With 9mm starting to show back up on shelves in my local area, I figured it would be a good time to give my opinion of my own M&P Shield Plus. This pistol was an impulse purchase to upgrade my situation and get a pistol I knew I could trust that was on par with the Sig P365 and the Hellcat. Though Smith & Wesson did not market this pistol in advance, I had to have it. I couldn’t stand having a single stack Shield as my smallest carry, and was looking into getting a Hellcat. The only thing that held me back was that it would be a whole new system I would have to trust and get used to. The Shield Plus is the first pistol on the market toeffectively convert a once single stack pistol into a double stack, and with minimal changes.
CAPACITY & GRIP SIZE
The capacity of the Shield Plus is 10+1 with the flush magazine and 13+1 with the extended magazine. The Shield Plus and the Shield 2.0 are the EXACT same height with both magazines inserted. The Plus magazines are different though in the sense that they are slightly fatter, and so is the grip. The extended magazine of the Shield Plus has the spacer sleeve completely integrated into the magazine baseplate. Gone are the days of the sleeve slipping down and potentially botching reloads. I know that I used to just toss the spacers.
A terrific addition to the magazines is that they are not only colored black, but they also have bright orange followers so you can quickly recognize an empty mag.
The grip/frame of the Shield Plus is dimensionally, according to the specification sheet, only .15" wider than the single stack Shields. This sounds like a tiny amount, but you can feel it some, kind of like how you can feel the difference between the 9mm and 45 Shield models. It may not be much of a difference but it is there.
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ERGONOMICS
The feel of the pistol is very similar to the Shield 2.0 but with a slightly fatter grip. Just for perspective, the 2.0 felt like it was karate chopping into the webbing of my hand when I gripped hard. The Shield Plus doesn't have that feeling. It fills in my hand perfectly and there are no pressure spots, which gives the pistol a "Just Right" Goldilocks feeling. I have always been able to get my pinky on the flush magazine, and the Shield Plus is no different. Reaching the magazine release is the same old deal, but with the addition of the release have the same texture as the grip. This is an upgrade I almost missed but I greatly appreciate since I have had issues in the past of slipping off the release while pressing it, and botching my reload time.
FLAT TRIGGER?
I get that the flat triggers a really in vogue right now, but I am not too pleased about this change. I actually worked really well with the standard trigger. I do not actually notice that this new design helps the weight of the trigger at all. But I have had issues with the little flap being picky on how I pull the trigger. I tried to put is the old style trigger and it would not fit in. This was disappointing for me, but not something I cannot get over. You win some, you lose some. This is a constant fact with firearms.
HANDLING
Getting to know the ins and outs of a new firearm takes time and focus. It is not as easy as just breaking it in at the range, at least for myself. I feel obligated to practice often with the weapon and get good at reloads, drawing in various positions and while moving. Range time comes after I have proven to myself that I have gotten my skills down through dry fire and laser practice. Only then is it worth my time to go down to my range and verify my skills with live fire.
The Shield Plus has the same shooting characteristics as the standard Shields, but it sets itself apart in the manipulations. For myself, I found that the mag release is just a tad farther from my reach than it used to be, resulting in me having to change my grip slightly. The new mags are not as low profile as the single stack mags, and the sleeve has caused some issues for me. The texture is so good at holding onto that making micro-adjustments in your hands with the extended mag, without hurting your reload time, can be a challenge. Usually it is my pinky or palm that get snagged on the texturing, but it is just enough to present a bit of an issue. It is not something that can't be overcome, but it was an issue that has stuck in my mind and caused me to spend a lot of time on reload technique. I am not trying to be the fastest at reloading, but I strive to be consistent and not have fumbles.
MY 2 CENTS ON THE RELEASE
Smith & Wesson launched this pistol with no marketing, until their guns were hitting stores, which I feel was a poor decision and also a little odd considering how big of a deal this development is for Shield owners like myself. It is possible that profits were tanking because the Shield could not compete with the P365 or the Hellcat in sales, resulting in a production so rushed that there was not even slotted time for a pre-release marketing campaign. The trigger design is the one changed feature that is so out of the blue that I feel like it was added out of desperation in order to satisfy a minimum number of changes that must be done before a board can approve its manufacture and release to the market. Plenty of people get aftermarket triggers on their Shield, but I don't think the number justifies this kind of shift. Also, I still have yet to see Shield Plus magazines on the market. This just tells me that this was a rushed production to keep the company name intact and production of magazines was not a priority until plenty of guns were made. On the other hand, it could have just been an attempt by Smith & Wesson to simply try a new approach and unveil the pistol in a different way. Who knows, perhaps it just wasn't quite ready for a SHOT Show release. And perhaps they just figured that magazines are not an important item. Stranger things have happened, like when Glock developed the Model 48.
Regardless of the reason for the way it was released, I feel that I made a good impulse buy and I am still happy with my decision. As I said in the beginning, Smith and Wesson is the first company to take a single stack from their lineup and convert it to a double stack without making major changes to the heart of the design. That is actually pretty slick and should have been the aim of Springfield as well, in my opinion. Now you can get a double stack micro-compact pistol that has a full industry of support in holsters, parts (Minus the trigger and magazines), and sights. Only thing left to do is for them to make a .40 caliber model, but I am sure I am just reaching with that one.
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