Greetings! It's not that I need one, but I am contemplating purchasing a Shield Plus in order to take advantage of the new rebate. Currently, it's a toss up between an optic ready Shield Plus and a standard Shield Plus. For an optic, I'm leaning towards a Holosun 507K, because of the circle dot projection and the fact that the image can be green.

I have read a number of posts here talking about sloped cuts and the need for either an adapter plate or having the slide modified. While the adapter is tolerable, machining the slide is unacceptable.

Are current production Shield Plus OR pistols capable of having a Holosun 507K installed without an adapter or slide modification?

As always, thanks in advance for your help!

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Judge control not gun control!

The optics ready Sheild Plus appears to use the RMSc / JPoint footprint. The Holosun K series sights use a modified version of that footprint. That won't direct mount on a strict RMSc cut gun. So you'll either need to have the slide slightly modified for the Holosun sight, or find an adapter plate to make the transition.

A 507K will not go on without a plate or having the rear nubs on the slide removed. A careful individual might be able to do it with a file and some time. The angle is something that may or may not affect your zero.

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Plastic has no soul

If absolutely necessary one could spring for a metal mounting plate and custom screws, if they really felt it was mandatory...

Of course, there are untold thousands of optics happily mounted with what the designers felt appropriate. As mine all are.

Cheers!

P.S. It always seems some boats are just naturally harder to float...

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Sit Reloader Sentiret

I bought a Shield Plus earlier this year and tried two different optics (Holosun 407K and Romeo Zero) and could not get either to zero . With elevation set to the lowest setting the Shield Plus was high at 4" at 7 yards and 12" at 25 yards.

Both optics were used on 3 other different guns (Sig P365 , Sig P322 , Glock 43X) with no issues at all. Smith customer service said to contact the sight manufacturers regarding the problem? Really? An Assclown answer at best. That's when I knew I was done buying new Smiths.

Ended up installing an angled plate and was able to zero the optic. I'll probably get the slide machined properly eventually . The Shield's grip and trigger is MUCH better for me than the P365 and Glock 43X . To not be able to zero to a factory cut slide just soured the whole experience of buying this pistol.

I was able to mount 507K and EPS Carry optics on my M&P 5.7, M&P 22 Magum and Equalizer, all of which have an RMSc optic cut, with no plate and no problems. They mounted right up with 6-32 screws directly to the slide.

The 507K is a nice optic. Everyone will have their preferences and here are mine:

I think the Shield RMS series of optics are okay but I have little experience with them and believe most are auto adjust (meaning they adjust to lighting conditions via a sensor on the optic). I'm not a fan of auto adjust.

I had a Romeo Zero and I think I eventually gave it away to a buddy. It worked but I was not a fan of the plastic construction, bottom-load battery, flimsy mounting, etc. I know there is a new "better" Romeo Zero and have no experience with it.

The Trijicon RMRCC is too big to fit the Shield RMS/507K size cut and even if it was it's a bottom-load battery which means a no-go for me.

The Holosun line checks a lot of boxes for me. They aren't crazy expensive but they are feature packed, very good optics, and they are driving the technology of this industry right now. I tested one of my own Holosun optics for my former department (I retired at the end of September) and dropped it three times on concrete - once from three, four, and five feet. The optic still works and I still have it. If you choose Holosun in the 507K format you should consider the EPS Carry, but that's not to say you should get it.

For hard-core use in inclement (or unknown) environmental conditions such as military or LE, I'm a big fan of the enclosed emitter optics. For concealed carry/off duty/self defense/home defense, etc, the enclosed emitter isn't as essential to me though it does offer some advantages. I like that it's really easy to clean with a quick wipe of a t-shirt or lens cloth rather than having to get into the nooks and crannies of an open emitter. That said, having a lens pen (the brush end) makes it pretty easy with the open emitter styles like the 507K. There are other minor considerations such as condensational fogging of the optic window, but if carrying against the body as with most CCW that won't be an issue. Rain and such can be a concern but is managable with open emitters.

I have a 507K and two EPS Carry optics among a bunch of others and I think you'd be happy with either, but with a bit of research you might be a little more confident and less likely to have that "wish I would have..." feeling later, whatever your choice is.


The sloped cut is a problem but not with all Shield Plus guns.

Due to the mortice (the milled pocket in the slide for the optic), an adaptor plate (or milling) is necessary to accomodate the 507K footprint. The adaptor plate DOES NOT fix the sloped optic cut issue.

When S&W first introduced the optic-ready Shield Plus, all the guns had the sloped cut. I believe our armorers measured eight of them. One of our people sent his slide in under warranty and it was returned saying there was no problem with the slide. It was then returned again pointing out the sloped slide and we were told it was designed that way to accomodate the CTC optic that came with some SKUs. We don't authorize the CTC optic, so it essentially removed the ability of those deputies to use an optic with the pistol.

We ended up prohibiting the use of optics with those guns.

After a while, and I believe it was in early 2023, S&W introduced a "new" slide that supposedly eliminated the sloped optic cut, but we have found that they either had/have a large backstock of old slides with the sloped cut or they made a large number with the old CAD design.

At this point I've seen some slides that don't have the slope and can be zeroed with a 507K-type optic. I've seen other slides that were supposedly "new production" that do and can't be zeroed. I have one of them.

So what is the real problem with the sloped slide? Well, most optics are designed to install on a flat pocket. The screws that secure the optic and the screw holes in the optic are drilled 90 degrees to the cut which allows the optic to sit flat against the mortice in the slide.

I don't have the measurements from the department, but I measured the "new production" slide I have. I placed the caliper across the top of the cut at the front and rear to avoid variations in measurement. This means that I had to measure behind the front bosses and therefore the distance between the new measurements was approximately 1.2". The measurements were from the bottom of the slide to the surface of the optic cut where the optic body would sit. The rear measurement was 0.670" and the front measurement was 0.657" for a difference of 0.013" or 13 thousanths.

This doesn't sound like a lot, but if we take a slope of 13 thousanths over a distance of 1.2 inches and continue that slope out to 15 yards (540 inches) we get - if my poor math skills are correct - a deviation of 6.26 inches. Since the 507K uses 1MOA click adjustments, that would take 41.7MOA or 41 - 42 clicks just to bring the reticle to match a "flat" cut. Let alone any variation in other components.

That's a problem. Then add the additional factor that the screw holes are still drilled and tapped 90 degrees from the slide so the optic is sitting at some angle that is inconsistent from one install to the next. If you look you can't see daylight between the slide, plate, and optic at the rear, but you can at the front... daylight between the slide and plate, and the plate and optic.

This lack of continuous contact between the interacting components concerns me from the perspective of vibration and may ultimately lead to the optic coming loose faster. We haven't been able to test this because these are generally low round count guns and the optics are usually removed since they can't be zeroed anyway.

I personally wouldn't buy an optic-ready Shield unless I could ensure the cut was flat on the specific pistol I was purchasing, or unless I was prepared to have the cut milled to flat if necessary.

While I think the above (TLDR - I know) answers the question, I'll make the long story short here:

The Shield Plus OR pistols require an adaptor plate to use a Holosun 507K - and even then may require modification to work correctly.

First.. congrats on retiring buddy. Stay in touch...

Second...I have a Shield Plus Optic ready late 2022 purchase that had the sloped cut..it would not zero to POA, and no matter what I did the optic screws would loosen after 25 or so rounds. Degrease, loc-tite, torque wrench.. didn't matter they would loosen.

It just came back from it's 2nd trip to Smith with a replacement slide. We will have to see if this one is better.

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Plastic has no soul

I'd strongly recommend buying the non optics ready version, verifying there's no QC issues with the gun, and then getting it milled by a reputable company for the specific foot print that you want.

With the 507k, I'd encourage you to consider the versions that have the ACSS reticle because it makes dot acquisition significantly easier.

I bought the optics ready version. It has been fine. I would recommend giving the Crimson Trace sights a look. The light sensor has provided a great dot all the time!

That's what I wish I had done now. When buying my optics ready Shield Plus I initially thought a major firearms manufacturer like Smith & Wesson could mill the slide properly.

Does anyone know if S&W has rectified this issue with the optic cut on the Shield Plus? I have one coming, which I assume was manufactured well after the date of the above comments. I hate to think paying extra for the OC version over the non-OC was a waste of money.

A picky point here. As a virtually lifetime glasses wearer, I've used a bunch of stuff to clean them. HOWEVER, they don't have all the various coatings on them that the lens systems on optical gunsights do. So, I'd advise against the use of shirt tails, hanky's and other improvised means of cleaning those lenses. (Come to think of it, I ruined a pair of glasses improperly removing sawdust.) The pen type cleaners work well, they're designed for safely cleaning coated optics. What I've gone to recently is the canned air made for cleaning electronics and computer stuff.