Smith& Wesson Shield troubles.

[Circle_10]

Going forward, I guess that's how I'm going to do this. Clean/lube, fire probably 100-200 rounds per session, and repeat. I'll probably shoot all WinClean for one session then compare it to whatever other brands I use as well.
If I get through 350-500 or so rounds without any issues that can't be attributed to say, a specific brand of ammo or something, I'll move on to a couple boxes of defensive ammo.

[Kokopelli]

Interesting.. I may have read something of this back when they first came out. Seems most pistols have a few bad apples.. My Shields have yest to malfunction however. I did sell the 40, but it was because I just didn't like the recoil..

My personal opinion is that when I'm unhappy with a pistol, I just sell it at a loss with full disclosure ..and move on

[Slvr Surfr]

Another problem free shield 9 owner here. I've run 600-700 rounds including factory ammunition and reloads. Clean and lube after shooting.

[CatSnipah]

I had something like 5 FTEs in the first 300 rounds, then nary a problem since. Now well over 750 or so through it.

[Circle_10]

I kept the slide locked back for a few days, and cleaned and lubed it with Breakfree and Slip EWL respectively. Fired 250 rounds of Speer Lawman 124gr TMJ with no issues. So I'm off to a good start I'd say.

[vicious_cb]

Good to hear. After it breaks in then you can do a reliability test. Starting with the pistol clean and lubed it should run at least 1k rounds without any maintenance.

[Inkslinger]

I would still like someone to explain to me how leaving a slide locked back on a pistol softens the recoil spring. If there is any data supporting this, should I unload all of my rifle and pistol magazines?

[NCW Ray]

I would still like someone to explain to me how leaving a slide locked back on a pistol softens the recoil spring. If there is any data supporting this, should I unload all of my rifle and pistol magazines?

I have wondered the same thing!

I've always been under the assumption that a spring weakens with repeated compression & decompression, not just the mere compressing and leaving compressed. I've read of (haven't seen personally) old military magazines being fully loaded for 30-40 years and still function properly. About the only thing I can think of where locking the slide back and leaving it might help is "maybe?" it aids the spring in taking a uniform set on the recoil guide rod which in turn "might" help with easier racking of the slide?

Hopefully a "Spring Expert" will chime in here with a factual explanation! Inquiring minds need to know!

[doro19]

Problem free with mine. Since it's registered as my off duty pistol, I shoot my department's qualification course quarterly with my duty load (147GR HST) as well as Gold Dot 124 GR. I don't know how many rounds I have through it, and to be honest I'm not counting. I haven't had any issues, thus far. It's been a reliable and accurate little pistol for me. I still think most of the problems I'm hearing are shooter induced.

[Circle_10]

Ok...so here's what happened this time..
Cleaned and lubed with Breakfree and Slip EWL again. Fired 50 rounds of Speer Lawman ball and 200 rounds of Federal ball without issue - making for 500 consecutive rounds of ball ammo (with one cleaning/lubing in between each batch of 250 rounds) fired without any malfunctions.
After the ball I moved on to hollowpoints, specifically 124gr Hornady TAP FPD, with the blackened cases. I had 200 rounds of it laying around that I bought years ago, while I've read it isn't a particularly great performer I was considering carrying it until I could procure a quantity of something better.
About four rounds in I had an FTE:


The slide locked open, with the empty case still sitting loosely in the chamber. I'm not exactly much of an expert at diagnosing pistol malfs but it *looked* like the next live round in the mag was slightly nose down, so my thinking is that when the spent case encountered the bound up round it was unable to be extracted as the slide opened, the extractor slipped off of it, then the slide was locked back from the round in the mag being unable to move forward. The mag would not drop free and had to be stripped out, as soon as I did the slide slammed shut, re-chambering the empty case. I reinserted the mag and fired the remaining rounds without issue, including the top round that had apparently un-bound itself. After that mag I then fired an additional 73 rounds of the TAP FPD without further problem.
So I guess my question is what does this do to my reliability round count? Do I need to start over from the beginning with ball, or just avoid TAP FPD (it was only going to be an interim carry load anyway.) and continue testing other carry loads, or was this malf more of a simple fluke,? as it looked magazine induced to me.