Does this spring look right?

[GaryS]

A friend of mine bought a M&P Shield in 9mm recently.

This is his first semi auto and he asked me to come over his house to run him through the manual of arms. He was having a problem with getting rounds into the magazines, which seemed a bit odd.

I went over, showed him how to strip, clean, lube, and reassemble. I also brought over a bag of plastic training rounds so he could get used to loading the magazines.

That all went well except we could only get six rounds into the seven round magazine and seven into the eight round magazine.

I took the seven round magazine apart and the spring seemed very long to me. The spring was longer and thicker than the spring on my 3913.

Here is a picture of the magazine disassembled with the spring beside it.

Is this the right spring? Are these hard to load until they are broken in?

Is this a known issue with the Shield?

If this isn't the right spring, I'm going to suggest that he call the mother ship and ask them to send him replacement spring.

Thank you.

 

[Jeppo]

Yes, the magazines are extremely difficult to load when new. I jam the rounds in (Maglula if necessary) and let them sit a while. Eventually, they’re fine.

If you want the spring length and nobody posts it by tomorrow, I’ll dig out a couple magazines and post the length.

 

[GaryS]

Thank you. I'll let him know that it's normal and that he should stuff the magazines and let them sit. I think I have a spare Maglula he can borrow.

If I can find it!

 

[sandog]

Stuffing the magazines and letting them sit isn't nearly as effective as complete cycles, i.e., loading and unloading them over and over.

Keeping a mag loaded ( spring compressed ) doesn't weaken or "season" a spring, what does is constant loading and unloading.
Ask any engineer or metallurgist if you don't believe me.

I was taught when young, as were most of us, to rotate your mags every few months to relax the springs so they would not fatigue, but that's been proven to be inaccurate.

If you want your mags to become easier to load, go out and use them at the range. If that's not possible, sit at home and load and unload them a few hundred times.

My Shield mags (and everyone else's) were hard to get that last round in, so I used a cheap Range Tray loader for that last round. Now that I've used the mags a bit, I don't need the loader tools anymore.

All springs act the same way and respond to the same treatment. If you have a new gun that's hard to rack back, leaving it with the slide back for extended periods is not going to help, what will make that recoil spring break in are complete cycles, open. close, open, close over and over.
Nothing like actually getting out and putting some rounds through a new gun to break it in.

 

[mmb617]

Here's a pic of my Shield mag disassembled.

The spring looks to be about the same length as yours. I've run a good many rounds through mine and it's still hard to load by hand IMO, but then I'm probably spoiled because I load all my pistol mags with a Maglula. It's a real thumb saver on range day.

 

[JBTrucker]

7 and 8 round mags use the same spring so 7 will be just a little difficult to load 7+1 into gun

 

[GaryS]

Thanks to everyone for the information. I sent that on to my friend and also a link to a magazine loader.

This will be a good excuse for him to get to the range.