Curious as to whether Shield owners think they need the Apex kit in their Shields or are you satisfied with the stock set up?
Haven't had a chance to shoot my new Shield yet, but I'm hesitant to spend the $89 on a $400 gun if I really don't have to.

Regards,

Icemn

Not me anyway. I have no objections to the stock trigger on the shield. For a CCW pistol it works for me just the way it is so I am saving my money for more ammo instead.

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44 Garrett Defender Ammo 4 me.

None of my M&Ps have Apex triggers so I can't give a comparison. But my experience is that the trigger gets better the more rounds you fire. My Shield 40 has a crisp trigger break, no gritty feel, but requires heavier pressure. Again, all my M&P started out like that until they were enjoyed for what they were made for... a lot of live fire exercises! I anticipate the Shield to follow suit.

I put the hard sear and striker block in my first Shield and it really worked. I finally took the hard sear out and replaced it with the original sear because I felt the Apex sear was just too light for a carry gun. The striker block was a good investment though. It took all the grit out of the trigger. I have shot several Shields so far and it seems some triggers are really gritty feeling and some are actually pretty good as they come from the factory. After 200 rounds the factory sear smoothed out really well and I like it now. I didn't mess with any of the other springs and stuff.

To be honest with you, I have 6 M&P's, 4 of them with APEX trigger upgrades and I love them. the 2 without upgrades, I just picked up cause they were good deals and haven't shot much yet..they are doubles of models I already have. Now that I have put a bunch of rounds through a Shield, I have to say the stock trigger is very good, but I like my APEX triggers better. Either way, I have no trouble shooting my M&P's, whether they have stock Mass 10lb plus triggers or APEX 4lb to 6.5lb triggers, they all shoot great in my world. What I would tell a new owner is they are great guns, whether it's the Shield or an M&P, the triggers are what you want them to be, good or bad.. until I read it on the internet, I thought my trigger was fine from the factory. But once I put an APEX trigger kit in my guns, I knew I prefered it.

My point is, when you consider spending $89 or more to upgrade the trigger, it's really not that much when you consider the returns. I love my APEX, but if there was no APEX kits, I would still love my M&P's... Heck, I could spend $40 to $90 on date night once a week with my wife... she wouldn't mind much if we skipped dinner a few times for me to be able to enjoy one of my guns a little more.. and one more thing, it cost me $110 for 500 rds of ammo to break in my trigger... I'd rather spend $90 bucks for the APEX kit, have a great trigger out of the box and use the extra $20 to buy my wife a good hamburger!!

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Jack C

[/QUOTE].....and one more thing, it cost me $110 for 500 rds of ammo to break in my trigger... I'd rather spend $90 bucks for the APEX kit, have a great trigger out of the box and use the extra $20 to buy my wife a good hamburger!![/QUOTE]

i'd rather shoot the extra 500 rounds (i'm just funny that way)

Mr. P

Endeavor to perservere

I have the Apex Shield Carry kit in both of my Shields. Great improvement. The entire kit includes a new trigger return spring, which actually increases the trigger pull (because the hard sear and striker block kit alone lower the pull weight). So it is much smoother, the reset is shorter, and yet not too light for carry. Worth every penny !

Not sure yet, I'm installing an Apex kit in my M&P9c first and then I will decided about my Shield. I'm leaning towards no.

Just replacing the sear with the Apex by it self will make a noticeable difference.

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JR

Ok, I was inspired again.... just ordered the complete Shield kit and a few more kits for my other M&P's from APEX. I checked out the APEX site, watched the installation video that APEX has right on the order page for the Shield and "pulled the trigger" again...

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Jack C

I don't think my Shield "needs" an Apex kit to lighten the trigger, but it sure could use it.

When compared to other striker fired brands I own, my Shield's trigger is noticeably heavier and has a slightly longer reset. I can't see spending $89 on a $392 gun to fix something which is useable, but just a bit on the heavy side.

Maybe S&W will incorporate a better trigger in the future... And use better paint in the sights!

Edmo

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TRUTH: Don't delete my posts!

I dropped in the hard sear and then rounded and polished the striker block myself like on my FS M&P which did improve it plenty. I see no reason to go beyond that.

I ordered the complete kit for a Shield, but ordered just the sear and some springs for the other M&P's, figured I'd polish the striker myself since I have like 4 extra striker and sears.. I may even mess with one of the original sears I replaced, but my ADD kicks in and about every 30 seconds I'm somewhere else... what a surprise.. eh..

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Jack C

I have posted this before but here it is again if it helps. My Shield after 500 rounds still had a factory trigger pull of #8. On a gun with a external safety I felt this was a bit too heavy for me. I installed just the Apex hard sear and it dropped it to 5-3/4#. If there is any grittiness it is very slight in the initial take-up, which is no problem for me. There was no need for me to go further. This setup allows me the option of going back to a totally stock gun in about 10 minutes. If you do go with a striker block alteration you will need to remove the rear sight and change springs to get pretty much the same trigger pull weight but a bit smoother than I am experiencing.

For 99% of Shield owners the kit is probably not necessary, for the 1% of us owners that have to tinker, than god for Apex, Clark, Voltquartzen, Wolf, etc..

Did you mean 4 extra striker blocks? It's really easy to do. All I did was put it on the shaft end of a perfect fitting drill bit, taped it down tight and spun it on a flat piece of fine sandpaper then polished it on a mini grinder with polishing wheel.

Goggle image

I actually own 6 M&P's, 4 of them have apex kit's in them, so I have all the sears and strikers put aside for quick replacement if needed. I can play with those pieces now...

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Jack C

ALL my M&P's are stock and shoot great. Everything gets better the more you shoot them. So no.

Does anyone have a factory m&p sear they want to get rid of? I tried to modify the sear in my shield and it didn't go so well lol.

If you have trouble finding one just get a Apex hard sear and leave everything else and you should be good to go. If you do order from Apex they may have a few spare stock sears and you may get one from them for a decent price and save shipping costs.

From the responses received, it appears to me it's about 60% no and 40% yes. Thanks to you all for participating in this highly scientific poll.

One of my additional reasons for going for the whole kit in both of my Shields was to replace the MIM sear and striker block.

Sorry, just don't like MIM, and avoid it in critical parts whenever I can.

i like the Apex parts and have them installed in 3 of my M&P pistols.

my shield 40 has a pretty good stock trigger so i suppose i will leave it as is for now.

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NRA life member