Reading thru these posts I started to look for an after market spring.There's a outfit
www.DPMsystems.com that will be making replacement spring and rods in about 30 days. I don't know anything about them, but they look like they pretty well built products and they responded right away. Might be worth a try. My spring has worked fine, but like others is a little stiff to pull back. I've put in an Apex kit, so I will probably try their spring kit when it comes out.
I just bought a .40 Shield today, brand new from a Sporting goods store. The display model functioned perfectly, no hang-up when racking the slide, no binding, dragging, etc.
I told the salesman that I wanted to have a NIB pistol rather than the display model, so he got me a brand new one. Upon inspecting it, I found that the slide would not go back fully, and you could not lock it back. He said that they are stiff when new and it would break in after shooting it.
I asked him if the display model has been shot, and he said "no", but it has been handled a lot and that's why it was smooth. I then proceeded to field strip the pistol and inspect the RSA. I was not impressed at all with what I found. Basically the ends of the large spring (mostly the forward end) were too large and partially overlap the caps.
I asked him to try this RSA in the display model, and he did. Guess what, the display model now had the same problem. I put the display model's RSA in the new pistol and it functioned just fine. So in the end, he let me take the RSA from the display model and walk out the door with my new pistol.
I haven't shot the pistol yet, but I'm not the least bit impressed with the fitment of the large spring. When I gave the pistol it's initial cleaning this evening, I found the ends of the large spring to be too big, but obviously not as big as the other one, as it hasn't caused any binding and the slide functions just fine when racking it by hand.
I'll report back after I get a chance to put a box of rounds through it. I really hope this DPM outfit makes a better RSA for this pistol, as I really do like it. Even if the pistol shoots fine after a box of 50, it's one of those things that will always be in the back of my mind. I need to have full confidence in my carry gun, and I just know that this will bug me being that the problem seems to be fairly "common".
A bad spring on a brand new pistol....seriously? I will keep checking on this DPM company, maybe even try to contact them to see if they are going to produce a RSA for the Shield. I will buy it for sure if it's a higher quality, closer tolerance assembly.
Bob