Ok i just bought 2 shields yesterday and both guns are virtually impossible to load the mags . And girlfriend cannot pull back slide
I have hulk hands and find ot nearly impossible to load the mags and the girlfriend at best can only load 1 bullet in mag . Is there any shorter or weaker springs available for the mags and action ???

Get an Uplula mag loader, it will make your
girlfriends life & thereby your life much easier.
Don't mess w changing the spring, it can make
the mags unreliable.

Shield mags are stiff. Get an Uplula as suggested. You can use it with just about any mag. I have one.

The slide is extremely stiff when new.

Both will soften with use.

There are plenty of posts on those questions in the forum...

The simple answer is: as was previously mentioned, the Uplula is a must--period. Second, I found it really helped to load up my magazines and leave them that way. After a while, manual loading was so much easier--I still continue to use the Uplula--it just makes it a breeze.

You might want to try leaving your slide lock back for 24-48 hours before you take it to the range for the first few times. After you get more rounds through the pistol, you should find that racking the slide gets a little easier.
I have shot 1,600 rounds through my Shield over the past several months and it is a joy to shoot, mag springs are just right and the slide, although a little stiffer than other makes...has improved greatly with use.

Go shoot the heck out of it--and as others have said before me, watch out for this Shield flaw: It is hungry for more ammo--what can I say? It makes me look forward to Range Day every week.

True, True, True!
After you put 400-600 rds. through it You will be able to load the mags by hand and the slide will be more manageable.
Disassembly and Reassembly will be much easier. It is a sweet piece but it does have to be broken in before you are comfortable shooting it!

mb

springs will loosen up with time and usage. load the mags and let them sit for a week or so.

or better yet, get out and run about 200-300 rounds through the thing. amazing what that will do for the stiff springs and such.

https://youtu.be/7luzERTcTV0

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MSP - Retired

The Uplula is the essential ~$30 accessory for every Shield. Makes loading other magazines a breeze too.

The recoil springs are stiff by design, heavy caliber in a short light gun. I have an arthritic type condition so I understand the problem with racking the slide. I find it much easier to hold the slide in my left hand sort of braced up to my sternum and then push the frame forward to cock the pistol, rather than holding the frame steady and trying to pull the slide back. Once all the way back, let it snap forward as it will after firing a round, this makes sure the extractor engages and the gun goes all the way into battery.

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Jim - M&P Pro 40L/Shield 40

The springs supplied are essential to proper operation of the weapon. Weaker mag springs will not cause the next cartridge to get up top quick enough to feed. A weaker recoil spring will result in slide battering the Frame beyond repair.

Not much left to add, besides getting that UpLula and 'exercising' the springs (Go shoot that thing).
Buying weaker springs (if you could find them) would be a waste of money, as well as possibly damaging the pistol, which would cost you MORE money (and possibly cause you to badmouth the pistol over something you modified).

Shoot it! Safely and enjoy it. Put as many rds. through it as you can.
It only gets better!

mb

The Shields are stiff operating little guns. The Shield magazines can be a real pain to load when new. These things I knew before I ever handled one at a LGS.

My first was a Like New In Box Shield 40 with safety. An impulse buy because it was $300 and looked like it had never been fired. Knowing all of the above and from reading all the posts/threads here, I knew I couldn't "baby" or be easy/gentle with it. I never had a problem operating all the functions to check it out, even though it was stiffer than any of my FS pistols. The mags, while stiff; I was able to load all but the last round without a leather shooting glove I use for cool weather shooting. Used the glove for the first 100 rounds and then didn't need it afterwards. Leaving the mags loaded will help in the break in/loosening up of the springs.

A few weeks later, bought a new Shield 9 without the safety. Even took this one apart at the shop before I even made an offer to purchase. Again, knowing how to handle the little bugger makes things easier for operation. I will say the mag springs in the 9mm were a tad stiffer than the 40; but again, using my leather glove for the first 100 rounds and leaving them loaded solved the issue again.

I love both of the Shields; they both shoot very well and are surprisingly accurate for me out to 10 yards and I've never had an issue with either as far as firing/function/ejection. And they are a lot of fun! With use, it will loosen up. Hope you enjoy your new Shield :-)

My 40 racked hard at first 700 rounds later I can rack it with my thumb and index finger of my support hand. I can load the mags with out the loader but don't like to. it is my EDC and so I often stop at the range to shoot and decide to run some rounds through it and the loader is at home. I then only load all but the last round by hand and just give up getting in. I have to get that last one back in when I replace my carry rounds and it is hard on the fingers. Don

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USN Retired/VN VET
M&P X5

Yes ran in same problem with that stiff. Mag issue. With a Springfield xds 45. But after a 100 rounds and loaded they loosened up. Its not been an issue with the m &p 40 c .

I wish I had gotten an Uplula years ago. I only got one after developing a lump on my index finger top joint from pushing rounds in. Well worth the 30 bucks.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

I was having the same problem, thanks for the Uplula suggestion guys

Uplula solves all sore finger problems, and indirectly, by firing the weapon a lot, solves the "stiff" recoil spring problem. Recoil spring rates are high on small semi-autos because the mass of the slide is small. They are also perceived as stiff because you are grasping small slide and frame surfaces, same as the perception of high trigger pull weight with a skinny trigger. S&W has well engineered pistols with springs that last tens of thousands of slide cycles. I am very skeptical of anyone saying that their recoil springs have "softened" or relaxed after repeated cycles, whether by firing or manual cycling. Our perception of the springs "softening" or breaking in is caused by polishing and smoothing of the wearing surfaces. I also believe that most of the perception of "softening" or "smoothing" is from hand muscles strengthening and "learning" how to cycle the slide. If I don't pick my little Ruger LCP for a while I struggle to easily cycle the tiny slide, but pretty quickly remember where to pinch the serrations very hard while pulling back. Voila, my LCP springs "soften". If recoil springs "softened" or suffered a reduced spring rate, they would allow the slide to recoil to its stop without absorbing as much stored energy as a new spring, and not having as to return the slide to battery. Thank goodness that coiled springs don't really soften up, at least not in a sane number of displacement cycles. I'm sure to hear from posters who swear by changing springs every XX thousand rounds or so, but I have yet to see someone actually measure a spring rate changing, or the relaxed position of a spring shortening.

Shield mags are unusually stiff for a single stack, maybe they cut a corner and just used the same spring for the 6 and 7 round mags.
Another vote for the UpLula, and another vote for just shooting the gun to break it in. Going with the Shield 40 instead of the 9 for whatever reason also gives you a harder to rack slide, comes with the territory.