UPDATE. I got my Shield back from S&W, for the second time. The repair ticket said they replaced the barrel locking block and slide stop. The ticket also said the gun passed range testing, and they sent me a free 7 round magazine. I assume it was the one used in the testing, since it had been used.
I took the gun to the range last week, along with 3 magazines. Stupidly, I didn't think to take the 7 rounder they had sent me that passed the range test. Again, three brands of ammo, and used all three magazines. Went through a little over 100 rounds, and had probably a dozen failures. Now, the slide was coming forward a hair from the lock position, but the cartridges were not coming up off the magazine. It appears they were hitting the feed ramp. Twice when it happened, I stood there with the gun pointed down range, and within 30 seconds the gun suddenly took the top cartridge and went into battery on its own. Several other times, I lightly tapped the bottom of the grip on the bench, and it immediately took the top cartridge and went into battery. I made it through full magazines several times, but on some other magazines I had that failure two or three times. So now it seemed like a magazine problem. But again, I am not a gunsmith. Just a 40+ year handgun shooter.
I called S&W, and this time got a very pleasant woman in customer service. She e-mailed me a return FedEx label, but she also asked me to take the gun back out with the 7 round magazine they had used. I did that today. I started with the original 6 rounder, and on the third mag full I got the same failure described above. So I switched to the 7 rounder they had sent. No failures, through maybe ten or fifteen full magazines.
Not sure what I will do. It seems unlikely to me (and to the woman at S&W) all three magazines had gone defective. (I took the one used today apart, and all appears fine. These are all S&W factory original magazines.) I'm going through an awful lot of rounds trying to figure this out!
I have no idea why last week the gun failed so many times, and today only once in about the same amount of ammunition. Same three brands of ammo.
Again, FWIW, I'm making sure the rounds are fully seated in each mag by tapping it on the bench, then making sure each mag is fully and firmly seated, and finally, no limp wristing. This is the first semi auto to give me problems.
I took the gun to the range last week, along with 3 magazines. Stupidly, I didn't think to take the 7 rounder they had sent me that passed the range test. Again, three brands of ammo, and used all three magazines. Went through a little over 100 rounds, and had probably a dozen failures. Now, the slide was coming forward a hair from the lock position, but the cartridges were not coming up off the magazine. It appears they were hitting the feed ramp. Twice when it happened, I stood there with the gun pointed down range, and within 30 seconds the gun suddenly took the top cartridge and went into battery on its own. Several other times, I lightly tapped the bottom of the grip on the bench, and it immediately took the top cartridge and went into battery. I made it through full magazines several times, but on some other magazines I had that failure two or three times. So now it seemed like a magazine problem. But again, I am not a gunsmith. Just a 40+ year handgun shooter.
I called S&W, and this time got a very pleasant woman in customer service. She e-mailed me a return FedEx label, but she also asked me to take the gun back out with the 7 round magazine they had used. I did that today. I started with the original 6 rounder, and on the third mag full I got the same failure described above. So I switched to the 7 rounder they had sent. No failures, through maybe ten or fifteen full magazines.
Not sure what I will do. It seems unlikely to me (and to the woman at S&W) all three magazines had gone defective. (I took the one used today apart, and all appears fine. These are all S&W factory original magazines.) I'm going through an awful lot of rounds trying to figure this out!
I have no idea why last week the gun failed so many times, and today only once in about the same amount of ammunition. Same three brands of ammo.
Again, FWIW, I'm making sure the rounds are fully seated in each mag by tapping it on the bench, then making sure each mag is fully and firmly seated, and finally, no limp wristing. This is the first semi auto to give me problems.
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