Hey all, I started perusing these forums trying to find somewhere that had a Shield instock. I ended up getting it at Cabelas.

I've pumped a couple hundred rounds through the Shield and I've probably had a dozen instances of failure to fully extract. What's happening is the shell is coming out of the breech but not getting kicked out of the slide completely. It is just resting on top of the rounds in the magazine. This sort of situation requires me to drop the mag, rack the slide, and then it's clear. The first time out I put 150 rounds of 124gr Lawman ammo through it and i never had a failure such as this. After this outing I cleaned it (maybe not well enough?) and the next two outings I had numerous failures.

I had a failure on both the Winchester value pack 115gr, 124gr Lawman, and Speer Golddot 124gr. What do you all think? Is this a buildup / cleaning issue? Any other folks have this problem it's not very confidence inspiring since this would be a COSTLY failure to occur in a defense sort of situation. I also had my brother shoot it who is very well trained in firearms and he had the same issue so I don't believe it's a limp wristing issue.

I had some issues with wild ejections when my Shield was new, but no failures. I would recommend a good cleaning and another 150 rounds. If the problem persists, then have a smith look at it or send it back to S&W.

If the gun will extract and eject manually then there is something that is retarding the slide from its full travel and not allowing the spent case to hit the ejector.

You don't indicate your experience with handguns but the issue is likely shooter induced. Typically with light weight polymer handguns this type of problem is related to the "limp wrist" phenomenon. It may also be caused by the shooter touching the slide and reducing the slide speed.

The shooter should grasp the firearm with a firm grip, about the same you would use to grasp a hammer when driving nails. Simplified, a semi auto uses the kinetic energy of recoil to retract the slide and eject the spent round. A certain minimum amount is needed to ensure full cycling of the action. An insufficient grip and subsequent wrist movement acts like a shock absorber and lessens the kinetic energy available to the slide which can produce failure to extract and eject properly.

Heavier guns have more resistance to firearm movement because of their mass and such problems are less frequent. Light weight pistols are more reliant on the shooter to provide the base resistance to movement.