I broke down my Shield .45 magazines for cleaning last night, and encountered the dreaded reassembly problem with the 7-rounders. Once I had them back together, the guide tabs would not retract into the floor plate. The tabs were angled forward, and were not aligned with the slots in the floor plate that would allow them to retract. In this condition, the magazines are useless, as they cannot be inserted into the magazine well.

The obvious solution was to partially slide off the floor plate, and slide it back on again while trying to hold the tabs at just the right angle so they'd slip into their slots. At this, I failed miserably. Plan B entailed using a screwdriver to push the tabs rearward with the floor plate fully installed, hoping once I'd gotten them to just the right angle, they'd line up with the slot and retract. No go. Plan C was actually Plan B.2, using a small flat-head punch in place of the screwdriver. (When all else fails, go to the flat-head punch.) The punch was able to make better contact with the tab than the screwdriver, which made it easier to push. Because I was thoroughly annoyed by now, I pushed the tab way beyond what I thought was the correct angle, basically as far back as I could push it. At that point the punch slipped off the tab, causing it to snap forward...and into the floor plate. Success! I then repeated this procedure successfully with my other two 7-rounders. It took as many as ten push-and-releases to get get the other tabs to retract, but it eventually worked.

To summarize:
1. Reassemble the magazine just as if it was a normal, properly designed magazine.
2. Unless you are incredibly lucky (or good) you will now see the two guide tabs angled forward on each side of the magazine tube.
3. Using a flat-head punch or similar, push one of the tabs (the other will follow) as far toward the back of the magazine as you can, and let it snap forward.
4. Repeat as necessary.
5. Cuss out Smith and Wesson for designing this mess of a magazine, and for not showing you how to properly reassemble it in the owner's manual.

Hope this helps.

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What, me worry?

Is the 45 mag that much different than the 9 and 40 to be such a problem?

haven't had the pleasure yet of taking apart my Shield 9 mags. not sure what to expect.

I remove the bottom plate from the spring, reassemble them as separate parts, easy peazy!

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I'm not familiar with the .40 magazines, but the 7-round (large) .45 magazine is very different from the 9 magazines. The latter are pretty traditional in design, and are relatively easy to reassemble. The 6-round (small) .45 magazine is similar to the 9 magazines and is also easy to reassemble. It is the 7-round .45 magazine with its unique guide tabs that gave me problems. I have six other semi-autos (including a Shield 9 and an M&P 40c), and none have the guide tab feature. So if you don't have a Shield .45, you should be OK.

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What, me worry?

FYI. Watch what people sell you. The Pearce Grip Extension DOES NOT WORK on the 45 Shield 7rd mags no matter what they tell you. They do not have the guides molded in them.

They work just fine on the 6rd mags.

Can you post pics please?

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Freedom isn't free.

Well, isnt that interesting.

...considering I ordered a 4 pack last night

Guess I need to warm up the ole Dremel

Of the Pearce extensions?...or the boogerbear tabs and reassembly process?

If this is true of the Pearce extensions they are going to need their own thread

Just the factory "tabs" the OP is talking about. I haven't seen this issue, but I don't have a Shield 45 and can't picture what these "tabs" are.

Aftermarket accessories bring their own issues.

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Freedom isn't free.

I have a house full of company for the next couple of days, so I can't disassemble one of my magazines to photograph the guide tabs right now. However, I've attached the link to the Shield owner's manual from the S&W website. Scroll down to pages 29 & 30, and you can see the guide tabs that are part of the floorplate catch.

https://snwcdnprod.azureedge.net/sit...310000_web.pdf

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What, me worry?

OK Rastoff....just for you my man (and to help out swsig)

First piccy shows the tangs out of their groove due to unlocking the floorplate from the base, they should be straight up and down along the long axis of the mag when seated in their base slots. This denotes that the floorplate is also canted/stuck inside at this angle on a perpendicular...

Second piccy shows the whole mess pulled apart, note the tangs and their notches they fit through on the outside of the mag...

Third piccy shows the base, hopefully at a lighting angle so you can see the grooves in the rear that the tangs fit in to, also note the large notch in the front to arrest the large tongue on the front of the floorplate...

Fourth piccy...this was a trickky piccy (coulda been a disaster) This shows all the alignment as it goes back together, then slide the base back on. (and yes I held it backwards and had to spin it around )

The actual "trick" comes when your all done because the floorplate will naturally "cant" like it does in the first pic and not be properly locked in. Then I reach in the lock slot with a punch and work to "level" the floorplate inside. When its just right it will all "snap" down in place in the base.

EDIT: CHECK BELOW FOR VIDEO OF FINAL SOULUTION TO THIS PROBLEM....THANKS

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Another user said take the baseplate off the spring and put it in the extension, then reassemble. Or fight it for 20 minutes. When it cants like it does, it can booger the slots in the extension and until those are cleaned up it will never go back together.

Done it many times without any problems / issues.

I guess I never really even thought to disassemble and clean a magazine...

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S&W M&P 15 Sport II

I just now saw this. Thanks for the pics. It explains the issues perfectly. I have never seen a mag floor plate like that. I wish I could spend some time with this mag to figure out the intricacies of reassembly.

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Freedom isn't free.

It is a total pita to put it back, I spend probably half an hour trying to figure it out. I almost lost it, what a weird design.


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M&P 9, Shield9.

I agree, its a true test of a man's character



Welcome

NEW TIP FOR ASSEMBLY... I believe I have discovered the "trick" to this process .

In the attached vid for reassembly, when you slide the baseplate back on the legs of the spring retainer "cant's" at an angle. When they do this it gets very persnickety to get the spring retainer to recess back into the baseplate.

At this point all you can do is reach in the locking tab opening with a roll punch or the like. As Shield9mm said, its a PITA and there is usually swearing involved

The new trick.....

Pinch mag on its side between thumb and index finger in a manner that your fingers end up pointing at the ends of the legs. Once you poke the punch, at a downward angle, into the locking tab hole to level the spring retainer, move the punch back-and-forth while gently aligning the legs into their notches.

This is all by FEEL and after a few times you will get the hang of it when the spring retainer snaps into place.

Hope this works for everybody

After watching the video it looks super easy, hopefully I never had to disassembled one again, I was just curios what was required to make the 6+1.
Also I was having some issues loading the mags specially the 7rnds with the uplula, at some point the mag follower seems to get stuck, that's why I took it apart, but when tried to reassembled the spring I noticed some binding between the follower inside the walls of the mag. I have only put 50 rnds through, no issues tough.

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M&P 9, Shield9.

That video is pretty much how I got mine put back together. Too bad you didn't have it up sooner. Might have saved me fifteen minutes struggling with the darn thing before I figured it out.

Lol...Hope nobodies head popped off

I know this crazy problem has give/or will give ya fits.

Hope I saved some lives

Assisting the legs SLIGHTLY to get back into their grooves while working it back and forth is the key.

I noticed a marked improvement around the 100rd mark on the mags, also with an UpLula.

The .45 magazines are a different design. They are a pain in the *** to get back together. The 9 and .40 mags re-assemble without any problems.


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only the 7 round magazine, the 6 round is like other's M&P mags.


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M&P 9, Shield9.

Good gosh, thanks to the OP! I was at a cross roads with the 7rd for my new PC 45 Shield. One try that way, and good to go. Now I can swap between my 686+ and my new PC 45 Shield. The Smith rep at the PX on Knox this weekend was awesome, good hire there Smith. Sorry to the admin for resurrecting an old thread, but it helped me immensely!

No problem with the 9's. I wish that they had simply made a very slightly longer mag with a spacer sleeve like the smaller Shields than to deal with this mess.

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Blessed be the Lord,my Rock

Yea, its a pain in the arse for sure. We worked through it a year ago. I thought I had posted my vid in all the threads but missed this one.

Heres a later vid thats a bit longer with narration if you can stand the Texas drawl

I managed to get it done once about a year ago. The experience is seared--seared--into my memory.

I would probably buy new mags. before I'd attempt to dis-assemble and re-assemble the 7 rounders! The last thing I need at my age is more frustration!

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It's The Carbonaro Effect!