S&W Shield 45ACP With 3 1/2" Barrel

[razor]

Anybody have one? If so, what do you think about it? I just layed one away.It felt good in my hand. Not selling my glock 36 yet.lol

[paulg]

Friend of mine owns a small gun shop here. He has sold a butt load of the 9's and 40's. He said the first four .45's he sold had to go back to Smith for one reason or another. If I remember right a couple locked open and wouldn't budge. I don't know any more than that.

[AxeHandle]

They look and feel good... Not throwing out my G36s. I am very comfortable taking every bit and piece out of the Glock. Not so the S&W.

[nicholst55]

I sold my Glock 36 after I bought an S&W M&P 45C. It holds more rounds and is almost identical in size. In fact, it's double-stack mags drop right into the G36 mag well. The S&W is just slightly wider than the G36, but not by much. I haven't had a chance to handle or shoot a Shield 45 yet - and won't for a quite a while, since I'm currently overseas. Disassembling the S&W's slide is almost identical to a Glock. The lower half isn't all that bad, once you either realize that you'll need a slave pin to reinstall the trigger and spring or someone tells you.

The ergonomics of the S&W are vastly preferable to the Glock, at least to me. I plan to look into a Shield once I return to the States.

[AxeHandle]

Interesting... I'd have never thought a M&P 45C magazine would fit in the well of a G36... But then I've learned never say never. Pulled out a G36 mag and looked at it and it does look pretty fat. I'll compare them some day.

[jdoc]

Purchased a S&W 45 Shield as soon as they became available. It has replaced my Glock 30S as a carry gun. This 45 Shield has a better trigger and accuracy than the 30S and the Glock even has an after market trigger and barrel. Only drawback in my opinion. The Shield requires you carry a spare magazine.

[Wasp]

Feb 21, 2017 12:34:03 GMT -5 jdoc said:

Purchased a S&W 45 Shield as soon as they became available. It has replaced my Glock 30S as a carry gun. This 45 Shield has a better trigger and accuracy than the 30S and the Glock even has an after market trigger and barrel. Only drawback in my opinion. The Shield requires you carry a spare magazine.

That's saying something right there from the videos I've seen.

I have talked to a few people that are big Glock fans and not crazy about Smiths in general that sold their Glock 45's and now carry a Shield 45 and have only good things to say.

One guy had the magazine spring turn sideways at the top and couldn't get mag fully loaded. I can't remember but I think he replaced it with Wolf or Mag Guts or maybe Smith sent him a new one. Anyway he fixed it and not had a problem since. He's had one since they hit the shelves

[Quick Draw McGraw]

I'm really curious about this gun. Confessedly, it would have to be one impressive firearm to replace my Glock 30S. I am very big fan of the Glock 30 and it's variants.

[DiamondD]

A friend of mine just bought one. Nice trigger and very accurate for what it is. He has three magazines, two of them were very hard to get the seventh round into and the third we couldn't get more than six in. I kind of like it. I don't have a G30 but do have a G29SF and think I'll stick with it.

[razor]

I changed my lay away to a new glock 19. LOL

[nicholst55]

Mar 21, 2017 18:25:02 GMT -5 razor said:

I changed my lay away to a new glock 19. LOL

I just can't get over the ergonomic differences between the two platforms.  The Glocks handle like a 2X4 IMO, and I have to stretch to reach all of the controls - even with my big meathooks. The S&W has the controls right where they belong, at least for me.  I wasn't wild about the lip S&W puts around the mag release on the 45C, but a few seconds with a file or Dremel will cure that.

I dunno, maybe I carried and shot 1911s for too many years, but they still seem to be perfectly laid out to me.

[nicholst55]

Feb 21, 2017 8:00:48 GMT -5 AxeHandle said:

Interesting... I'd have never thought a M&P 45C magazine would fit in the well of a G36... But then I've learned never say never. Pulled out a G36 mag and looked at it and it does look pretty fat. I'll compare them some day.

It surprised me, too. The S&W mag was pretty tight in the Glock mag well, but it went right in.

[awp101]

Interesting thread, the other day I compared a G43, Shield 9 and Shield .45 side by side at my local place.

The G43 trigger felt better, probably because I've owned more Glocks than plastic Smiths but the Shield 9 fit me just a little bit better. The 43 is almost $100 more than the Shield 9 which puts me into Shield .45 money and that creates a whole new set of decisions...

[jdoc]

I carried a 1911 full size for some time. I replaced the 1911 with a Glock 21 and not long after to a Glock 30S. I thought I had concluded my search for my ideal carry gun. Not so, when S&W brought out the Shield 45 I switched and haven't looked back. My only negative is now I carry an extra mag for the Shield. Which I rarely did with the 30S. I might add the 45 Shield mags are a little tough to charge but so were my Glocks when new.

[dougader]

I'll be interested to see where this goes, too. So far, none of the small 45's fit me well. The G36 was especially bad. I bought a G30 for awhile and finally sold it as it just didn't feel right in my hands. If I see the Smith and XD's in town I'll heft them up and see what's what.

For now, the G19/23 fits my hand the best. I also have a G26 and the little G43, which is a great little pocket 9 in the DeSantis Superfly. I use it without the extra piece that is attached with velcro.