I sent my 9mm Shield to ATEi to have some work done on it. While it was away, I saw Brownell's was having a sale on threaded barrels. The only threaded barrel I am aware of that is available for the 9mm Shield is made by SilencerCo. I looked it up on Brownell's and the price was right. I believe I got it for under $150 delivered. The barrel has been sitting here waiting for my Shield to return. It arrived yesterday.

I am not a big fan of shooting or carrying Sub-Compacts and tiny guns. I much prefer to carry and shoot Full Sized or Compact. My daily cary is an FN Five-seveN. When I need to go a little smaller I carry a Glock 19 with a threaded barrel and RMR, or a CZ P-07 Suppressor Ready. I live in South Florida and it gets fricken hot here in the summer. So sometimes I am forced to go really small, and I have no choice but to carry a Sub-Compact. Not being a big fan of the genre, the Shield is my only Sub-Compact semi auto. (I have 8 S&W J Frames, but I'm not into carrying a revolver these days). I figured I have a threaded barrel for almost every auto I own, so why not my Sub-Compact too!

I had already made some improvements to the Shield myself when I picked it up a few years back. I installed Warren Tactical Fiber optic front sight and a black rear sight. Though the factory trigger was not horrible, I went ahead and installed an Apex Tactical 3.5lb Competition Trigger Kit along with their black aluminum trigger. The Apex trigger is simply amazing. I decided I wanted to send it to ATEi to have a little slide milling, frame work and stippling done. I also wanted Doug to tweak the trigger a little. I also sent them an Apex Tactical Flag Trigger to install while they were in there. Let's just say the trigger is amazing. Possible the best trigger I have on any of my carry guns at this point. It is very impressive. Super short reset, no creep, breaks very cleanly and predictably.

To my surprise, despite its small size, I have always shot the Sheild pretty well, even before I did the trigger. It is a very accurate and mild recoiling little gun.

I shot a couple 7 round groups offhand unsuppressed at 10 yards to kick things off. Here are the results:






After two mags I went and screwed on my TiRant 9. Here is the first suppressed group offhand at 10 yards:



The only real challenge is not having tall sights on the Shield. With a black rear sight and black suppressor it is hard to shoot sighting the gun through the can. But it is totally doable. For such a small gun I have always been amazed at how light the recoil is. To S&Ws credit, the unsuppressed Shield really doesn't recoil harshly at all. In fact, it doesn't recoil more than my Glock 19. With its fairly mild recoil, the Shield is very easy to get right back on target for quick and accurate follow-up shots. With a suppressor on the Shield, it feel like shooting a 22lr pistol. Recoil is cut more than 50% in my estimate. It is an absolute treat to shoot suppressed.

I ran a total of 120 rounds through the Shield today. Sixty Suppressed and sixty unsuppressed. It ran 100% flawlessly. Absolutely zero issues. I did not notice any shift in the point of impact when switching between shooting suppressed and unsuppressed. It shot to the point of aim regardless. I also ran my CZ P-07 suppressed today. I could not tell a difference between my Shield and CZ in terms of sound. The report was very similar. The first shot seemed a little louder on the Shield. All 120 rounds I ran through the Shield today were American Eagle 124 grain Suppressor Ammo.

One more thing I would like to note. Normally a threaded barrel sticks out the front of the slide quite a bit. You will notice in the pictures the SilencerCo barrel doesn't. Which keeps the OAL still quite short and is not a burden to carry concealed.

If you have a Shield 9mm, a suppressor and a $150 burning a hole in your pocket, pickup a SilencerCo threaded barrel and have some fun!

Nice write up. Looks like your Shield project turned out really nice indeed. Also looks like a lot of fun.

I have a slide at AETi now for some work, hoping it comes back home next week. How bout a couple more pics to show off the top serrations they did for you? The refinish on the slide looks great!

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America First

I like the trigger and thread protector almost as much as the excellent performance and shooting.

I like your style!
That can just looks so out of proportion to the Shield LOL
Love the added Red White and Blue, sweet.

Very nice shooting by the way!
I'm loving my 45 Shield and look forward to tweaking it along the way, so far just the Apex sear in it.
Karl

Here you go!

Yes the refinish is super nice. Better looking than the OEM PVD finish that was on there. Honestly the OEM finish on my slide looked like it was not finished properly. It was very thin at points. My wife's Shield has a much better finish then mine originally did. But the new finish is excellent.

Wow that looks awesome!

First class work ! Looks great . Thanks for sharing .

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America First

One more of the ATEi milling

So the new barrel dropped right in with no fitting required? I might be interested in this. I have a YHM Sidewinder 45 that I'm going to buy a 9mm nielson device for and am looking for a threaded barrel gun to host it. I already have a Shield so.................

PS: Love your gun!

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Still carrying my S&W 642

Nice report and very nice looking Shield. Thank you for the write up and enjoy your new threaded barrel.

The SilencerCo barrel is drop in. Brownell's should still have them.

Awesome range report. Just checked, it's out of stock at $189. I've always been curious, does the extra 1/2" or so affect accuracy at all?

My own slide came back last week from ATEi. Really happy with the work they did for me. Good company to deal with .

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America First

It would only help accuracy if the sight radius was longer. But what it does do is make the bullet a little faster. You gain some fps from the longer barrel. Which is nice, you can always use a little help getting your hollow points to expand.

In short, no. But many other factors in a non-OEM barrel DO effect accuracy.

Rifling '& twist rate
Crown
Throat
Outside barrel dimension at muzzle
Chamber dimensions
Barrel hood lockup
Barrel lug dimensions

Most OEM barrels have wider manufacturing tolerances than aftermarket offerings. You can get a pretty good OEM barrel (tight fit) or one that is sloppy and inaccurate. That will not happen with an aftermarket barrel, but it is going into a mass manufactured gun that has other wide tolerances that adversely effect accuracy. The "stacking" of loose tolerances is hard to overcome.

Thus, any drop-in barrel, at a drop in price, has the potential to improve accuracy, but it is not dependent on the 1/2" longer barrel.

Only with a custom fitted "gunsmith" barrel can you eliminate most of the slop in a typical mass manufactured gun and wring out maximum accuracy potential.

Of course, the first questions to ask are:
How much accuracy do you NEED? And
How much are you willing to pay for it?

My extended Shield 9mm barrel from True Precision was a drop in, but tight. I smoothed some surfaces, rounded some sharply machined edges and it improved accuracy. My main purpose was to be able to mount a suppressor. The other characteristics were bonuses.

HarrishMasher, I find your comments informative, interesting and enjoyable to read.