Post by Gingerbread Man on Feb 19, 2015 12:24:53 GMT
A range buddy and I stopped by the range to shoot rifles and he was hot and bothered to get me to tune up his pistol shooting. Cool, he carries a S&W 9mm Shield with the safety. I do not like that safety, I flicked in on and off a few times and it's stiff. I would hate to have that thing click on then try turn that off under stress. Sorry, no manual safeties on pistols for CCW.
Anywho, personal dogma aside that gun is a shooter. I picked it up and was recktin' plates at 15 yds. No issue at all, every round hit with little effort. The sights were the typical 3 dot variety and I hated them. I still don't get this system. 2 vertical dots please. Or square dot, or iDot...I digress. It was 100% reliable with all the ammo I shoved into it which was a mix of federal, CCI and HSM. HSM was causing my G26 to FTE*. Not sure what got into the Shield but it ran great. The Shield was small, thin and easy to shoot.
The slide had nice cocking serrations on the rear of the slide, none on the front. I don't see the point of them unless your a SEAL or IDF and you grab the front of the slide during a reload. The mag release was positive and easy to hit. The administrative slide release worked and the gun locked back on an empty slide even when I was riding it. Mags loaded easily and the grip shape was good but needed more texturing.
What I don't like about the Shield:
A. It's impossible to get the beaver tail into my grip. My buddy could get it down into the web of the hand either. The grip was just off. I'm not sure there is anything to do about it however. For me, the higher I get into the pistol the more I can control recoil. I felt like the gun sat too high in my grip and was pretty whippy in the slid. It wasn't horrible but I'd prefer a higher grip.
B. The trigger, my God which reset is the right one! The trigger pulled was ok then the pressure came to a wall and snap, it would fire. Felt pretty good. Then as I let the reset out the was one audible click but this wasn't the reset and then there was another rest which was the actual reset. I showed my buddy as I was teaching him about trigger reset and it's importance to shooting pistols quickly and accurately. The shape was a little more curved than I like but worked well and helped me pull the trigger back into the frame.
Overall I really liked the shield apart from it's small misses. The trigger needs a fix for the reset and the manual safety is not warranted.
*That HSM ammo was loaded light and wasn't cycling the slide on my G26. It's remanufactured reloads and caaused malfunctions in all my other guns but I was in the thick of it and getting malfunctions every other round. Not a big deal but I'm going to avoid that ammo because I was having to clear malfunctions while teaching someone else how to shoot. Nope, pass pass pass.
Anywho, personal dogma aside that gun is a shooter. I picked it up and was recktin' plates at 15 yds. No issue at all, every round hit with little effort. The sights were the typical 3 dot variety and I hated them. I still don't get this system. 2 vertical dots please. Or square dot, or iDot...I digress. It was 100% reliable with all the ammo I shoved into it which was a mix of federal, CCI and HSM. HSM was causing my G26 to FTE*. Not sure what got into the Shield but it ran great. The Shield was small, thin and easy to shoot.
The slide had nice cocking serrations on the rear of the slide, none on the front. I don't see the point of them unless your a SEAL or IDF and you grab the front of the slide during a reload. The mag release was positive and easy to hit. The administrative slide release worked and the gun locked back on an empty slide even when I was riding it. Mags loaded easily and the grip shape was good but needed more texturing.
What I don't like about the Shield:
A. It's impossible to get the beaver tail into my grip. My buddy could get it down into the web of the hand either. The grip was just off. I'm not sure there is anything to do about it however. For me, the higher I get into the pistol the more I can control recoil. I felt like the gun sat too high in my grip and was pretty whippy in the slid. It wasn't horrible but I'd prefer a higher grip.
B. The trigger, my God which reset is the right one! The trigger pulled was ok then the pressure came to a wall and snap, it would fire. Felt pretty good. Then as I let the reset out the was one audible click but this wasn't the reset and then there was another rest which was the actual reset. I showed my buddy as I was teaching him about trigger reset and it's importance to shooting pistols quickly and accurately. The shape was a little more curved than I like but worked well and helped me pull the trigger back into the frame.
Overall I really liked the shield apart from it's small misses. The trigger needs a fix for the reset and the manual safety is not warranted.
*That HSM ammo was loaded light and wasn't cycling the slide on my G26. It's remanufactured reloads and caaused malfunctions in all my other guns but I was in the thick of it and getting malfunctions every other round. Not a big deal but I'm going to avoid that ammo because I was having to clear malfunctions while teaching someone else how to shoot. Nope, pass pass pass.
