As you can tell from my old posts a few years ago, I was pretty down on S&W because of the range of quality and functional issues my many Shield 1.0's had. I sold them all and put S&W in my rear view mirror for good - or, so I thought.
I chuckled to myself that S&W must have paid a handsome sum to the gun press to get all that positive hype about their new 9.
Then, one day, I went to Academy Sports and asked to see one. The minute I picked it up, I felt the completely natural fit and balance that my other micro 9's were lacking; the perfect texture; the perfect control locations; the no-snag sculpting; the hi-viz white dot sights; and, most of all, the lack of that famous hinged trigger that I hated so much! when I placed my finger pad against that new wide trigger, I knew I had to eat crow and buy one...or, two, as it turned out.
I took them home, cleaned and lubed them and rushed to my range with a couple of boxes of Federal American Eagle 115 & 124 grain FMJ target ammo. I also brought along a box of Federal 124 grain +P HST, just in case they were worthy of testing with my super-expensive duty ammo.
The minute I fired that first shot with that completely new trigger, I was hooked! I couldn't believe how PERFECT it was, with its clean take-up; its crisp break; it's tactile reset; and, its overall feel. It was simply the FINEST trigger I have ever felt on any striker-fired semi. In fact, the only other semi pistol I have ever fired that had as good or slightly better trigger was a Colt Gold Cup 1911. Unbelievable!
So, I burned through the 10 rounds I had loaded, all the while checking the primer hits; the ejection pattern; the shells' extractor markings; and, finally the paper target 15 yards away.
I was totally shocked! PERFECT in all categories as I searched in vain for something wrong. My paper 25 yard slow fire target held another surprise for me - all 10 rounds placed within the X, 9 and 8 rings and I wasn't even trying for accuracy, just function.
Well, I figured this was just a fluke, accidental, one in a million lucky 10 rounds for me, so I did it all again with similar results. Not believing that S&W could have produced such a perfect specimen as this one by design, I quickly loaded the second new Shield+ to compare what I thought would be a more typically marginal S&W micro 9. Again, I was totally shocked at the consistency of performance. Absolute perfection!
I went home and cleaned and lubed them and examined every aspect of these two new guns. I looked for anything that I could say was a defect; a production shortcut; marginal finish; poor sight alignment; gritty operation, etc., etc. and found absolutely nothing that reminded me of my previous experience with my many Shield 1.0's. I was really surprised. And, happily so.
I noted that the production dates, per the box labels, were March 8th & 9th. I thought about that and decided over the next few weeks to sample more a more recent production Shield+, so I went shopping and bought two more which were produced in late April. I rushed to the range to test them and found that perfection was still the case. I now own four new, perfectly functioning, satisfyingly accurate Shield Pluses, two with thumb safety and two without.
In light of my pleasant experience with these four Shield Pluses, I re-evaluated my entire micro 9 roundup which includes one Glock 43; two early Springfield Hellcats; four new Springfield Hellcats, two of which are the OSP version, all four with the new (over-rated) version 2 triggers; a new Ruger Max 9 and my Sig P365. I decided to sell my P365 (already have a buyer); sell my Ruger Max 9 (already have a buyer for that, as well); sold my Glock 43 already; sell my two early Hellcats (already have a buyer for those two); and then, zero in on whether four Hellcats and four Shield Pluses equal Too Many Micro 9's.
If I had to narrow down to only two guns (which I don't have to do) I'd keep one Shield+ and one Hellcat OSP. But, if I could only have ONE, it would have to be the Shield+ because of the far-superior trigger!
S&W has really hit the sweet spot with the new Shield+. It's hard to imagine that they could do anything to improve this flat out winner of the current micro 9 competition except to make extra magazines available quickly. Hah!
I've attached a pic of my four Shield Pluses so you know I'm not just making up an interesting post topic.
I chuckled to myself that S&W must have paid a handsome sum to the gun press to get all that positive hype about their new 9.
Then, one day, I went to Academy Sports and asked to see one. The minute I picked it up, I felt the completely natural fit and balance that my other micro 9's were lacking; the perfect texture; the perfect control locations; the no-snag sculpting; the hi-viz white dot sights; and, most of all, the lack of that famous hinged trigger that I hated so much! when I placed my finger pad against that new wide trigger, I knew I had to eat crow and buy one...or, two, as it turned out.
I took them home, cleaned and lubed them and rushed to my range with a couple of boxes of Federal American Eagle 115 & 124 grain FMJ target ammo. I also brought along a box of Federal 124 grain +P HST, just in case they were worthy of testing with my super-expensive duty ammo.
The minute I fired that first shot with that completely new trigger, I was hooked! I couldn't believe how PERFECT it was, with its clean take-up; its crisp break; it's tactile reset; and, its overall feel. It was simply the FINEST trigger I have ever felt on any striker-fired semi. In fact, the only other semi pistol I have ever fired that had as good or slightly better trigger was a Colt Gold Cup 1911. Unbelievable!
So, I burned through the 10 rounds I had loaded, all the while checking the primer hits; the ejection pattern; the shells' extractor markings; and, finally the paper target 15 yards away.
I was totally shocked! PERFECT in all categories as I searched in vain for something wrong. My paper 25 yard slow fire target held another surprise for me - all 10 rounds placed within the X, 9 and 8 rings and I wasn't even trying for accuracy, just function.
Well, I figured this was just a fluke, accidental, one in a million lucky 10 rounds for me, so I did it all again with similar results. Not believing that S&W could have produced such a perfect specimen as this one by design, I quickly loaded the second new Shield+ to compare what I thought would be a more typically marginal S&W micro 9. Again, I was totally shocked at the consistency of performance. Absolute perfection!
I went home and cleaned and lubed them and examined every aspect of these two new guns. I looked for anything that I could say was a defect; a production shortcut; marginal finish; poor sight alignment; gritty operation, etc., etc. and found absolutely nothing that reminded me of my previous experience with my many Shield 1.0's. I was really surprised. And, happily so.
I noted that the production dates, per the box labels, were March 8th & 9th. I thought about that and decided over the next few weeks to sample more a more recent production Shield+, so I went shopping and bought two more which were produced in late April. I rushed to the range to test them and found that perfection was still the case. I now own four new, perfectly functioning, satisfyingly accurate Shield Pluses, two with thumb safety and two without.
In light of my pleasant experience with these four Shield Pluses, I re-evaluated my entire micro 9 roundup which includes one Glock 43; two early Springfield Hellcats; four new Springfield Hellcats, two of which are the OSP version, all four with the new (over-rated) version 2 triggers; a new Ruger Max 9 and my Sig P365. I decided to sell my P365 (already have a buyer); sell my Ruger Max 9 (already have a buyer for that, as well); sold my Glock 43 already; sell my two early Hellcats (already have a buyer for those two); and then, zero in on whether four Hellcats and four Shield Pluses equal Too Many Micro 9's.
If I had to narrow down to only two guns (which I don't have to do) I'd keep one Shield+ and one Hellcat OSP. But, if I could only have ONE, it would have to be the Shield+ because of the far-superior trigger!
S&W has really hit the sweet spot with the new Shield+. It's hard to imagine that they could do anything to improve this flat out winner of the current micro 9 competition except to make extra magazines available quickly. Hah!
I've attached a pic of my four Shield Pluses so you know I'm not just making up an interesting post topic.
There I was, all smug, thinking I could pass on a Plus for a while and let the dust settle before getting one. But you had to go and write the Mother of All Reviews, and now I just got to get one!
