I just picked up my brand new Shield 9 from the shop, brought it home and immediately started cleaning it. After I was done with the gun, I moved onto the mags. I took the 7rd. mag base plate off, took out the spring, turned it so the follower would fall out, but I got 2 of them instead.

Hilarious to say the least and maybe a mistaken bonus, but it got past QC. Definitely clean your firearms weather new or used, including the mags.

Good deal finding that. I'm sure we would have seen a post of you saying you can only load 4 rounds into your magazine. I always clean my magazines after a full day of shooting and especially after an IDPA match. But I have never checked my magazines when I buy a new firearm. I might just do that next time I buy a new firearm.

That's a new one on me. Good catch.

Good job finding that!

I don't think they do "QC" anymore. (I don't think "QC" would have found the two followers).

The processes, with the machinery doing the cutting, milling, drilling, etc., are self-controlling and in essence "QC's" as it does the work.

The problem is the machines sometime mess up (the young lady running the cylinder boring CNC machine at the S&W factory told me the broken window in the machine enclosure got busted when the machine threw a cylinder from its grip into the glass - unprovoked. She never found out why, but it happened). And the problem may also be that the workers -- who primarily work on keeping the machines running properly, feed them, and assemble the pieces into guns -- are working lots of overtime and may miss things they used to catch. Just my theory.

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S&W Rover

Of course this means that someone else may be missing a follower...

I doubt it. They obviously put that black mark on the followers after it's in the magazine since the one below it was clean.

I checked both my smiths.only one but my two sigma mags have the same sharpie mark on the top of the follower.mine was the display model wonder if that has something to do with it

Perhaps a wildly inventive attempt at round-limiting for Mass, NY or Cali? Just kidding... but another good reason to field strip and check the firearm and mags before filling out the Firearms Transaction Record, or Form 4473. What do you do with an extra follower?

Their QC has lacked lately. I was about to buy a new M&P40FS last week and stripped the gun in-store. The underside of the slide looked like they milled it with a dull saw-zaw. They simply got another from the shelf and it was fine. but come on now. How could you not see that!

Years ago, this was unheard of. Terrible quality control. Just terrible.

My M&P 9 w/ night sights' mag came the same way. I was confused why someone did that.

All the ones I have seen have the sharpie mark. I think it is a quality check... maybe they have problems with mags more often than I would have thought. Are the mags assembled off site, or produced by a contractor?

Good advice, though, to check a new gun thoroughly before buying.

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S&W Rover

I don't think s&w makes magazines, so if s&w has great quality control, the company that makes magazines may not, and the company that makes the s&w plastic boxes may not...

There's a bunch of if's. If the gun works fine I can fix the majority of other issues

the original point and click interface, by Smith and Wesson

Throw it in my S&W parts bin.

My Shield came from the back room so it was definitely not the display model. I've seen that mark on almost every S&W magazine that comes with a a firearm. The new individually packed mags usually don't have one.

Another advantage with s&w - you get a spare follower at no extra cost.

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Too bad they couldn't of included the rest of the mag as well.

For sure.

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I noticed the black marks on the followers recently and figured it may be a way to identify mags that come with a new pistol so dealers won't steal a mag and sell it separately.

I have never seen the black marks? Is this recent?

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I BACK OUR BLUE

I'm not sure how long they've been doing it, but it's been on every M&P mag, BG380 mag and SD9VE mag I've gotten with each firearm. The extra mags in packages never have them in my experience.

It wipes right off. Hoppes 9 and one swipe. Gone.

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