S&W Shield 45 ACP

[Lena]

Has anyone shot one?
Anything you can say about it?
Thanks

[C-dub]

Has anyone shot one?
Anything you can say about it?
Thanks

Sorry. My BIL has a new one that he bought about two weeks ago and even he hasn't fired it yet. I'd like to get him to the range so I can also try it out, but don't know when we'll be able to do that.

[Lena]

I got to handle a 45 and 9mm side by side could not try trigger as it was locked, maybe the 45 is 1/8" longer and mag well about the same that about it, weight very close, if it had been in 357 SIG I would own it. Doubt they will ever make it in that.

[TreyHouston]

Looks nice! Really nice! Inshot my dads shield 9mm yesterday at the range and i really liked it. Very accurate

[Teamless]

Bought mine last weekend and cleaned it today

Will get to PSC next weekend to shoot

It is about 1/4inch longer than the Shield 9 as well as the XDs .45.

I'm very curious to see if it is as snappy as the XDs .45.

Next weekend will do side by side with them

[carlson1]

I finally found one at a local shop. It feels good in my hand. I like the stippling. I am going to wait hoping they will come out with one without the thumb safety.

[rentz]

If it shoots anywhere near as softly as the 9mm version I'll pick one up .
The 9 is so soft shooting for a sub compact

[rotor]

I finally found one at a local shop. It feels good in my hand. I like the stippling. I am going to wait hoping they will come out with one without the thumb safety.

They have one SKU:11531

[carlson1]

I finally found one at a local shop. It feels good in my hand. I like the stippling. I am going to wait hoping they will come out with one without the thumb safety.

They have one SKU:11531

I will begin my search.

[C-dub]

MY BIL finally shot his today. He said he loves and the recoil wasn't that bad. He also shoots an M&P 9 Pro. I've asked him for a comparison between the M&P, Shield, my Glock 21SF, and my Glock 30SF. I haven't heard back yet. We can pretty well guess the shield won't be as easy to shoot as the two full size handguns, but a closer comparison is between the Shield and the 30SF. I'll let you know when he responds to my inquiry.

[rentz]

MY BIL finally shot his today. He said he loves and the recoil wasn't that bad. He also shoots an M&P 9 Pro. I've asked him for a comparison between the M&P, Shield, my Glock 21SF, and my Glock 30SF. I haven't heard back yet. We can pretty well guess the shield won't be as easy to shoot as the two full size handguns, but a closer comparison is between the Shield and the 30SF. I'll let you know when he responds to my inquiry.

Really interested in comparison to 30sf , have a gssf voucher burning a hole in my pocket and have tossed around buying the 30

[C-dub]

MY BIL finally shot his today. He said he loves and the recoil wasn't that bad. He also shoots an M&P 9 Pro. I've asked him for a comparison between the M&P, Shield, my Glock 21SF, and my Glock 30SF. I haven't heard back yet. We can pretty well guess the shield won't be as easy to shoot as the two full size handguns, but a closer comparison is between the Shield and the 30SF. I'll let you know when he responds to my inquiry.

Really interested in comparison to 30sf , have a gssf voucher burning a hole in my pocket and have tossed around buying the 30

We're going to try and get together this Friday. If we do, we'll both compare both handguns and I'll let ya'll know.

[C-dub]

I just returned from Eagle Gun Range in Lewisville. My BIL brought his Shield and I brought my 30SF. He shot 5 rounds with the Shield and then 5 rounds with the 30SF. Then I did the same. All 20 of our combined shots were at 5 yards.

His first 5 rounds with the Shield were a little low and left, but only by an inch or so and one round was touching the bulls eye. The next 5 rounds with the 30SF were a mess. I told him I was going to tease about this a bit. I told him that he must have been intimidated by the AWESOME power and deadliness of the Glock and over-anticipated the recoil. The 5th shot either touched the bulls eye or came very close. The first shot missed the paper and the next two were on opposite sides of the 8" target.

To be fair, I have fired hundreds more rounds than my BIL has in just this year alone and thousands in the last 4-5 years. However, I'm not expert and still only classified as a Marksman for IDPA. Or was it Sharpshooter? I don't remember now, but it's not very high. Anyway, my 5 rounds with the Shield and the 30SF were nearly the same with all rounds in or toughing the bulls eye except for one round with the Shield and it was touching one of the other holes, but outside the bull. All the Shield rounds were on the left side of the bull and the 30SF were on the right side and both were about equal in elevation. So, for me, both handguns shot about the same with very little difference in accuracy.

The grip is obviously different between the two handguns. The 30SF is a double stack and wider, while the Shield is a single stack and much narrower. Front to back length seems very close. The stippling on the Shield is rough. Not as rough as the Gen4 Glocks, but still rough. This does afford a good non-slip grip. However, it is also on the back strap and after about 20 rounds I began to notice my groups getting a little looser. I think this was due to my anticipation of that rough back strap digging into that soft skin between my thumb and index finger.

The trigger pull is lighter on the Shield in both the uptake and the break. I don't know how much, but we both felt the difference. That is one of the reasons why my BIL thinks he was so wild with the 30SF in addition to the overall width difference. He thinks the length of the pull on the take up is longer on the 30SF, but I'm not so sure. It might be and if it is it is not by much. Now, I don't remember much about the break for either, but I don't think there's an issue with either and they didn't seem to affect my shooting. He didn't mention anything about the break being different either except that the Shield seemed lighter. It might be around 4.5-5 pounds versus the 30SF, which I think is closer to 7.

Over all, I like the Shield .45 and told my BIL that if it were my gun I might try smoothing out that upper area of the back strap so it wouldn't be so rough. Not too much, but just a little. So, my only other complaint would be the Shield's capacity. IIRC, it is limited to 7+1 where the 30SF is 10+1, but the bigger advantage to the 30SF in this area is that it can also accept the full size mags that hold 13 rounds.

The biggest advantage the Shield is going to have is its concealability due to its thinner frame. We attributed any perceived difference in recoil to the Shields lighter weight. The difference wasn't much if at all.

That's all I have FWIW and YMMV.

[Teamless]

Today my BIL and I went to the range to try out my new Shield .45.

We compared several guns at the same time

Shield .45
Shield 9mm
XDs .45 (3.3 inch)
XDs 9mm (4 inch)
M&P 9mm full size
M&P .45 full size
Springfield XDm 9mm
Walther CCP
Taurus PT1911 .45

We didn't do anything scientific, we both took 5 shots at a target which was about 3-4 inch diameter from each gun and from about 5 yards.
We did the 5 shots in about 4 seconds, so we wanted to see the ease of reacquiring the target

Neither of us are marksmen, but we can shoot fairly well.

We were considering:
Trigger pull (feel)
Accuracy
Grouping

We both felt try Shield 9mm has the best trigger

For accuracy as well as grouping
The CCP was the gun for me
The M&P 9 full size was the gun for him

Considering the .45 vs 9 in the Shield platform
The 9 was obviously a bit less recoil but the recoil of the .45 was not an issue at all

Considering the Shield .45 vs XDs .45:
The XDs has more of a square grip, while the Shield is rounded on the edges, which gives the impression of a smaller grip

The stippling on the Shield is much softer than the XDs as well
For me, after shooting a magazine with the XDs, my strong hand is sore (I feel the XDs stippling is more made for use with gloves
With the Shield, no issue at all with the stippling

All in all, my opinion is of you want a compact .45, and are considering the XDs or Shield, the Shield wins hands down

After shooting all of the guns and looking at accuracy and grouping, of all 45 rounds each, all but 3 were in the target circle