Hi All,

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I took my Shield out for the first time. When I was cleaning it, I noticed the ejector has a little wiggle in it. Now before I get slammed for not searching, I did, and read many posts. But there seem to be multiple answers as to whether or not this is normal. Can anyone provide guidance? Are there Smith smiths here?

All the ejectors in my M&P's wiggle, I don't have a Shield but my 9c, FS9, and Pro Core all do it to varying degrees. I've got over 40K rounds through the Core.

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Yes, it's normal.

Thanks guys. I am still a little nervous about it. I have an M&P40 full size and I checked that and its solid. But it has never been fired.... does it have to be fired first? Just seems odd.

Shoot it. Does it work? Fuhgetaboutit.

Can you define wiggle?

Just checking my M&P9 Shield as I write. The ejector moves in a horizontal plane if I exert sufficient pressure on it with my finger. It has to move to work properly. Is this what you call wiggle, or is it looser than that?

The outgoing case is flung aside by the hook at the front of the ejector arm, and the incoming new round pushes the hook out of the way to get into battery, against the pressure of the ejector spring. The the spring pops the hook into the cannelure, ready to hook it out after firing.

As long as the ejector spring is strong enough to pop the hook into place and keep it there during firing, I don't think any movement of would be a problem. My Shield has less than 100 rounds through it so far.

Eugene 9mm, you are thinking extractor, not ejector.

Yeah you are definitely talking extractor.

The ejector and the extractor are two different parts. The OP is writing about his ejector being tight/loose. The S&W ejector has no spring; it is fixed in the sear housing block. The extractor which is mounted in the slide has a spring.

The back of the cartridge rising up from the magazine slides up along the breech face. The cartridge rim slides up in behind the hook of the extractor. The extractor does not snap over the rim of the case. The extractor moves outward slightly, against spring pressure, and thus provides sufficient tension against the rim to stay in place both during loading and extracting.

After firing, the slide (with the extractor mounted in it) moves to the rear with the cartridge rim held under the extractor and tight against the breech face. As soon as the front of the case clears the chamber, the slight inward pressure of the extractor will start to pivot the front of the case out to the right. The upward pressure of the next round in the mag (or the follower) rising also helps direct the case out of the breech area. When the slide has traveled far enough to the rear for the fixed ejector to protrude through the breech face, it helps kick the case out of the breech. Whether the ejector is tight or loose has no bearing on its function. The slide just needs to be able to pass back and forth over it while it stays in a fixed position.

Many blowback guns do not have an ejector. They rely simply on the rearward motion of the spent case caught in the extractor and the upward force of the next round (or the follower) in the magazine to push the round out. Ejection is somewhat more vertical because of this.

I had a couple of .40 Keltecs that would break the cheap stamped ejectors in them. They still ejected fine under the above principles, except one time when the broken piece of the ejector jammed the action. Easily and quickly cleared, then continued shooting the match until I could get home and replace the part with the spares I kept on hand.

The extractor is spring loaded and pivots on a pin you can see in the slide. If the extractor did not "wiggle", it would break off. Worry when it does not move.

Again, we are talking about the EJECTOR

The EJECTOR is the pointy thing affixed to the sear housing. If you press on it hard enough, I guess it would wiggle. It ain't supposed to move...

My bad, I misread the post.

The ejector on my Shield wobbles if I push on it, so I don't push on it. :-)

Awesome. I'll have to send it in. Sure seems like this is a big problem with the shields. You'd think they'd have figured it out by now.