Posted: 5/2/2026 9:19:31 PM EDT
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I’ve been highly encouraged to look into buying an M&P Shield Plus for concealed carry. Everything I’ve seen about it looks pretty good, especially with a red dot. Are there any down sides to this pistol that I should know about? |
I carry one appendix style and go back and forth between that and the new Bodyguard Carry Comp model. I like it. I traded the single stack model I had toward the Plus that came with the flashlight and pocket knife combo, as I liked the increased magazine capacities. 
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I'm pink, therefore, I'm Spam.®
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Definitely my favorite conceal carry gun. It's tough to beat. I'd highly recommend one. I put a threaded barrel on mine it runs well suppressed. Like a modern day James Bond gun, not much bigger than my PPK. I keep 13rd mags in mine. The 10rd mags were too short for my liking. Now I hear they have 15rd mags, might pick one up for a spare reload. Very reliable gun, comfortable to shoot, feels like a bigger gun than it is. Shot the Glock 43x which is comparable, however I didn't like it as much personally. |
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I bought one to compare it to my P365X. The rear sight is not IWB friendly and has sharp corners. The optic cut is garbage. Go to nameless arms for the reason. My slide has a burr edge that would cause the slide lock to stick so when dropping the slide after a reload, the slide would not drop. I had to remove the edge. So its not in my rotation. |
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Originally Posted By DrMark: I have two. They are great. Size-wise, they are the sweet spot for carry for me. Love mine. Same size as the original S&W Shield, but much more Pew Pew Pews.  My pair have been flawless. Running Federal HST 124 for carry & shooting Federal 124 for paper punching & practice. Recently bought one for my daughter to carry so I hope that says how much I like & trust it.  Bigger_Hammer 
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LIFE'S JOURNEY IS NOT TO ARRIVE AT THE GRAVE SAFELY IN A WELL PRESERVED BODY,
BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT SHOUTING "HOLY $H!T...WHAT A RIDE"!!
BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT SHOUTING "HOLY $H!T...WHAT A RIDE"!!
| I've been carrying mine daily for the last several years. I've yet to have any hick-ups with mine. I run only 147gr Federal HST through it and it has performed exactly as I hoped it would. AWIB carry is very easy with this pistol. Skip the 10 round mag and go with 13 and 15 rounders. The 13 round mags don't print unless you wear a smedium and are a large guy. |
"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son." - Dean Wormer
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A few Arfcommers were able to inexpensively upgrade their Shield 1.0s and 2.0s to SHIELD PLUS models with these ~$60 (+trsf/tax) kits: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1175660330  |
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I bought one because of my good experiences with a couple Shield 9MM pistols and because I wanted more rounds in the magazines. It didn't disappoint me. The extractor pin stuck up a bit but a small hammer punch took care of that. The Holosun K series dot didn't fit on it because the slide had 4 posts and the K series had two holes. I bit of work on the 1" belt sander cleanly took care of the rear posts and about 0.018" off the top of the front posts as they were a bit too tall for the K series I had (that may have changed). Awesome pistol. Shoots rings around my stock larger M&Ps with any ammo I've tried in it. So light/flat that when I switched over to it from my CZ P07 I'd carried for 10 or 12 years I spent a few weeks walking around and getting the feeling I'd lots my pistol somewhere in the car or something. Had to sort of hide dragging my elbow across my right hip as I walked to insure the pistol was still in the holster. I carry it with a 13 round magazine in it and a couple 15 round spares on the opposite hip. I bought a stripped 4" Shield 9MM slide and built it up so mine became a 4" Shield Plus not long after I got it. I like/trust it so much I bought a .30 SC when they were on sale cheap and installed a second 4" Shield 9MM slide on it so I'd have two of them. Then I bought two stripped Shield Plus frames off Gun Broker (Freestone Armory) and some Shield parts and built those frames up to put the original 3.1" OR slide on one and to experiment on the other one (.357 SIG barrel in a .40 S&W Shield slide with modified magazines). Or .40 S&W (same modified magazines). Problems? Well, the safety was a bit draggy at first. There was a burr on the inside of the safety lever, left side, that hung/dragged on the sear housing. A couple stroke of the file took care of that. Already mentioned the optic/slide cut issue. On the two 4" slides I used adapter plates I bought from Amazon (DPP). Also having what I thought was a magazine issue but may not be an issue at all. Empty magazine in the pistol, pull the slide back and it wouldn't lock back. Mag. spring not lifting the follower up far enough to engage the slide. Never happened while firing the pistol, just when racking by hand after a good cleaning/lube job. Replaced all my carry mag. spring with Wolf +10% power springs and everything was good. A few months later I was back to the slide not locking back when I pulled the slide back by hand. Again, never an issue at the range, but it bothered me so I replaced the mag. springs with more of the Wolff +10% power springs and downloaded the mags. by one round to see if that has any effect over the next few months. Might not be an issue when firing the gun. Anyway, I own more Shield Plus pistols than any other M&P type/size/model. Awesome little pistols. |
How you live your life is important. Just be sure the memory of how you died doesn't overshadow the tales of how you lived your life.
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Originally Posted By NVCapCop: A few Arfcommers were able to inexpensively upgrade their Shield 1.0s and 2.0s to SHIELD PLUS models with these ~$60 (+trsf/tax) kits: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1175660330 https://assets.gunbroker.com/q_auto:best/f_auto/pics/1175660000/1175660330/pix038417457 Oh wow, really? I originally had the Shield 1.0 then upgraded to the Plus (still have the original), and my wife also has an original Shield 1.0, would be nice to upgrade them! As far as OP's question goes, I love the Shield Plus, is my typical carry gun. My only complaint is how aggressive the stippling is on the side, it abrades my hide like sandpaper when I do things like go for a walk in the forest with my kids. |
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The Shield Plus’ overly aggressive stippling can be smoothed out with 1000 grit sandpaper or covered with this model Hogue grip. Attached File Attached File |
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Originally Posted By NVCapCop: A few Arfcommers were able to inexpensively upgrade their Shield 1.0s and 2.0s to SHIELD PLUS models with these ~$60 (+trsf/tax) kits: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1175660330 https://assets.gunbroker.com/q_auto:best/f_auto/pics/1175660000/1175660330/pix038417457 Wait, what? I thought the OG Shield slide wasn’t compatable with the Plus slide stop geometry. I’d love to be proved wrong, I’d grab one of these for my old .40 Shield. Edit - or not. Were Shield Plus mags ever done in .40? |
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@heavyduty Attached File Shield 1.0 slide on Plus Frame = GTG. I purchased the frame complete with the internals. As posted above @M1A4ME has done a .40/.357Sig conversion. The Plus mags are marked for 9mm and have the numbered holes, (10,13, or 15) but you could probably use them with 40S&W. In the ban era, a Mec-Gar P226 17 round 9mm mag would take 13 rounds of 40 cal reliably. |
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Originally Posted By doublecheez: For the aggressive grip texture, went with the Talon grip tape. It’s GTG. Picked up a 2.0 3.6” Compact before the Shield Plus dropped. With the Shield Plus don’t really have a need for the 2.0 Compact. The advantages of the Compact over the Plus would be more optics and light options (and possibly mag compatibility with the Full Size), at the cost of weight and comfort. |
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Mine shit the bed after several hundrered rounds. the slide stop spring popped out, binding and dragging on the slide. Ebay has slide stop springs, an easy fix, but getting the gun apart AFTER the spring popped out was a bitch. S&W needs to redesign this, I noticed the SHIELDX has the same thing. My SHIELDX would not run HST or GoldDot, I got rid of it. I still have the SHIELD PLUS, but still kinda pissed about the whole thing. 
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Originally Posted By networkguru: The optic cut is garbage. Go to nameless arms for the reason. Is this still an issue? Last year I was researching micro 9’s for summer carry and I came across a lot of posts on the interweb about this. I didn’t buy anything last year and I’ve resumed my search. I’d like to consider a Shield Plus due to a lot of favorable reviews. But if the sloped cut is still present then no. Also the post above mine isn’t very confidence inspiring either. |
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I'm not sure the optic cut angle issue is just a Shield Plus slide issue. I took both my Shield Plus pistols (added 4" slides after I bought them) to the range a couple weeks back to sight them in with my new carry ammo (Winchester Defense 147 grain hollow points) and one of them bottomed out the dot optic vertical adjustment when I had to drop POI a couple inches to get it on POA at 7 yds. I've got a Holosun on one and a Osight SE on the other and don't remember which one it was now. Those were stripped 4" Shield 2.0 9MM slides I got from CDNN and built up with S&W parts except for 4" barrels from TR Enabling (the only place selling them at the time.) I had previously had an EPS Carry optic on one of them and found it's vertical adjustment was bottomed out at 7 yards when I was carrying 115 grain hollow points. Worked fine, just no further adjustment there if I'd had to drop POI. Never had an issue with the original 3.1" 9MM slide and Holosun K series dot optics, but it may have been very close to bottoming out, too, but if you don't get there, how do you know for sure? Yes, I have one Shield Plus frame with a Shield 3.1" .40 S&W slide (also works with a different Shield 3.1" slide with a .357 SIG conversion barrel in it) that has worked great at the range since I got a couple magazine follower issues worked out. You have to remove those vertical "creases" below the feed lips in the narrow vertical section of the magazine. The .40/.357 SIG rounds won't got down into the magazine (or feed upwards) until those are removed. I converted one 10 round, one 13 round and one 15 round magazine to the larger calibers. The 10 and 13 round mags. worked great. The 15 round magazine has an issue with internal width in the vertical straight section just below the feed lips. Right at the back of the magazine there's a narrow spot that snags/catches the rim of the .40 S&W cases. I have never gotten around to sitting down with a file and some fine sandpaper and removing that narrow spot. I need to do that and then go ahead and convert a few more 9MM mags. to .40 S&W and get the slide milled for a dot optic. At 5 yds. I was putting 3 out 5 shots in the same slightly large hole so it shoots darn good. Been a lot of fun carrying, shooting, working on the Shield Plus pistols. |
How you live your life is important. Just be sure the memory of how you died doesn't overshadow the tales of how you lived your life.
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I finally got mine to the range on Friday. Aside from the usual “throws brass wherever because it’s new”, it was great. It went through a box of Winchester White Box without a hitch, and I plan to spend a lot of time at the range breaking it in. Thanks for all the input, folks! |
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Shield single stack with a Faxon threaded barrel is an excellent host for an Obsidian 9 full length. Better still, the Faxon threaded barrel works on the Shield Plus and the Obsidian 9 full length is excellent on that gun too. Monarch 115 gr steel case is subsonic, 1086 to 1109 fps versus speed of sound about 1140 fps. Winchester White Box 147 gr HP are 992 fps average. I find it easier to load 12 into the 13 rd magazines and 9 in the 10 rd mags. Academy had the Sheild Plus with five 13 rd mags and one 10 rd mag, along with a nice range bag, for $500. Shield mags are about $40 for reference. Shield Plus and single stack are great for fast present and double or triple tap shooting. Recoil just isn't noticed in this style. Absence of noise is. Reliability has been 100%. Either Shield with Obs 9 full length carries and draws well from the Walmart Ozark Trail Sling Pack capacity 9 liters. For comparison, the M&P 5.7x28 with a Dead Air Mask, is about a half inch shorter and about the same weight, as the Shield with Obsidian 9 long, but ammo is 3 times more expensive. People say the Shield is softer shooting than the Glock 43X. |