My Shield .40 issues

[Ajaxtheknight]

Hi all, great site you have here. I found this forum after I started having issues with my shield 40. I really wanted to know if what I was dealing with was common/normal. I don't normally post to forums but in light of all the recent activity on here concerning this firearm I thought I should share my experience.

About a month ago I took it to the range for the first time in awhile. I fired about 5 magazines through it of three different types of ammo, WWB 165gr, PPU, and Hornady Critical Defense. All purchased shortly before the range trip from a big box store. All of them went off without a hitch, all of the rounds fed and fired perfectly. When I got home I cleaned out my range bag and inspected the brass from the days shooting(something I always do). I was shocked to see that many of the casing were severely deformed in the web area. The critical defense rounds were deformed almost to the braking point. Needless to say I was a little put off by this. I have never had a firearm do this in any caliber, I have heard of it happening though.

I contacted S&W and they requested I send it back to them. It is currently with them and I am awaiting a resolution. Is this normal for these guns? Am I overreacting? I realize the Hornady rounds are a little on the hot side but they are still within SAAMI specs. The PPU and WWB rounds deformed as well although not to the extent of the Hornadys.

I have included some photos of the barrel and Hornady rounds for reference. Any comments, suggestions or questions are welcome.

Thanks, Alex

 

[AGoyette]

I am glad you did not have any issues like others have had. The bulges in your brass would be disconcerning..

 

[jimmib]

thanks for the post...I don't look at my brass but am going to now...I have the FS40...I have been pondering a 40c or shield but think I am going to hold off for awhile until this issue is cleared up

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

Thanks, I am glad to not have had a kaboom. Checking my brass after range time is a habit I picked up from my father. He was an avid reloader. I am not but it does give me a good idea of how my firearms are functioning.

 

[JFR]

Ajax, I'm watching this one closely and very interested in what S&W comes back with. I feel this is just shy of having another kaboom.

Please keep us posted if you can.

Good luck!

 

[turbo38gn]

Is there excessive play side to side when you drop the bullet in the chamber... I just looked at my 9 and 40 Shield, they both look fine, similar to your picture, but supported all the way around except for the feed ramp where it had a small area of no support. Looking at other models, they all looked similar. To have a bulge at the back the way you do, it seems to me you would have to have a step inside the barrel. Mine are all the same inside diameter where the shell seats...

also, checked a bunch of my ammo.... everything looks normal. The only way I can see that would be if there was a step at the end of the chamber, but then I wonder how the shells would eject...

 

[Starwalker]

Looks like the bulge goes all of the way around the fired case, not just in the unsupported area?

Also the primers don't look bulged, so it does not appeared to be excessive-charged rounds.

Glad you sent the pistol back to S&W.

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

There was play side to side when the round was in the chamber. Don't know what you would consider excessive. The bulge in the case goes about 3/4 of the way around the case and was about twice as large as the unsupported part of the chamber. Don't know what to make of that. Maybe the round is still building pressure as it begins to eject. I am no expert that is why I sent it back. If you look at the picture of the barrel with no round in it you can kind of see that the chamber is chamfered about 3/4 of the way up the sides not just in the feed ramp area.

 

[Badquaker]

background questions....

1. Are you the original owner?
2. Did you have the throat polished?

It looks like the ramp and throat have been hogged out.

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

1. Yes I am the original owner
2. Other than a set of talon grips and some gray letter fill on the slide it is unmodified.

I have not shot it enough to even warrant more than a field strip cleaning.

 

[Badquaker]

I will wager that S&W will put a new barrel in that.

Good thing you didn't shoot any of the high test 135grain stuff. That one is a kaboom waiting to happen.

 

[JFR]

Would you happen to know your build, test fire or purchase date?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

It was test fired 8/23/12.

 

[turbo38gn]

mine was 10-03-12

 

[JFR]

Interesting. All of the kabooms spoken of here recently with known build dates (3 of the 5) were built prior to 2013. I wonder if there was a bad batch of barrels similar to yours that went out.


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[Roger S&W]

Your pictures clearly demonstrate a barrel with very poor chamber support. As we all know, this is the cause of the brass deformation. I would not shoot this barrel anymore.
My new Shield 40 HRU****Test fire date 11-15-13, appears to have better chamber support. It's not 100% but looks around 97%. Whereas yours looks only 88%.

 

[Capttjk1]

Thanks for posting this info. I took my .40 Shield out to my property yesterday and checked the brass after firing. All my brass looked good. No bulging at all. Looks like you may need a new barrel. As you know, the brass shouldn't look like that.

My Shield is brand new. I got it in early January. It had a test fire date of late Nov 2013 if I remember correctly. Chamber support looks good in my barrel.

 

[ammodave]

I wonder if any of the Shield kaboom owners had similar problems before the kaboom.

 

[Bonecarver]

Well Alex, if your barrel is poorly supporting the round I would say from comparing pictures yours is not the only one...

 

[feelinlucky]

The Hornady rounds would be nickel plated brass. Those with the bulge look like plain yellow brass.

I have shot quite a few of those Critical defense rounds in my Shield, and a bunch of WWB, and have never seen any bulges in the spent cases. IDK about the PPU. I reload, so I save all my brass. If there was any bulged brass, I would have noticed it.

I loaded some handloads that were over the SAAMI specs, and they bulged the cases. The difference was that the case bulge was not nearly as far up the side of the case as those in your pictures. There is clearly a big difference between the feed ramp cutout on your barrel and mine.

Here is a shot of some of this brass. I already resized them, but you can still see the extent of the deformation.

Compare that with your brass. Note that the bulged area is bigger.

For comparision, here is a shot of some truly Glocked brass, also already resized. Note how much higher up the case the bulge extended.

And no, I don't reuse cases with obvious deformation marks like these on them. Those hot loads I made were clearly a dangerous error on my part. I DO NOT RECOMMEND TRYING THIS! When I discovered the bulges, I stopped shooting those rounds and subsequently disassembled them.

Could it be that some barrels with too large of a cutout in this area got by QC? I assume you sent them the cases, or at least some pictures of them. I'll be very interested in what S&W has to say about this.