Thinking About Calling S&W-380EZ

[wnycollector]

I'm a little late to this thread. My wife's EZ 380 had the same issues. It went back three times to S&W before they acknowledged that the pistol was not repairable. They kept the EZ380 and sent me an M&P 2.0 9mm to replace it. My wife went back to carrying her M12 snubbie.

 

[1sdfellow]

I posted a while back about substituting the Wolff XP 7 round Ruger LCP aftermarket spring for the 12 coil OEM version. The Wolff is 19 coils and must be trimmed to 14 or 15. I found 14 to work best requiring a) the clipped top of the spring to be bent down to be in line with the rest of the top coil; and b) the bottom coil to be enlarged slightly with the nose of a needle nose pliers to fit over the raised plastic piece of the plastic locking tab's spring guide. This substitution gives a noticeable increase in magazine spring tension. I haven't shot more than a few dozen rounds of hot 1000 FPS 102 grain handloads since, but function has been flawless.

 

[VictorLouis]

A "Grail gun " for me was a Kahr compact 45. Finally got it, and it would only function 98%, and that was with standard velocity 230 grain FMJ. Anything else, it was a single shooter, or at best a large two shot derringer...

I called Kahr Customer Service and complained. They told me to call back after 1,000 round break in if it still had problems.. BS! I traded it in on my first S&W Sheild 9mm.

My neighbor recently bought a Kahr compact 9, and he had an identical problem. He spent $200 on a local gunsmith to get it to work correctly (mostly!). NOT a fan of Kahr....

Bro, it's pretty common knowledge that Kahr states, and the reality is, their pistols need a break-in period. Yes, in this era of ridiculously hi-priced ammo...that hurts more than it should. But, it remains the case.

 

[jeffrefrig]

There was a recall on some of the 9mm & .380 EZ pistols last year. I bought a .380 EZ for my step daughter for Christmas and it was made after the period of recalled EZs. I don't remember what the recall was for. Where she lives and her work schedule have kept me from shooting the gun with her. Maybe her fiance shot it with her; I will have to call her and see if she's had any problems. I don't remember what the recall was for, as I said, does anyone remember? I don't think it was for the above problem, as it was for both calibers.

 

[SchemaEnigma]

There was a recall on some of the 9mm & .380 EZ pistols last year. I bought a .380 EZ for my step daughter for Christmas and it was made after the period of recalled EZs. I don't remember what the recall was for. Where she lives and her work schedule have kept me from shooting the gun with her. Maybe her fiance shot it with her; I will have to call her and see if she's had any problems. I don't remember what the recall was for, as I said, does anyone remember? I don't think it was for the above problem, as it was for both calibers.

Recall notice for Pistols | Smith & Wesson

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

The last 380EZ we bought is under that recall & printed the return label out but after inspecting the hammer I'm going to hold off for a while..
Haven't even shot the 2nd EZ YET!!
Need to ride down to the range & shoot a couple hundred dollars worth which @ Todays ammo prices is 3-4 boxes..
Gary..
Couple Pictures of the 9mm Shield 2.0 & 380 EZ

 

[The Preacher]

Anyone who buys a Smith EZ 380 as a carry gun, knowing it may or may not malfunction on the last round is playing with fire. My wife and I took it off the list for just such an issue. Glock Mod. 42 works flawlessly.... Why buy a S&W 380 EZ Shield with possible mag and malfunction issues? Especially as S&W doesn't even acknowledge the issue... JMHO....

The Preacher

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

If anyone else is looking for 380 EZ Magazines it looks like Larry Potterfield @ Midway USA has them in stock currently for $32.99ea
Smith & Wesson Mag S&W M&P380 Shield EZ 380 ACP 8-Round SS

FREE S&H with Orders over $49 so order two & Use Code freeship101721 while supplies Last..

 

[lkabug]

I feel badly for all that has had and are still having problems with their 389EZ.
I feel blessed to not have any of these issues. I got one of the good ones I believe.
Just this weekend I ran 16 magazines through mine without a single issue using three different brands of factory ammo.

 

[VictorLouis]

... this weekend I ran 16 magazines through mine without a single issue

Didja make out on some scratch-offs at the stop-'n-rob?

 

[max503]

Been halfway thinking of getting a 380 EZ. The farm store has about 6 of them. I still have 380 ammo, dies, bullets, and cases, but no gun.
This thread has brought me to my senses.

 

[kbm6893]

S&w knows there is a problem with the magazine and they know how to fix it. Scroll to 2:40 in this video:

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jUEefmmYPe0[/ame]

The only reason I can think of them not admitting the issue and recalling all existing .380 mags is because they don't want to replace all those mags. Kind of screwed up, if you ask me.

My 9MM EZ has been flawless.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

I feel badly for all that has had and are still having problems with their 389EZ.
I feel blessed to not have any of these issues. I got one of the good ones I believe.
Just this weekend I ran 16 magazines through mine without a single issue using three different brands of factory ammo.

Do you store your mags empty or fully loaded?

 

[gc70]

Continuing posts in this thread prompted me to make one more attempt to get resolution from S&W on my wife's 380 EZ.

A substantial number of S&W M&P 380 Shield EZ pistols have feeding problems related to their magazines. The problems are widely recognized and discussed on the internet (Google "380 EZ feeding" or "380 EZ stovepipe") but Customer Service continues to deny the problems or uselessly send new magazine springs to complaining owners.

Unfortunately, it looks like S&W both knows about the problem and how to fix it, but refuses to take action. The 9mm Shield EZ is highly similar to the 380 version, but has a couple of changes in the magazine design that interestingly prevent the type of problems encountered with the 380 magazines. Even S&W's own Pro Shooter, Jerry Miculek, mentions the magazine design changes in a video about the 9mm Shield EZ.

I love my 9mm Shield EZ, but my wife's 380 Shield EZ frightens me. I do not want her self-defense pistol to rely on do-it-yourself attempts to fix a magazine problem that S&W is aware of, could fix, and should fix.

Please advice if S&W can -or will- do anything to correct the problem with my wife's 380 Shield EZ magazines (and no more "updated" yellow-painted magazine springs are needed to replace the yellow-painted springs already in her magazines).

S&W responded with a polite request for more information about the problem.

The problem is that the last round from the magazines (4 magazines) randomly have failures to feed in the form of stovepipes. The incidence of the problem is not consistent from magazine to magazine or each time a specific magazine is used. I have previously changed the magazine springs to yellow-painted ones, even for the magazines that already had yellow-painted springs. Changing springs did not help at all. I have also scuffed the tops of the magazine followers to increase adhesion/friction with the last round's casing. Scuffing the followers reduced the incidence of the problem by half or more, but the problem remains at the reduced rate.

S&W responded with an offer to send a prepaid FedEx label for me to send the pistol and magazines in for evaluation.

It can't hurt to let S&W check the pistol. And S&W may have discovered a fix over time. I'll post results when available.

 

[Oldsalt66]

Due to a wrist injury my wife can no longer manipulate the slide on her M&P9c so she currently carries a .380EZ.

I just checked my log and she's put 3225 rounds through it and it still looks almost new in box cosmetically.

She shoots it extremely well and she's terrific at immediately clearing malfunctions which is a good thing, since due to what I'm certain is a magazine design flaw, the pistol isn't as reliable as she'd like her carry gun to be.

She'll be picking up one of the 9mm versions for herself as soon as my local shop gets some in with the thumb safety, which she likes on her carry pistols.

If you compare the .380 EZ magazines with the 9mm models, it's obvious the 9mm mags were redesigned to eliminate a problem they were experiencing with the legacy model .380 magazines failing to hold onto the rounds securely and properly positioned in the magazine as the pistol cycled, and the magazine approached empty with an attendant reduction of spring tension on the follower and round against the feed lips.

I'm guessing that a redesigned magazine of this type in .380 probably wouldn't work with the currently and previously manufactured.380 EZ pistols, but I'd certainly like to be proven wrong.

 

[gc70]

My wife's 380 EZ arrived back from the factory today (see post #34 above) and the results of the visit to the mothership are in this thread.

 

[smoothshooter]

A "Grail gun " for me was a Kahr compact 45. Finally got it, and it would only function 98%, and that was with standard velocity 230 grain FMJ. Anything else, it was a single shooter, or at best a large two shot derringer...

I called Kahr Customer Service and complained. They told me to call back after 1,000 round break in if it still had problems.. BS! I traded it in on my first S&W Sheild 9mm.

My neighbor recently bought a Kahr compact 9, and he had an identical problem. He spent $200 on a local gunsmith to get it to work correctly (mostly!). NOT a fan of Kahr....

Funny how Gaston Glock's engineers and production people can get a finished gun out the door that shoots nearly every dam**ed time right out of the box for less than $100 dollars per unit, but Kahr and some other American manufacturers tell customers they need to put at least 200 rounds through their guns to break them in.

 

[Mike J]

I posted a while back about substituting the Wolff XP 7 round Ruger LCP aftermarket spring for the 12 coil OEM version. The Wolff is 19 coils and must be trimmed to 14 or 15. I found 14 to work best requiring a) the clipped top of the spring to be bent down to be in line with the rest of the top coil; and b) the bottom coil to be enlarged slightly with the nose of a needle nose pliers to fit over the raised plastic piece of the plastic locking tab's spring guide. This substitution gives a noticeable increase in magazine spring tension. I haven't shot more than a few dozen rounds of hot 1000 FPS 102 grain handloads since, but function has been flawless.

I hadn't been back to this forum in a while so I didn't see this. I ordered some of the springs you cited. I will try them. They may not be as EZ as the OEM ones but as long as the pistol feeds reliably I am good with that. I like the idea of it not being a spring inside a spring. Thanks.

 

[Mike J]

I posted a while back about substituting the Wolff XP 7 round Ruger LCP aftermarket spring for the 12 coil OEM version. The Wolff is 19 coils and must be trimmed to 14 or 15. I found 14 to work best requiring a) the clipped top of the spring to be bent down to be in line with the rest of the top coil; and b) the bottom coil to be enlarged slightly with the nose of a needle nose pliers to fit over the raised plastic piece of the plastic locking tab's spring guide. This substitution gives a noticeable increase in magazine spring tension. I haven't shot more than a few dozen rounds of hot 1000 FPS 102 grain handloads since, but function has been flawless.

I replace the springs in my 380 EZ magazines as you describe. I made it back out last weekend to shoot. I just had 50 rounds of 380 with me. I loaded 2 rounds at a time-so we did 25 last round feeds successfully (I was shooting at a relatives. We had teenagers out there with us. I was loading the 2 rounds in the magazine & letting a 16 year old fire them for me. He seemed to enjoy the process). This seems to be a solution.