The Smith and Wesson M&P shield has been around for around six years now, and has since release been an extremely popular concealed carry choice across the nation, but with the Glock 43 being widely available to the majority of the rest of the country the M&P has stiff competition among the CCW market for those searching for a striker-fired, polymer framed, single stack handgun. However, for those of us limited in options in our restricted state we have significantly less to work with within the “on roster” market. When originally searching for a carry gun I went through several options: Springfield XD, Bersa Firestorm, Glock 26, and even the Glock 19 until I ultimately really got to handle the Shield.
I was immediately drawn by the thin comfortable frame, solid weight and smooth, crisp, very limited uptake trigger-pull, a clean break and decent reset, all features one would find desirable for any firearm, however lets dig deeper into the perks the Shield offers to the California concealed carry market.
The Shield has near flush features all being hardly noticeable and wont get caught on clothing if a situation were to arise where you may need to pull it from concealment quickly, the 2 part hinged trigger serves as a nice touch in my opinion, an extra, albeit small safety precaution.
The Shield is also very thin, the slide being the thickest part is still thinner than the diameter of a quarter, and the magazine fitting flush and comfortably with a full four finger grip quite easy and comfortable for a medium sized hand, while on this picture, the loaded chamber indicator is a common complaint among a lot of Californian handgun owners, though I would agree its an unnecessary feature, I haven’t experienced any issues with it with well over 1000 rounds through the gun.
The shield does have a few quirks that I have experienced, although I’ve never had any issues with aluminum or brass cased ammunition, It has proved picky about some steel cased ammo, interestingly enough only failure to extract conditions. Cases have gotten stuck in the chamber several times with some steel case ammunition which I would have to drive out with a pen from the hot side of the barrel, I would say its possible that this is isolated to my Shield specifically, However I have seen this happen to two other shields personally, to me that that point it’s more of a pattern than anything else.
lets discuss the disassembly, by far my least favorite feature of the Shield.
the picture above illustrates a small bare metal rod in the center of the mag-well, this rod needs to be pressed up flat against the mag-well for the slide to be released, so I personally put in an empty magazine until it almost clicks into place, this depresses the “take-down rod” which then allows you to go about the disassembly the way you normally would. Its a small Inconvenience, but to me personally an incredibly annoying one.
All in all, I would highly recommend the Shield, I have enjoyed both plinking and carrying it for about a year now, its comfortable to carry and comfortable to shoot, for most anyone of any size, if you can overcome the minor quirks, I would personally recommend the Shield over any other Concealed Carry option in California.