Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
Well, it looks official anyways! Gallery of Guns is listing the new Shield in their online store now, which is great news!
Last week I posted about an image that I had come across while surfing on Facebook that showed the S&W Shield “No Safety”, but it wasn’t clear if the image was real at the time. It’s now looking like it’s real, and I’m pretty excited about it.
As far as I can tell, the new SKU for the no safety model of the Shield is 10035 which is probably what you will need if you want to order one of these from your local dealer.
I’m excited about this, removing the safety from the S&W Shield will really help to move it up the ranks of concealed carry pistols.
EDIT: S&W is now listing the no safety model on their website.
I agree. This is great news. I wonder if S&W will come up with a different sear block to modify existing Shields to the new style?
I doubt it. I think the only issue is with modifying the frame to hold in the sear pin, and since the frame is serialized, I don’t see them coming out with a fix. They would rather sell you a panel pistol, ya know?
Ain’t that the truth! As many times as I have been into the innards of my Shield, you would think that I would know that. I just couldn’t remember how the sear block and safety were set up.
I have my Shield set up exactly like I want it, with the Apex DCAEK and Talon grips. The ONLY thing that bugs me about the pistol is the manual safety.
I also have the XDs 9, the only thing that bugs me about that pistol is the fact that it has a 9 round magazine rather than an 8 rounder.
The list on the Shield is $449. The low end XDS in 9mm appears to be about $599… so that makes it appealing from a cost point of view. Looks like the XDS extended magazine will hold one more round than the Shield, but both hold 7+1 with the standard magazine. I may have to check this out. Thanks for the heads up.
Yeah, and I’m expecting to see a flood of Shields with safeties to hit the market pretty soon as well. Will probably drive the used market for them down a bit.
Imho, the XDs has a slightly better stock trigger, even post recall than the Shield. There are slight modifications one can do on the stock XDs trigger that make it even better and it doesn’t cost a cent. Or, you can put in a Powder River Precision trigger kit for less than $20. That kit makes the XDs trigger really nice!
My only complaint with the XDs is the lack of an 8 round magazine. I can conceal the 8 round Shield no problem. I can’t say that about the 9 round XDs.
And then there is the price of the XDs compared to the Shield. Although recently, I have seen a mail-order retailer selling the XDs 9 for $459. Figure in a FFL transfer and you are still less than $500. My guess is Springfield has lowered the prices because they got advanced intel on the new Shield.
With the Shield trigger, I had to add the Apex DCAEK (duty and carry kit) to get the trigger like I wanted it. That cost me another $50 or so. So, I am into my Shield for $475.
I think I got really lucky on the XDs trigger after the recall, mine is fantastic.
S&W has now listed the 9mm/.40 no safety on their website
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product4_750001_750051_831056_-1_757781_757781_757781_ProductDisplayErrorView_Y
Nice!