Today we're starting a new series on small concealed carry handguns. Before I reviewed some of the newest guns in this category though, I thought it might be a good time to do a formal review on this: my own personal carry weapon. I'll give you some basic specs, then take a look at how it has performed for me over the almost 5 years I've been carrying it, then give you some likes and dislikes.
The Shield 45 was introduced in 2016 as the bigger brother to the Shield 9mm, and it's been in steady production ever since. (You can find them currently on sale at Brownells!) It was noteworthy when it was introduced because it helped to roll in some of the improvements to the M1.0 models that eventually became the M2.0 models. The Shield 45 is 6.5 inches long, 4.74 inches tall, and 0.96 inches wide, so less than an inch. That width is particularly notable, since it's chambered in a larger caliber. It has a polymer frame and a striker-fired trigger system. The grip angle is the familiar 1911-style angle. The slide is stainless steel coated in Armornite, which is Smith and Wesson's proprietary coating, and it has the M&P fish scale slide serrations on the rear and a little bit on the front as well. Underneath that slide is a 3.3 inch barrel. It comes from the factory with one 6 round flush fit magazine and one 7 round extended magazine.
My Shield is a Performance Center model, which means it has a few upgrades over a standard Shield. The Performance Center upgrades on this gun are the ported barrel and slide, fiber optic front and rear sights, and a factory tuned trigger system. The trigger on my model now breaks under 5 pounds, and it often feels lighter than that because the action is so smooth. The wall is solid without being overly hard to break through, and the reset is very tactile and audible. I got this in December 2017, and have been carrying it ever since. The only modifications I've done to it are a dab of white paint on the front sight and the addition of the Holosun HS407k red dot; this didn't come optic ready so I had to get the slide machined with an optic cut to mount it. I sent it out to Doug at DP Custom Works to have that done, and now the optic mounts directly to the slide very solidly. I also have a Hyve +1 basepad on the factory 7 round magazine, for a total of 8 rounds. Otherwise it is completely stock with about 2600 rounds through it at the time I'm filming this video.
Now, reliability is one of the things that I bought the Shield for; Smith and Wesson is an old company with a history of good products. As I mentioned, to date this Shield has just about 2600 rounds through it. Most of that is 230 grain full metal jacket ammo, both commercial and handloads, and a good number of 185 grain Barnes Tac-XPD hollowpoints as well. To give you some background, since this is my carry weapon it's with me all the time. I carry this for between 8 and 10 hours a day, sometimes up to 16 hours. I do stuff around the house with it on, I work on the car with it on, and sometimes I fall asleep with it on. It gets dirty, dusty, sweaty, you name it. Despite all that, I'm happy to report I've never had a single malfunction with this Shield in the entire time I've owned it. That means no failures to feed, no failures to eject, no failures to ignite, no failures with inserting or dropping the magazine, no failures with the slide locking back. It runs clean or dirty, hot or cold, with any kind of ammo in the mag. It's been 100 percent reliable in every way, and I love it for that.
Now for accuracy, I can say that this is as accurate as you would want a concealed carry weapon to be. It shoots very accurately out to 25 yards, both first shot and follow-up. It can be a bit of a handful, especially with the 185 grain hollowpoints, but that's mitigated with proper technique, the awesome grip texture, and the porting on the barrel and slide.
Now, really quick, I'll talk about a a couple of things I like about my Shield. I won't go into too much detail since I already did a whole article on this (link to blog post) but the things that I like the most about the Sheild 45 are the grip texture and the small size.
The grip texture is typical M2.0 aggressive, which is exactly how I like it. It really digs into your hand and gives good purchase all the way around the grip. Some would say its too aggressive for them, or that it rubs them when they're carrying it, but I have not found either of those to be true in my experience. Again this is my personal preference, I love aggressive grips, so your results may vary, and that's totally fine.
The small size is the second thing that I love about this thing; it is small and thin enough to sometimes make me forget I'm carrying it, but it has a full enough grip (both in length and distance around) that I can get a comfortable full grip with it even with the flush-fit magazine. That was actually one reason why I chose the 45 over the 9mm, since the 9mm is just a touch shorter than this and I can't really get my pinky solidly on it.
Since I talked about some things that I like about this, it's only fair that I talk about some things that I don't like. First for me here is the lack of aftermarket support for the Shield 45, both compared to the 9mm Shield and just in general. It's harder to find things like magazines and holsters for this model just because its not as popular or common, and that's something that I have just learned to live with.
The second thing that I would have to say I don't like as much is, of course, capacity. While 6 or 7 rounds is definitely adequate in terms of capacity, it pales in comparison to the 10, 11, up to 13 rounds the micro 9mm weapons can hold. without getting into a ballistics discussion, in general more capacity is better and the Shield 45 is definitely lacking there compared to the newer weapons.
The third thing that I don't like about this Shield is the trigger shoe. While I've gotten used to it and I don't really notice it now, I do have to say that the way that Smith and Wesson have hinged this trigger safety is not the greatest. This is something that they obviously have heard from other customers too, as the newest M&P and M&P Shield Plus models all have a flat-faced trigger shoe, which I think works much better.
So that's it! a long-term review of my Shield 45. 2600 rounds later and I still really like this. While there are some things about it that definitely fall short compared to more recent concealed carry weapons, I think that I'll keep this thing, at least a little while longer. Coming up we have reviews on more concealed carry handguns, so be sure to come back and check those out. That's all I have for you this time, so until next time, stay safe!