I do prefer the shield for maximum comfort but only having 7 to 8 rounds and been told you should never put the maximum amount, that basically means 6 and7.
Are you talking because of spring tension? It's hard to load?
This baffles me a little.
First, the best way to relieve it is to go train with it so the spring gets softened by cycling it... and you get as used to the gun as you should.
Second... buy the UPLULA for loading the magazine. Best twenty whatever dollars you will spend.
If it's because it's hard to load until the springs soften, then load your gun full because you are not under pressure and have time to make sure it's right.
Also, you know... carrying maximum capacity in your carry gun is where you will most likely need it. Not carrying at full capacity makes no sense.
Then drop a round from your second magazine if you are worried about slamming it home under pressure because better you can consistently reload first time than have one less round to use.
Also... most encounters don't end in three shots. That's the average taken from numbers that are hard to compile accurately. If they are accurate, that could be thousands of encounters that end with zero shots and one that ends with three. Conversely, it could be any number of encounters ending with anything up to 30 shots that happen to end in three.
It could also be that most people train to shoot three shots at a time and that's what they do under pressure because they have been told three is the average. A self fulfilling prophesy... but how many people don't stop an attacker with just three shots?
It's also possibly that the most often amount of shots used to stop an attack is in fact zero, because chances are high they are massively under reported because who wants to call the police and tell them they pointed a gun at someone?
The actual answer to how many shots are needed to stop an attacker is:
As many as it takes.
