S&W M&P 380 Shield EZ

knastera · Apr 17, 2018

Has anyone applied to get this on the Handgun Roster? I'd like to get one for my wife because she has a very hard time racking slides.

P.S. I know about the recall on the models with the thumb safety. I'm not interested in that model.

P.P.S. Please don't school me on your favorite racking trick. I'm a handgun instructor and I've tried them all with her. She just has a very weak non-firing hand.

Baccusboy · Apr 27, 2018

This gun is a going to be a BIG win for S&W. Yep -- as mentioned, if you get the model with the external safety (in addition to the grip safety), it is terribly easy to bump and engage during recoil. Happened to Sootch. Happened to Mr.Gunsngear. They both commented on it. Even though they are on their way back, people are scratching their heads as to what was done to mitigate the issue.

Great gun, though.

Can't wait to hear what more people say about them! My wife had expressed interest in getting a gun, once we move back. This will be at the top of the list I will have her try. I'm stoked about it, and they'll get the bugs out before we can buy, anyway.

Between this and the Sig P365, I'm seeing some really neat new guns on the market!

knastera · Apr 27, 2018

Hickok45 did a very favorable piece on the P365. What really got his attention was the way the P365 maximized the use of space. Its magazine design allows the gun to have a much smaller profile than other guns with the same capacity.

Stoveman · Apr 27, 2018

Is it just me or does this look larger than a regular shield?

Baccusboy · Apr 28, 2018

Stoveman said:
Is it just me or does this look larger than a regular shield?

I think it could be the grip. The goal was to create a gun in at least a semi-reasonable defense caliber (.380) that is for female and less experienced shooters, with low recoil. They wanted it to have enough weight, to mitigate the kick that a "small gun" like a .380 still has. Also easy to rack. Easy to get/keep ahold of. Easy to shoot. Safe to carry in a purse, because of the grip safety.

Just don't buy it with the external safety on top, and you're gold.

Occam · Mar 7, 2019

My wife just took delivery of the 380 EZ and had it out for its maiden range voyage this afternoon. She's very happy with it. She doesn't carry (yet) so the fact it's a wee bit longer/taller than something like a G43 doesn't bother her. Its size and longer sight picture are good things, she feels - it's a total creampuff to shoot. She's very pleased with the "easy" in the EZ. Easy to rack, easy on the recoil, easy mags to load, easy take-down to clean. She's a fan for sure, and made some nice tight groups today on its first time out.

Her ONLY challenge, which she's working on: with her fairly small hands, she's having to fight a bit (as she does with many semi-autos) to thumb up the slide lock when she wants it locked back without an empty mag in place to do the work, and without shifting her grip. But because the slide isn't fighting back nearly as hard as on so many other compact guns, it's already a huge improvement for her. All in all, a very positive report - it's a gun that will have her shooting more often, and developing more of the skills/muscles to make other pistols less fussy for her. Next time out, we'll be putting a variety of spicy SD rounds through it to see if it likes some more than others in terms of how it will stay loaded when we're not punching paper. Today, it ate every FMJ cartridge we tried.

Oh: for those that ask ... the grip safety only tripped her up once, and she immediately understood what was happening. She said she knew her grip was really sloppy on that one trigger pull, and could feel it as it happened. Otherwise, her normal non-GI-Joe-Kung-Fu grip engaged that mechanism just fine every time. I also put half a box through it, and the grip safety was essentially invisible.

This was her first box of ammo through it, at ~7 yards and a relatively casual shooting style.

Occam · May 26, 2019

Follow-up: after probably 300 rounds, my wife started getting some last-round stovepiping, and then the occasional ejecting of the last hot round from the mag. Well THAT sucked. Did some homework, and came across multiple reports of this in S&W forums.

Turns out that in their attempt to keep the mags super-easy to load, the springs were right on the hairy edge off too soft. And got softer. Just not quite enough tension on that last round to keep it reliably in place during recoil.

I brought this up with our LGS, who brought it up with S&W’s rep. He didn’t fess up to a broader problem but immediately offered to replace all four of her mags. He got new ones into the store in just a couple of days.

While at the counter, we could tell, side-by-side, that the replacements clearly had stiffer springs. Back to the range, and the problem appears to have been completely resolved. So good on our shop and on S&W for getting it worked out immediately and without friction.

Wife still loves the pistol!

Occam · Jun 5, 2019

Another follow-up on this pistol.

The replacement mags from S&W continue to function without any of the stovepiping or last-live-round-ejecting that was present with the earlier mags and their slightly too wimpy springs. So, that's great. That problem is gone.

A curiosity we're trying to get to the bottom of, now: well into a 100-round-or-so stint punching paper, my wife is experiencing some premature slide lock-back. Seems to happen (very infrequently) when she's down to just one round left in the mag. This has happened with at least three different mags, and I've deliberately taken over with those same mags, loading three or four rounds each, and am unable to reproduce the problem. Hand the gun back to her with the same mags, loaded the same way, and once or twice, there's the problem again.

This was NOT happening during the same session when she first started shooting, so my mind goes to whether or not it's a bit of a limp wrist or bent elbow thing after 50 or 70 fairly uninterrupted rounds in a row. Could be a little fatigue setting in and something about her grip or stance is giving in just a bit, and resulting in that behavior. I can't reproduce it, but nor have I tried deliberately using a soft grip or letting my arm flex too much. We'll be trying it again in the next few days, and looking for a pattern. But in case anyone else has some theories, I'm all ears!

Slim · Jun 7, 2019

Baccusboy said:
The goal was to create a gun in at least a semi-reasonable defense caliber (.380) that is for female and less experienced shooters, with low recoil. They wanted it to have enough weight, to mitigate the kick that a "small gun" like a .380 still has. Also easy to rack. Easy to get/keep ahold of. Easy to shoot. Safe to carry in a purse, because of the grip safety.

I’m not a huge S&W M&P autopistol fan, (I own their revolvers, a shotgun, and 15-22s) but I’d love to see those concepts applied to 9mm.

Not tremendously more recoil, better ammo selections, and those pluses above. S&W are you listening?

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