M&P Shield 9 Failure To Extract (3)

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jeffroberdo

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I am a hard core S&W M&P lover. Between me and the wife we have 5 of them. Never had any problems with any of them beyond the usual site paint popping out of the front site of my full size 9mm (by the way S&W sent me a full set of sites to replace them). That's what has me a little miffed, I have a not even a single malfunction from 5 different M&P's. My issue is this, Just picked up a Shield 9 on Friday went to the range today. 250rnds down range (plus 24 115gr gold dots to test my carry ammo). Had 3 "Failure To Extract" Stoppages within the first 200. Gun was right out of the box not cleaned and still had that "New Gun Smell" :D This in no way changes my feelings towards the Shield cause i love everything about and is an awesome addition to my line up. I am requesting replies to see if anyone else has had any issues with their Shields of any kind like this???
 
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My 9mm Shield just passed the 600 round mark. Zero stoppages.

I stripped and cleaned mine when I first got it, before it's first trip to the range. The book that comes with it says to clean it first before firing, if I'm not mistaken. If it doesn't, it should...
 
I have close to 1000 rounds thru my Shield 9 with the only failures being due to two bad handloaded rounds (self-inflicted failure).
 
I got my Shield 9mm when they first came out. Never counted the total round count but shoot it a lot and have never had a failure of any kind with it. I cleaned it thourally when I first brought it home. Been a great pistol.
 
I agree with the other people about cleaning and lubing a new gun.

It's one thing to clean a weapon and clean and oil the weapon...ensure the gun is clean of all the shipping oil/grease the lube it up and try again...also you didn't say what ammo you were using..although mine has shot a lot of different ammo with no issues it is important to note such things when trying to fix an issue.
 
I have the M&P 22 and FS9. Cleaned and lubed both before shooting. The 22 was packed with grease. The 9 mm was bone dry! So glad I broke em both down before shooting.
 
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.
 
I have well over 3000 rounds of federal 115 grain fmj through my shield without a single issue. The factory gunk on the gun is known to cause issues, so is over-lubing. Just a little on the rails and barrel should be fine.
 
My 9 is back at the Factory due to FTE's frequently during my first 600 Rounds ( plus other problems) and so is my friends 9 with only about 250 rounds ... Same FTE problems.
So far, for me, this Shield 9 has been the only Smith that has been a complete Turkey right out of the box.
Hoping the Factory can make it right.
 
The shell casing in my box says 04-13-2013 so mine could not have been made to awful long before that. I picked it up on Friday and fired the first 250 on Sunday. I hope this is something that is just due to my lack of cleaning it out of the box before shooting it. Its very clean and lightly lubed and ready for a other range trip next weekend. I will post results here for you guys. :cool:
 
I have a Shield 9mm.

I don't expect it to work 24/7.

The compact and full size M&P's work quite well. Something happened in the Shield line.

.
 
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I did the same thing with my new 9mm Shield as you did. I fired it without cleaning it first. And it sure says to clean it before you shoot it in the owners manual.

I had several extracting and missfeeding issues.

I then, went home, cleaned it thoroughly like it says to do in the manual. Bought some premium ammo plus some not so premium steel cased stuff.

Went to the range again, and the Shield ate everything I fed it with no problems.
 
I have over 3,200 rds. through mine as well. Not one failure.
Being an extremely high demand pistol, I have to believe that there are Shields that will be out of tolerance, or poorly inspected. It happens, doesn't matter if it's guns or cars or what have you. There are lovers and haters of the Shield, I am fortunate and love mine. I hope yours is an ammo or cleaning issue.

Bob
 
For the few having issues please report back if S&W was able to correct the extraction issue.

For the record I have shot 1, 200 rounds of Federal Champion, S&B, WWB and a few reloads with zero failures. Trust me I tried to get my Shield to fail by limp wrist to the point she just about flew out of my loose hand. No such luck. My Shield is reliable as a blood hound sniffing up a raccoon.

Russ
 
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.
 
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).
 
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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.
:mad: :D
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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