BigBear437
Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2021
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 18
Tuesday, I picked up a brand new Shield plus. This is the very basic model, standard sights, no thumb safety. The flush-fit 10 round magazine is worthless to me, as I have huge hands, and most of my other firearms have some sort of rubber grip with finger grooves. I don't have the gun set up as I want it yet, but I wanted to take it to the range, because I'm impatient.
Out of the box, I noted the trigger that has already been discussed in previous posts. I also noted how hard it was to get 13 rounds in the 13 round magazine, but I think (hope) that this loosens up with usage.
One of the other things that I noticed was the magazine, when fully loaded, did not seat properly with the standard loading procedure. I had to hit it really hard at least two more times.
Between the 10 and 15 yard lines, I fired about 45 rounds of aluminum cased 115 grain FMJ that I had left over from an old range session. If I did my job right, the bullets went where I aimed them.
I had a couple of failures to feed and double feeds, especially in the first shot from a fully loaded magazine. Again, I hope that this issue works itself out with use / after I clean and lubricate it.
After the first target, I hung a new target and pushed it all the way out to the 25 yard line. If I would have done my job, I think this gun would have done better. This time, I used 124 grain FMJ that I bought with the gun. Out of the 8 rounds I fired from the 25 yard line, one was off the human target, and three of the other seven went a little high. I may have been looking over the sights, which would have put them higher than I aimed. I then moved the target from the 25 to the 15 and 7, and ran the rest of my rounds through doing failure drills and controlled pairs.
I think Smith got it really right with this one. The Plus fits my 1.0 holsters perfectly, the magazine capacity almost makes it a fighting (as opposed to purely defensive) pistol, and if we do our jobs by sticking to the fundamentals, the bullets will hit what you're aiming at. I had considered getting a M&P 9C due to magazine interchangability with my full-sized M&P9, but I don't think that will be necessary now. I'm a fan, and will like it more once I get some Tritium Fiber Optic sights and a Hand-all grip sleeve on it.
The images attached are from today's range session. Somehow, they saved correctly on my computer, but are uploading as thumbnails, sideways, on here.
Out of the box, I noted the trigger that has already been discussed in previous posts. I also noted how hard it was to get 13 rounds in the 13 round magazine, but I think (hope) that this loosens up with usage.
One of the other things that I noticed was the magazine, when fully loaded, did not seat properly with the standard loading procedure. I had to hit it really hard at least two more times.
Between the 10 and 15 yard lines, I fired about 45 rounds of aluminum cased 115 grain FMJ that I had left over from an old range session. If I did my job right, the bullets went where I aimed them.
I had a couple of failures to feed and double feeds, especially in the first shot from a fully loaded magazine. Again, I hope that this issue works itself out with use / after I clean and lubricate it.
After the first target, I hung a new target and pushed it all the way out to the 25 yard line. If I would have done my job, I think this gun would have done better. This time, I used 124 grain FMJ that I bought with the gun. Out of the 8 rounds I fired from the 25 yard line, one was off the human target, and three of the other seven went a little high. I may have been looking over the sights, which would have put them higher than I aimed. I then moved the target from the 25 to the 15 and 7, and ran the rest of my rounds through doing failure drills and controlled pairs.
I think Smith got it really right with this one. The Plus fits my 1.0 holsters perfectly, the magazine capacity almost makes it a fighting (as opposed to purely defensive) pistol, and if we do our jobs by sticking to the fundamentals, the bullets will hit what you're aiming at. I had considered getting a M&P 9C due to magazine interchangability with my full-sized M&P9, but I don't think that will be necessary now. I'm a fan, and will like it more once I get some Tritium Fiber Optic sights and a Hand-all grip sleeve on it.
The images attached are from today's range session. Somehow, they saved correctly on my computer, but are uploading as thumbnails, sideways, on here.
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