Shield .45 still is great EDC

[kannonvaggon]

I've been carrying the Shield .45 in stock form since the model first became available. I ended up selling my trusty Shield 9mm mostly cuz a guy offered me pretty much what I had paid for it two years previously.

I spend most of my days in the desert southwest. I seldom clean the pistol unless I shoot it. I hadn't fired this pistol in about 3 months. I did load up a couple shot shells into my mag again last week since the rattlers have come out.

I shot a rattler this morning out on a trail. The Shield was again a bit dusty, but cycled very nicely. I went ahead and emptied that mag and it cycled the other shot shell and also the GDs perfectly.
A SWEET pistol in almost all respects. Still my favorite EDC.
This one has never done anything to annoy me , and has gotten a bit smoother with time. Finish is still excellent showing very little holster buffing in the Hidden Hybrid.

A fine EDC pistol in this caliber, and even better when accuracy and price are considered. Still a big fan of the Shield in .45 ACP .
JMHO

 

[Catshooter]

I agree with you. It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn nice.


Cat

 

[ScaryWoody]

I've been carrying one for about a year. Replaced my G19. Lighter, less capacity but bigger holes. I forget it's on while my Glock (which I love) hurt my hip a bit. I still can't get over how sweet shooting it is in such a small platform.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Interesting you mention you were using shot shells. I like to carry a pair in the front end of my revolver line up but always wondered how they would run in a 45.
Have you had good results?
What brand/make-up are they?

 

[SATX]

I also carry a Shield 45 every day, and also sold my 9 & 40. It enables me to have a full grip when drawing, yet small enough to conceal under a t-shirt in the Texas heat. I like modern poly guns for the very reason you described, they run dry without the need of constant lube. 15 rounds of 45acp on me is enough for any situation, I suppose.

 

[GTBL]

Another one here! It's a great little gun that has the capacity of a 1911. Super pleased with mine

 

[Jessie]

I agree. It's become one of those " trusted ones" as far as function and accuracy go.
Based on a friends experience with shotshells in a semi auto, I won't ever use them.
He had a couple loaded in the mag like you did but while shooting, the recoil opened up a shot shell inside the mag and his pistol was seized until he got home and had to completely take the gun apart to find all that snake shot.
If you just kept the first round chambered with one you'd be alright.
I'm not sure how many pellets are in a .45 round, but I believe it's 3 figures worth.
That's a lot of cleaning out to do.

 

[Elvis50#]

Shield 45 magazines

I really enjoy the way this gun shoots---however the loading of the magazines is the hardest I have ever experienced with any gun.. Has anybody found a way to improve the loading process?
Using a loading tool is all well and good at the the range but out in the field it is very impractical.

 

[kannonvaggon]

I am using CCI / Speer factory loaded shot shells in .45ACP , aluminum case, 210 #9 pellets per ....

I used lots of this ammo in my previous 9mm Shield and did have a couple of them come apart at the top plastic cup wad which induced a stoppage. Never had one that was harder to clear than just a slide rack to get a fresh round into the pipe.

I have NOT had a single failure of a shot shell in .45 with this pistol. I've gone through 3 boxes and into the 4th with no stoppages and no feed problems.

These shells are only effective at like 6-7 feet and have a more or less consistent pattern, open a bit in the middle with good pellet coverage maybe 12 inches or so. I can hit a rattler with a solid bullet but in a pinch I just prefer to carry a couple shells on top of the mag. I have shot a cotton tail and produced dinner, but I was close enough to have probably bagged him with a ball round and had less carcass damage... but possibly would have caused MORE meat damage. Dunno.

I DO know that .45 shot shells are WAY mo bedda than 9mm ammo of the same type. I use these enough that I'm gonna look into borrowing some bench time with a friend and making up some brass cases with copper top caps from heavy brass .308 cases..... I know it sounds goofy, but I've actually seen and fired a round made like this and it worked and cycled very nicely without the slight but real issue of breaking open the plastic top cap wad on the factory shell ammo.

Shot shells are not defensive rounds for in-home use and such... they are a novelty for "rodents and critters " . I like plain old Gold Dots for SD ammo and plain old ball ammo for penetration. The .45 is just a very pleasant and useful caliber with a lot of utility IMHO .

YMMV

 

[kannonvaggon]

On the magazine stiffness issue....

Yes I agree that on this model Shield both the recoil spring and the magazine springs are quite stiff. The .45 is slightly easier to rack than my 9mm was. The magazines are indeed difficult to load without an UpLula or some such which do use most of the time.

My pistol has gotten a bit looser and smoother over time. Just a little at least. I carry every day and the pistol is always loaded 24/7 . The magazine springs get a bit softer with some age on em IMHO. After the initial " learning and break-in " period I have't been firing all that many rounds when I think of it. I have maybe 2000 rounds in a couple years which isn't all that much relative to what some folks do that shoot competition stages.

So, to loosen the mags : keep em fully loaded all the time.

By the way..... one thing I do NOT do is eject a chambered round and put it back into the magazine when using shot shells. Once I chamber that round it's gonna get fired. I don't like re-chambering even a standard SD round. If I don't use up my ammo in a mag for a long period I'll take a few minutes out in the desert and fire off most of my ammo... then clean and inspect the pistol and reload immediately with FRESH ammo . Don't want cracked top caps or a SD bullet that's been messed up when chambered multiple times.

The point about maybe only loading ONE shot shell is most likely a reasonable idea if using the shells with plastic top caps.

I'm probably an old fuddy-duddy .....

 

[FloridaS&W]

I really enjoy the way this gun shoots---however the loading of the magazines is the hardest I have ever experienced with any gun.. Has anybody found a way to improve the loading process?
Using a loading tool is all well and good at the the range but out in the field it is very impractical.

It can be done with practice; only the last round is really difficult.