Hi. First post here. I've seen an older post relating to this issue, but it doesn't seem to have the same cause as my issue.
Here's the specific firearm: New, Shield Plus 9mm, optics cut, no manual safety. Came with the usual two magazines, a 10 round and 13.
I really like this gun for IWB carry with light clothing. But it's presented repeated disappointments. First the front night sight was dead. Apparently a very common problem. S&W replaced it and I installed it. All is well there for now.
While I was waiting on my new front sight the 10 round magazine quit locking the slide back when empty. So another call to S&W resulted in them sending me two sets of followers and springs to try. One seemed to work just fine, the other "tries" to catch, but doesn't quite. And the one that almost catches makes the magazine hard to remove - you have to get fingernails between the grip of the gun and the baseplate of the magazine and pull hard to get it out.
So another call to S&W results in them sending me a new, complete, 10 round magazine -- same result with it almost catching and the magazine being hard to remove.
I finally got a chance to see if I could identify the specific cause and, in my case, this is it -- The tab on the magazine latch and the shelf on the follower completely miss each other, with the tab of the latch ending up resting against the follower well below the shelf that it should engage. The tab digs in to the plastic of the follower and makes the magazine hard to remove and the tab rubbing against the follower raises the latch just enough to cause the slide to almost catch, but not quite. Each one of the malfunctioning followers has a ding in the body of it from the tab biting it.
The magazine that does work just barely engages the tab of the latch - just barely.
No - it's not a lack of force lifting the follower. Springs with 50 pounds of force wouldn't work if the two parts miss each other. It's also not my thumb getting in the way - I'm a lefty and my thumb is on the wrong side of the gun for that.
A fix that I did try -- All 5 of the followers I now have seem to be dimensionally the same. There does seem to be a bit of play of the follower within the metal of the magazine box. Considering that the spiral of the spring could be torqueing the follower, rotating it away from the latch, I removed the spring, grabbled it at both ends and gave it a 180 degree twist. This distorted the spring just enough that it should push the follower shelf toward the tab when inserted back into the mag.
It worked! - Once. Locked back just as pretty as any magazine ever did. And then went back to the same old problem. S&W needs to do a latch or magazine/spring/follower redesign. A tab that extends inward and/or back might to the trick if it doesn't get in the way of anything else.
I could try to provide photos if anyone cares to see. Edited -- I added a photo with the slide removed so I could get a photo. This is what is happening. The tab completely misses the flat on the follower. The result is the tab doesn't get pushed up to lock the slide.
Here's the specific firearm: New, Shield Plus 9mm, optics cut, no manual safety. Came with the usual two magazines, a 10 round and 13.
I really like this gun for IWB carry with light clothing. But it's presented repeated disappointments. First the front night sight was dead. Apparently a very common problem. S&W replaced it and I installed it. All is well there for now.
While I was waiting on my new front sight the 10 round magazine quit locking the slide back when empty. So another call to S&W resulted in them sending me two sets of followers and springs to try. One seemed to work just fine, the other "tries" to catch, but doesn't quite. And the one that almost catches makes the magazine hard to remove - you have to get fingernails between the grip of the gun and the baseplate of the magazine and pull hard to get it out.
So another call to S&W results in them sending me a new, complete, 10 round magazine -- same result with it almost catching and the magazine being hard to remove.
I finally got a chance to see if I could identify the specific cause and, in my case, this is it -- The tab on the magazine latch and the shelf on the follower completely miss each other, with the tab of the latch ending up resting against the follower well below the shelf that it should engage. The tab digs in to the plastic of the follower and makes the magazine hard to remove and the tab rubbing against the follower raises the latch just enough to cause the slide to almost catch, but not quite. Each one of the malfunctioning followers has a ding in the body of it from the tab biting it.
The magazine that does work just barely engages the tab of the latch - just barely.
No - it's not a lack of force lifting the follower. Springs with 50 pounds of force wouldn't work if the two parts miss each other. It's also not my thumb getting in the way - I'm a lefty and my thumb is on the wrong side of the gun for that.
A fix that I did try -- All 5 of the followers I now have seem to be dimensionally the same. There does seem to be a bit of play of the follower within the metal of the magazine box. Considering that the spiral of the spring could be torqueing the follower, rotating it away from the latch, I removed the spring, grabbled it at both ends and gave it a 180 degree twist. This distorted the spring just enough that it should push the follower shelf toward the tab when inserted back into the mag.
It worked! - Once. Locked back just as pretty as any magazine ever did. And then went back to the same old problem. S&W needs to do a latch or magazine/spring/follower redesign. A tab that extends inward and/or back might to the trick if it doesn't get in the way of anything else.
I could try to provide photos if anyone cares to see. Edited -- I added a photo with the slide removed so I could get a photo. This is what is happening. The tab completely misses the flat on the follower. The result is the tab doesn't get pushed up to lock the slide.
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