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Smith & Wesson launched the single-stack M&P (military & police) semi-automatic gun. This shield is one of the popular single-stack pistols for concealed carry! The gun has a proven design for the popular 9 shields and .45 class shield in the market. When planning to buy this type of brand, consider the following pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Reliable: The shield gun is more reliable and has no single malfunction for an approximation of 500 rounds of PMC bronze.
2. Slim: The M&P shield has a slim single-stack configuration with a slide conceal and can easily grip. It is great for individuals with smaller hands and also good for larger hands.
3. Smooth release: You can easily operate the shield with a lefty 8 round mags. It provides a great surface area to grip.
4. Cost-effective: The gun is reasonably priced and it offers excellent value for money spent.
5. Concealable: It is one of the popular guns in the market and you can carry it around daily. The gun is highly concealable and you can easily hold on to it while firing.
6. Accessories: Due to its popularity, the accessories are readily available. Spare parts like magazines, holsters, triggers, and other accessories are not a problem to buy.
7. Grip texture: The grip texture is quite good and helps you to maintain a firm grip when firing several strings of rounds. It has a natural grip angle making it more comfortable on the hands. It helps to reduce muscle tension when holding with hands.
8. Customizable: M&P pistol design has enhanced ergonomic features that make it look great and can perfectly fit in your hands. It is designed to enable you to customize the trigger for a right-hand shooter or reinstall it for a left-handed shooter.
9. Semi-automatic: The shield is a striker-fired semi-automatic pistol that prevents discharging of the firearm unless if the trigger is depressed. The pivot-style safety feature prevents the gun from being fired.
10. Shootability: M&P pistol has a low slide profile with a barrel axis close to your shooting hand. This makes it more comfortable when shooting and reduces muzzle rise allowing you easily aim in case of the rapid shooting sequence.
Cons:
1. Safety mechanism: The trigger of the M&P gun fails to activate the safety mechanisms. The .45 shield may come without a thumb safety.
2. Trigger pull: M&P trigger feels mushy when shooting. The trigger does not reset if you release it halfway. It only clicks but it cannot reset.
3. Heavy trigger: M&P trigger is much heavier for a striker handgun even heavy compared to guns of the same class. The Shield’s trigger is good but it is not as good as the Glock gun.
4. Stiff recoil springs: The stiff recoil spring makes it difficult to rack the slide to the chamber when loading the gun.
5. Mediocre trigger: This is another problem associated with this type of gun making it low quality compared to Glock.
6. Too narrow: The gun has too narrow front sight leaving a lot of spaces on the sides of the gun. This affects the accuracy of the gun since it leaves some room for an alignment error.
7. Maintenance: If you’re not careful, you will cause an accident when cleaning this gun. You need to pull the trigger when disassembling the gun to clean leading to accidents in case of any negligence.
8. Reloading the gun: If you hit the bottom of the magazine hard while loading it, it can automatically cycle around in the chamber.
Good article. I carried a CC’d a 9MM S&W 469 for years. It has a lot of holster wear & looks like it did a couple tours in Afghanistan. Mechanically, it still functions like a Swiss watch. As the years went by, I gained weight. I started looking for a slimmer 9MM. I found the S&W M&P Shield. I loved it the instant I held it in my hand. The price point was very good. It came with a 7 round magazine and an extended 8 round magazine. I purchased an extra pair of 7 & 8 round magazines when I purchased the Shield. I’ve never found the Shield’s trigger problematic for me. The Shield does not have the magazine disconnect like the 469 has. Since the Shield is striker fired, I opted for the external safety. After shooting & CCing the Shield for 4 years now, I offer a couple of pros & cons of my own:
Pros:
Very affordable. Good sights. Lots of accessories. Wide selection of holster types. Very accurate & comfortable to shoot. Very reliable and handles standard pressure ammunition well. (I do experience “failure to feed” occasionally with the cheap steel cased ammo.) The Shield is easy to take down for cleaning & maintenance. The gun is very thin so it’s much more comfortable for appendix carry than the 469.
Cons:
The grip texture leaves something to be desired.
The heavy recoil spring DOES make the slide somewhat difficult to manipulate.
The magazine springs make loading the 7th & 8th rounds difficult. (Buy an Uplula magazine loader to avoid sore thumbs.)
The heavy recoil spring makes the slide release button hard to depress to release the slide after reloading.
I’ve never had an issue with the Shield’s trigger. It’s consistent, and I’ve adapted to the Shield’s trigger/fire system. If anyone has to pull their gun & fire it in a life-or-death defensive situation, I can promise this: They’re not going to give a rat’s a** about heavy/light trigger pull, trigger creep, aftermarket springs, barrel porting, and all this SRT crap; so just toss all the “tacti-cool” jargon out the window. Adapt to your gun; not the other way around. All that’s going to matter, if that moment comes, is the gun functioning like it should, you’re using premium, defensive ammunition, and you can put your first/second/third/etc., rounds into the target quickly and accurately. The Shield will do its part very well, provided you have the training, skill, and mindset to do yours.
Thank you for such a good comment