I prefer a FS gun as primary SD/CCW at all times. But, I felt it might be time to look into some of the sub compact offerings these days for those rare (for me) times a sub compact was best/only choice. My buddy has both the Shield 9mm and Ruger lc9s which he loaned to me.
I put 100rnds through each. Both performed without any drama. Recoil was notable but not punishing, and considering the weight and size, very reasonable. I found the Shield had slight less perceived recoil. Honestly, in a sub compact I don’t care all that much about trigger pull and sites. Both seemed good enough for gubment work to me for their intended use and costs. Ergos slightly better on the Shield for my hands, but neither could be rated as having “great ergo” which is also not surprising consider the size of a sub compact.
I could live with either but the deciding factor for me was the Shield based on the proven and vetted M&P design and Ruger never know for it’s quality pistols. I was actually surprised the lc9s was as well put together as it was considering past experiences with Ruger pistols.
I picked up a Shield yesterday and now need to get that checked out at the range. The Shield seems an excellent choice for appendix carry. Anyone doing that with the Shield? What holster being used?
Will,
I also got a Shield in the past few months and it’s been very reliable so far. I don’t appendix carry but ordered an Alien Gear Cloak 2.0 for IWB carry. Alien has a 4 week lead time and by then I’ll have shot enough rounds to trust the Shield. On another thread, I think it was Grant who suggested locking the slide open to help remove some of the stiffness in the spring and speed the break in process, so that’s how it sits in the safe right now. I’ll post some info on the holster when I receive it.
Eric
I Aiwb the shield on occasion where the fs just can’t be hidden. I use a raven vanguard with a qd Keychain attachment to make on/off fast. Been using it for a few years with many practice draws and hasn’t failed yet.
As for the shield, I love it. I can hide it with any clothing and can dump a mag in a fist sized group at 7 yds at a decent pace (in my opinion). I put 200 rds through it in 45 minutes first day out and probably have about 7-800 total now. No malf to date.
I’m testing 25yd accuracy next time out. Best I got was 9" offhand but I didn’t know what I was doing then. Even so, it’s a chest shot and it’s not made for those distances.
The Shield is what I carry mostly in the warmer weather period. My wife has the first generation LC9. I’ve shot both guns and the Shield definitely shoots like a bigger gun, the recoil is hardly noticeable. I’ve shot one full day of the Ken Hackathorn pistol class last April with the Shield as well as my friend John Harrison, the pistolsmith. Both of us were extremely impressed by our Shield’s performance. We had zero malfunction during many drills in the eight hour portion of the first day, we switched to full size guns after our little experiment. I am very confident in the Shield’s performance.
I’ve shot enough of my wife’s LC9 and so has he. The recoil of the Ruger is quite a lot more fierce than the Shield, but it’s controllable. We’ve had zero malfunction in the two years we’ve had it. The trigger on the original LC9 is very heavy, it is pretty hard to have a negligent or accidental discharge with it. I’ve only dry fired the second gen LC9s. The trigger is night and day lighter than our gun. I bet it is a lot easier to get good accuracy with it. I am thinking about selling our LC9 to get the newer 9s. The first gen is accurate but the shooter have to make a bigger effort to keep the sights on target. The LC9 is slightly thinner in the slide and grip than the Shield.
Between the two guns, due to the more comfortable recoil of the Shield, it would get my vote. The Ruger though could be had for $50 to $75 less than the Shield if you look hard enough. My wife picked the LC9 because it’s her car gun and she feels that if it gets stolen from her car, it would be a smaller loss ($300) than the M&P.
I carry the Shield in one of three holsters depending on the occasion. I have a kydex IWB holster from Chris Edwards that can be carried AIWB, he advertise them in the EE subforum here. I use a conventional leather IWB from Ritchie Leather and also an OWB I-BAK holster from Milt Sparks.
I’ll be picking up a Shield next week. And I have an INCOG sitting here waiting for it. I’ll be running it with one clip, and modding it, as seen in this vid… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHd0ce8ZHc
My wife has a Shield that I carry occasionally. I’ve tried AIWB but it doesn’t work for my…um…build. That said, I believe I still have a Jmcustomkydex.com AIWB for the Shield I’d be willing to part with. PM me if interested and I’ll dig through my box of holsters.
I am just shy of 2k rounds thru my Shield, which has been equal parts of blaser, steel, and brass. Not one single malfunction to date.
I carry in a IWB/AIWB from D&D Custom Leather, carries like a dream. I am actually looking to buy another one before the summer is over.
I got my AG Cloak Tuck 2.0 a few weeks a go and so far I’m impressed with it. It didn’t have any retention so I had to install the small rubber spacers and it is now good to go. Very comfortable.I ordered it with the J clips and found those to be crap. The J part of it is small and pushes my belt up. I use a smaller 1 1/4" leather belt so it doesn’t bother me but it did get uncomfortable when I tried to use it with my Wilderness Instructors belt. I just use the standard plastic clips now. I also have a Bianchi Professional IWB holster mostly just to hold the gun when I’m not wearing it but the few times I have carried it it has been comfortable. Haven’t carried the Sheild AIWB yet since I don’t have an appropriate holster for that. A good friend just got the LC9s Pro and I got to put 100rds through it. Nice gun, no malfs but I like the Sheild better, maybe I’m just used to it though. On a side note, the slide will not lock back on an empty mag on the Sheild when shooting strong hand only but it did lock back on the LC9
Another vote for the Shield, IMO it handles the 9mm better. I also am not a fan of the LC9’ trigger. I have prob close to 1000 rounds through my Shield 9mm without an issue. I have an INCOG for my G19 and was thinking about grabbing one for my Shield, that holster is amazing.
I carried a Centennial J-Frame as a back up and off duty gun for over 15 years. There are so many great options now. This is a great problem to have. Who remembers when a Detonics was a small gun!
I do and I am glad I have my 9mm Shield!
I carry a 9mm Shield in my right front pocket off duty and in my left front pocket on duty. It was my first 9mm carry gun. I shot the .40 and 9mm side by side and there was enough of a difference in follow up shots that I chose the 9mm. I carry it with the flush 7 round magazine and carry the 8 round mag as a spare with another in the arm rest of my vehicle. I am more accurate with he Shield at distance than the J-Frame or the G27 over 20 years combined. I feel like the Shield is a sweet spot for me. The Shield is a much thinner gun and more comfortable in my pocket. Carries enough rounds and my 12 year old shoots it well too. The .40 was fine with me but would have been unbearable for him. He is my shooting buddy!
I look forward to trying the Tuck when Brown delivers it. I’m pretty sure my Shield does slide lock after the last round strong hand only with either of the mags. If it doesn’t lock back I’ll report back in a few days.
Downsize further and get a P238. Same size hole, smaller package. Shot placement is key. No more polymer frame handguns for me.
I’m gonna turn on broken-record mode to state that Smith and Wesson, IMHO, has not produced a superior semi since the 59/69 series. It started with the “Me too!” (Glock) Sigma, and in my opinion hasn’t gotten any better. Shield loving haters gonna hate. Just speaking my mind.
We have seen to many of these pistols (P238) not run. Pass on them.
The Shield is one of the best pistols to come out in a long time. We sell a lot of them, use them personally and rarely seen any kind of issues with them.
My experiences with my P238s have been flawless (except for the one I bought with a sticky trigger). I don’t doubt that S&W makes a quality gun. I would buy a Shield over a Kel-Tec, Ruger, etc… any day. I trust my life on numerous occasions to a 638. Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I think that polymer framed handguns are NOT here to stay, and as the cost of superior material processing continues to plummet, they will eventually become a forgotten chapter in firearm history. The future are MMCs my friends.
Here’s a recent quote from Superman Costa:
“The past few handgun classes I’ve taught I’ve seen a quality issue with Smith an Wesson M&P handguns. This is the 3rd gun in 9mm I’ve seen shotgun the target at 7 yards. Barrels are breaking apart at the crown an numerous malfunctions. No mods were done to the weapons an all 3 were newer weapons with less than 500 through them, so keep a watchful eye.”
Ammo was a combination of Fed, CCI, and PMC.
EDIT: I realize that isn’t a quote about the Shield, but I felt it relevant enough to post since they’re in the same family.
I personally own three Shield’s. My first Shield was out of the initial batch of guns shipped when the Shield was announced at the 2012 NRA show. The second was purchased for the wife in late 2013. The last is one of the guns without the external safety.
All three guns function without issue. The triggers were workable as they came from the factory, unlike the full size M&P9’s of the same generation. I installed APEX hard earn in each gun though, just because I wanted to make a good thing better.
My agency has about 90-100 officers who have qualified on personally owned Shield 9mm’s as either a BUG or an off-duty gun. No issues noted by the range staff or the armors so far. These officers would go to one of the armors with issues first. Mainly because department armors are FREE. They maintain over 1,100 full size M&P9’s, so they are well trained with the system from the factory.
The Shield feels and shoots like a full size gun, that happens to be smaller.
I have only about 100 rds on a Ruger LC9s. it was “ok”, but not even close to the Shield in my opinion.
If you look at the fact that the 1911 design is typically not as reliable as say a Glock or M&P and then you miniturize it and change the caliber, you are kind of asking for a gun that won’t run over the long haul (or at all).
I am as well a fan of the old school S&W metal guns (own some). They are great. They are however heavy and most people are seriously into saving weight. If I see one more 280-350lbs fat guy tell me that he cannot hide a G19 or M&P compact, I am going to explode!
There is a long run of M&P’s with inaccurate barrels. I know this because I fit barrels to them so they shoot sub 1" groups at 25yds. With that said, S&W has been making several changes to their barrel over the last 6-8 months that has improved their accuracy. We also see inaccurate Glock’s that shoot 10 inches high at 25yds too. The shields have never exhibited any accuracy issues to our knowledge. Mine (with factory barrel) shoots 1.5" groups at 25yds.
Glad you added the adverb typically in there. Comparing Glocks to the gamut of 1911s out there in reliability terms just isn’t fair. With so many manufacturers, aftermarket parts, incompetent smiths, and ridiculously tight tolerances that rule the 1911 market today, you’ll never know what you’re going to end up with until you’ve put enough rounds dowrange to trust it. I don’t think that the 1911 is an inherently less reliable design - it’s just the fact that everyone and their mothers are making them or piecing them together from parts that may not totally be in-spec. I will agree that out of the box, a Glock is almost guaranteed to work flawlessly every time and that greatly helps its reputation of reliability. Not all 1911 makers are going to have the same level of quality control as the next.
A Glock and a high-end 1911 are like machetes to me. Both tools. The Glock is a Cold Steel - it will do the job and do it well but it feels cheap in my hands. A high-end 1911 is like a Bark River Golok - it will do the job, do it well, and feels great while you’re doing it.
Anyway, it’s a never-ending debate and I feel like I’m turning this into a 1911 vs Glock thread. It’s really all about the polymer to me. I’ve been on a serious anti-polymer frame handgun campaign since my best friend’s 1st Gen Glock 21’s trigger guard just snapped for no apparent reason during a shoot in the woods. I have my own stories, but I don’t feel like repeating them again. I have and use polymer framed handguns, but I consider them disposable tools - like a hardware store machete, they get the job done.
That said, I believe I still have a 
