I have had a mixed history with S&W pistols. Some good, some bad and most left me wanting. I find it frustrating that S&W cannot get their heads out of their asses and put a proper trigger in the M&P line of weapons. Even in the new 2.0 line they kept the worst part of the entire fire control assembly which is the hinged trigger shoe. I digress.

I have owned a 9mm Shield, Walther PPS, G43, Sig Sauer P290, Keltec PF-9, LCP, J-frame revolvers and maybe some others. They all seemd to have some idiosyncrasy that annoyed me. Out of the list the G43 was my favorite. The Shield 9mm shot softer than the G43 but the G43 sat in my hands better. Also, the factory trigger was quite better. One of my first carry guns ever was a Sig Sauer P245 with 6+1 of .45 ACP, this was during the 94-04 AWB. High cap. mags. were $100 a piece.

Fast forward to 2017 and in some ways I have come full circle. When S&W announced the Shield 45 I was kind of surprised since the interwebs have ended the caliber wars of 2002-2009. However, my interest was peaked with the small knockdown artist called the Shield in .45 ACP. Then, S&W released the Performance Center version with no thumb-safety and two compensator ports for muzzle and recoil mitigation. Now, I was shaking my head saying "Oh yeah, I like the way that lady dances." Which to my dimay, I had basically given up on M&P's of any flavor. I went and rented the non-ported Shield 45 just to see how it handled. I came away thinking it did handle the .45 ACP well and it was controllable to the point of being able to move shots at will. But, I did think the PC version with the ports would definitley benefit from some recoil and muzzle flip dampening. Don't misunderstand me, the normal Shield 45 is not a punishing pistol. Not for new shooters but not scandium j-frame revolver punishing.

Boom, I took a chance on the PC Shield .45 ACP and I can report that it is a proper defensive 45. The porting in the barrel did show a noticable difference compared to the non-ported Shield 45 by approximately 15-20%. Combine the compensator ports with the more aggressive grip texture and you can run the gun on the target as necessary. If you need to shift POA from center chest to pelvic girdle, the PC Shield lets you do this without an unreasonable amount of recovery. S&W should update the 9mm shield to the new grip texture and delete the thumb safety on the PC version. I'm a lefty and the Shield safety is useless. The sights and trigger are just okay to me. The trigger is a little lighter than non-PC versions but nothing to brag about. Lastly, the flush six round magazine allows me to get a full three finger grip (I don't have terribly large hands) and none of the other single stack combat tupperware let me do this.

If you want a modern comp'd .45 ACP that you can shoot and carries easy, then the PC Shield 45 is a really competant option. No, I did not get paid for this essay.

Pistol weights:
6+1 of 230 grain = 27.8 ounces
7+1 of 230 grain = 29 ounces.







This is 13 rounds of rapid fire @ 4 yards. Shot to shot splits were about .30-.40 seconds.

I wonder why the 4 extra ports in the slide.

Either weight reduction for the slide cycle timing or aesthetic. Not really sure. Regardless the gun does work as intended.