Well, I've had my Shield since Oct 2013. When I bought it, there was only one option. I never liked the fact it had a thumb safety though admittedly I have never used it or has it been a problem. I also wished that it had night sights and have since decided that any carry gun I'd buy would have factory night sights.

Well then the new Shields came out. After some serious consideration and hemming and hawwing, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a 10086 Shield. It's the 9mm, no external safety, and factory installed night sights. I can't wait till it comes in! For me, this Shield seems to be the perfect CC package for "serious business" as another forum member calls it, and for now I plan to leave it bone stock and use her in all her original factory glory.

I did consider the PC version, but for several reasons, I opted to forgo that version.

After reliability is proven in the new gun, I'll either hang on to my old one for a spare or possibly sell it. I guess it doesn't hurt to an extra Shield right?

Sounds like a nice gun. Enjoy!

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Centennial Every Day

When you get that new Shield, how 'bout taking a pic of the factory night sights from the aiming perspective and posting.
I couldn't find what they looked like on the S&W website. You'd have thought the company would've put a 360 view or something where you could see 'em...or did I miss it?

Will do. I looked for the same and couldn't find it. But then I looked at the M&P 9 with factory night sights and figured they would be very similar

Thanks for the link. I checked out the 360 on the M&P 9, but the front sight wasn't visible. Probably very similar to the Truglo TFX HD sights I have on my Shield.

Have fun with it; as a bonus, you'll like the way the fiber optics enhance the sights during daylight as well for that 3-dot layout.

Attached Images

Truglo2.jpg (29.0 KB, 255 views)

I spoke to S&W customer service today. Knowing that Glock will install their factory night sights for $57 (pretty much the difference between the standard and night sight version) and noticing the MSRP difference between sku 10035 and sku 10086 was $100 I thought perhaps they could do something similar. Nope, $170 plus cost to install. And 10086 comes with 3 mags from what I understand, so part of the extra cost is the e tra magazine. Guess factory night sites are out (unless it's on a new gun, lol).

Dang! I thought about that route but really wanted a NTS model anyways. Glad I didn't waste my dime giving them a call. I too would have passed on that option.

Going to pick her up tonight from the FFL!

Woohoo!

Nicely done! Mine is the NTS, Contrast sight (10035)!

Picked her up last night and when I got home did the field strip to clean and sure enough, my recoil spring assembly (RSA) retainer disc is bent. Not as bad as some pictures I've seen, but bent none the less. Looks like the gun was made on 09-17-15. Guess I'll be calling into customer service. The RSA on my other shield bought in 2013 looks perfectly straight and that is after lots and lots of shooting it and may field strips/reassembles so it's not me.



Other impressions: the trigger is very heavy compared to my well broken in Shield; I hope it improves. Overall, the gun doesn't feel as smooth compared to my current shield, but again I figure it will smooth out with use. The night sights are nice and I like them. I had no problems with racking the slide, dis-assembly or reassembly. It really needed a good cleaning.

Only issue so far seems to be the bent RSA.

RSA should stand for "Really Sucky Accessory"...ok, maybe that was a bit harsh but if a piece of a gun can bend after being shot only once at the factory then maybe it should be looked at again. I do understand that people shoot with bent RSA's without issue and that it's probably a very small percentage of people who have this issue but that doesn't mean that it's ok or right. I, personally, don't want any parts in my firearms that get permanently deformed from their original state after shooting them. You can bet that the engineers did not design, analyze or test with bent RSA's at the factory so who knows when it will actually cause a malfunction in a SD scenario. Sorry...too much caffeine...

When I purchased two shields, one of them had the bent RSA (exactly as you have pictured) right out of the box. I emailed customer service with a photo of the serial number, the box, and the RSA. They confirmed it was defective and said they would send a new one in 2-3 weeks (which actually took 2 months). BUT, in the meantime, we put about 500 rounds through the gun with no issues. Just shoot it, and it should be fine til the replacement RSA gets there. Sucks though that they don't just add a few mm's of thickness to then end "cap" on the RSA (like on the FS and Compact). Enjoy the Shield!

I already have a ticket in with S&W so hopefully I'll get a replacement soon.

I'm thinking about getting the same model shield with night sights. Could you post some pics of the sights. Sorry to hear about the rsa. Thanks.

Congrats on your new acquisition! I too now have a safety-less Shield (9mm) with factory night sights. I took the barrel and RSA from my other Shield (with the safety) and placed them in the night-sighted slide. I like having the spare frame, new barrel and RSA in the safe.

The factory night sights are Trijicon and work very well day and night. The only problem I'm facing is the arrival of the new PC Shield today at the LGS where I work. Oh well, we'll see! I do wish the Shield was available with the PC features and night sights, minus the ported barrel and slide.

Like the safety just might add night sights later but brand are on the new ones

I will try and get picks of the sights tonight.

I had thought about using my existing RSA but hadn't considered using both the barrel and RSA from my current Shield. Might have to give that a go while I wait for a replacement RSA.

Just got an email from S&W regarding the RSA. It states:
We apologize for this inconvenience. I am sending you a new one at no charge. Your order number is: 199####. It is currently on backorder but will ship to you as soon as it becomes available.

I apologize in advance for my photography skills...