Smith and Wesson 9mm Shield Magazine Difficulties

[Tommy T]

Bought a new S and W 9mm Shield (1st generation) a few months ago. I didn't get a chance to shoot it until recently. I like the gun, although it's little snappy, I guess due to its light weight.

Gun came with 2 magazines, a 7 rounder and an 8 rounder. Only used the former so far.

To make a long story short, I can't believe how hard it is to load that 7 round magazine to its 7 round capacity. First 5 rounds go in with no problem. To get round 6 in, you need to apply tremendous pressure to the already loaded cartridge to get it into the magazine. Plan on taking 20 0r 30 seconds of hard work to get it in. After that, there is no way I can get the 7th round in the magazine without depressing the middle of the 6th round with a screwdriver. I've owned a dozen automatics over my lifetime and have never had a magazine that was so hard to load. I have a friend who is a machinist and much stronger than me, and he had the same problem in trying to load round 7.

I've owned many autos in the past, from Glock, Walther, Ruger, Beretta, etc. and have always had no difficulty in loading mags to capacity.

I loaded the magazine with 7 dummies and put it away. I'm hoping if it stays fully loaded for some time, the chronic spring compression might improve the situation. As this is a very common gun, I'm sure many forum readers have experience with this pistol. I'm wondering have had the same experience I've had.


Thanks for any feedback.

Tommy

[Proud Pennsylvanian]

Buy a Maglula clip loader. I use mine to load S&W Shield magazines 8 round & several 9 Round magazines that were modified with Samson mag extensions from 8 round capacity. Makes loading mags easy & quick.

[bugout]

also highly recommend magguts spring kit to get +1 and +2 in stock mags