EZ 380

[panther]

I have a chance to buy a new EZ in 380. It seems like most of the posts I see in here are complaints about the EZ, especially the 380 model.
This isn't an older one, it's brand new, hopefully with any upgrades offered for these.
If it was you, would you buy one? BTW, asking price is $399.

 

[NukeRef]

I have a chance to buy a new EZ in 380. It seems like most of the posts I see in here are complaints about the EZ, especially the 380 model.
This isn't an older one, it's brand new, hopefully with any upgrades offered for these.
If it was you, would you buy one? BTW, asking price is $399.

If the 380 EZ is what you want, then you should get it. My DW likes hers a lot.

 

[gc70]

A relatively few EZs in 380 have problems with stovepipes that S&W cannot or will not fix.

I say "relatively few" because there have been a lot of 380s sold and they certainly do not all have stovepipe problems. Search the internet and you will see that the total number of people (myself included) who have posted complaints about the EZ in 380 are pretty small.

Beyond the stovepipe problem (for which owners have mostly found home remedies), I can't remember any other common complaints.

The EZ in 380 is my wife's gun and she loves it for all of the "easy" reasons S&W touts. I like the gun enough that I bought one in 9mm.

 

[CB3]

Buy it.

My daughter bought one because of her arthritic hands and because she is somewhat recoil sensitive. She had shot a rental EZ 9 and an EZ 380 at our local,range and preferred the .380.

Knowing there had been some last round stove pipe complaints here, I scuffed up her magazine followers as a preventive measure. The trigger was gritty so I dry fired it 100’s of times, and hand cycled the slide a couple of hundred times also. It was a break in effort that paid off with the gun smoother than out of the box and the trigger very nice. I also polished the slide stop lever to release a little more easily.

Then I shot it before letting her do so. I was very surprised at how easy it was to shoot well. I really liked it.

She went through about 80 rounds on her first outing with two minor problems. She did not properly activate the grip safety once, and she forgot about the thumb safety once—both user errors. I would advise against getting the model with the redundant thumb safety, but that’s your choice.

I liked the gun so much I bought one for myself three weeks ago, without the thumb safety @ $389. I have done all the same work to it and I will go to the range tomorrow for the first shots. I expect no problems with it. I will use mine for a transition training gun for grandchildren graduating from rim fire to center fire pistols.

I do not hesitate to recommend the EZ 380. Get an extra mag. Expensive but worth it. And some dummy .380 rounds for practice at home.

 

[Jon651]

We own one and it's fun (and easy) to shoot. I have no regrets buying it except for one - the price of .380 ammo these days is absurd, averaging $2/round and it's pretty rare. The manufacturers don't seem to be producing much of it these days.

As for issues, we've not had any of the stovepipe problems that have been mentioned here and the very few performance issues I have seen have vanished as the round count has increased through the gun. My sights are slightly off and I was working on that before ammo became more scarce than hen's teeth. It is a soft-shooter that is easy to work with, feels great even in my (larger) hands, and is easy to clean. I look forward to shooting it much more when this ammo insanity finally passes.

 

[smithra_66]

I have a chance to buy a new EZ in 380. It seems like most of the posts I see in here are complaints about the EZ, especially the 380 model.
This isn't an older one, it's brand new, hopefully with any upgrades offered for these.
If it was you, would you buy one? BTW, asking price is $399.

It's a decent gun for people with weaker hands.

My wife has a bit of a hard time racking the slide on her G26, but no troubles with the EZ.

If you can handle a 9mm, I'd recommend you at least go there if this gun is intended for personal protection.

 

[gnystrom]

I am an RSO and have seen literally dozens of them come into our range. No problems with any of them. I bought one just because and it runs perfectly with all of my handloads. One of the better guns put out by S&W in recent years.

 

[robrossk]

We have one and this is my wife's go to. She had to get used to the grip safety but now good to go. As others have stated, ammo is hard to come by right now. Not sure if price is good or bad. I got the range pkg in December 2020 for under $300 (with rebate).

 

[rsmith6120]

The wife and I really like the Performance Center 380ez. The only issue is the stovepiping a live round on the last round of the mags sporadically. A known issue I should have researched more before making this her primary. Other than that, it's a fine shooter. The wife likes the size a little more than her Sig 238 Equinox also as she likes the larger frame size.

 

[NukeRef]

The only issue is the stovepiping a live round on the last round of the mags sporadically.

Easy fix, scuff the top of the magazine followers with sandpaper. It will increase the friction on the last round, keeping it in place for the slide to pick it up the way it's supposed to.

 

[rsmith6120]

Just back the wife's gun back from S&W. Work order said they polished the barrel and chamber. I put 250+ rounds through it yesterday without a single issue. Something tells me they probably changed out the follower and springs in the mags as well but that isn't listed. The follower is as smooth as glass and doesn't look to be scuffed.