I have had a Shield 40 for a couple of years now and love it. A few months ago, I bought a laser equipped Body Guard for my wife and we like both of them so much, I've decided to buy the full series of Shield calibers and just picked up my 9mm yesterday. I have a store credit burning a hole in my pocket and I think I'll invest in the 45 as well.

As I do with all of my weapons, I field stripped it and began cleaning it when I found the rear side end of the recoil rod bent. It's the piece that looks like a thumb tack. It's quite obvious once I discovered it, but broke down my 40 to compare them and, sure enough, it's bent. Actually the last coil of the larger spring looks as if it may be defective as well. The tech guy was surprised at the defective part and when I described it, he offered to send a brand new assembly of the springs and rod. He also said it wouldn't be a problem firing it as long as I made sure the bent part was away from it's seat. It does seem to function properly, so I'll give it a try.

I wonder if anyone else has had a quality issue such as mine?

Are you talking about the guide rod? Pictures?

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Howdy ParisTNDude, love your tower.



Yes, the spring seat for the recoil spring assembly has been found to be bent as you describe, on new pistols, by several forum members. One member bought two new Shields at the same time, and both had bent spring seats right out of the box.

Members have described current wait times for replacement spring assemblies running longer than six weeks.

Good luck.

Yeah, the guide rod is probably the proper name for the piece that's bent. It doesn't look like it's a big deal to me...I haven't fired it yet, but I'm confident it will be just fine.

So, Bigwheelzip has been to my home town. Great. Paris is a great place to live and retire as I have.

I see the malady has been reported in the past with the bent guide rod. I will have to search to see if others have fired the gun using the defective piece. If it shoots without a probem, I don't really care if it takes a while to get the replacement part...even if it doesn't or shouldn't be shot, it's not like I'm defenseless. I have a 40, 2 380s, a couple 22s, a 45, and 44 Magnums to make me feel safe along with a tactical 12 gage and a 410/45LC derringer... I'm good.

This is a great forum, but I thought there would be a thread for M&P Shield separate...I couldn't find one.

Look here, not Shield specific but a better place to seek help on all things Shield and M&P.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-m-p-pistols/

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Sure you did

By all responsible accounts it has no effect on function....ignore it until it fails if it ever does.