Light strikes with M&P45 M2.0 Shield PC

[907_Chevy]

I somewhat recently have had issues of not fire due to light strike on my M&P 45 M2.0 Shield Performance Center. This is my personal protection gun and was still relatively new as I have put about 100 rds through it. I had cleaned it after the last target practice.

I was in a situation where I was needing to fire a warning shot as a bear was coming up to me and had a no fire.
When I got back I tried multiple different brands of ammo (Sig, Winchester, Federal, PMC, Remington) and continued to have light strikes with no fire. I have read threads where this was an issue but only with cheap ammo and not every round. After switching brands they never had issue since.

Initially, I was extremely happy with S&W customer service as they answered right away. After only a few questions they sent a paid Fedex label and I sent it off. I got it back yesterday and was super excited. Upon opening, I was reviewing the paperwork and performed service was:
Evaluate / Repair
Clean Gun
Passed Ranger Testing

Given the Evaluate / Repair being vague I was interested in what was repaired as I have heard weak spring is a common issue. When I called the customer service agent has no access to any more information than what is shown above and that no repairs were completed. He had no access to contact the person/service department that evaluated the gun to ask additional questions but only found out no repairs were completed.

The only suggestion was to take it to the range to test it. I already had lacked confidence in it as a protection gun after I expected it to be repaired. As I see it now, it is basically a paperweight as it has already failed in one protection event and was lucky there was another armed person with me. It is bound to happen again at some point but who knows if it will be the next round fired or 1000th.

Anyways, I was curious to know if anyone else had this issue with the 45 M2.0 PC. I have seen issues with the 45 Shield PC and a 9mm Shield M2.0 PC, but either S&W had repaired it or there was no follow up if it had been resolved.

Has anyone replaced the spring themselves after had this issue?

P.S. Customer service agent was still very nice, talked with other workers to see about accessing more information and understanding but basically didn’t have the ability to help.

 

[M1A4ME]

I'm no expert but I've had similar issues in a full sized M&P.

They cleaned it. I wonder what they cleaned?

Do the duds have a nice striker indentation in the primer or a very light one or none at all?

Do you oil the striker/striker spring when you turn the slide upside down? They way you should not oil it due to the presence of excess oil and powder residue being a cause for the striker not freely moving when released by the sear. If it was oiled previously the "cleaning" done my S&W should have removed it.

When you have a dud does the slide retract easily by hand to extract the round from the chamber? It should. If it does not it may be the bullet (not the whole cartridge) is making contact with the lands of the rifling or the metal in the area between where the case mouth stops and the lands begin and stopping the slide from going all the way forward. But usually that results in a very difficult to move to the rear slide.

You can replace the striker spring (you tube vids will show you how). Midwest Gun Works shows the Shield and the full sized pistols using the same striker spring and had them in stock.

Smith & Wesson M&P Striker Spring: MGW

I remember, years ago, when I had the problem in the full sized pistol one of the things suggested to try was a Glock striker spring. It is about 2 lbs. heavier/stronger than the M&P spring and fits/works well. And no, it didn't cure my problem, but it was a suggestion back then.

The only other thing I experienced is a timing problem. The striker block wasn't being lifted full upwards out of the way of the striker before the sear released the striker. S&W should have seen that/diagnosed it and made the adjustments to the trigger bar to take care of that if it was the issue and they found it during testing.

 

[Beju]

M1A4ME sums up my thoughts well.

When I see striker fire pistols fail, it's usually due to improper cleaning/lubrication gunking up the striker assembly. Though I did once see a Shield 9 where the striker block was locked in to the slide via some combo of solvent/lubrication/carbon. I had to remove the rear sight to fix that.

I would personally also replace the striker itself if you're replacing the spring, as it's only an extra $8. I don't know of dimensional variances causing problems with the M&P Shield strikers, but it's definitely been a thing with the revolver firing pins.

 

[907_Chevy]

Sorry for the delay in replies.

I had cleaned it after last range fire. It had been carried in my concealed holster for a while but nothing that was overly dirty and most of the gun is covered/protected. It was not dropped.

It had very light round mark.
I put 100 rds through it this weekend and it has a good strick with a little striker drag. See picture.

I do not oil the striker/spring. Only the slide points.

The cartridge loads smoothly from the mag and also slide back as normal with no noticeable change in resistance.

 

[907_Chevy]

Thank you for the input.
I did not clean it before sending to S&W as I didn’t want to change something and it had not been fired since last cleaning.

I don’t believe it could be from striker being gunked as only lube slides and not the spring. It is also carried in a holster which is in a fairly clean environment.

It would be nice if they would put better notes to explain if they found it gunked up. I would expect that when they disassemble to evaluate upon reassembly they would clean and lube it being a standard procedure. I’m sure the barrel was not spotless due to one of my holsters is open in the bottom.

M1A4ME sums up my thoughts well.

When I see striker fire pistols fail, it's usually due to improper cleaning/lubrication gunking up the striker assembly. Though I did once see a Shield 9 where the striker block was locked in to the slide via some combo of solvent/lubrication/carbon. I had to remove the rear sight to fix that.

I would personally also replace the striker itself if you're replacing the spring, as it's only an extra $8. I don't know of dimensional variances causing problems with the M&P Shield strikers, but it's definitely been a thing with the revolver firing pins.