kthom
Member
We bought a new Shield EZ a couple of weeks ago after a very careful inspection by my wife as well as myself. It was her decision unless I had a very good reason to cast a veto. I could find no good reason. She was very, very positively impressed. We finally had time to take it to the range today to see if it works. It does! And it does so very easily.
My wife had no trouble with any aspect of it's action and operation. I had trouble believing it's reliability with such an easy slide to rack. Hard to believe there is enough recoil spring tension for that, but there is. We fired at least 300 rounds fairly quickly so things got hot. We had one ammo related FTF that resulted from an obvious problem with that round of cheap RWS FMJ ammo that is several years old and was bought really cheap. Also fired PMC FMJ as well as a few rounds of Speer Gold Dot and an older lot of Remington Golden Saber, so a cross section of different ammo and bullet weights. The gun ran like a champ for a new out of the box firearm which had been cleaned up from whatever protection it had been shipped with and lubricated properly.
The EZ got quite a bit of attention at the range, as did my wife while shooting it and operating it with obvious ease. She also shoots it pretty well for a new gun! I also fired it some, and both of us tended to shoot it just a bit left of center from our aiming points. I attribute this at this point to the fact that the movement of the trigger on the EZ is longer from rest to the point where the action releases the trigger. I think both of us had a bit to much finger on the trigger and were likely pushing the firearm a bit to the left while shooting. It is different from our Shields, which my wife cannot rack the slide on well enough to really be able to operate it competently well. She shoots it very well, but sometimes you gotta rack that slide, right?
Today's trip was primarily a function test for the EZ to satisfy us that it is reliable enough for EDC. While we fully expect to shoot 2 or 3 more hundred rounds through it very soon to confirm what we saw today, it's track record out of the gate was fully acceptable to both of us and all spectators. Best of all, my wife is estatic and more overall pleased with this handgun than any other of the many she has had opportunity to handle and actually fire over the years.
On the way home from the range, she told me that she REALLY likes this one, and that she feels there is nothing at all about it that gives her pause as far as shooting and operating it on her own. She also commented that she is normally tired, especially her hands, after most shooting sessions of this length. She probably fired 250 of the 300 or so rounds we fired today. She said her hands and arms felt like she could have shot that many more! That makes me very happy. Not much makes me happier than to hear that this is a handgun that she REALLY likes and is excited about using and carrying with her. This is HER gun, and she likes it and wants to use it, and she has taken ownership of it like no other handgun she has accepted as OK.
My wife is a seven some decades old lady. Yes, she can and does do hard work at times, but she is not a tomboy in any sense and age has diminished her abilities as it does for us all. Yet she is entirely comfortable with this handgun. So am I! I am not saying this is only a woman's gun. It should be a solution for any of us who has lost the ability and strength in our hands due to old age or arthritis , etc to solve the problem of difficulty operating a firearm. Based on what I saw from my wife's shooting today, her ability to quickly and accurately operate this firearm which holds 8 rounds plus one leaves me no doubt that she can protect herself as well with it as with any other, even though many do not give the .380 much credit as a stopper.
It is my considered opinion that 3 or 4 or more rounds (about 3 to 4 hundred grains of bullets pretty tightly grouped) in the engine compartment of a predator will be likely to get the job done about as well as anything else. It is, after all, where a bullet with sufficient penetration lands that really makes the difference, and 3 or 4 in the same general location is even better. Shot to shot time with this gun is great! I fired about four mags as fast as I could toward the end of our session to see if the hot gun would puke. It did not! And all those rounds would have fit in the bottom of a small paper plate.
So there you have our impressions of this new gun. We pretty much give it our unreserved and unqualified recommendation, to be confirmed further as time allows. And if you are an older person or perhaps handicapped or disabled with arthritis, take a hard look at the Shield EZ. It just might be a good solution for you. We brought this one home for just a tad less than 4 big bills. That ain't much of a risk if you can't test fire one before you buy. But any LGS worth it's salt will allow you to test function the gun before you buy it. It's got a good trigger, and every one we've shown it to has been very positively impressed and surprised by it. So are we, and now we've shot it a good bit.
Sorry for this long post, but I hope you can see what I'm trying to say and understand why I'm saying it.
My wife had no trouble with any aspect of it's action and operation. I had trouble believing it's reliability with such an easy slide to rack. Hard to believe there is enough recoil spring tension for that, but there is. We fired at least 300 rounds fairly quickly so things got hot. We had one ammo related FTF that resulted from an obvious problem with that round of cheap RWS FMJ ammo that is several years old and was bought really cheap. Also fired PMC FMJ as well as a few rounds of Speer Gold Dot and an older lot of Remington Golden Saber, so a cross section of different ammo and bullet weights. The gun ran like a champ for a new out of the box firearm which had been cleaned up from whatever protection it had been shipped with and lubricated properly.
The EZ got quite a bit of attention at the range, as did my wife while shooting it and operating it with obvious ease. She also shoots it pretty well for a new gun! I also fired it some, and both of us tended to shoot it just a bit left of center from our aiming points. I attribute this at this point to the fact that the movement of the trigger on the EZ is longer from rest to the point where the action releases the trigger. I think both of us had a bit to much finger on the trigger and were likely pushing the firearm a bit to the left while shooting. It is different from our Shields, which my wife cannot rack the slide on well enough to really be able to operate it competently well. She shoots it very well, but sometimes you gotta rack that slide, right?
Today's trip was primarily a function test for the EZ to satisfy us that it is reliable enough for EDC. While we fully expect to shoot 2 or 3 more hundred rounds through it very soon to confirm what we saw today, it's track record out of the gate was fully acceptable to both of us and all spectators. Best of all, my wife is estatic and more overall pleased with this handgun than any other of the many she has had opportunity to handle and actually fire over the years.
On the way home from the range, she told me that she REALLY likes this one, and that she feels there is nothing at all about it that gives her pause as far as shooting and operating it on her own. She also commented that she is normally tired, especially her hands, after most shooting sessions of this length. She probably fired 250 of the 300 or so rounds we fired today. She said her hands and arms felt like she could have shot that many more! That makes me very happy. Not much makes me happier than to hear that this is a handgun that she REALLY likes and is excited about using and carrying with her. This is HER gun, and she likes it and wants to use it, and she has taken ownership of it like no other handgun she has accepted as OK.
My wife is a seven some decades old lady. Yes, she can and does do hard work at times, but she is not a tomboy in any sense and age has diminished her abilities as it does for us all. Yet she is entirely comfortable with this handgun. So am I! I am not saying this is only a woman's gun. It should be a solution for any of us who has lost the ability and strength in our hands due to old age or arthritis , etc to solve the problem of difficulty operating a firearm. Based on what I saw from my wife's shooting today, her ability to quickly and accurately operate this firearm which holds 8 rounds plus one leaves me no doubt that she can protect herself as well with it as with any other, even though many do not give the .380 much credit as a stopper.
It is my considered opinion that 3 or 4 or more rounds (about 3 to 4 hundred grains of bullets pretty tightly grouped) in the engine compartment of a predator will be likely to get the job done about as well as anything else. It is, after all, where a bullet with sufficient penetration lands that really makes the difference, and 3 or 4 in the same general location is even better. Shot to shot time with this gun is great! I fired about four mags as fast as I could toward the end of our session to see if the hot gun would puke. It did not! And all those rounds would have fit in the bottom of a small paper plate.
So there you have our impressions of this new gun. We pretty much give it our unreserved and unqualified recommendation, to be confirmed further as time allows. And if you are an older person or perhaps handicapped or disabled with arthritis, take a hard look at the Shield EZ. It just might be a good solution for you. We brought this one home for just a tad less than 4 big bills. That ain't much of a risk if you can't test fire one before you buy. But any LGS worth it's salt will allow you to test function the gun before you buy it. It's got a good trigger, and every one we've shown it to has been very positively impressed and surprised by it. So are we, and now we've shot it a good bit.
Sorry for this long post, but I hope you can see what I'm trying to say and understand why I'm saying it.
