Good morning. I am new to the forum, and to S&W. I just recently purchased a new Shield for my wife. We went to the range this morning, and the she had a few FTF in the first magazine. When the magazine was empty, the slide locked open. However, I can get the slide to release now. I can't pull the slide back any further and the slide release button will move up and down but the slide will not release. In addition, the barrel appears to be locked tight (there is no play at all in the barrel with the slide locked open).

I feel foolish asking if anyone has had this trouble and how they fixed it. I have been a bow technician and a good amateur gunsmith for years. I build ARs from scratch, fully disassemble hunting rifles and shotguns for cleaning, and build compound bow strings. But this has really got me perplexed.

Does anyone have any ideas, or at least is there a way to release the slide by pressing down on something inside the chamber without pinching my fingers (if I can get the slide to shut).

This may be an obvious question, is the mag still in the firearm?

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SDMF

Hi I tried with both an empty mag in and the mag out.

Drop the mag and release the slide. The empty mag pushes up on the slide stop/release. Remove the mag and either just pull back the slide and let it go or push the slide release. It's just like the bolt hold open on ARs.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Arik...wish it was that easy. Did that and the slide wont move.

Hmmm. If you engage the slide stop can you operate the striker deactivation bar and turn the takedown lever?

Tried that too.....the slide is not quite far enough back to turn the take down lever. Maybe it just needs to go back for some repair work.....bummer.

Can you see the front of the recoil spring assembly? Is it crooked? Can you line it up better?

Try this from an old post here with similar problem:


Quote:
Originally Posted by bckaroo
Rastoff. To tell you the truth i did not notice either way. I didn't even think to check that.
First of all, thank you for answering the question (all of them). You will continue to find this site very helpful.

I asked about the barrel because it is one potential cause of what you had. Allow me to explain...

As the slide moves backward, the barrel moves toward the rear a little, then drops/tilts down. If for some reason, the barrel doesn't move back far enough, it will be pinched between the slide and the frame. The result is a slide that won't move either way. Depending on how stuck it is, will determine what is necessary to free it. Yours wasn't stuck bad.

Try this; lock the slide back on an empty chamber. Now, wiggle the barrel a little. It should seem quite sloppy. The barrel should feel loose. This is normal. That movement actually helps the feeding process.

I have seen your situation a couple of times and each time it was due to the barrel getting wedged in there. The fix was to bump the barrel on the muzzle to dislodge it. In each case the malfunction has not returned that I know of.

This is exactly what has happened......I will try bumping the barrel back.

The Shield will do this when it is new and not broken in as of yet. The fix is easier than anyone has hit on.......... Just take the magazine out, make sure that there is no cartridge in the chamber and then slam the butt of the slide against your leg. The slide will jump over the binding point and slam shut. By the time you have 50 rounds thru the handgun this problem will have gone away. Then clean and GREASE the slide rails and barrel, do not use oil. Shoot another 50 rounds and IMHO, you will never again experience this slide lockback past the point that the slide lock is doing the holding. ..........

I had the same thing happen to me on my first trip to range...resident gunsmith wacked the gun on his bench, slide broke loose, he looked at me, "new gun?"-- "not broken in yet" My shield has been flawless since...

I just bought the 9mm Shield and took it to the range on Friday and have the same problem as you. I don't understand how to fix it.

My Shield did the same thing in the first 25. I just popped it with the palm and it slid back forward and I shot about 75 more rounds. Took it home and cleaned and lubes and it has never done it again. Every part of this gun is TIGHT out of the box, especially the slide. The more rounds that have been shot it gets smoother to operate. When it was brand new my with could not rack the slide at all and now she can with little effort.

^This please see the other thread going on here discussing this issue. the barrel is getting caught up.
Shield 9 slide jammed back

Hard to trust a pistol that malfunctions right out of the box.

I'm unaware of any other pistol that malfunctions out of the box with such regularity.

Instead of messing around with it, send it back to S&W.

As long as S&W's strategy of outsourcing quality control to its retail consumers works, they have no incentive to fix things before they leave the factory.

If these things were designed as purely range guns it wouldn't be so bad.

Unfortunately, they are supposed to be SD pistols.

I have no confidence they will work when needed.

I have not had 1 issue with my 9mm Shield except I keep having to buy more ammo :O, Now my Ruger SR9E at first I had several FTE but now no issues. I would drop another line to S&W if it happens again, Maybe working the slide several times when watching TV may help wear down any minor burrs? Please post what you find !

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9mm Shield

If the magazine is removed and the slide lock is in the down position so it is not engaging the slide, I would suggest a sharp blow to the rear of the slide with rawhide mallet, wooden mallet or a piece of wood to dislodge where it is blinding. If it happens again, time for a trip to SW. Also if you dislodge it make sure to clean away any dirt/grime and lube the pistol.

See comments of "thesmithiz" above.

My new 45 Shield performed flawlessly out of the box with 250 rnds put through it, but also my routine for every new gun that I buy is to rack the slide and pull the trigger about 50 to literally 100 times before going to shoot it, I also give it a cleaning and lube/grease job. Never had this type of problem after doing these things before shooting the pistol. It manually breaks the gun in somewhat in my opinion.

For the most part, this is exactly what I always do with every new semi-auto handgun I purchase. The first couple of cleanings (the first cleaning is before the first shooting session) I do on a new semi-auto is to OVER-grease the slide contact surfaces and rack the slide 50 -100 times, then disassemble and clean off the excess grease. As a result I cannot ever remember having a feed/functionality issue that wasn't either a result of bad ammo, or human error. Maybe I've been lucky, but I definitely think this procedure is a key factor in minimizing new gun issues!

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Mark