So I took my new .40 Shield to the range for the first time yesterday and shot 100 rounds of Federal ammo that i got at Wally world through it. Loved the gun and it fires great and is accurate, however...I did experience the slide not staying open all the time which I've seen in other posts. What was more problematic though was the fact that my mag was releasing on me while firing. It probably did this once per each mag. I'm 6'4" and have big hands and made it a point to keep my right (trigger) hand from hitting the button. I asked the guy at the range and he said It may have been my left supporting hand hitting the release if I was squeezing to hard or anticipating the shot. This was totally valid but I had shot through my ammo and didn't have a chance to test the theory as I had to go finish Xmas shopping too. I need to check this but figured I'd see if anyone else had the same issue? Thanks

Call SW.......

My shield in 40 has been perfect, but a few have had issues

It could, of course, be a defective mag latch or mag latch spring. But my money is on operator error. No criticism, understand, but small, heavy-recoiling pistols have a way of making hands move in ways we are not aware of. It is very likely that some part of one of your hands is hitting that mag release.

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Pisgah

I just read that snappy .40 make your hands to move slightely on follow up shots. Putting on Talon grips helped a lot that person to make the grip firm. I assume it will take care of releasing the mag on .40.

I wanted Shield in .40 but just due to this particular problem i went with 9mm one.

S&w will replace the mag catch and the magazines without issue. This is a known issue and not a big deal. I have a shield 9 and shield 40. Mags only drop on the 40 so its not my finger hitting the release. S&w wouldnt go to all the trouble to repair thousands of shields if it was user error.

Call or email them. They will send you a fedex shipping label and fix it in 2 weeks.

400 rounds through mine after repair, awesome carry piece.

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MP40 442 SHIELD9 SHIELD40 MP22

What is the fire date on the envelope containing the fired casing, that came with your gun? It is what we use to figure the approximate production date of the gun. My Shield 40 had a May date and dropped all mags, until I sent the gun in for warranty and got the "dimpled" mags. Thanks

Bob

Thanks Rob. At the in-laws until tomorrow but I will check and post when I get back.

The date is 6/13/12.

I gave my brother an M&Pc 9mm that I used until I got my 357sig M&P. I had no issues with it but he kept dropping mags. We went to the range together and I ran two mags with no problem and he dropped the first mag after 2 rounds. We solved his problem by installing a larger backstrap. Evidently his hands were bigger than mine and his thumb was touching the mag release on recoil.

SWCA 892

Good tip! I am paying particular attention to posts on the mag drop problem because I have a .40 Shield on the way to me, and I want to know what to watch for. Thank you!

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Bob
NRA, MSI, SAF Member

I'm going to call S&W tomorrow and send it back for service. I shot it today and it's not my left hand hitting the release since it did it when I shot with one hand and made sure my fingers were out of the way.


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Yes that date of gun can have the mag drop issue. Mine was only a few weeks earlier and had the problem. I would call S&W and advise them of the issue. You will have to send your gun in, but the turnaround time has been greatly reduced, likely under two weeks.

Bob

Had the same issue today. Thanks for the thread.

what is this dimpled magazine thing? Something folks are doing to their mags to keep them from dropping? If so, what are they doing? With what and where on the magazine are they dimpling?

Randy

I'm one of those who had a .40 Shield that was dropping magazines. I sent it and the mags back to S&W and received it back with the dimples added to the magazines. On the info sheet provided by S&W with the returned pistol there was no indication that the magazine release was modified, only that the mags were dimpled. These modified mags didn't drop during during a couple trips to the range using WWB, Speer Lawman, and Gold Dots.

I have also had two six round and two seven round mags on backorder from Cabela's since July. The 7-round units arrived a couple of weeks ago without dimples, and lo-and-behold they didn't drop either! The 6-round ones are still on backorder.

Assuming that S&W didn't modify my mag release, then it appears the .40 Shield mags have been re-engineered to prevent the drop issue. I hope that is the case.