My new Shield made in March 2015 is a complete piece of garbage. It keeps jamming and getting stove pipes every 20 to 50 rounds with all kinds of quality factory ammo. Please see pictures below. It has this exact same jam every time and does not vary at all. Any ideas what might be the problem? I read on some other Smith and Wesson forums about people having this same problem and after 2 or 3 trips back to S&W their Shields are not fixed and still having this issue or the gun came back even worse so that does not give me a lot of hope for this pistol:

Found the problem.......

look at this thread or this other fte thread

As stated in your other thread, lock the slide to the rear for about a week and run a box of +P through her.

Your wife has a shield as well.

My first thought would be to swap recoil springs to see if you simply got a spring on the higher end of the spec chart poundage wise.

After reading about  some of these failures I checked out youtube and there was one that was having stovepipe issues. He ended up having a bad recoil spring. He said it was a broken recoil spring.

I was having occasional stove pipes with my Shield 9mm. Narrowed it down to the crappy WWB 9mm from WalMart. Shooting Federal or Remington....no issues.

I've been reading about a LOT of this going around lately...which is unfortunate because a Shield has been on my short list for a while now

I had a Shield and traded my coworker for her 3913. I missed it so much I bought another within days. I had roughly 350 flawless rounds through it. I have been out twice with the new one and have had it stovepipe just like yours twice out of 275 rounds. Once with 124gr NATO and one with American Eagle.

I'm thinking the recoil springs seem to be quite stiff in these newer ones. There is only so many reasons a stovepipe can occur. Weak ammo, rough chamber, loose extractor, underpowered ammo, and limp wristing. I checked extractor tension and it is good, no burrs in chamber, and I don't limp wrist. It shouldn't have happened with the NATO stuff since it's a +P round but it was very old ammo. I can kind of understand the weaker American Eagle. I have put Gold Dot, Ranger, and HST through it without any issues. My only conclusion is that it just needs to be shot more to soften up the recoil spring.

If it makes you feel any better I have 2 that run just fine.

A lot of this going around these days.  My 3/2015 Shield is on its second trip back for FTE problems.  WRT  stovepipes - hope is not a strategy. I suspect they will continue until you have something done to change the current configuration. The Shield should/must perform with the ammo you have selected.  It is not an ammo problem.

Thanks everyone. Mine also did this while shooting Gold Dots that blows the weak ammo idea out of the water. I tore my Achilles tendon yesterday and will be laid up for a while so I wont be about to follow up with this any time soon. It will be heading back to Smith and Wesson as soon as I can get to the fed ex place.

Update

Finally got to test my shield out again today. This was the first time test firing it since I got it back from Smith and Wesson. I'm sorry to report that it is not repaired and it still malfunctions in the same way it was earlier. Maybe even worse. I got some pictures I'll post soon as I can get them uploaded. I don't know what to do and I'm a little upset about this. Every time I've had a defective gun sent back to the factory it never comes back working properly and I usually just sell them. I really want to like the shield this is extremely frustrating and the gun simply cannot be trusted. I could try sending it back again but the chances of them figuring out the problems are slim to none. I'll get pictures up as soon as I can but they're very similar to the first pictures posted above.
If I insisted that Smith and Wesson just replace the entire gun would they?

After sending it back once I would ask them if they would replace the whole gun. It should run flawless.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Took it out again today and again I got the same malfunctions. I'll get pics up this week with any luck. Calling smith and Wesson too.

I had a 40 Shield that had an extraction failure.  I looked at the case and noticed a rough area at the 6 o'clock position on the case.

I used Flitz on a cloth wrapped around a brush attached to an electric drill.  Polished the chamber and feed ramp.  

No problems since.  In fact my brass generally goes another 5' farther since I did the quick polish.

Between my dad, brother, and I we have three and had zero issues. I would make S&W replace the entire gun and if you get another turd I guess I would get away from the Shield. Personally I have had great luck with M&P hand guns.

I think you may be having the same issue I was having.  It wasn't a stovepipe, the extractor was actually pulling off of the case rim before it was fully extracted.  Sent mine back and they replaced the extractor and gave the chamber a fluff and buff, been good since.

No it's pulling the shell casing out just fine it's just getting stuck in the chamber. Not ripping the rim off. Haven't had time but I'll get pictures up soon.

Here are my latest pictures. Does this will all ammo types:

You may have done it already, but I would polish that chamber.


You could also leave it locked back for several days.

Do the 9mm & .40s use the same recoil spring?  If so, it could be a bit strong for the 9mm.
My .40 Shield recoil spring has some blue paint on it.  I have never had any FTE/FTF issues with it, either before or after installing the Apex kit.

That sucks OP. Does the recoil spring have any dents in the coil?

I know when I bought my second Shield, I cleaned it and tried to put the slide back on and it wouldn't go on.

Took it apart and saw the recoil spring was dented, had to get some pliers to straighten it out. Slide works now and shoots fine but still makes me wonder what happened to my spring and if I should get a backup in case.

S&W polished the chamber but did not do a ver good job. It is very splotchy and you can see the dermal marks.

Smith and Wesson is now saying it is a recoil spring. I'm trying the one in my wife's shield to see if that makes mine run well. If not it goes back to smith and Wesson and I'm asking for a new gun.

Dang! I just bought a shield, I hope this doesn't happen to mine.

Mine runs great and so do many others. This sounds like a case of bad luck, and I hope they make it right.

What ammunition are you running?  Have you taken anyone's advise to lock the slide back for a while or run some +p ammo?  

Using a mix of Quality factory ammo from federal, Winchester, Speer etc. I have not tried locking the slide back. I have read that it does nothing because springs wear out or lose strength from compression cycles and not sitting stagnant under compression. I'll try it though and report back.

True but if I remember correctly most springs will take an initial set.

Honestly you shouldn't have to do anything to make it run. Do not stop till your satisfied.

Just bought a shield 9 that was built in July and I already have 350 ish rounds through it with no problems. Sorry about your luck man. I love this little gun.

UPDATE

Test fired it again today with a known good recoil spring. It jammed again just like in the last pictures I posted. It is going back to Smith again and I'm asking for it to be replaced with a new gun.

When I sent mine in they replaced the extractor.  I don't think you mentioned whether they did that on yours.  If not, I highly recommend asking for that.  It seemed to have cured my similar problem.

Extractor was replaced on the first trip back.

UPDATE 9/24/2015

So I got my Shield back from its 2nd trip to the factory to be repaired. This is on top of the 1st trip and several calls to S&W trouble shooting over the phone and swapping parts from my other known good Shield. So all in all I'm counting this is 3 attempts to fix this Shield. I'm sorry to say that after test firing it last week it is still having this exact same FTF malfunction. It happened 2 times in 200 rounds which is much improved compared to once every 17 to 50 rounds.
Smith and Wesson did not replace the gun but did just about rebuild the entire thing. So I have 800 rounds on the gun but only 200 on the new slide and barrel. I also test fired my brand new Glock 43made on 8/4/2015 which of course ran 100% perfect for the 300 rounds I fired to break it in including 60 high end hollow points(Gold Dots, HST, Ranger T's and SXT's in all weights 115gr-147gr). I'm posting pictures  of the jams, the repair order and some wear on the barrel and slide to see you guys have similar wear on your shields. I'm also including a couple pictures of the Glock 43 barrel. Notice that the Shield barrel has a lot of wear marks and only 200 rounds but the G43 barrel has 300 rounds and almost no wear on the finish at all? The top edge of the barrel hood you can feel the little nicks on the edge and can see them in the picture Also the inside rails of the Shield slide has some Knicks in the edge and finish hat you cant feel with your finger nail but they were not there  when I got it back from the factory.
You can also see how far I had to drift the rear sight to the right to get it to his center at 5 yards. The rear sight is hanging off the right side of the slide enough to see it over hanging. It was way off left. I used a ransom rest so I could get the sights dead center. My other shield and all other pistols the rear sight is dead center on the slide and hit dead center in a ransom and off hand.. I'm thinking something is not aligned with this dam gun to cause all this.
So at this point I'm extremely pissed now. I've been extremely nice and pleasant with S&W on the phone though all this. Should I now get a little pissed on the phone and demand a new gun or a full refund? How should I handle this? This Shield is flat out a fucking lemon! Sorry for the crappy grammar and run on sentences...short on time and have to leave!

What you show with the 9/17/15 date is the exact type of jam I was getting, about 1-2 per 100 rounds.
S&W replaced the extractor and polished the chamber, and so far (400 rounds) it appears to have fixed the problem.

ETA: In your case, this is bad customer service.  They've spent more money in labor trying to fix your gun then it would have cost to give you a new one.  Nobody wants a lemon. They should melt that thing down and be done with it.

This is absolutely crazy. Blows my mind that this problem takes this much effort and attempts to fix. Now I see why all those owners with problematic Shields give up and sell them off.

So you have 400 rounds with no problems? I'd say that is a fixed gun!

I've had a FTF problem with my Shield. Ammo makes no difference. Smith send me a new recoil spring. That did not make a difference. However, I think I've traced it down to the magazine followers not moving freely. Although new mags (factory S&W), the followers seemed to be getting hung up. I polished the followers down and cleaned the inside of the magazine so the followers move very freely. That seemed to stop the problem. At any rate, not impressed with S&W quality assurance.

BTW, anyone know when Storm Lake is going to make a 9mm conversion barrel for the .40 Shield?

I had an M&P9 that they didn't fix after 2 trips back. On the third trip back they said they would replace it. That was taking forever so I complained and then they refunded the pre tax purchase price, so ultimately it worked out.

It takes a long time to replace because they said they don't have any sitting around at the factory and they only make them in batches duding certain runs.  I ended up replacing it with a G19.

On the other hand my M&P45 has been flawless.  What's interesting is that the machining on my M&P45 is beautiful and well done with no tool marks and the black finish is very smooth. On the M&P 9 that I had the finish was rough and so was the machining with many tool marks. The barrel crown was especially bad.  It seemed like a much higher standard of care went into building my M&P 45.

WOW!  

My Shield with 1200 rounds is nowhere chewed up like that barrel and slide.

They might as well have given you a new pistol at the time and cost they wasted.

I will tell you exactly what is going on.  The engineers have you convinced they can make that frame work

Get CS to rescue you from the engineers.  Two mags is all they run in a test.

They have done with you what they did with my semi auto.  Everything but the plastic handle into which the metal is inserted was replaced or modified and it still wouldn't run.

After reading this thread, S&W just lost 2 sales as me and the wife were going to get a pair when our PTC comes in. There is no fucking reason these should  be having problems. To worried about making money instead of QC. Fuck em. My springfield armory XDm working great so will be getting a subcompact SA instead. A shame such a great company like S&W lets this shit happen.

Edge of my barrel hood looks like yours. I havent noticed anything else.

I can tell you that I am somewhere near the 2000 round mark. That little bit of wear doesnt bother me.

That's exactly what I did and haven't looked back. Here is my now archived thread about my experience with S&W

I will say that it was fixed after the second trip back to them but their customer service is pretty crappy. Sold the Shield after I was confident that it was fixed and got a G26 that has been flawless.

Sorry they're not taking care of you to your satisfaction. It appears that with the Shield you either get a good one or you don't....

So far no problems with mine.

Want to trade?

No thanks, LOL!

Well it is now on it's 3 trip back to the factory(4th attempt total). I put a note in the box asking that this lemon be replace with a entirely new gun. We shall see in 2 or 3 weeks.

Same here, my two always go bang, eats and ejects everything.

But with that said, no company is immune to lemons from time to time. Had a G20 that went back to Glock 5 times, and still was a POS. Had a G17 that went back to Glock 3 times, was still a POS. Like I( said, no company is immune to making an occasional lemon.

Get rid of that one, buy something else or another Shield .

I hate to be the dick but are you limp wristing it?

No way. In fact after shooting 200+  Rounds through the shield trying to get it to run right I proceeded to shoot 300 rounds through my new Glock 43. If I were limping anything it would've been after nearly 500 rounds at the end of the day shooting the Glock and it never jammed once. I have a very strong grip and shoot 500 round range sessions all the time and never jam a gun limping it. I don't know how many times I told Smith and Wesson this. My other shield runs 100%. It's this fucking lemon shield that has the issues.

Update ?

Yes a big one that I've been meaning to post and just haven't had a lot of time online to do so. I'll fill you guys in soon. It's good news and a nice update.