then this gun is definitely going back.

For the record mine is serial #DXY4***. And I still love this gun!

Please don't get upset as I am aware of the several different threads about the shield, but it's rather time consuming to go through and look at every other post or 3 to find a shield prefix serial number on the ones with the mag drop problems. I am picking my shield up Friday but would like to know if there is a specific thread with the serial number of the guns with the problem. I have read that the new production guns have been fixed? Thanks

Brad

Thanks for Understanding. You're a class act as far as I'm concerned!

A fellow patriot.

I've been on several Springfield forums, and there are lots of complaints about the XDs 45acp.

Bob

Hello. I just joined this forum but have been following the famous and well documented mag drop issue for some time. To make this short, I have a mag dropper and I sent it in for repair. Got it back a couple of weeks ago but I just shot it for the first time after the so called dimple repair. They just give me two new Mag's withe the dimple and did not replace the mag catch. Shot about two Mag's both the 6 and 7 rounder thru it and now even the short mag falls out. I contacted S and W and I am demanding a refund.This gun cannot be trusted as a self defense weapon. No way I could ever trust my or my families life to what amounts to a 400 dollar paper weight. They informed me that any gun sent back a second time would have to be evaluated by upper management. I refuse to keep this gun. Ill keep you posted.

You are going through EXACTLY the same thing I'm going through right now with a Kahr P9. I bought a brand new P9 about 4 months ago and experienced the same problem you guys are having with the Shield .40s (mag drops). It's been back to Kahr twice now in the past 2 months and this time I asked for a refund. I will never have confidence in it as a carry piece. As a matter of fact the drops became more frequent after they "fixed it" the first time. There are other documented cases at the Kahr forums. Been waiting on a decision from upper management for 2 weeks now as they can't seem to figure it out. In the mean time I picked up a Shield 9mm and have 400 flawless rounds through it. Would have gone with the .40 but after reading about some of the mag drop issues on this forum I went with the 9.

I got an email that my is on its way back to me.

I asked what was done:
The work that was performed was:
------- W A R R A N T Y R E P A I R D E S C R I P T I O N S ------------
014 MAGAZINE CATCH 547 REPLACE MAG 508 FUNCTION TEST TO FAC
594 REPLACE PINS 612 REPLACE BARREL STUD 617 RANGE TESTED/MEETS SP

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

Barrel Stud ?
What the heck is that?
Haven't heard of that needing to be replaced before.

I got my shield back today:

New roll pin. Mine was backing out.

Not sure what the barrel stud is but i think its the thing the barrel engages with when in battery.

This: looks new to me.


New mags and a new mag catch.



Ill shoot it tommorrow.

One interesting note. I modified my mags myself. One of them had a hairline crack (from me) and they still replaced it. I figured that i would get a phone call and be charged to replace it or get it back.

The large mag seats flush with a loud click. The short mag still shows a gap but also seats with a loud click.

Looks good so far.

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

got mine back today also, they dimpled the mags, in fact one has a tiny little crack from where they dimpled it I will send back to them to be replaced. They said they replaced the magazines(they just dimpled mine) mag catch and test fired with no issues. Must of put a box thru it because the slide was dirty!

I had the same problem with the sights, had them changed by a gunsmith to Big Red Dot and he mared them so bad I sent the gun back to S&W and had them replaced with the original sights while they fixed the mag drops. The new sights (factory) are dead on, so it is not you. The gunsmith said the sights are so jammed in there, you will mare them. I think "Dead Eye Jack" will confirm it is not you. By the way I put the Talon rubber grips on mine, it was best $15.00 I ever spent, I going to put them on all my guns.

I have a friend who works as the asst manager at a gun store where I bought my three Shields. His boss called the S&W rep for our area concerning all the customer trying to return the Shield .40. Anyways my friend called me at work and said the S&W rep was at the store. I went over and got to speak to rep myself, especially when I threw two .40s on the counter. I asked him to be honest, my question was short and sweet. What the hell is wrong with the Shield forty? He said he running into the dropping mag problem everywhere he services as well as the sights and the slide. He said in his opinion that Shield was never designed to be a forty only a 9mm. But, so many people wanted it available in forty, S&W started making them and the problems started. I have the 9mm also and no problems. I asked him if he could S&W to swap the two forties for two 9mm. He said probably not, seeing S&W is not really going to eat all the forties they have sold, that told me the problem goes way beyond this forum. He asked me why I bought the second one if I had problem with first one? I told him I was stupid and thought I just got a lemon and the second one has not had any problems after 700 rounds, so far. I don't know what to believe anymore. I did get a call from the owner of the gun store he will take back one of the forties back and give me a 9mm as soon as he gets some in. According to my friend the owner told the rep to replace mine or get all the S&W guns out of his store. I only bought 9 guns from him, I guess he did it because I am good customer. If I still do not have a problem with my repaired forty after 300 more rounds I going to sell it and keep the 9mms. Problem solved, for now.

My mags are new, they still have the white paint on the followers and mine had lines from dragging on the mag catch.

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

I guess I am missing something. What white paint and what is a follower?

The follower is the plastic piece in the magazine that pushes the bullets up with the magazine spring. My first mags, when new had a swipe of white chalky paint across the imprinted "40 s&w." after you run a few boxes through each mag the paint wears off and stays in the letters. Same with these new mags.

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

Just was at the range yesterday to run some gold dots through my new 40 s&w shield and I was using the 7 round mag and after the round in the chamber it failed to strip a new round in the chamber and to my suprise the magazine had dropped. After messing around with it ifound the magazine was somewhat stubborn when inserting it into the mag well. The grip extension if it was not flush with the bottom of the magazine would prevent it from locking into place.
The 180 gr gold dots performed flawlessly, they fed without a problem

i'll have to try the gold dots... i tried Hydrashocks, PMC Starfires, and Hornady TAPS and the hydrashocks were only acceptable @ 1 FTF in the box...

When you say you tried the different bullets, did you check your feed ramp. I shoot Gold Dots, Winchester HST, Federal Talons, Hornady Critical Duty, Winchester PDX1 Bonded, all being defense ammo. I shot two boxes of each of them (100 rounds) no problem. I had to modify my feed ramp first but never had any problems since. The end of the feed ramp on mine was as sharp as a razor so it caught the casing and on the HST it actually dug into the bullet. This might be your problem as well.

In my opinion the two best defense rounds are the HST and Talons. They might be harder to find, but they are deadly, especially the Talon. You usually only see FTFs with practice ammo which are about half the price of the ones your trying. Actually your problem would concern me more then the mag drop problem with the extended mag, which I no use for anyways, I just bought a bunch of flush mags. You might want to start a thread (unless there is one already) based on your problem and see how many others are having the same problem.

First of all, this is my first post. I have a number of S&W revolvers, but my 40 Shield (which I bought last Thursday) is my first auto pistol (although I have a US Army Remington Rand M1911-A1).

I've had my eye on a Shield for awhile, but had been waiting for my LGS to get some in. They finally got in some, as part of their annual S&W handgun sale. I had done a good amount of web research, but somehow didn't get wind of the mag drop problem until after I bought the 40 Shield. This is probably due to most of the reviews having been done on the 9 Shield. I probably would have waited for the issue to be fully resolved, if I had known in advance of the purchase.

I haven't gone to the range yet, but have been reading through the threads. I'm an engineer by training and vocation and decided to approach the matter in the following manner.

My gun is one of the newer "HAD####" serial numbers. Both mags seat with a solid, clearly audible click. In reading through the posts, I also thought there was too much play between the mags and the gun, which was causing the extended mag to slip out of the mag catch during the post-firing recoil.

Since the mag catch is on the right side of the mag, I laid down three layers of Scotch plastic tape (it comes in a multiple-pack with various colored rolls) to the back and forward left sides of the metal part of the mag. This removes the excessive play and forces the mag catch notch further toward the mag catch. I prefer this method to the punch method that has been discussed. I put the tape on both mags.

Both mags now feel real tight inside the grip section of the gun and seat very firmly. I will test the fix at the range, of course. Until the issue is fully resolved, I won't use the extended mag for concealed carry, but may use it as a back-up clip, if the range testing is positive.

I will use one of my tried-and-true S&W revolvers as my primary CCW for the time being.

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"We Dare Defend Our Rights."

My shield 40 is also a newer HADXXXX and I finally got out and battled the wind to put some down the pipe and low and behold the the mag (7rnd.) drops out and also stovepipes. Try it again and a repeat. Well I called S&W and have a label coming to me. I just do the know what to ship it back in, I guess the original box.

Brad

They told me on the phone to ship it in the original box, then into the Fed Ex box, only the mag(s) I was having trouble with and no ammo. Dah! Enclose a detail letter explaining your problems. Remember to tell the Federal Express guy you are shipping a gun when he picks it up, but do not mark anything on box. I put the RMA number and you are good to go. Good Luck!

Join the group. All I ever saw was great reviews. Unfortunately they were talking about 9mm. I have one of those also and not one problems. Hopefully I have another shorty, they are taking back one of my forties.

sooooo... I go back to the range with my son-in-law on Saturday. And, while going through another 100 rounds I/we start having mag drop on the extended mag. Accuracy? Well, he is a better shot than me but still not right. It is now in the mail back to S&W with a rather long list of issues. We will see. This thing better come back RIGHT.

never had a mag drop issue, i dimpled my mags the day i got it... also cut down the mag springs a little... but yes the only thing ive found that feeds 100% is federal "champion" 180 gr FMJ FN... i will smooth the ramp and try again...

Here is a picture of the 2 problems I experienced just after my second mag. I really like the gun and I am glad to hear that the problems seem to be fixed once shipped back from cs.

Brad

Attached Images

uploadfromtaptalk1351737649716.jpg (52.1 KB, 216 views)

The problems aren't always fixed when returned from CS. Mine was twice as bad. 6 round mag dropped after every shot. Before flush mag was not a problem. I sent mine back a second time and am demanding a total refund. How can anyone trust their or their families life to this gun. It is a $400 paperweights as far as I am concerned. They really are digging thereself a hole on this issue. Still no recall. Unacceptable.

I carry speer gold dot LE hollowpoints in my 40 shield. They shoot great, no issues. Also speer lawman.

Ive tried the cheap stuff from walmart and no issues there either.

Since i got mineback from S&W it doesnt drop mags anymore. My EDC.

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

As I mentioned in my earlier post my defense ammo is the Federal HST and Winchester Talon. I went nuts at the range Staurday and fired off 900 rounds between my Shield .40 and Kahr PM9. I now have six EDC that I would trust my life with, my new Shield .40 (1000 rounds), Kahr PM9 (900 rounds), Glock 27 (2000 rounds), Glock 26 (1500 rounds), Walther PPS (1150 rounds) and Ruger SR9C (900 rounds). I am posting these other guns for those who have given up on Shield .40. Sell it now and get the Shield 9mm, my wife's gun has fired flawlessly (600 rounds), I hope to have mine own soon. The others are alternate chooses.

These are my own opinion, other may disagree.

When I posted the shipping instructions I forgot to tell you I am sorry that you ended up with mag drop. At least they are fixing the problem or putting a band aid on it at least. The real fix is new mags that actual fit the gun and a revised catch. At least your in good company, most of us have had to deal with this problem.

Finally able to hit the range with my Shield 40 after getting it back with the dimple mag fix. Shot about 100 rounds without any mag drop from either the short or extended mags. Yeah!! Still not comfortable until I get a few more hundred rounds thru without any problems. I did notice that when I loaded the magazines, it was much easier. Didn't have to kill my hands putting the last 2 to 3 rounds in. I wonder if S&W shortened the springs in the magazine when they did the dimple fix? Now I just need to find a good IWB holster.

I don't think S&W has the drop issue fixed. I have seen several posts from owners that have October dates on the test fired casing. They are still having mag drops. My gun was sent back in early June, so S&W has been aware of the problem for a long time.

The "bumps/dimples" on the mags does fix the mag drop. Tape on the left side of the mag, to force the mag to the right side of the mag well also works. The problem is excessive side to side play of the mags, along with not enough of the mag catch penetration into the mag slot. The easiest fix should have been a revised mag catch that would penetrate deeper into the mag and hold it from dropping. I can't believe a company as large as S&W is still shipping defective Shield 40's. It should be such a simple redesigned part issue.

Bob

First off, thanks to all for posting your experiences here. It has helped me avoid a lot of issues and FUD. I picked up a DXY***** .40 last night at a local shop that just opened up. They had a great deal on it at $419. I had been researching the Shield since I first heard about it at SHOT and had been eagerly awaiting the availability of the .40. I have been carrying the full sized M&P .40 for about three years now and like it a lot, but there are times when I would like something a little less bulky. The shield seems to be the answer.

My shield seemed to engage the magazines with a fair audible click, but I decided to dimple them anyway just for peace of mind. The click is even more pronounced after dimpling them.

I will provide an update once I have a few hundred rounds through it, but I am pretty confident in the fix, mod, workaround, hack, or whatever anyone wants to call it. I call it fixed and it took me under a minute to fix both mags. I maybe called premature, but a positive lock up is just that.

Anyway, thanks again for creating an active community where folks like me can gain valuable data points and make informed decisions.

want to sell your 7 round mag?

i called CS fri. to see where my backordered 7 rounders were they have the new ones in stock but it will be 2 more wks. b4 i see mine , they said they had a large backup of 40s they had to get out so you should start seeing new guns at dealers , he would not say about any differences in the mags.

So Sunday turned out ot be a fun day. I had received an email from the gun shop that is four miles up the road from me. To celebrate Veteran's Day they were having a 10% off S&W products and (here's the good part) S&W "executives" would be on hand! Well, couldn't pass this opportunity up. I printed out almost every relevant post from this thread, held them together with a very large binder clip and highlighted the more interesting remarks. I took that packet along with my 40 Shield and stopped by. I walked in and spotted a guy with a S&W shirt with PERFORMANCE CENTER on it and struck up a conversation with him. In short order he said I should really be talking to another person. He called over a tall gentleman with an English accent and introduced him as James Debney. Mr Debney was very pleasent and accommodating. He listened to my story and seemed to take keen interest in the forum posts. He asked if he could keep all the postings and since that had been my hope anyway I agreed. FWIW I felt he was a sincere and honest person who was genuinely interested in what I had to present. He took my two magazines and promised they would be returned with the modification (as did not happen last time). He also assured me the mod would fix the mag drop issue. I admit, I had to Google Mr. Debney to discover he is the S&W CEO. He is now my close personal friend and I'm certain he will be calling me soon to invite me over for drinks In any event, the voices of this forum have been presented to the top.

Garnet

WELL DONE SIR !
And Thank you for your persistence.

This drop issue is a fairy tale, me nor my father have had issues with our .40 shield's. IMO it's people who can't handle the recoil of a .40 in a small package that are hitting the make release, man up!

LoL, I almost have to agree. I have put a **** load of rounds through mine and it hasnt skipped a beat.

Here we go..we have had a nice reasonably intelligent discussion until your brilliant post. I guess all of us here on this forum are just limp wristed and don't know how to shoot as good as you do. I guess we were all bored and sent our guns back to Smith so we would have something to do. I guess they modified our Mag's and mag catches just for fun. Why would they write me and tell me not to use my old Mag's because they would not work in my gun? Why would they send my gun back after a second return and say that it had a undersized mag catch and that it had been replaced? This is no fairy tale. Byebye now. I have a dinner date with the Mad Hatter. Give me a break.

Wow, your post screams "I'm a new shooter with very little experience, an inferiority complex and still living with my parents". LOL Keep shooting long enough young sprout and eventually you'll experience a problem gun or two. It happens.

Sorry to disagree, but perhaps you should have read
through all of the posts before offering your opinion like this.

If you had read even half of the posts here,
then you would realize that not all serial numbers
have the problem, and that it is with the extended magazine.
Granted, there are many Shield .40's out there that do not have the problem.
My congratulations to you and your father for obtaining two Shield .40's
that do not experience the extended magazine drop out.
Many of us were not so fortunate.

As an owner of a dropper, (S/N DXX####)
that was returned to S&W and repaired,
(Mag release replaced & Mags dimpled)
which now no longer drops the extended magazine,
I can tell you with absolute certainty,
THERE HAS BEEN AND STILL IS A PROBLEM.

It is out right insulting to post a comment such as this,
which implies that everyone here discussing this issue in an intelligent,
civilized manner is incapable of controlling the recoil of a .40 caliber round.

Another .40 Shield owner for whom S&W dimpled the mags and corrected the mag drop problem. I had an NRA instructor confirm my magazine drop problem before I contacted S&W about the problem. SN DXXxxx.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

probably voted for obama too

I'm 30 years old, I'm a physician and I've been shooting since 14. My father is retired LEO, neither of us are new shooters. The only problem gun I've ever owned is a Kahr CM40, and you couldn't pay me to own another Kahr.

Are serial numbers are DXT & DXY, we've both put a significan number of rounds through each. When I go to the range I top off both mags so I start of +1 every time I reload the gun. I've put enough carry ammo through it, if the drop problem hasn't reared it's ugly head yet, I'm confident it won't.

I stand by my statement, I believe many of you people are hitting the mag release, especially the guys on here talking about having more than 1 40 Shield that is a lemon. Sorry, but I don't buy that, unless they're the unluckiest person on the face of the planet.

As a 30 year old physician,
I certainly hope that you do not jump to
conclusions regarding the diagnosis of your patients
the same way that you have jumped to a conclusion here.

Pleased to see he is in Ohio and thus cannot possibly be MY physician! Ultimately one of his patients will be harmed because of his arrogance and stubborn refusal to listen to what is being reported to him.