So I am a fairly inexperienced gun owner. Been to the range a bit in the last year, got my TCL and yesterday hubby bought me an M&P Shield 2.0 9mm. The only one in stock was w/o a manual safety. I have been using a Shield EZ w/o a safety so am used to that. We start to disassemble for first cleaning/lubing. Read the Manual which says remove mag, lock slide open and push seer deactivation yellow lever down. Well this gun has no yellow lever showing. It does have a little black tiny bar sticking out right around where the top of the mag would be if inserted. Hubby tells me he believes this gun doesn’t have a yellow deactivation lever showing because it has no manual safety lever. Now, he knows a lot about rifles but not handguns so I am leery to trust he knows what he is talking about. What say you experienced Shield 2.0 folks?

You should see a small lever just below the firing pin area. It is not always yellow, sometimes black or silver. Just push it down to release. You can also release slide stop and pull trigger to release the slide. Make very very sure the magazine is out and there is NOT a round in the chamber. The slide should slide off easily. Hope this helps.

Guess who's got some gun cleaning to do this weekend.

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My 1.0 PC Shield’s lever still has some yellow though hard to notice. But it is in there and easy to use.

Excuse the crummy pix lol

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yeah i kinda realized I have some spring cleaning to do as well

Thank you guys so much for your quick answers. Ok, so with these pics we have found it. It is right below that short black tiny bar that sticks out. It is flush against the back side, nothing sticks out. But we are supposing it will push down with a small screwdriver we have. Hope that does it, we tried to move the slip off in case it’s flushness means it is already down, no go with that.
LOL, this is one of those things where when hubby finally saw the lever, he sees it as yellow, I see it as silver! And shame on S&W for showing a pic in the manual as this lever sticking up toward the top. Guess they think all buyers are very experienced. And if not, use the EZ, till ya are! But, hey, we found that lever.

fyi for lowering the levers on my MP's; I just use an old bic pen with the insides removed. Being basically a small plastic tube it can grab the edge of the lever easily without risking any damage if i slip. good luck!
And I'd say never worry about asking questions; it can be worse to make assumptions on something you are unsure of, especially when it comes to guns. This forum can be a great site for help.

I don’t use the lever at all. Just pull the trigger to release the slide. Just double check that the chamber is empty before you do it.

As it sounds like they are somewhat inexperienced with handguns i would recommend just using the lever; and not the trigger method.
just my .02 of course.

Using the lever also forces you to open the slide and take out the mag in order to reach the lever. So not a bad habit to pick up.

Of course, mine have mag safeties so pulling the trigger to strip is more complex.

BINGO!

Finally someone with common sense that understands the built in "safety" mechanisms of the gun. Very good advice my friend for our new shooter.

Of course all the other gun mfr's are unsafe
99% of the gun safety exists between the ears.

BTW you can't just pull the trigger to release the slide on an M&P with a sear deactivation bar. You have to pull the slide back, pull the lever down, put an empty mag in your empty gun, close the slide, pull the trigger, then release the magazine (and maybe pull the magazine out of the magwell too) and the slide will now release all the way off.

The Shield 9mm has now been cleaned, oiled and is ready for its first range trip! Thanks again

Not all M&Ps have a mag safety. My FS and Compact do becuase they were “not unsafe” when I bought them in 2013 (on the CA roster then). My Shield does not but I flip the lever anyway.

Congratulations on a successful take-down, cleaning, and reassembly!
Now may be a great time for a range trip, with Comcast suffering a major outage and all!

This confusing and unclear statement appears to be false to me. Putting a mag in the mag well pushes the sear deactivation lever up, engaging it. This defeats the purpose of pushing the sear deactivation down, disengaging it. In addition, most slides will not come off the frame if a magazine is in the mag well.

My advice: don’t follow this advice.

The magazine safety (trigger won't operate unless there is a magazine inserted into the pistol) can be a real pain if decide to shoot competitively. The last step a shooter has to do before holstering the gun is pull the trigger and drop the hammer (or striker) on an empty chamber proving it's empty. I do run across these guns now and then when I'm running a stage, The shooter has to put an empty mag in the pistol, after the hammer/striker drops, pull out the magazine and holster the pistol before the range is clear. Not that big of a deal but most new shooters get a bit embarrassed doing this. (they're already nervous enough after shooting their first match)

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Minimize the variables

I think he was referring to the takedown lever, not the sear deactivation.

Besides for safety, is if you fumble locking back the slide during reassembly, you won't have the slide crashing forward only to be stopped by the striker slamming into the tiny sear.

I had a USPSA RO actually grab my arm in a sectional match when I inserted an empty mag into a Brn HiPo to drop the hammer, and we had to summon the match director to tell him he could not DQ me, and explain to him that magazine disconnectors were legal.

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Science plus Art

That's correct. The takedown lever, not the sear deactivation lever. This way you don't need pointy objects or good near field vision to fiddle in dark parts of the gun in brilliant sunlight conditions. I used to use the sear deactivation lever and even took the tool out of the handle of my M&P FS gun to use it at times, but pulling the trigger (with a magazine inserted because I have a model with the mag disconnect) is simpler. It's nice to have the option with the M&P guns. Some guns don't have the option but just like having guns without safeties, you learn to use the safety between your ears all the time.

Again, not recommended for those who don't know whether their gun is loaded or whether they have a loaded or empty magazine.

I wish S&W would invent a take down where you make sure the gun is empty. Pull the trigger and move the slide to the rear a smidge while simultaneously pulling down a couple of tabs. Release and viola! Would be so much easier.

They do—-it’s called the SD9VE and SD40VE.🤗

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JAREDSHS
LEO(retired)