Shield 9 bent magazine spring

[manderle]

Magguts

I've got the Magguts in both the 7 and 8 round magazines and haven't had any issue through a couple of hundred rounds. Aint cheap but the extra round doesn't hurt. If you do the +1 that means you can carry 9 rounds for the 7 round mag and 10 for the 8 (one in the chamber plus full mag)

 

[Fastcast]

Similar problem here with the new shield. Hard to get excited about receiving more of the same from S&W.

Anyone have long-term experience with maggut or Wolff springs?

I'm sure they just got a bad batch of "spring" steel, it happens in manufacturing. I popped that bent spring back into place, clipped 2 coils off and tried to reload it and it still folded over. That spring has barley any spring to it whatsoever. It can be bent and twisted almost as easily as regular steel and clipped with side cuts like it was aluminum.

The good thing is I'm up to 325 rounds without a FTF or FTE and the 8 round mag (spring) has been fine. I'm still surprised the thing functioned fine with that spring in the 7 rounder, besides not locking the slide back.

Now if they'd just get me the replacement springs they're suppose to be sending.....

 

[Fastcast]

So I received my new springs of Friday, I put the spring that had been functioning fine in the 8 round mag (for 300 hundred rounds) in the 7 round mag and put one of the new springs in the 8 round mag. On the 3rd reload of the 7 round mag the spring that had been functioning fine is now folded over into itself.

So opinions on what the hell is going on....Do I have a problem with the 7 round mag (bad follower, burr inside the housing) or is there just this many defective Shield mag springs? I have not tested the 8 round mag yet with one of the new springs that arrived Friday, other than having it sit fully loaded. Not sure I want to take a chance and ruin the last good spring putting another one in the 7 round mag until I have a chance to talk to S&W, in the morning. Wondering if there is not something else going on here....

 

[Fastcast]

Ok, so just got off the phone with CS and was told, they have/had some "issues" with the Shield springs. I said is this a heat treat issue with just a certain run of them that falls into a specific time frame or a design "issue" that has been going on since the Shield came out? He says I'm not sure, all I know is the engineers have redesigned some things and I have the newest of the new springs, that I received on Friday 9/9. I said what's new they look identical to the old springs (when not collapsed) the heat treating process? He said he doesn't know for sure what is different, "just engineering things, that engineers do" "I've been a gun guy for 40 years" he says, well me too, I feel way better now!!!

He says keep testing them (lol) if I continue to have more issues with the "newest of the new" design and I feel this may be more than just a spring issue (which I don't believe he thinks is the case) they would need me to send the mag/mags in for evaluating so there you have it.

Sorry, to vent/whine but I wanted to relay what info and experience I've had with this spring issue for others to compare who may be having the same problems. I think, if these springs collapse too I'm just going to head on over to Wolff and buy some of their springs (that have never let me down) and call it a day....In the meantime (I'll just re-holster the trusty Beretta 84) until I can "test" these little/minor annoyances (collapsing mag springs) some more....

 

[JL Murray]

Here is what one of mine did.

 

[2ndamendment1787]

hope they replaced for free....if they did i should read better lol

 

[Rett Skutt]

Interesting thread. I purchased my Shield a couple of months ago. I realize this is an older thread, but I'll keep an eye on my mag springs. I purchased 3 magazines this month from Brownells, all 8 rounders. I'll keep and eye on those as well. The Brownells mags do not seem to have a manufacturing date.

All of this sounds like a manufacturing problem, bad batch, wrong heat treatment, etc. All seem to be bending or deforming at the same point. As an ex-manufacturing Foreman, it happens. From what I've read, S&W is working the problem. Hopefully no one gets hurt.

Shoot Straight, and hit your target,

 

[jbtrucker]

I had a bent spring in a 7 rd mag but assumed it was reinstalled backwards after cleaning, ordered a pack of 3 from Wolff

 

[italianguy]

I registered to post my picture of my bent spring as well. Just bought my first s&w about a week ago. Put about 40 rounds through it and the 7 round magazine has a bent spring. I hope they send me about 10 new springs based on what I'm reading.

I don't see how this isn't a bigger issue since this is basically a carry gun with limited rounds. There couldn't be anything worse than a carry gun magazine failing after a round or two. You'd be no worse off with a brick at that point.

Update: S&W sent me a new spring no questions asked in less then a week. I'm glad for the quick service and will see how this one turns out.

 

[obiwankabaldi]

Had same issue. Hate this

 

[gqllc007]

I also had this happen

 

[jtaylor996]

Wow, this sucks, still waiting on my shield to get out of the warehouse. It sucks worse that the magguts kits cost about 2x what the mags themselves cost...

 

[bblhd672]

Knock on wood, I have 7 8-round mags and 1 7-round mag. No spring issues on any of them. (knock on wood again).

 

[obiwankabaldi]

This is a terrible problem. I have 11 mags. Checked them all and then checked them again. Thought I had found just 2. However after re-checking one of my carry mags I found an additional spring that is bent. The problem as I see it is these can fail anytime. I have since ordered Wolf springs to replace all of my springs, the thought of having a spring failure on one of my gun magazines sucks. S&W should be warning all of its customers and issuing a recall. I have many M&P guns and think that S&W has really dropped the ball on this one. Makes me question my loyalty. I am pissed that I had to go to the forum to find this problem.

 

[scooter123]

As an Engineer I have to state that this is CLEARLY a design flaw. If you look at the variety of pics posted almost every one has 5 coils above the failure. When a failure is that consistent it is ALWAYS a defect in the Design, not the steel and not the user. IMO S&W should be putting the transition area higher up and possible doing a tapered transition. With the CnC Spring winding equipment now very common changing the "wind" of the spring is a simple matter of writing a new program. For those with the current design springs I would suggest trying one less round in the magazine or trying some aftermarket springs.

 

[Frank A.]

Hi all. I have been a Glock guy my whole life and just recently picked-up a new Shield in 9mm. What a fantastic carry gun! However, I did have the same mag spring problem as several of you have had.

After my second range session I took the 7 round mag apart and cleaned it. When I reloaded it, it would only take 5 rounds and felt "funny" while reloading. I took it apart again and the spring was severely bent at the small coil/big coil junction. I did some research on the web and there were several other Shield owners who encountered the exact same problem. S&W told them it was a batch of bad spring and sent them a new spring.

I also contacted S&W customer service regarding my mag spring and they also told me it was a batch of bad springs. They sent me 2 new springs. The replacement springs are the same coil shape as the defective springs, but they are a little different in color. They are more grayish, while the defective springs were more copperish in color. I put them in my 7 and 8 round mags and loaded/unloaded them several times at home. No problems. I then took them to the range and put 50 rounds of my carry ammo and 50 rounds of target ammo through them. Again, no problems.

Kudos to S&W customer service for getting my the replacement springs so quickly, but was S&W was correct about a bad batch of mag springs, or are they hiding a design problem with the springs?


Regards,
Frank A.

 

[T2C]

This is not very confidence inspiring. I am going to pull all four of my magazines apart and inspect the springs. If any are defective, I'll contact S&W and request replacement springs.

I already had one warranty issue before I even had a chance to fire my Shield 9mm. If I have to replace any defective springs, the Shield is going up for sale.

 

[AlanWR]

As an Engineer I have to state that this is CLEARLY a design flaw. If you look at the variety of pics posted almost every one has 5 coils above the failure. When a failure is that consistent it is ALWAYS a defect in the Design, not the steel and not the user. IMO S&W should be putting the transition area higher up and possible doing a tapered transition. With the CnC Spring winding equipment now very common changing the "wind" of the spring is a simple matter of writing a new program. For those with the current design springs I would suggest trying one less round in the magazine or trying some aftermarket springs.

Can't argue the point about a design flaw. The bend comes where the narrower section of spring would be pushed into the wider section if too much compression on the spring were attempted. Makes sense that the 7 round mag would have a lot more occurrences than the 8 round, especially since they use the exact same spring between the two. Mag Guts had been using a two piece spring with a connecting cup to join them. No way they would have an issue of bending the same way. I just received my 7 round replacement spring from S&W in a bag labeled 8 round spring. I cut two winds off the bottom to allow for the difference in magazine size. I'll likely buy the new Mag Guts +2 kit.

 

[obiwankabaldi]

Just so you know. The spring for the 7 rounds and the 8 round mag are the same. No need to cut any length of the bottom.

QUOTE=AlanWR;139435080]Can't argue the point about a design flaw. The bend comes where the narrower section of spring would be pushed into the wider section if too much compression on the spring were attempted. Makes sense that the 7 round mag would have a lot more occurrences than the 8 round, especially since they use the exact same spring between the two. Mag Guts had been using a two piece spring with a connecting cup to join them. No way they would have an issue of bending the same way. I just received my 7 round replacement spring from S&W in a bag labeled 8 round spring. I cut two winds off the bottom to allow for the difference in magazine size. I'll likely buy the new Mag Guts +2 kit.[/QUOTE]

 

[earthtone31]

This same magazine issue just happened to me with my 9mm Shield 7 rnd magazine, the firearm is maybe 3 months old and bought brand new. The smaller spring towards the top was bent completely down into the bigger part of the spring just like in all of the above photos of others springs. I was carrying the damn gun like that, it would have malfunctioned if I have had to use it god forbid, I only noticed due to I was switching firearms to carry and was unloading and cleaning the Shield 9mm up to put it away and noticed the rounds felt weird unloading and the last round didn't come to the top of the mag. I looked at my 8 rnd mags and they look fine as of now, but I don't really trust them at all now. I called S&W and they are sending me new springs for free for 5 magazines. But I still went and bought some new Wolff Gunsprings for the Shield 9mm, they should be high quality springs and perform perfectly and not bend hopefully!
www.gunsprings.com #78983 S&W M&P SHIELD 9mm 7 & 8 Rnd MAGAZINE SPRING PK/3 $17.29