My Shield .40 issues

[Ajaxtheknight]

Carver, I can only guess that poor chamber support is part or all of the problem I am having. I am no expert. Your barrel does look very similar to mine.

Lucky, all of the brass I included photos of in my post are Hornady. Including the unfired round in the last two pics for reference. Poor lighting I think is why they look yellow but they are nickel plated. They exhibited the worst bulging of all the brands but at least two other brands of ammo I fired resulted in bulging of some sort. Your experience with the critical defense rounds definitely points to a defect in my firearm.

I did include several photos of the rounds and of the barrel in my original communication with S&W. The canned nature of all of there communications back to me gives me the feeling that they didn't mean much to them. That is only a guess though.

 

[Camo-Man]

After seeing the Kabooms in this forum I traded in my shield 40. Don't want it to blow up in my hand I traded another old gun with it and got a Glock23 and 200 rounds of American eagle ammo.

 

[feelinlucky]

Interesting. Those Glocked cases in the picture above were from a gen 2 Glock 23. Enjoy!

 

[fdw]

Interesting. Those Glocked cases in the picture above were from a gen 2 Glock 23. Enjoy!

well done...

 

[Smitty357]

Double from the other thread.

Shield .40 left and 9mm right

 

[Fchewy]

My .40 Shield Barrel, couldn't make a good pic but mine seems to have good support plus the brass looks good no bulges.

 

[Fchewy]

It looks to me that on some of the pics the actual case sits further in the chamber on some than others, like maybe the depth of the chamber varies on some barrels? i have been sweating it out about this since these "kabooms" have been reported but i "think" mine is good to go.
I almost looked about trading or selling but i already have extra mags and holsters so i am just going to keep it and see what happens.....

 

[feelinlucky]

It looks to me that on some of the pics the actual case sits further in the chamber on some than others, like maybe the depth of the chamber varies on some barrels?...

I have noticed this too. It may not be the feed ramp cutout, but maybe the way the chamber face is milled, or even possibly headspacing. Or some combination of these things. Something is definitely fishy on some of these chambers.

 

[Roger S&W]

I have noticed this too. It may not be the feed ramp cutout, but maybe the way the chamber face is milled, or even possibly headspacing. Or some combination of these things. Something is definitely fishy on some of these chambers.

Exactly. Once again, luckily for me, mine (test fire date 11-15-13) looks to have much better chamber support compared to some of these in the pics. That's why I'm gonna go shoot it.

 

[Dikinalaska]

I just got back in town after a few weeks of work. I've been following all these threads since my Shield 40 is my edc. So I just looked and my test fire date was 11-13-12. I don't know how much play the round is supposed to have in the chamber, but mine does have a little wiggle.
This shows kind of how much space there is there. It seems like the gap goes further up one side than the other.

This was just for comparison, but do you guys think the one in the middle has too much setback?

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[Smitty357]

I just got back in town after a few weeks of work. I've been following all these threads since my Shield 40 is my edc. So I just looked and my test fire date was 11-13-12. I don't know how much play the round is supposed to have in the chamber, but mine does have a little wiggle.
This shows kind of how much space there is there. It seems like the gap goes further up one side than the other.

This was just for comparison, but do you guys think the one in the middle has too much setback?

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The round has wiggle because of how the feed ramps are cut. Had the Shield not have the feed ramp it does, then it wouldnt have as much wiggle. In return it would be a little more supported. However it comes with sacrifice. You see the tighter the fit, the less reliable it feeds certain types of bullets. For instance in the 1911 world, many older ones had problems feeding HP but they would feed FMJ just fine. This is why the modern Colt 1911's have a dimpled throat. Which allows them to more realibly feed different bullet types like HP's. But at the same time not changing the original design of the 1911. They just improved it, thats all they did. This is one of those things where ur sacrifice something. In the Shield case, u sacrifice more chamber support for a more reliable feeding weapon that was built around CC. So they knew most people would be shooting HP for protection. May as well make the weapon more reliable when feeding those particular types of bullets.

These feeds ramps were never an issue until pressures started rising in factory rounds.

 

[Dikinalaska]

The round has wiggle because of how the feed ramps are cut. Had the Shield not have the feed ramp it does, then it wouldnt have as much wiggle. In return it would be a little more supported. However it comes with sacrifice. You see the tighter the fit, the less reliable it feeds certain types of bullets. For instance in the 1911 world, many older ones had problems feeding HP but they would feed FMJ just fine. This is why the modern Colt 1911's have a dimpled throat. Which allows them to more realibly feed different bullet types like HP's. But at the same time not changing the original design of the 1911. They just improved it, thats all they did. This is one of those things where ur sacrifice something. In the Shield case, u sacrifice more chamber support for a more reliable feeding weapon that was built around CC. So they knew most people would be shooting HP for protection. May as well make the weapon more reliable when feeding those particular types of bullets.

These feeds ramps were never an issue until pressures started rising in factory rounds.

Thanks Smitty, you never cease to amaze me with how much I learn from you. So in your opinion do you think that round in the middle has been setback a bit? I went through pretty much all of my SD rounds and they're pretty consistent except for that one. It came out of the middle of the magazine, so I don't believe it's been chambered, but I guess it's not completely out of the question. Should I just dispose of that one? Being a SD round, I guess that's the worst possible time you'd want a kb situation. I guess it's only one round on second thought, it's not gonna break the bank lol.


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[feelinlucky]

How much shorter is that round than the others? If it's not more than about eight or ten thousandths, it won't be a problem.
It's a good idea to not let your SD ammo get too old anyway. Just shoot the old ones up the next time you visit the range, and replace with new.

 

[Rastoff]

I loaded some handloads that were over the SAAMI specs, and they bulged the cases.

Am I understanding you correctly, the only cases you've seen bulge in your Shield have been the ones you loaded a little hot?

 

[feelinlucky]

Yes. That is correct.
And no, I don't make a habit of loading hot ammo. It's dangerous. I made an error in calculating the charge weight. I was lucky that all it did was bulge some cases.

 

[Rastoff]

See, this is why I think the way the chamber/feed ramp is cut may be an issue. Combine an overloaded round with a weak case and less than complete support and you have a high potential for disaster. Make the chamber with full support and you reduce that potential by a great deal.

I just checked the chamber on my .45 and saw that it is not fully supported. I will check the rest of my handguns later. Pics to follow...

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

I wanted to add a couple of pictures to this conversation for reference. These photos are of another .40 subcompact pistol, not a S&W. The factory polished feed ramp may give it away, wish Smith would do that. This firearm shoots everything I put through with no issues at all. If you notice it has excellent chamber support and needed no opening of the throat to aid feeding. The round does have wiggle in the chamber but it is obviously not from the feed ramp cut. It is related to the actual diameter of the chamber. As noted by a couple of other members, newer Shield .40s have more chamber support. I don't know if the early Shield .40s suffer from a manufacturing defect or if the throats were intentionally widened. I believe the later to be the case.

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

I got my shield back today. Smith replaced the barrel. The chamber on the new one is visually the same as the old one. Doesn't appear to have any more chamber support. There are a couple imperfections on the outside of the new barrel. Not something you see when the gun is assembled so as long as the bulging issue is resolved I will be happy.

They received the gun from me on 2/17 and I got it back today. Not bad on the turnaround time.
I will try to get out on Friday to shoot it. Hopefully the problem is resolved. I will report back when I have shot it some.

 

[feelinlucky]

Let me guess. S&W didn't say why they replaced the barrel.

There are things that could cause pressure variations that aren't obvious. Maybe the bore was a few thousandths too small in a place or two, maybe the chamber throat was a little too short. That could explain the replaced barrel.

I look forward to a range report.

 

[Ajaxtheknight]

I made it out to the range today to test the new barrel in my shield. I started with some WWB just to warm up and function test the firearm. Gun functioned perfect with no issues. I then fired a magazine of the Hornady Critical Defense. This was the ammo that was bulging the worst before. I picked up the brass and to my dismay every single one of the Hornady cases were bulged.

When I got home and compared the cases fired from the new barrel to the ones fired from the old barrel the bulge is maybe 10% smaller out of the new barrel. So there is a slight improvement but still scares me a little.

I have used this ammo for awhile now and have not had this problem with any other firearm. I shot a magazine of the Critial Defense through my XD .40 Subcompact which has been my go to while the shield was gone to see if maybe it was the ammo. Well it wasn't. None of the rounds that I fired through the XD which has a shorter barrel than the shield were deformed at all.

I was hoping to get some opinions on this. Am I nitpicking here? This has never happened to me before. Am I overreacting. Am I right to be concerned? Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The pictures are of brass from today, fired from the new barrel.