OK what do I do now M&P expert advice needed

[DartonJager]

Well bought a brand new 4" Performance Center Shield Plus from my local Cabela's. Got it home only to discover with an empty magazine in the gun it is physically impossible for me to exert enough down force with my thumb to get the slide catch to release the slide back into battery. I am big guy with very strong hands so it is not a matter of a lack of finger strength on my part.

Yes I know I should have checked the gun over better when I bought it but I just didn't. If I remove the magazine I can with a 80-85% thumb strength effort get the slide catch to release but with magazine in not happening. I disassembled the gun and can find no obvious machining issues in the slide or slide catch itself but I am not sure what I am looking at is made correctly or not. Everything just looks smooth and normal.

I have not as of yet fired the gun.
Obviously the recoil spring is what is exerting the force I am fighting to overcome while trying to get the slide catch to release but I have no way of determining if the problem is to strong of a recoil spring or a issue with how the slide has been machined or if the slide catch part in defective in it's shape.

A loaded magazine didn't help

My question is to those who know more than I is will this issue go away within the first 500 rounds I fire to brake in the firearm and confirm it's reliability or do I take this back to Cabela's and have them send it back to S&W to be fixed before I ever even fire it.

Bare in mind this will be my new EDC self preservation firearm.
Thanks to all who help.

 

[DartonJager]

I might have found a cause and solution

 

[dben002]

I own the 2.0 shield plus .... not the PC model....Have never been able to use the slide stop as a slide release.....and according to S&W it is not a slide release....yes you can file away metal to a point it may work but also you may go to far and it no longer will be a stop so be
careful.......on the other hand my CSX is a slide release and so stated by S&W and it works fine.......Good luck with the shield.....let us know the outcome.......

 

[Beju]

I'm not sure why you're trying to drop the slide on an empty magazine, as magazine followers are intended to lock your slide back on modern pistols. Can you do it on most pistols, especially when the magazines are broken in? Yes. Is it an intended practice? No.

That being said, the Shield family has been known for rather stiff slide stop/releases when new, it was like that on my first gen Shield.

I have a Shield Plus that probably had an out of spec slide stop that has since broken in. When I locked the slide back manually, I had to pull the slide and put downward pressure on the slide stop to release the slide. It didn't exhibit this behavior when the slide locked back during shooting. It persisted for a while, and I was getting pretty close to breaking out my Dremel and felt bits for some polishing, but eventually it broke in.

 

[Goldstar225]

If you're trying to drop the slide with an empty magazine in place, you're working against the upward force of the magazine spring. Remove the magazine.

I have no problem dropping the slide on my shield + but I don't do it with an empty mag in place.

 

[chief38]

Well bought a brand new 4" Performance Center Shield Plus from my local Cabela's. Got it home only to discover with an empty magazine in the gun it is physically impossible for me to exert enough down force with my thumb to get the slide catch to release the slide back into battery. I am big guy with very strong hands so it is not a matter of a lack of finger strength on my part.

Yes I know I should have checked the gun over better when I bought it but I just didn't. If I remove the magazine I can with a 80-85% thumb strength effort get the slide catch to release but with magazine in not happening. I disassembled the gun and can find no obvious machining issues in the slide or slide catch itself but I am not sure what I am looking at is made correctly or not. Everything just looks smooth and normal.

I have not as of yet fired the gun.
Obviously the recoil spring is what is exerting the force I am fighting to overcome while trying to get the slide catch to release but I have no way of determining if the problem is to strong of a recoil spring or a issue with how the slide has been machined or if the slide catch part in defective in it's shape.

A loaded magazine didn't help

My question is to those who know more than I is will this issue go away within the first 500 rounds I fire to brake in the firearm and confirm it's reliability or do I take this back to Cabela's and have them send it back to S&W to be fixed before I ever even fire it.

Bare in mind this will be my new EDC self preservation firearm.
Thanks to all who help.

When pistols are manufactured the cut for the catch is sharply milled and the magazine catch fits in with a very tight engagement. Springs are new, the entire slide is tight and all parts must wear in. As the catch / slide release gets broken in, there will be a slight amount of rounding off and smoothing that will occur. This in turn should alleviate the Herculean effort you report it takes to operate it now.

I was at the range just this morning and one of my friends just shot her brand new version (slight improvements made) Ruger LCP Max for the very first time. Not only was the slide catch and release really tight, it was impossible for her to operate it any better than you described yours. The trigger was also very creepy and the magazine release was also very tight. Just fro the 150 rounds fired through it this morning, the tiny pistol operated much more smoothly and easily afterwards.

Yours will wear in and loosen up too. Clean, lube and shoot the heck out of it. I guess the general consensus is that 500 - 750 rounds is what it takes to smooth things out.

 

[DartonJager]

Thank you for all the responses. I didn't know the the slide lock on the Shield Plus isn't meant to be used to return the slide back into battery, thank for educating me to that fact. I have a Gen1 3" Shield and never remember the slide catch being difficult to operate. My G1 Shield has been my EDC since 2012. My love for my G1 Shield is why I bought the 4" Performance Center Shield Plus figured more of a great thing.

Again thanks to all for solving my non-problem for me with knowledge I previously didn't have but now do.
I have 500 assorted rounds of 119 and 124grn factory ammo to brake the gun and and evaluate it. Will report back with my findings.

Again thanks to all.

 

[hardluk1]

owning a UPLULA goes a long way in assisting you with loading load a magazine too .