I was about 1 week to the hour late to the party of picking up my M&P Shield last Friday. It was; however, worth the wait. This is the most comfortable handgun I have ever shot. First of all, for those who actually don't know me, I am a female with very small hands as you may possibly be able to see in the picture. I have personally owned: S&W SW40VE (sigma series), Kel-Tec PF9, Glock 26 and now the S&W M&P Shield.
I purchased the SW40VE as my first handgun without knowing the first thing about what I wanted/needed. I pretty much didn't like it from day one so on the hunt for other things. Picked up a Glock 26 and I liked the feel of it but I knew the grip was too big. I thought maybe I could work with it. To this day, I still will recommend a Glock. Am I a Glock fan-boi? Obviously not, but it's a good gun in my opinion. The third gun which was bought and fairly quickly sold again was the Kel-Tec PF9. HATED HATED HATED shooting it. There is no reason for a gun to hurt your hand as much as this one did. I could only put a few mags through it before I couldn't shoot it any more. It did fit my hand nicely though. It had the size going for it but the functionality of it was terrible for me.
Now here's a picture of my hand. Ignore the red spot (shaped like a gun grip) as I'll get into that later.
As you can see, there is about 3 inches for me from the back of the grip to the trigger. Looking at it now, I probably should have measured more from where the middle of the red spot was to the top of the finger, but it's still around 3 inches. There's about 3/4 inch left on the top of my index finger to work the trigger. So, I don't have a whole lot of reliable guns to work with. Revolvers may be an option but that's an entirely different thread.
On Friday after Scutter and I picked up my M&P Shield from Bradis, we drove up to Hamilton County Fish & Game. We took with us the M&P Shield and the M&P 9c for comparison. I've shot the 9c a few times and have enjoyed it for the most part but the grip was still too big, even with the small back on it. I know you've seen pictures and probably pictures of a comparison but I'm posting them anyway.
Here we have the Shield (on the right) and the 9c (on the left). As you can tell, the 9c is top heavy. I couldn't get it to lay down properly when trying to take a picture of it to compare the grips.
So here are a few more pictures to show the sizes. Those aren't my manly fingers in any of those shots, just so you know. The Shield is on the left and the 9c is on the right. Doesn't look like a huge difference, but for someone with such a small hand, it is.
The design of the two is different. A lot more than I expected as well.
Here's what the insides look like: The 9c is on top and the Shield is on the bottom. There are differences internally as well between the two. There is no lip for which the pin in the spring should sit. So it seems that a few people have bent that pin when they've taken it apart. I guess all I can say is just be extremely careful when you are putting it back in and make sure it is exactly where it needs to be. To take it apart requires you to pull the trigger. I'm not a huge fan of that.
This is just another image of the Shield
Here is the Shield in my hand.
I shot the 9c and Shield side by side. I personally couldn't really tell too much of a difference between the way the two shot. The trigger seemed a little more crunchy on the 9c. The shield was a lot nicer on my hand than the 9c. Below is a picture taken a few minutes after I was done shooting the 9c. I can not remember if that was after 1 magazine or 2. However, there is no reason my hand should be that red except that I must have felt that I needed to hold tight in order to make it feel secure in my hands because of the grip size. It's so square looking in my hand that you'd think I was holding a glock.
While I am no expert, I do hope that I can at least help someone with this little write up.
Are there any disappointments? Well, the only disappointment right now is that it came in a cardboard box. A hard case with a handle would have been better, but not for the $100 they probably would have charged for the plastic.
I think I may "girl it up" a little by having it duracoated some other color. Scutter added some color to my Glock in the lettering for me so I may just do that depending on cost of the duracoat.
I purchased the SW40VE as my first handgun without knowing the first thing about what I wanted/needed. I pretty much didn't like it from day one so on the hunt for other things. Picked up a Glock 26 and I liked the feel of it but I knew the grip was too big. I thought maybe I could work with it. To this day, I still will recommend a Glock. Am I a Glock fan-boi? Obviously not, but it's a good gun in my opinion. The third gun which was bought and fairly quickly sold again was the Kel-Tec PF9. HATED HATED HATED shooting it. There is no reason for a gun to hurt your hand as much as this one did. I could only put a few mags through it before I couldn't shoot it any more. It did fit my hand nicely though. It had the size going for it but the functionality of it was terrible for me.
Now here's a picture of my hand. Ignore the red spot (shaped like a gun grip) as I'll get into that later.
As you can see, there is about 3 inches for me from the back of the grip to the trigger. Looking at it now, I probably should have measured more from where the middle of the red spot was to the top of the finger, but it's still around 3 inches. There's about 3/4 inch left on the top of my index finger to work the trigger. So, I don't have a whole lot of reliable guns to work with. Revolvers may be an option but that's an entirely different thread.
On Friday after Scutter and I picked up my M&P Shield from Bradis, we drove up to Hamilton County Fish & Game. We took with us the M&P Shield and the M&P 9c for comparison. I've shot the 9c a few times and have enjoyed it for the most part but the grip was still too big, even with the small back on it. I know you've seen pictures and probably pictures of a comparison but I'm posting them anyway.
Here we have the Shield (on the right) and the 9c (on the left). As you can tell, the 9c is top heavy. I couldn't get it to lay down properly when trying to take a picture of it to compare the grips.
So here are a few more pictures to show the sizes. Those aren't my manly fingers in any of those shots, just so you know.
The Shield is on the left and the 9c is on the right. Doesn't look like a huge difference, but for someone with such a small hand, it is.
The design of the two is different. A lot more than I expected as well.
- No rail on the Shield
- There's a safety on the Shield
- The design of the grip is different (just cosmetic though)
- Back sights are a little different
Here's what the insides look like: The 9c is on top and the Shield is on the bottom. There are differences internally as well between the two. There is no lip for which the pin in the spring should sit. So it seems that a few people have bent that pin when they've taken it apart. I guess all I can say is just be extremely careful when you are putting it back in and make sure it is exactly where it needs to be. To take it apart requires you to pull the trigger. I'm not a huge fan of that.
This is just another image of the Shield
Here is the Shield in my hand.
I shot the 9c and Shield side by side. I personally couldn't really tell too much of a difference between the way the two shot. The trigger seemed a little more crunchy on the 9c. The shield was a lot nicer on my hand than the 9c. Below is a picture taken a few minutes after I was done shooting the 9c. I can not remember if that was after 1 magazine or 2. However, there is no reason my hand should be that red except that I must have felt that I needed to hold tight in order to make it feel secure in my hands because of the grip size. It's so square looking in my hand that you'd think I was holding a glock.
While I am no expert, I do hope that I can at least help someone with this little write up.
- Would I recommend this gun? ABSOLUTELY.
- How many rounds have I put through it? ~100
- Were there any problems shooting the ammo? No
- What ammo did I use? Blazer Brass and Sellier & Bellot
- What kind of a holster am I using? Do not have one yet for it but there are a lot of accessories already available for it
- Do I like the sights? The Shield is shipped with white dots but I will probably look into putting Big Dots on it. The sights are fine but if I can have better ones, I'll opt for them.
Are there any disappointments? Well, the only disappointment right now is that it came in a cardboard box. A hard case with a handle would have been better, but not for the $100 they probably would have charged for the plastic.
I think I may "girl it up" a little by having it duracoated some other color. Scutter added some color to my Glock in the lettering for me so I may just do that depending on cost of the duracoat.
