While digging through my ammo safe I discovered that I have a few thousand rounds of 45ACP in every flavor; mostly lead round ball and LSWC, with some hardball, JHP, and even some Hornady defense rounds scattered in there. The problem is that I don't have a gun to feed them through. My LGS has a used 45 Shield that I can get for $340 OTD. I'm not into plastic guns, and don't have any. Will this pistol handle the lead ammo as well as the jacketed stuff?

Cannot comment on the lead rounds, but, my shield has over 2000 rounds without a single mishap. a mixture of at least a dozen different types of rounds. Jhp, fmj, alum cased, nato, several defensive loads, +p.



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The Shield will handle it all but where you may have a problem is if any of these are reloads as the Shield is sensitive to bullet seating depth and profile. The lands and grooves are tight to the chamber and thus you may have a problem with complete chambering as I learned with some of my reloads that worked fine in other semi autos.

I will say too that I am not a 'plastic' gun guy but I think you will find that the Shield will prove itself as an accurate and pleasant shooting small gun, my first outing with it in stock form a I fired 105 rounds and thought nothing of it. I did put in an Apex sear, added a slip on grip sleeve not that the texture was too much just that I wanted a bit more girth in the grip.

You won't regret buying a 45 Shield
Karl

Well, you're in Virginia and I'm in Virginia...

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High Caliber History

If you are not in to plastic pistols but you want to burn up some .45 ammo and you obviously don't want to spend much on a gun to do it... skip that Shield.

Find a Ruger P-90, they can be had CHEAP and they are big, bloated, tough and ugly and one of these will be better in every possible way than a Shield (except concealed carry.)

Just out of curiosity, how did you not know you had thousands of rounds of 45? Call me OCD but I spreadsheet every round and firearm I own.

+1 on buying the Ruger P90 or other steel gun. I love my Shield 45 but as a carry gun I'm careful what I feed it. The tolerances are tight and it's just not as flexible with ammo as a steel gun.

All factory loads

I inherited the safe from my late uncle. I finally got around to moving it to VA from NC last weekend. Opened it (fortunately lock had a backup key) and started inventory. No weapons, just ammo. It was a bear to move.

You asked for it...you're OCD. I do the same.

Any M&P will handle lead just fine. I have owned a FS, Compact and a Shield. The Shield is no exception.

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Dave

I would buy a full size M&P45. It would be much more fun to shoot. A Shield is a great CCW gun but it's not really a great range gun. I like my Shield 9 but bigger guns are a lot more fun to shoot. A couple of days ago I put 600 rounds down the range. Two hundred through my M&P 40, 100 through the 9mm slide on the same gun, 100 through the Shield 9 and 200 through an XD9. While it was good to get more trigger time with the Shield, it was also the most fatiguing.

While I would suggest getting a cheaper 45ACP like a RIA 1911 or Springfield 1911, they can be finicky with ammo. Most modern plastic guns are much more tolerant of SWC's and OAL's of cartridges.

Be careful though. If you get an M&P45 FS and shoot a couple thousand rounds through it, you may get hooked on it.

If you think about it. If you still don't like the M&P 45 full size after shooting it, you could sell it and even at a loss, the "rental cost" of the gun will be very small. I just don't see going out and shooting a couple k rounds through a Shield 45 "just for plinking" sake.

You could also by a used agency trade-in Glock 21, shoot all your ammo and probably sell it for nearly what you bough it for. I can't stand the grip angle of the Glocks so it would be a non-starter for me.

Seems priced too high.

You can get a brand new 45 Shield from Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore for $349 with free shipping, plus what, $20 FFL fee on your side. As the original owner of the new pistol, you'd get S&W's lifetime service agreement for your $30.

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Vegan by proxy.

The only ammo my Shield 45 consistently choked on was aluminum cased Federal. I'm sticking to brass

" Lead round ball "?
You mean like people shoot in muzzleloaders?
Do you perhaps mean lead round nose? Lead round nose and lead round ball are two entirely different things.

While I love my M&P45, so much so that I bought a second one, they will not feed Cast SWC. Cast RNFP, no problem, TC, not a problem. Experimented with different bullet seating depths for the SWC, nope, still wouldn't feed.

Just went through my ammo and saw that I had more 45 acp thsn I remembered too.
How did that happen?
Buy cheap, stack deep.

I wish I had that problem; I can't seem to keep 45 on my shelf very long!

Many of us would view this not as a "problem" but an opportunity.

Love my Shield 45, can't recommend it highly enough.

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Southern Comfort
Retired USAF

I bought a 40 S&W caliber pistol once and after a few years I sold it. Many years later I bought a S&W MP 40FS just to shoot up that extra ammo. Now I'm buying more ammo because it's fun to shoot and I carry it in my necessary bag whenever I leave town. It works for me.

I found a stash of .45 ACP a year or two ago myself. Ended up picking up a Remington R1 earlier this year. Still have a pile to shoot as I haven't had many chances to get out to the range recently.

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John 14:6, Luke 21:11

Yep, you're right. It's Lead Round Nose. I hunt with side-lock muzzleloaders too, and just cast a bunch of new round ball, and that term was stuck in my head.

I abandoned SWC's in all my autoloading guns for this reason. They just don't feed properly unless they are tuned to a specific gun and even then they can still be temperamental. I'd rather have ragged holes in the target that feed 100% of the time instead of clean holes in the target with 10-50% failures to feed.