M&P Shield 9 Failure To Extract (3)

[bfayer]

I have had no issues with my shield.

However, when my daughter or other folks of slighter stature shot it, they had a few malfunctions until they learned to keep their thumbs away from the slide, and not limp wrist the gun on recoil.

I think there is a combination of factors that add to the malfunction rate for new Shields and new shield shooters.

The guns are very tight when new, the guns are pretty light, and the recoil spring is on the strong side.

I wonder, if they dropped the recoil spring rate by a pound or so, would the malfunction rate would drop?

On the other hand, I have seen zero malfunctions with full power duty ammo. All the malfunctions have been with cheap range ammo.

 

[Fastbolt]

Shipping/packaging oil can be really thick on some S&W's.


I prefer to clean it out of both the pistol & and the magazines before actual live-fire to confirm normal function.

I also prefer to use duty-type ammo for confirmation testing. Why introduce the potential for ammo-related issues to muddy up things before confirming the gun is running as intended & expected, right?

Running a rather small pistol already introduces enough chances for additional adverse influences ... meaning a grip position which is fine for a larger gun, but which results in thumbing a slide with a smaller gun; or a much shorter recoil spring assembly (RSA) changing the cycling rate, which can be affected by a shooter's grip/wrist lock ... things like that.

Why not try and limit the potential for non-gun influences to surface and interfere with confirmation of a new gun's optimal functioning?

I learned the hard way many years ago to refrain from using ammo not made by one of the major American companies when "breaking in" a NIB gun (and preferably not from their "budget" lines, if at all possible).

 

[jeffroberdo]

Follow Up Range Trip After Cleaning The Shield

OK Folks, This is how today's follow up range trip played out for my M&P Shield 9 with the FTE issue.
I went with 100rnds of Federal Champion 115gr fmj, 50rnds of Federal 124gr Hydra Shock JHP and 100rnds of my very accurate and very reliable reloads. I can say that about my reloads cause i use this recipe in my Pro Series 9mm for competitions and it has been amazing through 2000+ rnds in comps.
Started out with the 100rnds of Federal Champion. I got about 70rnds in and the FDE's started. Got 2 out of the 100 Federal Cham. Then went to the 50rnds of Hydra shock and had 1 fde there then moved on to the 100rnds of my reloads. Managed to get through almost all 100 of those and close to the end i had 2 FDE's.
So i am at 500rnds with 10 FDE's and in my book that's a 2% failure rate!!!
To me that is very unacceptable and disappointing.
At this point i think this Shield is going back to S&W.
Please feel free to reply and tell me what you guys think.

 

[Duster340]

+1 on cleaning it.

yep x2

 

[Hylndr]

I've got 606 rounds through mine so far... I had 2 FTE in the first 100 rounds of Federal 115gr. and then it ran fine with about 400 rounds of WWB 115gr., Eagle 115 gr. and 115 gr. Range bought reloads, and 50 rounds of Hornady 135 gr. +P with NO problems, last trip to the range had us shout about 56 rounds of Federal again and I had 1 FTE... So in all of 606 rounds I've had a total of 3 FTE, all with Federal 115 gr. ammo... At that rate it's about 0.5% failure rate... not 100% but not too bad either. I've talked with other shield owners and they have had either no problems or problems along the line of a couple in the first few 100 rounds then clean sailing from there on out... I will keep track over the next several hundred rounds and see if there truly is an issue or just going through a break-in period...

Later all, and Happy and Safe shooting!

Hylndr

 

[Nwmarc]

I really like my 9mm Shield. I've fired hundreds of rounds through it and still have not had one issue with it. I really feel its very reliable and totally trust it for my CCW choice.

 

[Starwalker]

My 9mm Shield had 2 failures in the first 100 rounds, and then no more failures in well over 500 rounds. Your failure rate is unacceptable, and I would contact S&W for returning the Shield for repair.

 

[drinva]

Only have 200 rounds through mine, perfect so far. I did baby and clean mine before shooting, I also did NOT dry fire mine period, and wont.

DR

 

[S&WProtected]

I have over 1600 rds through my shield 9 and it has been flawless. Like others have said these are mass produced so a bad one will get through every now and then. I would send it back to S&W and let them make it right.

 

[jeffroberdo]

One short and sweet E-Mail to S&W Service center and in less than 24 hours a box and paid shipping label is on the way to me for to ship the Shield back the factory. I quote "We Suggest You Return The Firearm To Us For Our Inspection" is what was said in the reply e-mail today. As i sit here and hold the gun i certainly hope the issue is corrected completely cause i absolutely LOVE this little 9mm and i want to be able to trust it fully for its intended purpose. I will keep you all posted on the process.

 

[Gyrene6891]

Glad S&W has responded in an appropriate manner. I have had my FS40 and Shield since June & July 2012 and neither of them has been a problem in any manner. Hopefully your shield's issue will be corrected soon and back in the loving hands of it's owners...

 

[Amedeus]

I can't believe people still take firearms right out of the box and to the range without cleaning them. I am really not, my father does this and I tell him the same thing all the time, Packaging grease is NOT ment for firing. You might as well be dry firing and cycling it with sand in it.

Packaging grease is intended for long term storage, when the firearm is made it is in then packaged up and put with a thousand other firearms that will sit in shipping warehouses and on trucks for weeks or months possibly longer till someone buys it and takes it home. This is the reason they use storage grease aka packaging grease, Long Term protective grease against rust, it is not the same thing as active oil or even active gun grease for shooting.

If you want to take care of your firearms the first thing you should do when buying a new firearm is to first read about how to disassemble and reassemble the firearm, there is at least 2 or 3 videos on youtube for just about every firearm out there that people put up to help others, use this resource please. Take your firearm home, take it apart so you understand how it works and wipe the packaging greases out of it and give it a light cleaning with an oil/grease intended for shooting. This will prolong the life of your firearm by years and reduce malfunctions and wear and tear on high friction parts inside your weapon.

To the OP of this thread, the very fact you have not had problems in the past with your other M&P pistols is a testament to Smith and Wesson's ability to make a weapon that will function under abuse.

This is not an attack on anyone, just a rant from a soldier who dealt with issues like this all the time in the Army. Some people just don't understand the importance of maintenance until there is a catastrophic failure with the weapon which can seriously injure or even kill the person using the firearm. That would be you, so if not for the weapon, do it for your own safety. Thank you.

 

[RussC]

Jeff

Please keep us posted what S&W finds out what is causing the FTEs.

I agree 2% FTE is unacceptable. I traded my Beretta Nano for my Shield when I was experiencing a 2% FTE rate.

I am going to disagree with the lube posts.

Lube is to extend the life of the weapon by reducing friction between moving parts.

If I drained all the oil from my automobile and flushed with mineral spirits to ensure the moving parts are bone dry of all lube will the car start? Yes and it will operate until the moving parts overheat due to friction which for my brother who ran his truck dry of oil due to stupidity was pretty quick but my point is the truck still managed to start when dry and your ccw should go bang enough times bone dry without failure if your life depended upon it.

In the real world I will go 6 weeks without lube on my Shield and factoring in 10 hours per day at 100 degrees in my pocket the cheap lube I use is pretty much evaporated. I try to squirt some spray lube before a range visit but at times I forget but she still works just fine and if she didn't I would sell the gun if it didn't operate without lube.


Russ
.

 

[fdw]

As others have mentioned I guess cleaning could help and I see you did that. I will say though that I took my new M&P 22 to the range and put about 300 rounds through it without any problems.

When I got it home to clean it, it was full of gunk but fired flawlessly. So, maybe it's cleaning maybe it's not.

Hope next range session is better though!

 

[skip4309]

Mine has over 500 rds downrange. Had two failures to fire (light primer strike) that I am contributing to ammo (Aguila 117gr JHP). Other ammo used with no problems: Gold Dot 115gr, Hornaday 115gr Critical Defense, Winchester 124gr NATO (hot stuff), AE 147gr FMJ and WWB 115gr FMJ. I run it lightly lubed as per owners manual. Shield 9...

 

[jeffroberdo]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I am enjoying reading them. Russ, I agree, A gun should be designed to run flawlessly under all very adverse conditions with or without lube. This is my 5th M&P and all of them i have shot right out of the box without even one failure till now. Ok, For right this minute,,,, I just received the Shield back from S&W today,,,, I am a bit (I will use the word disappointed here) Not pissed yet. I sent the shield back to them as clean as a gun can be and they returned it to me as dirty as can be from firing. Only thing in the box was a paper with my return shipping address on it and a 2 short sentences on it telling me that if i have any questions about what was done to the firearm to call the S&W service center and them telling me it was a pleasure serving me. Of course the first thing i did was grab my phone and call the number and they are closed for a 2 week shutdown from July 29th till august 11th. I can't even find out what they did to the firearm for another 2 weeks. Why would they not explain on the enclosed paper what they did to the gun (if anything) is beyond me. That made me mad. I will for sure shoot the gun on Saturday and find out if the issue is resolved and call them on the 12th of August and have some words about this with them. Please reply with any comments related to S&W's current customer service if you have them.

P.S.
I have worked with their service department in the past with good service that is why this bewilders me.

Thanks for listening to my rant and comment on.

 

[don3221]

Glad to hear that you got it back before they went on vacation. Let's just hope that the problem is corrected and that cleaning it was an oversight in their rush to get it back out to you. I have over 1500 rounds run through mine with no problems and it would probably tear me up if I had any FTE. I would hate to have to go to my FS40 while it was sent off to S&W.

 

[klbdiver]

One FTE is too many if it's the time you need your firearm! I've had mine Shield 9mm FTE several times at the range the other day. Had the armorer look at it and shoot it. Said the ejector had plenty of tension. Ran Winchesters through it, then Magtech. Both did the same thing. We tried a different 7 round mag and it worked flawless. Put my 8 round mag in, worked fine (hope the mag is/was the issue) going to try to get to the range tomorrow to see if this works out. IF NOT... guess I have to suck it up and send back to S&W. But it seems many of those who have, still have the issue. I know working in manufacturing for most of my life, machining tolerances change and defects happen. I'm pretty sure they have an idea when these FTEs and complaints started coming in and should be able to identify production dates with the issues. I'd be interested to know how many of these FTE's are new Shields in the last 6 months to a year and if any prior.

 

[Nwmarc]

I've had my Shield 9mm for a very long time and it has never failed. I'll bet its the Mag. If you go out and shoot again and its fine then just replace the mag.

 

[catalyst686]

Ok folks, Thanks for all the replies. As of right now i do believe i have the cleanest M&P Shield on the east coast of the USA. I will tell ya though, The oil that was on the inside of the gun was as thick as i have have seen out of all the M&P's i have bought. This one makes number 6. The oil was pretty thick almost like a grease but all cleaned up and now i have an excuse to go back to the range next weekend and do some testing,,, I mean shooting. By the way the ammo i was using was Federal Champion 115gr fmj's and i shot 50 reloads i loaded for my Pro Series 9mm and that is a 124gr hard cast RN over 4.5gr of W231 powder. This recipe runs the Pro Series like a champ. I have shot 1000's. All the FTE's occurred with the Federal. Feel free to keep the comments coming.

What are the first 3 letters of your serial number. I've been starting to notice a trend with the HBHxxxx produced pistols that are turning out to be lemons. My shield is back at smith and wesson for the third time due to the FTE fiasco some of us are unfortunately dealing with.