Smith& Wesson Shield troubles.

[Circle_10]

This past Monday I got a 9mm Smith & Wesson Shield (the version without the thumb safety) with the intention of using it as a CCW. So the next day I set out putting rounds through it to check reliability, with the goal of putting at least 350-500 rounds of ball through it before then testing it with defensive loads.
The first day I put 100 rounds of Blazer FMJ through it without any issue.
Today I went out again, and fired 49 more rounds of Blazer, again with no problems. I then switched to Speer Lawman FMJ and toward the end of that 50 round box I got an FTE where the case was stuck completely vertically in the ejection port. That was disappointing, but I kept going.

I then switched to the other brand of ammo I had, some Winchester WinClean I've had kicking around for years. At this point the shooting session became a disaster, during the course of that 50 round box I had repeated FTEs with all four of the different magazines I was using.

In hindsight I wish I had photographed the first FTE that I got with the Speer Lawman because it was different than the others, but the following pics are of the first of the WinClean FTEs I got. The subsequent ones with that ammo all looked pretty much identical.





The gun was not cleaned at any point. I also deliberately did not lube it, hoping to see how well it would work when dry. Perhaps that was the problem, and it being dry and getting progressively dirtier with continued firing was to blame, but does anyone else have any thoughts?
I'm not clear if it had a particular dislike for the WinClean or if it was simply a case of the issues with the gun compounding by the time I started using that ammo, as the initial FTE was with the Speer stuff after all.
This was kind of a bummer as my initial impressions of it were positive (Aside from the trigger, but I started getting used to it.) and I was hoping to have this thing up and running as a CCW piece by the end of the month. Obviously I can't do that now until it shows that it will run reliably.

[vicious_cb]

First of all you should have cleaned and lubed it, this is protocol for any new gun. The recoil springs on a new shield are extremely stiff, you need keep the slide locked back for a few days and let the springs break in. A poorly lubed gun combined with stiff springs is your issue. I suggest you CLEAN it, LUBE it and keep the slide locked back until your next range trip.

Honestly I still dont know why people dont clean and lube guns out of the box, its stupid and proves nothing about the reliability of the gun.

I have the exact same gun, except I cleaned it, lubed it out of the box and instructed the dealer to keep the slide locked back until I could pick the gun up as per Grant's advice. It ran about 1.2k rnds without any additional cleaning or lubing before I got a FTF.

[Circle_10]

Fair enough, I'll take that advice and then put some more rounds through it next week. I will be quite happy if all this was just due to user error rather than an actual problem with the gun.

[dlquinn71]

I have a Shield 9mm, cleaned it before shooting, applied Slip2000 EWL and have had no problems thru about 500 rounds now.

[KenB987]

First of all you should have cleaned and lubed it, this is protocol for any new gun. The recoil springs on a new shield are extremely stiff, you need keep the slide locked back for a few days and let the springs break in. A poorly lubed gun combined with stiff springs is your issue. I suggest you CLEAN it, LUBE it and keep the slide locked back until your next range trip.

Honestly I still dont know why people dont clean and lube guns out of the box, its stupid and proves nothing about the reliability of the gun.

I have the exact same gun, except I cleaned it, lubed it out of the box and instructed the dealer to keep the slide locked back until I could pick the gun up as per Grant's advice. It ran about 1.2k rnds without any additional cleaning or lubing before I got a FTF.

I'm with you, it like buying a new truck and never changing the oil, 'it blew up after 45,000 miles, what's wrong with it!"

I probably clean excessively, after every trip to the range, looking at the mechanical bits is part of the fun for me.

I am going to pick up my second Shield this Sunday (the first one is fine, the new one is because California) Never any trouble with mine, even after I (a complete amateur) installed an apex kit.

[Inkslinger]

First of all you should have cleaned and lubed it, this is protocol for any new gun. The recoil springs on a new shield are extremely stiff, you need keep the slide locked back for a few days and let the springs break in. A poorly lubed gun combined with stiff springs is your issue. I suggest you CLEAN it, LUBE it and keep the slide locked back until your next range trip.

Honestly I still dont know why people dont clean and lube guns out of the box, its stupid and proves nothing about the reliability of the gun.

I have the exact same gun, except I cleaned it, lubed it out of the box and instructed the dealer to keep the slide locked back until I could pick the gun up as per Grant's advice. It ran about 1.2k rnds without any additional cleaning or lubing before I got a FTF.

I'm curious about how leaving the slide locked back will soften the recoil spring? I was always under the impression that spring tension decreased with compression and decompression. Much like magazine. People are always worried that storing loaded magazines will wear out the spring. I think we know that is not true. So does a pistols recoil spring react differently?

[MegademiC]

Problem free shield 9 here. Clean and lube often. I pay special Attn to the extractor. Definately Clean before shooting the thing. It's a sub compact, not a duty pistol. It will run like one with care. I have around 1k through mine not a single malf.

[NCW Ray]

At this point you don't know if, as your post titles says "Smith& Wesson Shield troubles." are Shield troubles, or ammo troubles, or user troubles.

IMHO you wasted your time and ammo on this "reliability test". You first have to make sure you have a pistol working at 100% reliability. Then if you want to run a "will it work when dry test" then buy one of the many firearms degreasers that are on the market and remove all lube and do your test. Personally I wouldn't purposely run a dry pistol and run the risk of damaging it but that's your call.

[J4ggy]

I've had my shield for a couple years and easily have 3k rounds through it. I've had a few fte's and those were with Winchester white box ammo and tulammo. I completely avoid those brands now and I've had no problems.

I agree with others in thinking that taking a new and fresh out of the box gun and shooting it without cleaning proves nothing about reliability. Reliability testing should include having the gun in a state in which you would carry it. I'll go a few hundred rounds before cleaning but I'll mostly clean it after every range session. Try other brands of self defense ammo. My preference is hornady critical duty and I have never had any issues whatsoever.

[Circle_10]

Well I'm certainly not going to run it dry again. It absolutely was a waste of ammo. And really, in hindsight it didn't make much sense as you'll never see me running an AR dry. I've shot Glocks and AKs dry on many occasions without issue and that may have unfairly colored my expectations.
In any case I'm going to follow the advice I've been given and hopefully this turns out to be a problem of my own doing.