Are you happy with your Shield???

I'm one of the million or so satisfied owners. My 9mm has been flawless for over 2 years and is my EDC.
 
Love my 9mm Shield. The more I shoot it the more I like it.
I'm getting close to 1000 rounds through it, and have had almost zero failures of any kind.
 
Got my 9mm in March 16. Love it with 800+ rounds. Carry almost everyday.

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I'm going to be the odd one here I guess.

Dumped mine after 2 months. 1 month of the ownership it was at S&W factory being repaired. Still wasn't 100% right after it was returned. Couldn't shoot it accurate for the life of me from the beginning.

Ended up giving it to my daughter as she needed an EDC. I have a custom made CZ 75 Compact being built as we speak. Once you have shot a CZ everything else is just a downgrade...

I'll stick with S&W Revolvers. Hoping to get a Performance Model Revolver within a month or two... Just not a fan of their M&P line. To each his/her own I guess...
 
Try before you buy

I would try an XDS before buying the Shield. The slide is a lot easier to operate on the XDS which is generally very important for the ladies. I traded my Shield for and XDS. Like the XDS much better in every way.
 

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I believe I will end up liking my 9mm Shield. I have only had a chance to run a hundred rounds through it. The first fifty went perfect. The next fifty had several failure to feeds, which I later found out it was because the spring broke in the magazine in the 8 round mag. S&W is send me a new spring. So I'm going to assume that with the magazine working properly, it will work as well as it did the first fifty rounds, and if it does I will like the gun a lot. It shot well, with little recoil,but one thing, get yourself an Uplula magazine loader. It will save your thumb, those springs are almost impossibly stiff. But I'm sure you will like the gun.
 
Bought a traditional Shield. Liked it so much I bought a PC Shield after that . Both are excellent!
 
I'm asking this because my wife wants a M&P Shield 9mm...

Thanks in advance...

The good: it will eat any ammo. Mine is seven months old and I have not had any failure to fire or failure to eject out of it yet (in about 1400 rounds). It is easy to break down and easy to clean. I am an old guy with arthritis and at least with mine I don't have any issues racking the slide. It is a good weight and feel with medium hands. It does not print much with my nemesis holster (I guess not much of a problem for a lady.)

The bad: I had to get a loader to be able to fill my mags easily and quickly. The trigger was gritty and very heavy even after a few hundred rounds so I replaced it with an apex sear. (It is perfect now). I am not at all happy with the accuracy. I will state two things. I have shot for 59 years. I consider myself a good shot. I expect in my hands to be able to place all my shots at 5 and 7 yards in a 2" circle and a 4" at 10 yards. I have yet to be able to do that. I fully realize this is not a target pistol, but I have no trouble doing this on my Glock G42. I have now eliminated winchester white box 115 gr and SW UMC 124 (both fmj) as inconsistent. and am working on finding target ammo that is acceptable (BTW in self defense ammo federal LE HST in 147 gr std pressure is getting close to my accuracy needs).

If I had it to do over again I would not have bought this without running 100 or 200 rounds through a rental. I got to impatient waiting for a glock g43 and got a good deal on this one. So, I should have waited. the glocks are all more accurate in my hands. If I wouldn't lose my shorts in the deal I'd swap it for a g43 in a hearbeat, and I feel a lady would likely feel that way too.
 
The bad: I had to get a loader to be able to fill my mags easily and quickly. The trigger was gritty and very heavy even after a few hundred rounds so I replaced it with an apex sear. (It is perfect now). I am not at all happy with the accuracy. I will state two things. I have shot for 59 years. I consider myself a good shot. I expect in my hands to be able to place all my shots at 5 and 7 yards in a 2" circle and a 4" at 10 yards. I have yet to be able to do that. I fully realize this is not a target pistol, but I have no trouble doing this on my Glock G42. I have now eliminated winchester white box 115 gr and SW UMC 124 (both fmj) as inconsistent. and am working on finding target ammo that is acceptable (BTW in self defense ammo federal LE HST in 147 gr std pressure is getting close to my accuracy needs).

I like you couldn't stand the trigger. After 500 rounds it still was very bad. My daughter noticed that the first time she shot it. I may upgrade hers with an Apex down the road.

I also consider myself a pretty good shot. But I was all over the place with this gun. I may get a Glock down the road, but I prefer CZ over everyone else at this time.
 
This is my second subcompact - a 9mm. Used to own a FS Llama 38 super, so this has been an adjustment. It fits in my hands better than my first one, the Taurus PT 111 G2, which I sold. That being said, the trigger is gritty and the grip is slick. Put on Talon grips to help out. Otherwise, it has had no FTE or FTF using various ammo brands. I seem to have better accuracy and precision with 124 grain ammo than 115. Will drop in an Apex kit after having shot my buddy's .40 cal Shield with an Apex trigger kit.
 
Traded my PX4 40 in, and took home a shield in 9mm. I had already decided that I was going to part with the PX4, and stick with SW M&P as my platform to build on. Additionally I wanted something that my youngest Daughter would find a bit more comfortable than my FS, in .40.

The store had both a regular with thumb safety, and the Performance Center, I took the regular shield home. I like everything about the performance center model except for the ported barrel. If I were to get one, I would change the barrel to a standard barrel.

Hit the range the day after I got it, and ran about 180 115gr fmj rounds through it. Quite a nice shooting small pistol. Hit the range on Monday with my Daughter and let her put a bunch through it. She did very well with it, and it fits her small hands much better than the FS, mainly due to the width. Picked up 2 extra mags, and have another 2 in the mail. Will get 2 mag guts spring kits, and set up 2 extended mags as 9 round. Going to get some 124, and 147gr and see how I like a few different ammo types.

Next up is a compact, but have not decided on what caliber.
 
Wish I would have waited for the no thumb safety. So used to the third gen and got to think, "is it on or off".

So it is weird to quote myself but since someone brought this old thread back and things have changed I would like to note that I still have my 9 shield and have added a 45 shield without the thumb safety.
 
Make sure she can operate it, the shield has the stiffest springs, both recoil and magazine, that I have seen. My wife cant operate mine, and when I got it the last bullet to go in mag was a pia. Other than that mine has run like a clock, no problems in any way, and it it is very accurate for what it is.

I have a .40CA Shield. You are correct on the stiff springs. Recently I saw where there are new stainless steel recoil springs for sale for the Shield, although I don't recall where. Might have been on Amazon. They are supposed to reduce the recoil. I'm not certain if I would want one though. What do you think? I am beginning to think I might prefer the 9mm. I have begun buying bullets with lowere powder charges than 180.
 
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I would try an XDS before buying the Shield. The slide is a lot easier to operate on the XDS which is generally very important for the ladies. I traded my Shield for and XDS. Like the XDS much better in every way.

Can't get these in Mass through an FFL otherwise I'd probably have one. I got an XDM 3.8 45 off a a local LEO in a FTF transaction and it's easily my favorite gun to shoot. HE had and XDS 9mm on him when I bought his .45. I loved the way it felt in my hand the triggers out of the box smoke the M&P triggers. I've had the one on my Shield reworked by an excellent local gunsmith and now it completely kicks all sorts of butt but it annoys me that I had to do that to make the gun a 'shootable" gun. I just picked up a 9C and he is doing that trigger for me this weekend.
 
I like you couldn't stand the trigger. After 500 rounds it still was very bad. My daughter noticed that the first time she shot it. I may upgrade hers with an Apex down the road.


The Apex sear made a world of difference in the first Shield I owned. It does make the trigger quite a bit lighter so if proper/safe gun handling is in question, best to not change.
 
Love mine. I've only had it a few months, and have only run about 500 or so rounds through it, but it runs like a champ. I don't play with +P rounds, though. I limit my self-defense ammo to Hornady 115 grain Critical Defense of Federal 124 grain HST, both in standard pressure. Both get at least 12" penetration through 4 layers of ballistic denim, and both rounds expand nicely - with the Federal HST performing the best out of the two.
 
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