Problem with the Sheild EZ magazine.

trikerdon · Jun 14, 2018

I have experence a problem with the Shield .380 EZ's magazine. I was carrying 8 in the mag and one in the pipe. I was making sure the magazine was locked in by slapping the the bottom of the mag hard so that it would lock in place. I was a little shocked a couple of times when I drew the pistol from my holster and had the magazine fall to the floor. The next time I inserted into the pistol I pushed up on it until I heard it click into place. A little later when I drew it out of the holster it again fell to the floor. Not good. I found this article below that may explain what was going on.
I guess the cure is if you are going to have a round in the pipe only have seven in the magazine not eight (even thought it is advertised to carry 8 + 1) I have just loaded it this way (7+1) so I will see if it stays in or not.
Think I will email S&W about this and see what they say.

"However, if there's a flaw with the Shield EZ it's magazine-related: it's particularly difficult to lock a fully-loaded magazine into the grip when the slide is forwards. You either have to push up on the basepad extremely hard, punch it firmly with the heel of your hand, or put a thumb on top of the slide and fingers under the magazine and squeeze like you're trying to milk a rock.

Basically, the EZ's target audience is going to struggle to insert a loaded magazine with the slide forwards. Therefore, there will be a lot of owners carrying this pistol one round short of full capacity. That may mean inserting a fully-loaded magazine with the slide locked back, chambering the first round, and carrying it this way with eight rounds on board, or it may mean inserting a down-loaded magazine into the gun with the slide forwards on an empty chamber and carrying it this way with seven rounds on board. In either scenario, this is a flaw in the EZ's otherwise spot-on design."

EPS · Jun 15, 2018

trikerdon said:
I have experence a problem with the Shield .380 EZ's magazine. I was carrying 8 in the mag and one in the pipe. I was making sure the magazine was locked in by slapping the the bottom of the mag hard so that it would lock in place. I was a little shocked a couple of times when I drew the pistol from my holster and had the magazine fall to the floor. The next time I inserted into the pistol I pushed up on it until I heard it click into place. A little later when I drew it out of the holster it again fell to the floor. Not good. I found this article below that may explain what was going on.
I guess the cure is if you are going to have a round in the pipe only have seven in the magazine not eight (even thought it is advertised to carry 8 + 1) I have just loaded it this way (7+1) so I will see if it stays in or not.
Think I will email S&W about this and see what they say.

"However, if there's a flaw with the Shield EZ it's magazine-related: it's particularly difficult to lock a fully-loaded magazine into the grip when the slide is forwards. You either have to push up on the basepad extremely hard, punch it firmly with the heel of your hand, or put a thumb on top of the slide and fingers under the magazine and squeeze like you're trying to milk a rock.

Basically, the EZ's target audience is going to struggle to insert a loaded magazine with the slide forwards. Therefore, there will be a lot of owners carrying this pistol one round short of full capacity. That may mean inserting a fully-loaded magazine with the slide locked back, chambering the first round, and carrying it this way with eight rounds on board, or it may mean inserting a down-loaded magazine into the gun with the slide forwards on an empty chamber and carrying it this way with seven rounds on board. In either scenario, this is a flaw in the EZ's otherwise spot-on design."

Take the mag apart .my friend has a 9 mm sheild he could not get all the Rounds in the mag I told him to take the bottom off and see it the spring was messed up or something was wrong.
When he took it to the gun shop the guy took it apart and there was two of the plastic base plates on the bottom of the spring .so take your mag apart and check it out

EPS · Jun 15, 2018

If you have a 8 round mag and you can't get 8 Rounds in it or it is really hard to get the last round in there is something wrong even with 8 Rounds you still should be able to press down on the last round almost enough to get 9 in there and you should never have to use your palm to slam the mag in

Quartermaster · Jun 15, 2018

I've had zero issues with mine being carried 8+1, and on the range for over 500 rounds with holster draws.

WillametteWill · Jun 15, 2018

Promise not to go on a polymer rant (I have one too) but they seem much more finicky than steel frames. My wife's Shield has one of six mags with an intermittent problem like this. This surfaced when she spent a week at Gunsite recently. Funny, after she returned to the PNW it works fine. Doesn't like Arizona I guess. She really has to make sure the mags are driven home but after five days of mag changes she has this down. Agree with EPS's thoughts as well.

E4mafia · Jun 15, 2018

I recently had problems with my shield 45 in that it would drop mags but only when firing. The solution given to me after returning it to S&W was they changed the follower in the magazines out. Since then its worked perfectly. Hope this helps!

Joe13 · Jun 15, 2018

Any possibility your nudging the mag release when you draw the gun?

I only ask cuz it seemed from your OP that it only happens when you draw from the holster.

trikerdon · Jun 15, 2018

EPS said:
Take the mag apart .my friend has a 9 mm sheild he could not get all the Rounds in the mag I told him to take the bottom off and see it the spring was messed up or something was wrong.
When he took it to the gun shop the guy took it apart and there was two of the plastic base plates on the bottom of the spring .so take your mag apart and check it out

No problems inserting the full 8 rounds into the magazine.

trikerdon · Jun 15, 2018

Joe13 said:
Any possibility your nudging the mag release when you draw the gun?

I only ask cuz it seemed from your OP that it only happens when you draw from the holster.

I thought of that also. But after repeatedly drawing the pistol from the holster I can't seem to duplicate it.

clearconscience · Jun 15, 2018

I have this same issues with my shield 9mm.
I've been just carrying one less in the mag, but I'm going to take the mag apart and see if there's something going on.

trikerdon · Jun 16, 2018

clearconscience said:
I have this same issues with my shield 9mm.
I've been just carrying one less in the mag, but I'm going to take the mag apart and see if there's something going on.

Was on the S&W Forum and found this. Maybe some good info on loading magazines into the S&W Shield. It is mainly for the 9mm but maybe the same info would work for the EZ.

Shield 9mm magazine problem?

trikerdon · Jun 21, 2018

Well, I tried a few things experimenting with my mag problem. Finely came to a conclusion on what is causing the problem with my mags dropping out. It was a holster problem. The IWB kydex holster I was using covered the mag release button and was pressing up against it just enough to release the mag. I had a couple of others including one that was shaped so that the button was not pressed when in the holster. Tried it and haven't had the problem since.