Quote:
Originally Posted by Old_Cop
I saw this thread and I just had to look. Sure enough the spring is silver on the side from rubbing on the slide. I tried tapping it back but can't seem to get it entirely inside the block. It seems to be captive in side the polymer frame. I don't carry the gun but it is in my truck. I'll check it every time that I clean. One more thing to worry about.
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Silver on the entire spring is not so good. As you already found, the spring is not fully inset flush with its locking block groove. Silver on just the end is worse because that's the end that can pop out and cause shooting malfunctions and prevent slide removal.
Either way, I have been successful tapping the entire spring back into its groove by using a small tack hammer, a 1/16" pin punch and starting at the little wrinkle in the center of the spring and working toward the curved end that disappears down into the frame, then working toward the end until the spring is fully flush. Sometimes I had to repeat this 2-3 times before it was flush along its entire length. No heavy hammering is necessary! This has worked for me every time on my own 13 Shields, 9mm, 40's & 45's.
And, to appease the S&W KoolAid drinkers who criticize my thread title wording, let me offer this disclaimer again:
There have been numerous instances of these springs popping out and causing malfunctions and preventing slide removal - WAY TOO MANY for my taste. It may never happen to you because we know that after 6 years of Shield production, not every spring has popped out. If you believe S&W's marketing claims, over 1 Million Shields have been sold. Obviously, they all didn't pop their slide lock springs and jam. As to what production dates seem to pop most, my first hand experience with 13 of my own Shields and 3 of my friends with Shield 9mm's dating back to 2016 production, all are suspect from 2016 to present. One friend's 2017-made, 9mm Shield spring end DID pop completely out and cause stovepipes, failures to return to battery and prevented slide removal. It seems that the problem of the spring end jamming the slide appears more frequently on the most recent production guns.
So, again I say FIX YOUR SHIELD BEFORE IT FAILS because if it does pop its spring, the likelihood of your being able to seat the spring back into its groove and for it to stay there is almost zero because of the spring end distortion that will likely occur once it pops out and jams the slide.
In my opinion, it's certainly worth checking this spring to avoid malfunctions like that and/or a long trip back to the factory.
