Years ago I bought a 40 shield because you couldn't find a 9 mm shot it a few times got on this forum and started to hear about K Booms with .40 shield put mine in the safe been there for years,what ever became of that mine has less than 50 rds. Shot through it bought it in 14 or 15

I never shot anything but factory ammo in mine. It was accurate, reliable, easy to shoot and easy to carry.
Most of the ka-boom stories I've heard are about the guns that start with a G and end in "lock".

The only blow ups in .40 "I" ever was aware were Glocks, never a Shield when using factory ammo.

Any gun could potentially blow up when over charged or having an obstructed barrel.

Randy

This was about 2012 or 13 might have been only a couple posted on a bunch of diff. Forum don't know been a long time

I have never heard of a Shield blow up, either (I shoot a 40 Shield). I also have heard of a few Glock 23 issues, mostly back when they first came out.

The catastrophic case blowouts of the .40 S&W cartridge is an Urban Legend based on isolated incidents back in the 90s when people were shooting ammo which was either overloaded (basically 10mm loads crammed into .40 S&W cases) or otherwise ammo with significant bullet setback fired from upscaled 9mm pistols with unsupported chambers.

Smith & Wesson pistols are designed around the .40 S&W cartridge dating all the way back to 1994 with the original Sigma SW40F, and their guns have only gotten more rugged since then, so practically any Smith & Wesson manufactured firearm including your M&P40 Shield should have no problem whatsoever shooting ordinary factory loaded ammunition or otherwise responsibly handloaded ammunition.
Heck, even the older 3rd Gen .40 S&W pistols can digest a lifetime of .40 S&W because even the original 4006 which was based on the 9mm 5906 was beefed up so substantially that the thing is an absolute tank, and other 3rd Gens like the 4013 were actually built on the frames of models designed to handle 10mm and .45 ACP, so basically every .40 S&W pistol ever made by Smith & Wesson including their older designs are more than capable of shooting .40 S&W worry-free indefinitely.

So shoot your M&P40 Shield, comforted by the fact that it was designed specifically for the .40 S&W cartridge, as all Smith & Wesson pistols have been since 1994. It's their cartridge and they know how to design a gun for it better than anybody else.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

<Edited to update Ammo company information>

Yes, back about a Year or two after they were introduced ('13 or '14?), there were a few documented Shield40 Kabooms (most were Hear-Say 'Friend of a Friend who knew a guy on another Forum') with (original) pics and correspondence.

It basically boiled down to Ammo. One thread that I followed was either here, or on 'MP-Pistol Forum', where the owner Contacted both S&W CS and Buffalo Bore (the ammo used).
**Correction: In this instance, the ammo company was MagTech, not Buffalo Bore. Buffalo Bore WAS the ammo involved in a couple other Blow-ups**
After sending the Shield40 to CS with a few remaining rounds of the ammo and sending some rounds to the Ammo Company, it was shown to indeed be the (then) 'hot' .40 ammo. I don't remember if the rounds were marked +P+ or not.

After receiving a copy of S&W's forensic report, MagTech (not BB, as originally written) ended up sending the owner a check covering the replacement of the Shield40.

The moral of this story was: If such a mishap occurs, save the remainder of the ammo used, to be used as evidence to the cause of the incident, contact both manufacturers (firearm & ammo) and document, Document DOCUMENT all correspondence.

If I can find the original thread, I will post a link to it. If you want to search for it yourself, search Shield (possibly Kaboom) and my handle (RobzGunz) both here and on 'MP-Pistol Forum' (mp-pistol dot com).

Where 9mm may benefit from +P loads, the SAAMI spec 40 with good bullets (i.e. Golden Saber of Critical defense, etc) hover around 400 ft lbs + or -, and expand from .40 to .65" or even .82" in the case of Golden Saber.

Buffalo Bore specializes in hot ammo, including a large amount of overpressure loads with unofficial +P designations.

There's no such thing as ".40 S&W +P" as per SAAMI Specifications, ergo anything marked as such is unregulated overpressure ammunition which shouldn't be shot out of any .40 S&W firearm.

Besides, I've said this before and I'll say it as many times as necessary, if you crave more power, then get a more powerful firearm chambered in a more powerful cartidge, don't go trying to force a cartridge into a role it was never designed for by messing around with overpressure loads.
In other words, if you want a 10mm then get a 10mm, don't try to turn .40 S&W into 10mm and your gun will be safe.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

are you the robzGunz that used a factory 9 mm barrel in a 40 shield

IIRC, some of the early .40 problems were also attributed to Federal ammo and Federal replaced some early lots when contacted for information.

__________________
Good shooting.

Have shot my Shield 40 hundred of rounds. Never had a problem.
Get some range time with yours. Get comfortable shooting.

Having an original 4006. A Sig 229 and a Shield all in 40 For many years. I say your blow up worries are unfounded.

BTW. When I bought my 4006. No 40 Ammo was available. The gun and caliber were brand new. I got one box with the gun. I trimmed and inside neck reamed 10mm cases for a long time. They shot well.

__________________
S&W Accumulator

I don't have a Shield40, so no...
But I know a bunch of Forum members who did, without any issues, before the aftermarket barrels came out.

There were quite a few kaboom stories on this forum not long after the shield came out.

Most likely they were a few incidents reposted many times.

They faded away and never resurfaced.

I haven't had any blow out, however, I have seen bulges on the .40 cases in my Shield. I don't like it. I took pictures and sent to S&W and they said that was normal and within spec. None of my other S&W 40s (I have 7 others made by S&W) bulge cases like that. In my shield 40, the chamber isn't fully supported as it should be.

Rosewood

You need to speak with them again because you got a bad Representative on the line there. Bulged cases are not normal out of a .40 Shield, nor is the barrel within spec if you're getting buldged cases. The M&P40 Shield's barrel should have a fully supported chamber, effectively eliminating buldged cases. Heck, my Sigma SW40VE has a fully supported chamber, and that's a last gen variant of their bargain line of pistols.

That being said, I would like to see some pics of this bulged brass if you have any, as I'm wondering if what you're seeing is a bulge where the witness hole is. I've never noticed any bulged brass fired from my .40s with witness holes on the chamber, but I've always wondered if it could potentially cause case deformation, and wonder if that's what you're seeing. It still shouldn't be resulting in an outright bulge unless it's out of spec given how small the witness holes are, (maybe a tiny bump) but it wouldn't surprise me if that's what it is, bulged cases from an oversized/out-of-spec witness hole.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Shield 40 Bulged/smiley brass. Definitely not the witness hole.

I can't remember if I emailed them or if I called in. Was over a year ago.

Rosewood

Attached Images

SD40 and Shield 40 Brass bulge.jpg (54.4 KB, 131 views)

Wow! That's worse than pre-3rd gen Glocked brass. I'd say bad barrel or the breech was unlocking way too early in the recoil cycle.

__________________
VCDL, GOA, NRA

Yeah, either the chamber isn't fully supported as it ought to be, or it's unlocking too fast.

It's most likely the latter, as IIRC that was an issue with early production Gen 1 M&P Full-size models.

Either way, I would contact Smith & Wesson about it, possibly by e-mail or chat so that you can show them those pics of the brass. No way are they going to say that everything is in spec after looking at those pics.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

They did. Showed them those pics already. May try again.

Brass like that is why I avoided 40s for a long time. I reload, generally buy range brass and didn't want to run into that issue.

__________________
Just Say No - To Social Media

This is the first gun I have ever had an issue with. I own 2 sigma 40s, 1 SD, a 5" M&P 40 as well as several other metal guns in 40.

I incorrectly remembered who did the restitution check. While Buffalo Bore was involved in a couple of the well documented instances of catastrophic failures, MagTech was the ammo company involved in this instance and paid the owner, after S&W sent their findings to them.
Sorry for any confusion, but it was almost 6 or 7 Yrs ago.

So, I've been considering getting an M&P40 Shield myself, and after doing a bit of research on the subject, I decided to do a little follow-up post in this thread with my findings.

Reports of M&P40 Shield KABOOMs seemingly all date back to the year 2014 and 2015, share a lot of things in common, in some cases so much in common that I suspect that they're duplicate reports posted by the same person under different usernames on other forums, or otherwise disingenuous retellings of the same story by different people.

The most common report that I have read always has a few things in common...

• Ammunition
  In nearly every report that I've read, the ammo fired was Winchester White Box 180gr ammo.
• Out-of-battery discharge
  Based on the description provided, the cause of the KABOOM almost always points to the gun firing out of battery.
• Injury to the shooter's hand and face
  The shooter claims to have been injured on their shooting hand from the grip splitting and taking shrapnel to the face, but neither wound leaves them with any permanent injury or physical disfigurement.
• Drive-by-posts
  These reports always come from new users who typically don't even post more than 20 messages on any given forum before they disapper without a trace, never to be heard from again.

Personally, I cannot help but question the legitimacy of these reports on account of the fact that they share too many distinctive similarities, yet lack any concrete photographic evidence to support their claims. Occasionally they'll come with a few thumbnails of the gun, of which the only visible damage is cracks on the frame where it split. Due to the small size and low resolution of the images, it's different to get a good look at the damage, but it doesn't look like the sort of damage you'd expect to see from a legitimate blowout because cracks don't appear to have been the result of a KABOOM. However, there are never any pictures taken of the shooters injuries, no fresh wounds, no scabs, not even pictures of the scars after the injuries healed. Furthermore, they're all from the year 2014-2015, by new users who don't stick around, with no mention of them afterwards. The reports just vanish along with the users who posted them.

So yeah, I have to call these reports into question. One would imagine that if there were any truth to these reports, then there would be a lot more of them, at least a few of them would come from regular users, and the the folks who made such reports would still be around, retelling the story.
I don't know about you, but if such a thing had happened to me, then I wouldn't just post about it only once immediately after it had happened. I would have pictures not only of the gun, but of my injuries or at least the scars of my injuries, and I would certainly come back with a follow-up report after I had contacted Smith & Wesson/Winchester and reached a resolution.

The only other reports that I've read either came from someone who openly admitted to using experimental reloads or otherwise someone who obviously was shooting reloads because they dodged any questions regarding what ammo they used, and much like the others, they're posted by fly-by-night accounts that seemingly were created solely for the purpose of telling the story of their alleged KABOOM, then promptly abandoned.

Fishy, to say the least.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Several years ago when I first bought my Shield 40 1.0, I had a death wish and worked up some very hot loads to the maximum. I had cases bulging just like in the picture from rosewood above. I hit 1303fps, 584ft-lbs with a 155gr, and 1498fps, 673ft-lbs with a 135gr. Both with the 3.1" OEM barrel. If these rounds did not Kaboom (they came close though), no factory round will. I was not using new cases either.

__________________
M&P Shield 40, M&P-10
S&W 629

Interesting read and thread, Gents. Sorry, this may be a wee bit off topic. I am just about to get restarted with .40 reloading after a long hiatus. All I could find online were 180-g plated (from Cabela’s) and supposedly once-fired brass from a known good seller. I have a couple pounds of Power Pistol and Hornady (+ one more) show light 5.6-ish loads with 180’s at 850 FPS. The velocity numbers mentioned above would scare the heck out of me. Back kinda-sorta on topic, I am still looking for a 4006 to test my loads on - last one I was following on GB went for $850 . I also remember seeing posts here, a few years ago, about kaboom‘s in Shield 40’s.

...on a 9mm frame wear more quickly? Shouldn't blow up though,.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Reason you hear more about kabooms with .40 is the high pressure, and then bring some bullet set back into the mix and pressures skyrocket.
Not as common with 9mm, even though pressures can be high there too, because of more metal surrounding the chamber.

I have had a .40 Shield for 4 1/2 years and don't worry about shooting it.
I am careful not to re-chamber the same round over and over.
You empty the chamber to clean your gun, or empty your carry ammo out to fire some range ammo, you might end up chambering that same round many times before it gets fired.

More than twice and that round gets set aside to fire at the range next outing.

__________________
U. S. Army Veteran

@GeoJelly, Keep an eye out for sales on California Highway Patrol 4006TSWs. Up until recently, they were showing up frequently on a variety of websites for around $600, and are very nice guns.

I bought one back in May for about $399 and aside from a bit of holster wear its in excellent condition.


Prices have obviously increased as supply has dwindled, but I can safely say that if you can find one in excellent condition, then they're easily worth twice, if not thrice what I paid. The 4006TSW is built like a tank, and I know that's something of a cliched statement, but it's absolutely an apt statement when it comes to the 4006TSW because it's just an overbuilt hunk of steel which with the proper springs installed could probably handle ridiculously overcharged loads that creep into 10mm Auto territory.

The California Highway Patrol has been transitioning away from the 4006TSW since 2017, so they may have finally finished, but I had thought the same early this year before they released another batch on the civilian market and I bought mine, so keep an eye out just in case there are a few more still in their armory just waiting to get kicked loose.

If all else fails, the M&P40 is in my opinion, a worthy successor to the 4006. Sure, its not massively overbuilt, and its frame is made mostly of polymer with a Stainless Steel chasis as opposed to solid steel like the 4006, but it's a tough modern duty pistol regardless, and you can still find police trade-in M&P40s for as low as $299.

__________________
Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

This is an M&P 45 that let go on a police range. It had about 1000 rounds of nothing but factory before the bang without a hiccup. Mostly Win white box and some Ranger T. This was an ammo problem and the gun performed exactly as it was engineered to, blowing out the magazine and forcing the slide barrel and broken frame forward, away from the shooter. No injuries resulted.

There were a few kabooms reported here on the forum ack when the Shield was fairly new. I followed several of the reports pretty closely as I owned a .40 Shield. Looking at the aftermath, I was convinced that all these guns had fired slightly out of battery. S&W said no, but I call bs.