Maintenance question

M&P Shield 2.0

What is recommended for reliability? I carry with a round chambered all the time. Should I consider replacing the hammer spring every so often? I'm a little concerned that it may become weak over time.

Since the Shield doesn’t have a hammer, you will not be replacing a “hammer spring.” These pistols are designed to be used for defense which means they are designed to be loaded and ready.

Leave it loaded. When reloading after a cleaning or shooting session, make sure you always and only load it from the magazine. Locking the slide back, dropping a cartridge in the chamber and then letting the slide go home is hard on the extractor and can possibly cause it to break. After chambering your first cartridge, pull the magazine and top it off to bring it back to full capacity.

MEP1 said:

M&P Shield 2.0

What is recommended for reliability? I carry with a round chambered all the time. Should I consider replacing the hammer spring every so often? I'm a little concerned that it may become weak over time.

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Since shawn did not really answer your question You should change your striker spring after you have fired maybe 10,000 rounds . I change the mag springs recoil and striker spring sooner.

My habits are probably different from many others . I never unload a chambered cartridge except to change mags when shooting or after a cleaning and lubing . I have carry mags and practice mags so at the range I fire the one carry round in the pistol and then use practice ammo for fun or defensive drill .

Many or most time if you search for an answer from BING you will find what you want maybe even hours worth of opinions !! ha .

You may find springs wanted from Wolff Gunsprings and or Galloway Precision .

During a quality cleaning section IF a small part maybe misplaced or a tiny spring shoot across the room purely by accident Check with Galloway or Midwestgunworks as both keeps many parts in stock before checking with Numrich gun parts , there also verygood for older gun parts .

I agree with the previous poster. Like magazine springs striker springs are normally compressed in a gun being used for self defense and are designed for it.

If you are worried about it pick up and save a few empty cases from your gun next time you are at the range and store them as a reference. Every year or two compared the the primer strikes to reference cases from when the gun was new. You should see weaker strikes well before you get misfires. It would be the sort of thing that can slowly creep up on you so you need a reference. Some primers are harder than others so you would need to use the same brand of ammo.

Most gun owners, myself included, are not going to shoot enough rounds for this to be a problem. Springs weaken more from being cycled than they do from being compressed for long periods of time. But they are inexpensive and it doesn't hurt anything to change them periodically.

On the full size M&P, the armorers parts replacement "suggestions" are as follows with the replacement interval being which ever comes first:

Every 5K rounds/5 years replace:
Coil pins
Magazine springs and followers
Recoil spring assembly
Slide Stop
Trigger return spring.


Every 10K rounds/10 years, replace the additional items:
Striker assembly
Trigger bar assembly

Note: this does assume mandated training and qualification that exceeds the yearly round count of the vast majority of private citizen shooters.

Personal note: I wouldn't worry overmuch about the roll/tension/spring pins at the stated interval. My personal M&P9 1.0 went way beyond 5/5 on the recoil spring and I'm still on the original slide stop, but it's a full size gun. I think I'd stick with the suggested intervals on a Shield.

I think you need to read your owner's manual several times, forward backward and then a few more times.

Then go take a class.

Springs do not go bad from being compressed. They go bad from cycling. If you want to replace a spring, do so from an amount of use standpoint. IMO, you'll never reach that point.
AA

Thanks for the useful replies. I haven't had it apart for cleaning beyond a quick regular wipedown since I have never even fired it (and hopefully will never need to).

FWIW to the one commenter, I am more than familiar enough with guns to handle them safely without being treated like a child.

MEP1 said:

Thanks for the useful replies. I haven't had it apart for cleaning beyond a quick regular wipedown since I have never even fired it (and hopefully will never need to).

FWIW to the one commenter, I am more than familiar enough with guns to handle them safely without being treated like a child.

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Am I understanding your first comment correctly? "have never even fired it." Are you carrying a new/new to you pistol that you have never fired? Just about everyone here won't 'trust' a firearm for self-defense until they have run X rds through it for break-in and X rounds of the self-defense ammo they use for carrying.

That break-in/gain trust period (which I follow, too) is why when some of us get a new firearm that malfunctions, it irritates to no end. If it malfunctions at the range, it very likely is going to malfunction in a stressful situation. Then we go through more and more costly ammo trying to gain trust.

I just bought a brand new M2.0 10mm. And it has Fail To Feed issues. It's my first S&W out of many to give me a problem out of the box.

Sorry if I read your comment wrong.

Springs wear from use, not just being compressed for a stationary time. But several compression and un compression cycles. So I would not worry about the striker spring and or magazine spring unless several thousand rounds has been put through it.

re: "...since I have never even fired it (and hopefully will never need to.)"

Unless an intentional misstatement, perhaps 1 CORINTHIANS 13:11 might apply...?

Cheers!

Now that the experts have buried you in irrelevant, and some completely erroneous, information, I will answer your question:

No, you do not need to worry about the springs.

MEP1 said:

Thanks for the useful replies. I haven't had it apart for cleaning beyond a quick regular wipedown since I have never even fired it (and hopefully will never need to).

FWIW to the one commenter, I am more than familiar enough with guns to handle them safely without being treated like a child.

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Welcome to the Forum. I have some observations about your posts I'd like to pass on. Please excuse my skepticism, but there are a few discrepancies in your statements that lead me to believe you're not quite as familiar with guns, or semi-auto pistols at least, as you say you are. There's nothing wrong with that. No one is born familiar with guns or Shields in particular, and we're all here to learn.
Here are the discrepancies:

1. In your original post, you ask about the Shield's hammer. An experienced gun owner would know that it is a striker-fired pistol.

2. Most experienced gun owners will immediately field strip their new semi-autos and give them a thorough clean and lube. Often, the factory sends out their guns with only a thin preservative applied to the metal parts to keep them from rusting. The preservative is no substitute for a proper lubricant.

3. Your statement about never planning to shoot your Shield may be the most astonishing thing I've read in my eight years on the Forum. No experienced gun owner would ever buy a self-defense pistol like the Shield, load it, and then never shoot it. The Shield is not a collector's item. It is a mass-produced gun that is designed to be shot. There are several reasons to shoot it, and to shoot the heck out of it:

a) How do you know it will work as intended if you don't shoot it? A worst-case scenario would be to need it to defend yourself, and find out that your unlubricated gun that you've never fired doesn't work. The Shield is a very reliable gun, but you can't assume yours is one of them. I speak from experience, because my Shield was unreliable out of the box (damaged recoil spring assembly). Even after I got a new assembly, it continued to have failure to eject problems. It took a lot of shooting before I found the right self-defense ammo that worked perfectly in my Shield.

b) You need to know how to handle the Shield, including such things as the most effective grip, operating the safety (if it has one), racking the slide, clearing a jam, etc.

c) You need to learn to shoot it accurately. That can only occur by live fire practice.

How much shooting should you do? As much as you can afford, but at least 500 rounds. You will not damage your Shield. My own standard is 1,000 problem-free rounds before I will consider a pistol reliable. And many of those rounds should be the self-defense (hollow point) rounds that you plan to carry in your Shield. Shooting the ammo that you carry to make sure it works in your gun is always a good practice. For advice on self-defense ammo, check the Ammunition section of the Forum. FYI, in my case, I carry Hornady Critical Duty 135g +P ammo in my Shield 9.

So find yourself a range, and as we say, shoot early and shoot often.

Congratulations on your new Shield, and Good Luck!

I never considered actually testing the weapon. I have "rented" multiple guns at a firing range, both for practice and to see which I liked, and what I chose was both for how it handled and fit my grip and for its concealed carry ability being a thinner gun. I have planned to practice with it but I never got around to it. I will do so very soon to test the gun and its accuracy.

My dad taught me gun safety when I was a kid, and I took a couple casual courses before handling them again as I was testing some. FWIW almost got the Glock 19, but my dad liked S&W.

As far as accuracy, I'm a very good shot, something that comes naturally to me. I don't need more practice for that.

I don't clean it thoroughly because I haven't fired it, but I do break it down about once a month and wipe it down/oil it.

Leave it alone..buy ammo and get good with what you have.

I'm a very good shot, something that comes naturally to me. I don't need more practice for that.

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Wow, just wow.


Welcome to the forum, but this tells us all we need to know about you.
Anyone good at their craft is still a student of that craft, and always looking to improve at it.

One who is good at it, and knows what their doing never says they "don't need more practice for it".

It's hardly my craft. I've been shooting maybe ten times in my life, and I'm very comfortable with my abilities. When I do go to a range I will try and remember to take video just for you.

Any particular reason why you've taken the time and gone out of your way to post a public judgment of me?

MEP1 said:

It's hardly my craft. I've been shooting maybe ten times in my life, and I'm very comfortable with my abilities. When I do go to a range I will try and remember to take video just for you.

Any particular reason why you've taken the time and gone out of your way to post a public judgment of me?

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You have displayed yourself in public, and then chided one person who, IMO, attempted to help you. Your own postings clamor for judgment, yet everyone has been temperate in expressing the obvious conclusions.

This is a great opportunity for learning, but requires a little study. Please don't pass it up!