I had a shield .45 from the original batch and sold it due to feeling that the mag release never had a solid enough purchase on the mags... I personally never had any problems, but I felt I jumped in before the bugs were worked out and wanted to wait. Now I understand that S&W has released updated mag followers to fix that situation and I'm REALLY considering grabbing another shield .45 now that the second mags+ammo+ mag loader rebate is going on (would have preferred an extension of the $75 rebate, but I can live with extra mags)... my question is. how do I identify if mine comes with the old followers ?? what should I be looking for?

Here's a picture off an older thread that shows old and new.
Arrow points to new style cut.
I believe my Shield is an April 2017 gun, and both mags were old style. Spare 7 rounder from Midway was old style as well.
Have a little over 200 rounds, and no drops yet in three different mags.
I did e-mailed S&W and have them send me three extra followers just in case.

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ok, that's easy to see. I'll probably call in and hope i get Rachel when I order the gun

You can cut the clearance in the old style follower in about 5 minutes with a file also.

Mine came with the new followers and had a March build date. I have more mags coming in that may have the old ones. If so, I'll just notch them with a file, if I mess them up S&W will send me replacements, although I think there's a wait for them right now.

There are plenty of Shield owners who aren't having drop issues with old followers.

I went on the chat this morning and chatted with a Steve and they are sending me some of the new ones. He said 5-10 days.

Must be back in stock...nice.

FYI...mine DID take 10 working days (rural area)

That's what I'm thinking. He didn't mention anything about them being on back order.

I bought six new 45 Shields, fired them all (mostly just four or five magazines), all dated from November, 2016 right up through March 2017 and I have never had a mag drop. All had the "old" un-grooved followers.

However, that doesn't mean YOU won't have a mag drop.

I just set up my Dremel drill press and stone and ran all my followers through to create the groove just like the factory's "new" follower (which I shook down S&W for and used as my model).

I think the mod of an "old" follower or asking for a "new" follower is the safe route to follow with the 45 Shield. I have had enough OTHER bad luck with them so there's no need to leave any stone unturned in my experience.

I have the old style followers as well, and never had a problem until today. I had 3 mag drops in 25 rounds. So how do you get the new ones? Just contact S&W?

I ordered some .45 Shield mags online that came with the old followers. They run fine but plan to get some new followers and replace them anyways. Sounds like S&W is running behind on replacement followers.

Has anyone just emailed S&W requesting new followers or does it require a phone call to their repair group?

I hit them up on chat. Just general customer service. They pop right on. Quick and easy.

Just curious, were you shooting left handed or right?

After just buying a Shield 45 from Palmetto State Armory, and experiencing this mag drop issue myself at the range, I am left wondering how in the world Smith is not recalling these defective mags and how retailers are still selling them?

It's only an issue on a percentage of the guns produced. Probably, not enough to warrant a recall. They should inform their representatives of the issue and make follower replacement easy. Looks like only Rachel got the memo.