M&P Shield 9mm

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Fired my Shield 9mm today for the 1st time. I was pleasantly surprised! Shot a few mags of ammo at 25 feet and got a nice tight group. way better than my 40. The recoil on the 40 is so bad I can barely hit paper at 25 feet. I have been hearing the 45 is the best shooting of the 3 so I may have to piss the wife off!!!
Oh by the way. The .40sw mags fit and feed fine in the 9mm. No issues at all. I'm wondering if they might be the same mag?
 
I have the .45 Shield and It's a very good shooter. If you ever shoot at Harvard, you're welcome to try it out. I'm there at least a couple of times a week.
 
I really like the Shield 9mm. Very controllable gun and was a nice intro to shooting for me. My only wish was for the backstrap to be a little flatter. The curve of it is a little narrow and bites into my palm after a couple boxes of rounds. I was actually thinking about possibly DIY modifying the grip and stippling it.
 
I really like the Shield 9mm. Very controllable gun and was a nice intro to shooting for me. My only wish was for the backstrap to be a little flatter. The curve of it is a little narrow and bites into my palm after a couple boxes of rounds. I was actually thinking about possibly DIY modifying the grip and stippling it.

I had the same issue with the grip and put a Hogue Beavertail grip sleeve on it and it filled my palm perfectly...

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I paid $8.50 with free shipping on Ebay (wasn't amazon)
 
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Also self-installed the APEX Duty/Carry Kit for M&P Shield9 and took the trigger pull from a gritty 11 #s to a very smooth 5 #s in under 45 minutes.
Hardest part was rear sight removal. Not horrible but took some convincing... [wink]

(NOTE: I chose not to replace the trigger return spring because it is of a higher pull weight. Better leaving O.E.M. spring)

100-076-shield-duty-carry-kit.jpg
 
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Also self-installed the APEX Duty/Carry Kit for M&P Shield9 and took the trigger pull from a gritty 11 #s to a very smooth 5 #s in under 45 minutes.
Hardest part was rear sight removal. Not horrible but took some convincing... [wink]

100-076-shield-duty-carry-kit.jpg

Yeah, I did the Apex with the duty action kit...and totally f***ed up my slide :( Thought I had the tiny screw out of the rear sight and started pressing it. Only after I pushed it all the way through, I realized that the screw was sticking out a fraction of a mm. Just enough to take a nice bite out of the slide metal. Now have a divot in the slide by the rear site shoe.
 
That sucks. I removed the set screw completely and sprayed PB Blaster in that hole and let it sit for about 1/2 an hour.
The good thing is your damage is cosmetic and will not effect its performance.
~Matt

Did you drive it out from left to right also?
 
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That sucks. I removed the set screw completely and sprayed PB Blaster in that hole and let it sit for about 1/2 an hour.
The good thing is your damage is cosmetic and will not effect its performance.
~Matt

Did you drive it out from left to right also?

Drove it out to the right (if looking down the sights). Totally cosmetic, but drives me nuts looking at it because it's a constant reminder of my stupidity and impatient nature.

Will look into those grips. Thanks.
 
de nada.

impatient nature.

The grip sleeve is excellent but it is a bear to put on. I brought a small sauce pan of water to a boil then shut off. Once the bubbles stopped appearing I dropped the grip sleeve in and proceeded to spray a liberal amount of windex on the grip area of the pistol. At this point I poured off the water and grabbed the grip (which was surprisingly cool, but about 20% more flexible) then stretched it open a little (about 10%) and then slid it onto the grip while working it forwards and backwards and pulling it up into position. Without the windex and heat it would have been brutal. On the good side it does not move or slip around...ever.

~Matt

Here's a better pix of the fit:
(Pistol shown: Shield40, sleeve fits both 9 and 40)

866031.jpg
 
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I love the grip tape on mine. The rubber hogue sleeve made it too fat for me.

I handled a Shield9 with the Talon Grip tape and it was "grippier" but did not increase the palm area like the Hogue did.
It is good that there are options out there for different mitts. Because the M&P Shield platform has been so widely accepted, this means great accessories are bound to come down the pike for years to come...
 
Fired my Shield 9mm today for the 1st time. I was pleasantly surprised! Shot a few mags of ammo at 25 feet and got a nice tight group. way better than my 40. The recoil on the 40 is so bad I can barely hit paper at 25 feet. I have been hearing the 45 is the best shooting of the 3 so I may have to piss the wife off!!!
Oh by the way. The .40sw mags fit and feed fine in the 9mm. No issues at all. I'm wondering if they might be the same mag?

Friends don't let Friends buy .40's ;)
Most 40's suck they take a pistol designed for 9mm and chamber it in .40
If 9mm is not enough for you, buy a .45
.45's shoot better and hold their value much better than .40's
 
de nada.



The grip sleeve is excellent but it is a bear to put on. I brought a small sauce pan of water to a boil then shut off. Once the bubbles stopped appearing I dropped the grip sleeve in and proceeded to spray a liberal amount of windex on the grip area of the pistol. At this point I poured off the water and grabbed the grip (which was surprisingly cool, but about 20% more flexible) then stretched it open a little (about 10%) and then slid it onto the grip while working it forwards and backwards and pulling it up into position. Without the windex and heat it would have been brutal. On the good side it does not move or slip around...ever.

~Matt

Here's a better pix of the fit:
(Pistol shown: Shield40, sleeve fits both 9 and 40)

866031.jpg

"OR" you could just buy Talon Grips.

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"OR" you could just buy Talon Grips.

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I handled a Shield9 with the Talon Grip tape and it was "grippier" but did not increase the palm area like the Hogue did.
The Talons aren't "thick" enough for me. I'd have to put 6 layers of Talons on to equal the girth that I get from the Hogue Beavertail.
It is not about making the gun less "slippery" it is about making that tiny single-stack mag well fit my meaty hand...
 
I'm with enbloc. Love, love, love the Hogue grip on my edc.
Same... that wider grip makes the Shield so much more comfortable and easy to hold. I have long fingers and when I wrapped it would put the tips of the fingers on my dominant hand so far back. Now with the Hogue my support hand sits perfectly with my dominant hand.
 
I have large and thick hands. I guess that's why I'm sometimes called sausage fingers. The .45 Shield fits my hand fine. Maybe the very small increase in size from the 9/40 makes a difference. I don't know.
 
I've installed dozens of the Apex Tactical Carry/Duty kits, with and without the Aluminum triggers and this is the first time I ran into an issue and wanted to post it here for reference.
(There are a few accounts of similar issues on the internet, and further research should be done if you run into this IMPORTANT SAFETY ISSUE)

The Issue: Dead Trigger with zero over-travel. (sear block would not release striker because it was not moving enough due to trigger bar loop gap)

The Cause: Needed to adjust the trigger bar loop gap higher to advance sear block release timing.( In doing so, it created a slight over-travel and now the trigger release and reset are excellent.)

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Not my photo, but the loop gap (C) increases/decreases the ramp angle which effects both timing and duration of the sear block engagement of the striker assy.
I found that by increasing the loop gap, It provided slight trigger over-travel and also effected trigger reset timing.
(The firearm that I installed this kit in had a beginning loop gap of 0.005" and was 0.035" when I finished.)

NOTE: Make very small adjustments until correct gap is achieved. Safety test thoroughly because excessive loop gap can cause issues on M&P Shields that have thumb-safeties...

~Enbloc

Here is a metza-metza video that shows the process.
 
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