S&W Shield .40 to 9MM Conversion...HELP!?

[cybersnow]

OK, I went to my local gunstore and purchased an S&W Shield in .40 mainly because he kept talking about how easy it is to purchase an additional 9MM barrel and magazine and shoot both calibers out of the same gun. I picked up the .40 and qualified with it for my CA CCW. Now that I am trying to find a 9MM barrel, I am getting nothing but a bunch of chaos. First off S&W won't sell a 9MM barrel to a customer, said that they have had too many guns being sent in with damages due to people using the 9MM barrel in the .40 weapon. I then went to Midway and Brownells and both of them advertised a Stormlake made conversion kit but they were back ordered. I called Stormlake and they told me that they do not support the Shield product line. So here is my question, is it safe to use a 9MM barrel in the .40 Shield? If so, where do I get a barrel? Or do I just send back all the 9MM magazines?

 

[ScrapmasterFlex]

So the deal is, while OTHER Guns it's quite common (and some even advertised) to convert the .40 S&W gun to shoot 9mm, I believe the Shield is not like that. Now, I know plenty of people will be along to post that they do it all the time and have been shooting 9mm out of their Shield .40s since they bought them in 2012 ... but In My Humble Opinion that doesn't make it right. I have also read stories of people getting their 9mm barrels stuck in their .40 Shields, unable to remove, having breakages and stoppages occur and having to send to S&W for repair etc.

I personally would be mad at the dealer who should have known better but probably wanted to make a sale. Now let me say, I have a Glock 23, in .40 S&W, and a week after I bought it and started posting on forums, I was amazed that I could buy a 40-9 bbl and shoot 9mm whenever I wanted. It was the first thing I bought for the Glock along with spare 40 mags spare 9mm mags and Trijicon night sights. I regularly shoot the 9mm out of the 40-9 LWD conversion barrel ... but that Glock is the gold standard for 40-9 conversions. The Shield is different.


Again, I think people will bash me to all getout because they have done it with the Shield but I personally would be so MAD if my gun gut jammed up with the 9 barrel and I had to send it away to S&W... it would REALLY make me mad.

 

[cybersnow]

One of the real issues here is that in CA, you can only have 3 weapons on your CCW and you can only change it once every two years. Since I picked mine up today, am pretty stuck with the Shield, SP101 and a Springfield .45 Compact (which is a little big for CCW).

 

[Smitty357]

Yes the .40 is easily converted to 9mm by simply dropping in a factory 9mm barrel. The problem is the barrel is no longer sold outside of the factory. So the chances of finding a barrel now days, its about as simple as winning the lottery. Those of us who have the .40 and the 9mm barrel will likely never get rid of them.

I absolutely enjoy mine both as the ,40 or as the 9mm. Not a single problem out of mine since the day it came out. Many others will tell u the same.

And there is no way on gods green earth that u can get the 9mm barrel stuck in a .40 slide. Anyone who knows the difference between the 2 slides would know "why" the 9mm barrel cant get stuck, lol. I've been around this conversion long enough to tell u that it works without issue.

 

[Smitty357]

Heres the original video I made last year when I decided to let the cat out of the bag.

http://youtu.be/-NvaXAJodOQ

 

[M&Pmeister]

IMO S&W probably made up the 9mm barrel stuck in .40 Shield slide story to justify not selling 9mm shield barrels directly to .40Shield owners. They'd rather we spend $350- 400 on a brand new gun instead. I can't blame them for that.

 

[cybersnow]

Update

Two things happened today. First off, my gunsmith called Smith and Wesson to see if he could buy a 9MM barrel and was told that the gun should be under warranty and to just send the gun to them, they refused to sell him a barrel. Second, I got a call back from Stormlake Barrels who told me that while they do not make a barrel for the shield at the present time, they are planning on doing so maybe by the end of the year. At least there is hope as I cannot find anyone that has a Shield 3.1" 9MM barrel for sale.

 

[Smitty357]

Just a heads up...Storm Lake has said this for over a year now. So i personally wouldnt hold my breath on it. Have u tried finding an aftermarket barrel for a 15-22 lately? I dont know what it is about the Shield and the 15-22. But s&w seems to be keeping the barrels to themselves.

Good luck man, the .40 is a great little pistol. The 9mm barrel just makes it more fun.

I bought 5 barrels when i bought mine. I've since then sold all of them to my friends. Gave my ole lady the last one I had, aside from the one i currently have for my Shield.

 

[RobzGuns]

At this point in time, Being able to convert a Shield40 to 9mm using a Factory Shield barrel is a moot argument, since there are no NEW Shield 9mm barrels to be purchased anywhere in the U.S..

S&W won't sell ANYONE just a barrel and none of the 3rd Party barrel makers are actually planning on making them any time soon. It would be great if SOMEONE would step up and start making some.

 

[ScrapmasterFlex]

Yes the .40 is easily converted to 9mm by simply dropping in a factory 9mm barrel. The problem is the barrel is no longer sold outside of the factory. So the chances of finding a barrel now days, its about as simple as winning the lottery. Those of us who have the .40 and the 9mm barrel will likely never get rid of them.

I absolutely enjoy mine both as the ,40 or as the 9mm. Not a single problem out of mine since the day it came out. Many others will tell u the same.

And there is no way on gods green earth that u can get the 9mm barrel stuck in a .40 slide. Anyone who knows the difference between the 2 slides would know "why" the 9mm barrel cant get stuck, lol. I've been around this conversion long enough to tell u that it works without issue.

I get what you're inferring and am not going to try to defend my gun knowledge to you or worse compare mine to yours. I am confident with what i can do and what I know, and yes I understand barrel diameters. The size of a barrel and the hole for the bore in a slide is not the only factor that could contribute to a barrel getting stuck. Furhtermore, the Shields are made by a dedicated team in S&W, each barrel is fitted to the gun it will live in - it's entirely possible a different, especially different caliber, barrel, would not fit properly and get stuck.

So while I of course don't have first hand knowledge about this issue, i find it very presumptuous and frankly uneducated to call something impossible when you really have no way of knowing that.

 

[Bkreutz]

M&P barrels are not fitted by hand, there is no need. These are not target pistols.

 

[Smitty357]

I get what you're inferring and am not going to try to defend my gun knowledge to you or worse compare mine to yours. I am confident with what i can do and what I know, and yes I understand barrel diameters. The size of a barrel and the hole for the bore in a slide is not the only factor that could contribute to a barrel getting stuck. Furhtermore, the Shields are made by a dedicated team in S&W, each barrel is fitted to the gun it will live in - it's entirely possible a different, especially different caliber, barrel, would not fit properly and get stuck.

So while I of course don't have first hand knowledge about this issue, i find it very presumptuous and frankly uneducated to call something impossible when you really have no way of knowing that.

Bad wording on my behalf, as id say nothing is impossible.

But i can guarntee u that i have more rounds down range with my .40 converted to 9mm that anyone else. And that includes s&w themselves, LMAO. I've never had a problem to even sneeze at. So how is s&w findind all these conversion problems.....And lets say customers are the ones complaining about their 9mm barrel being stuck in their .40. Who in their right mind would send in their .40 for warranty work with a 9mm installed in it?

I personally call BS, but thats just my opinion. As i believe its just s&w way of trying to scare everyone off and force them to buy a whole new weapon.....Just my opinion though.

 

[ScrapmasterFlex]

M&P barrels are not fitted by hand, there is no need. These are not target pistols.

That is what they told me when I called and asked about this very situation the day after I bought my Shield 9.

Also, if you do some YouTubing, which I am not in the mood to find now, there is a shooting TV show, the type that is on regular TV and they put some eps on Youtube, there is a 5 min clip on the Shield (presumably when it was new) and it has the lady in charge of the Shield from S&W showing how there was a dedicated team of people only making the Shield, doing jobs by hand and checking the last persons work etc. So while I cannot say, they definitely do, I would not be surprised in the least to find they hand fit the barrels somewhat.

 

[ScrapmasterFlex]

Anyway look I am getting out of character here, I am not trying to pick fights or start arguments, the truth being i am normally quite happy with the 40-9 conversion process and a proponent and couldn't care less about a barrels production history.

I just hope the gun and whatever he chooses to do works out for the OP/ good luck , good shooting, to all.

 

[Lost Lake]

I thought about converting...

But a barrel costs what? $65? $70? and three mags cost another $75

I buy new Shields for $330. So that's the way I went.

.

 

[M&Pmeister]

I highly doubt shield barrels are "hand-fitted", which means one of two things:

1. A technician trial fits from a whole batch of production barrels and selects one that matches the tolerances on the slide the best.

2. Or... a pistolsmith grinds/polishes the barrel and/or slide so the fit is just right.

Now... being that both the slide and the barrels are Melonited, #2 will require sending them back through the QPQ process again, because it would have cut through the surface hardening and blackened finish.

As for #1... that is just impractical on a $350 production gun.

 

[hoc9sw]

My Shield 9 has made 4 (FOUR) trips back for repairs, and has had 3 barrels. That might explain the shortage of extras.

 

[cybersnow]

The Wrap

After spending a lot more time than I wanted on the internet researching the issue, I found that there are a lot of folks that are really pleased with their conversion and a few that are not. When you do the math, it comes out about $150 for a barrel (if one was available) and about $33 for a magazine. So to do the conversion and buy 2 magazines you would be into it for about $225 after shipping. According to S&W if you did the conversion and something caused the weapon to fail, you may end up paying for the repair if the failure is determined to be because of an "unauthorized" conversion. I think I will just run a few more boxes of .40 through my Shield and if for some reason I need to go to a 9mm, I can always buy a second Shield for about $125 more. Now, I can't put it on my CCW for two years, so worst case I could take it to my gunsmith and have him take a look at the possibility of using the 9mm barrel in the .40 frame and go by whatever he determines. The other option is to carry the .40 and practice with both. Thanks everyone for your advice in insights.

 

[Smitty357]

But the catch is, u dont need the 9mm mags at all. It'll run just fine with 9mm through the .40 mags.

Plenty of members have been running it this way since day 1.

 

[M&Pmeister]

If you want the ability to carry either caliber, you'd be better off just buying 2 separate guns. State restrictions (like Calif.) not withstanding.

For me, the 9mm setup is mostly for range use. I bought a Stormlake 9mm conversion barrel each for my 40FS and 40C (both around $100, IIRC). Between the two, I only bought one 9mm full size mag. $25 at Greg Cote. I've already got the X-grip, which I normally put on a FS .40 mag for 40C use. I see no need to buy more than one 9mm mag for range use.

Stormlake also told me they'll start making Shield conversion barrels next yr. Pretty sure they know the demand is there. Still, if they want more than $100 for one, I won't bite. Compacts and Full Size M&Ps are typically $100 more than the Shield. At $450 for a new gun, shelling out $100-120 for a barrel and $25 for mags make sense. For $350 Shield... not so much.