I got a Shield Plus a few weeks ago and was finally able to take it to the range this past weekend. I have to say I’m really impressed with it. The trigger, while not as good as my 1911, is still really good, especially for being striker-fired. It was also just as accurate as my 1911 from 5 to 15 yards. Groups were just as tight, which surprised me given its short barrel. It went through 250 rounds of various brands of 115 gr and 147 gr FMJ without a hitch. I only had a few rounds of JHP, though, so I didn’t really get a chance to test it out as much with that ammo, but the few rounds of JHP I fed it were no trouble at all. Recoil was perfectly manageable, not snappy at all for being a relatively small gun, too. The grip itself feels good in my hands. I wear a size Large in gloves, and the grip feels great with the 13-round mag. I found the 10-round mag to be a tad small for my hands, though, so I changed the baseplate for a Pearce grip extension and it fits much better. All in all, I really like my new Shield Plus so far.
Unlike most on here, I’m still relatively new to firearms. I don’t have any other handguns of a similar size to compare, such as a 365/365XL, Hellcat, G43, etc. The only other handguns I have are a G34, a 5” 1911 .45 ACP, and an older 3rd gen S&W 3913, which is probably the closest in size to the Shield Plus, but still bigger and heavier and with a DA/SA trigger. So nothing that’s really apples to apples for comparison purposes. I took them all to the range except the Glock 34. While I shot the Shield Plus and 1911 equally as accurately with similar group sizes, I was able to shoot it more accurately than the much wider groups from my 3913. But to be fair, the 3913 has a DA/SA trigger that I hadn’t shot in a long time. So again, it wasn’t an apple-to-apple comparison. While I didn’t shoot the Glock 34 side by side this time around, I’ve shot it enough times to know that its trigger just isn’t as good as the Shield Plus trigger in my subjective view.
There are a few minor things, though, that I didn’t like, but those issues certainly don’t outweigh the pluses for me. The first is the grip texture. It works great in my hands. It’s just that it scratches my bare skin too much for my liking when I try to wear it IWB. Someone else on here mentioned that a couple passes with some sandpaper helped with that. I may try doing that with some fine grit. If that doesn’t work, I may try a rubber-textured Talon grip sheet on the the grip-side that contacts my skin.
The second is that riding or touching the slide release with my left thumb while shooting keeps the slide from locking open after emptying the mag. Lowering my left thumb down a bit easily fixed the problem.
The third is that the slide release itself is hard to engage one-handed. I need two hands to manipulate it at the moment. Not sure if that’s a safety design feature or just tight a spring or tight tolerances that’ll loosen up with more rounds over time. And those are the only minor issues I encountered with it.
Aside from that, I do have some reliability concerns after reading of a few problems others have posted in this thread and in other forums. Not mentioned in this thread but in other forums is the problem a few have had with the little slide release spring coming out of its groove and causing the slide to jam. I’ve read this has happened on the Shield 2.0’s, too. Hopefully these issues are rare and far and few between, though.
Anyway, here’s a pic of mine alongside my 1911 and 3913 for a neat size comparison. The plan is to include my Shield Plus into my carry rotation. I’ve carried the 1911 and 3913, so carrying the smaller and lighter Shield Plus should be much easier and comfortable.
Attachment 80930
Originally Posted by psalms144.1
and 2. I shoot the G43 quite well considering it's size.
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