For 4 1/2 years I've been telling everyone how great the .45 Shield is.
7+1 rounds of .45 ACP in a thin, light, controllable and accurate package.
I still like mine, still have confidence in it and will continue to carry it daily, but I've identified an issue that should concern anyone that owns one.
Mine has fed reliably with everything I've shot in it, Winchester Rangers, Remington Golden Sabers, Sig V-Crown, and Winchester Defend JHP. And all brands of hardball.
But it has bobbled a couple times with Speer 200 grain Gold Dot.
I know, some of you are saying, "Well just don't use Gold Dots!".
Problem is half of my JHP stash is Gold Dots. The other half is Winchester 230 grain Defend.
And not likely to find anything else for a while unless I want to pay $2 or more a round.
I'd really like to carry the Gold Dots, partly because they expand so nicely and partly because I have 150 rounds of them.
The issue that has cropped up is the next round in the mag scoots forward under recoil and the tip of the bullet catches under the locking block, and stops any more rounds from feeding up to the chamber.
Like this:
Now some of you will wonder how a round can scoot forward that much out of the mag.
Through out most of the mag well, there is no room to scoot forward. When the round gets right below the locking block, there is enough room for the round to go forward as shown in the pic.
When a gun fires and recoils backwards there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is Isaac Newton's third law of motion.
A scope will want to slide forward to counter the recoil, if not properly secured, and rounds in the magazine will also want to go forward.
So far this occurrence of a round catching under the locking block has only happened with the 200 grain Gold Dot.
The shape and length of the bullet has a harder time making it past that ledge under the locking block.
But that can also mean that other JHP brands are probably barely able to climb up past the ledge.
There was a guy on here, can't remember who it was, that said he had experienced the same issue with Gold Dots, and he took out his locking block and made a radius under the block.
I did that yesterday, and went out earlier and fired 3 magazines of Gold Dots with no jams.
That edge under the block had a pretty square edge, and rounding that edge is something others might want to consider, even if so far, they've had no jams.
Here is another shot of a round (Winchester 230 Defend JHP) that was caught under the locking block.
As I said before the Winchesters haven't got caught when firing but I happened to have them in the mag for the pic.
Also in this pic the ledge has already been rounded, or else the round would probably be even further forward.
Had I sent this back to Smith, I doubt they'd have done anything, and would have sent it back to me saying it was within specs, or to use a different brand of ammo..
My FS MP9 had a safety that would engage/disengage way too easy, I made it where the safety is stiffer. Smith would probably have sent it back to me saying the safety was working fine.
Also I have a Browning BL-22 lever, to eject a round you had to really snap the lever down hard. Work it easy and the empty would stay stuck to the bolt face.
I could remember to work the lever hard but others I'd hand it to forgot. I read on a forum where a guy took out the extractor and slightly dulled the sharp leading edge with some fine grit sandpaper.
I did that last week and now the .22 carbine ejects perfectly at any lever speed or force. How it should be.
Again had I sent it back to the manufacturer they'd most likely say nothing was wrong with it.
Sometimes I just have to fix the small things on my own.
Just thought I'd throw this out there.
Take off your slide, and with the mag part way out, take a screwdriver or other tool and push forward on the top round until it is under the locking block.
If you just slap a mag in there and no firing has happened, the rounds will all stay against the back of the mag.
Scooting that round forward manually will simulate where that top round could end up under recoil.
There is no reason to have a square ledge under the locking block that you can hook your fingertip under.
Rounding it gave me some peace of mind, and made my .45 Shield just a bit better.
I'll fire off some more Gold Dots before I start carrying them again, an awesome round provided the pistol will fire them reliably.
7+1 rounds of .45 ACP in a thin, light, controllable and accurate package.
I still like mine, still have confidence in it and will continue to carry it daily, but I've identified an issue that should concern anyone that owns one.
Mine has fed reliably with everything I've shot in it, Winchester Rangers, Remington Golden Sabers, Sig V-Crown, and Winchester Defend JHP. And all brands of hardball.
But it has bobbled a couple times with Speer 200 grain Gold Dot.
I know, some of you are saying, "Well just don't use Gold Dots!".
Problem is half of my JHP stash is Gold Dots. The other half is Winchester 230 grain Defend.
And not likely to find anything else for a while unless I want to pay $2 or more a round.
I'd really like to carry the Gold Dots, partly because they expand so nicely and partly because I have 150 rounds of them.
The issue that has cropped up is the next round in the mag scoots forward under recoil and the tip of the bullet catches under the locking block, and stops any more rounds from feeding up to the chamber.
Like this:
Now some of you will wonder how a round can scoot forward that much out of the mag.
Through out most of the mag well, there is no room to scoot forward. When the round gets right below the locking block, there is enough room for the round to go forward as shown in the pic.
When a gun fires and recoils backwards there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is Isaac Newton's third law of motion.
A scope will want to slide forward to counter the recoil, if not properly secured, and rounds in the magazine will also want to go forward.
So far this occurrence of a round catching under the locking block has only happened with the 200 grain Gold Dot.
The shape and length of the bullet has a harder time making it past that ledge under the locking block.
But that can also mean that other JHP brands are probably barely able to climb up past the ledge.
There was a guy on here, can't remember who it was, that said he had experienced the same issue with Gold Dots, and he took out his locking block and made a radius under the block.
I did that yesterday, and went out earlier and fired 3 magazines of Gold Dots with no jams.
That edge under the block had a pretty square edge, and rounding that edge is something others might want to consider, even if so far, they've had no jams.
Here is another shot of a round (Winchester 230 Defend JHP) that was caught under the locking block.
As I said before the Winchesters haven't got caught when firing but I happened to have them in the mag for the pic.
Also in this pic the ledge has already been rounded, or else the round would probably be even further forward.
Had I sent this back to Smith, I doubt they'd have done anything, and would have sent it back to me saying it was within specs, or to use a different brand of ammo..
My FS MP9 had a safety that would engage/disengage way too easy, I made it where the safety is stiffer. Smith would probably have sent it back to me saying the safety was working fine.
Also I have a Browning BL-22 lever, to eject a round you had to really snap the lever down hard. Work it easy and the empty would stay stuck to the bolt face.
I could remember to work the lever hard but others I'd hand it to forgot. I read on a forum where a guy took out the extractor and slightly dulled the sharp leading edge with some fine grit sandpaper.
I did that last week and now the .22 carbine ejects perfectly at any lever speed or force. How it should be.
Again had I sent it back to the manufacturer they'd most likely say nothing was wrong with it.
Sometimes I just have to fix the small things on my own.
Just thought I'd throw this out there.
Take off your slide, and with the mag part way out, take a screwdriver or other tool and push forward on the top round until it is under the locking block.
If you just slap a mag in there and no firing has happened, the rounds will all stay against the back of the mag.
Scooting that round forward manually will simulate where that top round could end up under recoil.
There is no reason to have a square ledge under the locking block that you can hook your fingertip under.
Rounding it gave me some peace of mind, and made my .45 Shield just a bit better.
I'll fire off some more Gold Dots before I start carrying them again, an awesome round provided the pistol will fire them reliably.
