Ultra tight recoil spring on Shield

My shield locks up too before racking a round completely by hand. Just got off the phone with S&W, a brand new RSA is on its way, no charge.
 
RobzGuns said:
When y'all were in the store, do you not give your potential new purchase a once over (work/lock the slide, do a quick take down to inspect it, etc) before putting your cash/card on the counter, or do you just take a quick look, say 'that's nice', pay and go? How does one NOT notice this before they get home?

If you had noticed this while still in the store, you could have tried another Shield, or simply said 'No thanks... I don't like it....That spring's too tight'.
Why accept (buy) something that's so........ Unacceptable?
Click to expand...

When I bought my SR22 the guy at the store made it look easy to get the grip off the display model, which may have been on and off numerous times and which did not prepare me for how hard it was to get the grip off a brand new untouched SR22 when I got home.
 
Originally Posted by RobzGuns
When y'all were in the store, do you not give your potential new purchase a once over (work/lock the slide, do a quick take down to inspect it, etc) before putting your cash/card on the counter, or do you just take a quick look, say 'that's nice', pay and go? How does one NOT notice this before they get home?

If you had noticed this while still in the store, you could have tried another Shield, or simply said 'No thanks... I don't like it....That spring's too tight'.
Why accept (buy) something that's so........ Unacceptable?
Click to expand...
Mcwsky09 said:
When I bought my SR22 the guy at the store made it look easy to get the grip off the display model, which may have been on and off numerous times and which did not prepare me for how hard it was to get the grip off a brand new untouched SR22 when I got home.
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming my point. One needs to actually check/inspect the pistol going on the Form4473 (their 'potential new purchase') before they complete the paperwork.

I recently bought a new revolver that had problems. The sales person though had already put the Serial# on the Form4473 before I noticed it. While I found the problem before leaving the store, we did need to find another revolver, destroy that paperwork and redo a new 4473 with a different serial#. ;)
 
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Just ordered a SS guide rod. The website mentioned nothing about sending my factory one in. I'm hoping it ships with the option of allowing me to swap it myself.

I'll let you guys know how this pans out.
 
Hahhahaahaaaaha!

I posted somewhere on this forum that I would never ever again read a thread that had anything to do with the Shield or the Bodyguard.... Just out of morbid curiousity, I'm here and dammit. I knew I shouldn't have read these comments.... My eyes have rolled so much in these past few moments that I now have a migraine.

Seem like the first thing every new guy that goes out & buy's a new M&P Shield is to get on the forum & complain about the recoil spring and suddenly they're mechanical engineers and come up with their own solutions to S&W's "design flaw".

All I know guys is this.... Both, my M&P Shield 9, which I use weekly in local IDPA matches & my EDC Shield 40 have performed flawlessly since day one. I have no issues at all with S&W's design, in fact I think the Shield is a superior CC weapon the way it is from the factory and posts like this are magnets for advertiser's pushing their products, ie; their own recoil springs and newbies take the bait so eagerly... Rant over, have a good day :)
 
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Hardly a newb here.

The fact is that some people have gotten defective spring assemblies in brand new pistols....and others have had the factory assembly fail on them.

Mine was defective right out of the box. Since the factory replacement, I've had not a single problem. But since there is a beefier option out there, I will try it rather than risking my replacement assembly going bad like has happened to others.
 
Dino1 said:
I believe I read in the manual that their is an orientation of the spring when replacing it. the end of the coil had to face upwards. It may have been another pistol manual I read it in, but I have always replaced mine doing this.
Click to expand...

Right on! That is how I reassemble my shield after field strip & cleaning. It works every time!

mb
 
Could S&W finally looked into the RSA stiffness issues everyone is complaining about?
I bought the CA version in mid May, the spent casing in the box was stamped Mar 2015. The only thing I did when I cleaned it prior to shooting around 150 rounds, was to put a mark (correction fluid) on the top of the RSA rod that seat against the barrel, before taking it out. I also did, as of this time maybe about a hundred or so dry fires.
The RSA is not as stiff as I imagined it would be. I can lock the slide with no mag, pushing the slide lock as I rack the slide.
 
potpot821 said:
Could S&W finally looked into the RSA stiffness issues everyone is complaining about?
>Snip<
The RSA is not as stiff as I imagined it would be. I can lock the slide with no mag, pushing the slide lock as I rack the slide.
Click to expand...
It's possible, but I doubt it, as there are New members STILL posting about how hard theirs is to rack.

It seems more like a 'Personal' thing, as mine is one of the 1st batches off the line 3yrs ago and neither I, nor my 'upper body strength challenged' Wife ever had a problem racking it, from day 1. Seems like you also have no problem with what others consider difficult.

I'm no engineer, but I'm guessing that the engineers designing and testing the Shield prototypes did study just how strong the Shield's RSA needed to be to function properly, before they started production.
 
Just get one of these guys.... It will help, until then keep shooting & enjoying your new Shields...
 

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I would say that the spring is petty much right the way it is. The gun cycles perfect with everything I feed it. I will say it does toss my brass all over the floor at the indoor range. I can pull the slide back with my thumb and index finger to feed the first round in a mag. Now loading that mag is a different story. if I forget my loader at home I end up only loading 2 or 3 round. I now after 500 rounds can get all 7 in but it takes more effort then I care to do. Don
 
This has nothing to do with grip or strength. It's about a defective spring and/or guide rod that makes the spring bind and the slide cannot be fully racked.

How is that so difficult to understand?

If you haven't personally experienced it, then you don't know what is going on.
 
Sorry Bob O... But with so many Happy customers that Don't have a problem with the RSA, how can YOU (and the vocal Minority) be right, in saying it's defective?

Are you saying that You're right and Thousands of Uncomplaining (Non-Posting) happy customers are wrong?
 
My pistol was one with a defective spring or rod right out of the box. So I will go for the upgrade.

Why are so many people going for an Apex trigger? There's nothing wrong with the factory trigger on mine, so they all must be making things up about theirs?

That's the way some of you guys are acting. Sad that some of you have taken poor attitudes on this.
 
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Bob O said:
My pistol was one with a defective spring or rod right out of the box. So I will go for the upgrade.
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That's your prerogative Bob, but to call the whole assembly Defective, just because yours was bad? C'mon.

Why are so many people going for an Apex trigger? There's nothing wrong with the factory trigger on mine, so they all must be making things up about theirs?
Click to expand...
That's their prerogative too, but most don't call the trigger assembly defective. There's nothing wrong with my 3y/o trigger either and I did not buy an Apex kit.

That's the way some of you guys are acting. Sad that some of you have taken poor attitudes on this.
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You're funny... You're the one touting that the RSA is a defective design (in every single RSA related thread, no less) and you're saying some us US have poor attitudes? Funny indeed.

If you prefer to use an aftermarket RSA, fine... But to claim the whole design is defective, just because YOU feel you got a bad one???
 
Everybody. I own two shields a 9 and a 40. The tight spring just needs time. Both of mine were so tight I could hardly rack them back. I left them in the racked back position for about a week. Problem solved. It seems a lot a people are making a mountain out of a mole hill.
 
I didn't say there was anything wrong with the design. And it's not a belief that mine was defective, its a fact. The slide would not rack far enough for the slide lock to engage. The guy behind the gun counter couldn't rack it, and neither could the gun shop manager.

Swap my brand new spring for the one in the display pistol and it was fine. The slide problem was then transfered to the display pistol, it wouldn't rack either, imagine that. Add to that I'm not the only one whose experienced this, and there's your problem.

I'm glad the problem is only a very small percentage.
 
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BClayton357 said:
I have a NIB Shield. It is ridiculous that the slide is this stiff. And I don't give a **** what the manual says , the SLID RELEASE and yes that is what it is, should release with the thumb of the strong had.
Click to expand...

A "SLID RELEASE ", is not what it is. It is a slide stop! I am 83 years young and I can operate the slide and the stop for breakdown and reassembly with very little difficulty.

mb
 
For those who have had the problem of the rear of the factory RSA bending on you, the ssguiderod should take care of that being it is significantly thicker at the rear as you can see.

92f140e936df83fff20c48d2ca551e2c.jpg
 
No. I talked with a guy on the phone and told him I didn't want to have my EDC pistol down for a week or more. So he shipped it and I swapped the spring myself. It was basically a 5-minute job.
 
Bob O said:
This has nothing to do with grip or strength. It's about a defective spring and/or guide rod that makes the spring bind and the slide cannot be fully racked.

How is that so difficult to understand?

If you haven't personally experienced it, then you don't know what is going on.
Click to expand...
I had the exact same problem with mine. My hands got sore trying to put them together. After few rounds of shooting it's fine now. But yeah, I think S&W should take a look at it. It wasn't about the spring being stiff but more on binding.
 
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