Shield 45 Consensus

Hi all,

While I have been a fly on the wall for a while in all things gun forums, I am brand spanking new to being a member of any. I have learned a lot from reading posts that I've found through random google searches, but haven't felt compelled enough to join until now. I apologize ahead of time if I'm doing this wrong.

My issue is due in part by my being somewhat OCD, a recent rare impulse purchase, and what seems to be some bad luck with my last few pistol purchases.

While on a recent mission to pick up a 2.0 Compact 40 S&W, I came across a Shield 45 that was just off the truck. While I've had a 1.0 Shield 9mm for some time, the 45 was never on my radar, as I have become somewhat of a capacity ***** over the years, opting for more midsize double stack pistols in 9mm.

When I saw the 45 next to the 9mm and realized that it was not much bigger, only gave up one round, and well, was of God's caliber (I kid, I love them all, but only have one full size 45 and have always thought a more carry friendly 45 would be nice) I had to have it.

This is not like me. I usually do lots of research on a pistol before I decide to buy one. When I say "research" I mean youtube and searching forums. Right or wrong it works for me and I usually have pretty good luck doing it this way.

That day I took the 45 home, stripped and cleaned it, lubed it, and my son and I both took turns putting a quick 50 rounds of Blazer Brass and two magazines of HST through it with no problems. I then cleaned the pistol and put it in the safe.

The next day I was at the LGS and picked up a plain cardboard box of ".45 caliber ball M1911". I brought it home and ran two mags through the pistol. Then, handed it to my wife. She shot it very well and seemed to have no problems handling it. She stole my USP45 years ago to keep on her nightstand, and after many attempts on my part of trying to trade it in for something more modern, has told me that we are never getting rid of it.

She was very accurate with the Shield, and I started having visions of possibly finally easing her into going down the road of CC. Then, it happened. A few rounds into a magazine, she pulled the trigger and "click". I took the pistol and saw that the slide had returned to battery without stripping the next round. I had never seen this malfunction before. I racked the slide and handed it back. She then continued to fire the pistol while having several FTFs. The slide would stop on the next round which was stuck on the feed ramp. Each time I was able to slingshot the slide and load the chamber. After one of the malfunctions, I fired the gun myself, one handed, and it FTF on me.

She finished the M1911 box and I tried to get her to go through a box of Blazer Brass to see if she could get through it without issue. After a couple of mags of Blazer, with no issues, she said she was tired. I finished off the box of Blazer with no issues. I cleaned the gun and it's been in the safe since.

That night I did a search on "Shield 45 problems". I was disappointed to find all kinds of reports of FTFs on the Shield 45. They all seemed to start around 2016/17 through 2018, with a few here and there in 2019. Even one youtube video that was just posted a few weeks ago about the pistol being picky with ammo.

I know this may not be a big deal to a lot of people, but I'm kind of picky with my pistols. I guess I'm just kind of pissed at myself for buying a pistol without doing my normal research. Honestly, if I found as many complaints about this pistol before I bought it I would have never brought it home.

Btw, I have pistols from multiple different manufacturers. I am a big M&P fan. My primary carry is an M&P 2.0 Compact in 9mm. It has over 2k rounds with no hiccups, and I love the way it runs. As mentioned above, I just picked up the same gun in 40 S&W and hope to have the same results with it as I have had with my 9mm. I have taught all my kids how to shoot pistols primarily based around one of the early production 9mm Shields. I bought my oldest daughter a 2.0 Compact for her 21st birthday.

I know all products can have design issues, even the best ones. I'm fine with giving companies a chance to work things out. I really like the idea of a Shield chambered in 45, and was really excited about giving it a lot of carry time. It's just that I couldn't really find anything recent about this being ironed out. I'm finding it hard to believe that these pistols are having the same issues they had back in 2017 without any resolution.

I also understand the fact that some guns don't work with some people. The only time the pistol messed up on me was when I was frustrated and fired it one handed. I understand that it can be a grip issue. My thing is that I personally don't trust guns that need a perfect grip every time. There's just so many out there that I have found that are reliable no matter what. I recently sold a P365 that never messed up on me for over 2500 rounds. During a shooting session with my daughter, it had way too many malfunctions. It had to have something to do with her grip, because it never messed up on me before that day or after. But shes never had any problems with any of my other pistols. That gun just did not like her grip. I loved everything about that gun, but that day was always in the back of my mind.

I like knowing that if I have to shoot one handed from the ground, my pistol will still work. I like knowing that if I have to hand my pistol off to someone, odds are it will work. Not that it will only work in my hands while running it under a perfect circumstance.

So, I guess what this long winded post is getting to is this...

I'm going to assume that most people in here have more know how of the Shield 45 situation than I do. I was hoping that I could get some advise from people who know more about the Shield 45 story. The way I see it, I have three options:

1. Suck it up, commit to the pistol, put some more rounds through it myself and see what happens. If it ends up being a lemon, hold S&W to the fire until they make it right.

2. Put a couple more boxes through it, if it runs with no more issues, try to resell it to recoup and move on.

Or

3. Put it up for sale, explain to the buyer my situation, and take a loss on it.

What do you think? Is the Shield 45 good to go in 2021 and I just ran some bad ammo through it? Or is it still a picky design that will only run certain ammo, in a perfect grip?

Sorry about the long post

Have you considered it was the generic box of .45 ammo you picked up?

I've got two Shield .45's, bought 3-4 years ago (maybe more, it's late and the gun log is three rooms away) but have never had the issues you describe with good magazines, a well lubed pistol and quality ball and JHP ammo. Each Shield has probably 1,300-1,500 rounds through it

I'd suggest you find a few boxes of brand name brass cased ammo (I know kind of Mission Impossble these days) and start over with a clean well lubed Shield and see how it goes before selling at a loss. Of after that you have issues, document the, and contact S&W.

Good luck

First of all, welcome to the forum. I echo the advise given by BO308. Based on what you describe I tend to believe the problem is primarily ammo related. Grip/limpwristing could also be a factor.

I would suggest that you clean and relube the pistol and run some quality ammo through it paying attention to grip as well. You may also have another experienced shooter fire the weapon and see if they have the same problems that you and your wife experienced. If you are still having problems after all of that, then I would consider sending it back to Smith & Wesson or trading it for something else. I own three Shields and have never had any problems from either of them. Good luck to you.

The fact that your Blazers and HST fed fine, and only the GI Ball had issues, points to the ammo being the problem as BO308 and AppStFan said.
Maybe the OAL of that particular batch of GI ammo is slightly longer and caused them to hang up in the mag ?

One thing I'd do is check the followers in your mags and see if they have the updated followers.
The new ones have a notch in the front corner. If your Shield is new/but older stock it could have the old ones.
S&W sent me 4 of the new ones at no charge.

I had a problem like you describe, but only with Speer Gold Dots.
The next round down in the mag would hang up and not make it up to be picked up by the slide.
Not long after, I switched to the new followers, and when I finally tried those Gold Dots again last week, had no more issues.

I'll try to find the thread where someone showed pics of the old and new followers side by side. If someone else can find it, please post a link or those pics here.

Weird but when looking for the pics of the followers, many were talking about the new followers solving the problem of mags falling out of the gun.
Seems like that would be more of a mag catch problem, not an issue concerning the followers. Or some that are riding the mag release while shooting. I've never had a mag drop unless I press the mag release.

Pic from an older thread provided by SWSig, arrows points to new follower with corner notch:

I've never had a problem with my Shield 45, reloads or factory ammo. However, I will second the comment on grip hold. I used to have a Springfield Armory Micro 45, all steel with 3" barrel, which liked my hand hold. Anybody else who shot it it would jam at least once per magazine (and those were experienced shooters). It never would jam for me no matter what ammo I fed it. My wife hated that gun, stated that if I died the next day she'd use it as a paperweight. I had read that a persons hold, at least on that firearm, needed to be pretty stout for the very short slide travel on the 45. So, even though I liked it I eventually sold it.

My wife really likes the shield...

I never really warmed to my .45 Shield, mainly because of the fiber optic sights. Nevertheless, it always functions fine with a variety of ammunition.

Thanks for all of the responses.

I had also thought of the problem being an OAL problem with the ammo, or at least the ammo in combination with my wives grip.

I had also come across some conversations to do with the updated followers and found that mine are indeed the updated ones with the vertical notch.

I will definitely give the pistol another chance. I love the way it feels in hand and the way it shoots. I just freaked out a bit at first because I wasn't really looking to buy it. It was just there, so I bought it. I only have one other 45, and I don't reload (yet) or have much stocked up. I like to thoroughly test pistols before I carry them. When I saw these issues so early, it worried me, seeing as this isn't the best time to try and acquire the amount of 45 ACP it would take for me to feel fully confident with it.

The only bobbles I've ever had with my Shields were with reloads and OAL. Seems my Shield reloads need to be seated just a tad more than my regular M&P reloads. Checked my followers the other day and found out most were the old style and will be replaced.

The Shield 45 is a fine pistol. As others have noted, your ammo-specific failures to feed were likely due to underpowered ammo that was not strong enough to overcome the friction of a new, tight gun, thus failing to cycle the slide. Extra lube sometimes helps to overcome the friction, but the best solution is to use higher powered ammo, such as Federal American Eagle 230g. Don't give up on your Shield 45. Keep shooting it, and you'll end up loving it as much as I love mine! Below is a summary of of my history with my Shield 45 that I posted on the Forum last year:

"Shield 45
Purchased February, 2017
Round count: 7,661
Recent accuracy scores: 15 yards, 404/565 = 72%; 20 yards, 369/728 = 51% (Accuracy scores are the percentage of hits in a 4"x4" square.)

I love this gun. It’s easy to carry, its recoil is surprisingly mild, and its 15-yard accuracy is astonishing. I can’t believe that it is so accurate with such a short barrel. It outshoots ever other pistol I have, including my SIG P320 compact. The only exception is my FNX 45 Tactical with its 5.25” barrel and Vortex red dot.

I did have the original magazine followers, so I had a bunch of failures to feed initially, but after I received the redesigned followers, the FTFs went away, and it has been very reliable since. I have had only two FTFs in the last 4,300 rounds shooting two-handed, and those may have been due to me limp-wristing it. I added a Hogue grip which has helped to improve my accuracy. My main challenge is shooting one handed. The combination of a small gun and a big round means you need a very firm grip and a firm trigger pull, or you’ll limp wrist it into a failure to feed. But those have diminished with practice. Overall, however, I have no reservations about carrying my Shield 45. Even though my M&P 40c usually gets chosen for my daily carry, it’s because of its greater round capacity, not because of its greater ability. Anyone considering the purchase of a Shield should consider the 45 first. It is superior to the 9 in every way, except capacity. And to me, it’s worth giving up one extra round for the superiority of the 45."

Enjoy your new Shield!

I also have a 45 Shield and have had excellent service from mine. I am a big fan of small lightweight 45's, Shield, 3in., 3.5in. and 4in. 1911's, compact Sig SAO P220 and Glock 36.
One thing that is inherent in all the small lightweight 45's is that they require a very solid locked wrist grip/hold on the pistol to function reliably. With the lightweight (lack of mass) of the pistols themselves, they tend to move around more which absorbs some of the recoil energy that is required to complete the cycle of the firearm. They are not very forgiving to marginal strength grip or ammo.
Since your pistol is new, you are also probably dealing with a firearm that is still very stiff. Your reliability should improve as you get it broken in and at the same time you will become a better platform for your pistol.

Welcome to the forum! I spend almost all of my time here reading about revolvers, but checked in here and indeed have something to add.

I have owned Shields 9 and 45 since the days of the $75 rebate (call it 5 years).

I’ll try to be diplomatic. Name 3 brands with impeccable product, reliability, and service. I could name Mercedes, Michelin, Apple- it doesn’t matter. Now google ‘Mercedes problems’, and you’re going to get what you searched for, but learn absolutely nothing about the product’s reliability. You will get anecdotes from nit-pickers and ax grinders- which do not provide an answer in context- the big picture. Yours is a flawed approach to seeking an answer.

My Shield 45 is ‘bulletproof’, and I carry my Shields more than my Glocks.

Like it's been said, all guns can have "problems", but sometimes guns need to be broken in, even ones that typically don't need breaking in. CNC machining, contrary to popular belief, is not as precise as hand precision work (which is why the most reliable 1911's are hand-fitted). All things being equal, the tighter the tolerances the more accurate the firearm, but the more tighter/accurate a firearm, the less reliable it becomes unless there is a lot of money spent hand-fitting it with precision. It's the difference between a $500 pistol and a $3000 one. In a gun like a Shield, if the tolerances are stacked towards the tighter/more accurate but less reliable, it will be especially prone to limp wristing, weak ammo, and will need a break in period. After a few boxes of ammo the problems will generally go away (the warmer the ammo the better). If it doesn't improve, just send it to Smith & Wesson and the'll make sure it's good to go. Although exceptional accuracy is not necessarily practical for concealed carry, I actually prefer a more accurate gun even if I might have to break in a bit (so long as that's all that's needed to fix the issue). It's preferable to a pistol that has too much play in the barrel fit (again, so long as the reliability issue doesn't continue). It sounds like things have worked out thus far, but just keep sending rounds down range and if you go a few hundred rounds in a row without issue, you're good to go.

Lastly, as others have mentioned, it sounds like an ammo problem. I have a box of ammo that causes all sorts of malfunctions in every handgun I own. At worst it is a ammo/tight tolerance issue, but like I explained, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The Shield 45 in particular has an EXCELLENT reputation for accuracy. In fact, I doubt there is a more accurate pistol in its class and it may be unrivaled. The .45 ACP round is generally more accurate than 9mm, .40S&W and even .357 SIG (which I am a big fan of). Now the extra accuracy isn't likely to translate into a real world benefit (in other words, the minimal increase in accuracy is not likely to incapacitate any better statistically), but it can make for a handgun that is more rewarding to shoot at the range. I'm also a big believer in having caliber diversity (just my preference). So although I am not a big .45 ACP guy, I also have concealed carry pistols in 9mm, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, .380 ACP. I think the Shield 45 is perfect for that role. Despite individual issues people sometimes have with any pistol, the Shield 45, like the 9mm, has a great reputation for reliability. If you run into additional problems, call Smith & Wesson and they'll make it right, but I really think you'll be fine and you'll grow to appreciate it as is.

I have two Shield 45s. One with a green laser and the other a PC model. Both 2.0.

Thousands of rounds through each and never had any type of problem. Both very accurate even in my old hands and, to me, shoot softer than my 1.0 Shield 40 with a 9mm barrel in it.

I likes em all!