I just picked up a S&W Shield in .45, anyone loading lead?

[Bula]

Good Evening All,

Just Picked up a new Smith Shield in .45 acp (super cheap AND with a $75 rebate). I'm hoping that it will feed my 200g SWC (Lee) loads. I have the round nose and the truncated cone molds as well, but I like saving lead when killing paper. Anyone want to share their successes or failures with this little autoloader? Looking forward to your help Gentlemen (and maybe Ladies).

Respectfully,
Bula

[FlyfishermanMike]

I'm in the same boat. I haven't shot any lead through mine yet. I have a Lee 452-228-1R that I use in my Glock 30. I'll do a plunk test to see if they'll work with the Shield. Great gun and such a deal!

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[35remington]

It hasn't yakked on any lead I've shot thru it yet. HG 68 pattern SWC, 230 LRN by Lee and Lyman, RCBS 230 Cowboy plus several others in smaller quantity. The 230 can be loaded to replicate the high dollar hollow points in speed and is a favorite, but volume shooting is that bullet loaded to lower speed or the HG type 200 loaded to 775-800 fps. Mostly the HG.

Recoil is surprisingly mild. Later this summer I will have an extensive write up of various loadings posted here in Favorite Cartridge. Should be of interest.

[Catshooter]

My normal 45 load is the Lyman 452424 over 4.7 or so grains of Universal Clays. My Shield loves it. I haven't chronoed it yet from that short little barrel but I will.


Cat

[35remington]

A prediction will be that it is rather slow. A very modest charge of powder even given the heavy bullet. Certainly a revolver SWC is an odd choice for a plastic CC autoloader, but if it works, it works!

[Bula]

Good info so far. Thanks.

Lyman 452424?? and it works?, I'd never expect a 250+ grain SWC to work out of this platform. Great to know, just in case I need to kill a bowling pin at a relatively short distance.

Manually cycled a mag full of the Lee 200g SWC and they slipped in and out with zero rough spots or hang ups. I think this is looking more and more promising. I load these to ball velocity for a factory sprung Colt Gov Model. These should run this Shield slide fine.

Thanks all, keep the info coming!

Bula

[Bula]

Follow up. The 200g lee swc shot fine. Did have one bobble out 50 but that was on me as the slide release just doesn't release with a mag inserted (yet). Shot the lee truncated cone just fine as well. The round nose shoots too. I think I have a keeper. Load on all rounds was 4.8g of bullseye. Very controllable and accuracy was really good considering I only had caffeine for breakfast. Stay tuned for more follow ups as this little guy gets broken in. Thanks for the input guys.

[35remington]

It is functionally not a slide release, ever. Just a slide stop. It cannot be activated with a single hand so you are advised to slingshot the slide on this gun to charge it. Mine has not "worn in" nor do I expect it to.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive learned to do that with any semi auto gun
It is functionally not a slide release, ever. Just a slide stop. It cannot be activated with a single hand so you are advised to slingshot the slide on this gun to charge it. Mine has not "worn in" nor do I expect it to.

[35remington]

For guns with a functional slide stop I do not, as the thumb is already right there and the reload is slowed. A slide yank with the reloading hand instead of using the slide stop/release is absolutely foolish with a 1911, for instance.

[PowPow]

ive learned to do that with any semi auto gun

+1

Practice this and your skill works across the board. I'll take coarse-grained motor over fine-grained motor any day.

[35remington]

Having your thumb already directly by a large slide release is not a fine motor skill by any means.

I am not "training" on a gun I am not carrying, and I doubt I will pick up someone else's gun when using my own.

Preference is always personal and depends upon the characteristics of the gun used.

[Walt]

I've had my 45 Shield for several months and it has ran everything I've put in it just fine. From 230 +P Gold Dots to 200 cast SWCs over 3.8 Bullseye. It's a great little gun and amazingly easy to shoot. S&W did an outstanding design job on this one.

[PowPow]

Having your thumb already directly by a large slide release is not a fine motor skill by any means.

Not to get too far off topic: I look forward to running some 452-200-SWC, 452-200-RF, and 452-228-1R through my 45 Shield.

[Lloyd Smale]

most tactical schools teach the pull back and release the slide drill. Your hands already there if you just slapped in a mag and the difference in time is very minimal if you practice it. Main reason I started doing it is many guns like glocks for example have a very small slide release and it takes a good amount of force to apply it. I guess I figure that I should only practice one method that covers all my guns. Not a separate one for 1911s. that way any gun you grab is ran the same way.
For guns with a functional slide stop I do not, as the thumb is already right there and the reload is slowed. A slide yank with the reloading hand instead of using the slide stop/release is absolutely foolish with a 1911, for instance.

[35remington]

Probably because most there are using guns that have poor slide releases. If your gun has a good one, no reload is faster because your thumb is much closer to the slide stop and requires no separate motion like a slide yank does. In such situations, the slide release is unquestionably faster. The large release guns are very sure.

If your gun has a poor slide release like a Glock I agree with yanking and can see why they do slide yanking.

Make no mistake.....if a Glock has a decent slide release the Glock fanboys would be saying the slide release would be the only way to do it. Since they don't, well, they do with a different method. Not surprising. As I said, on a 1911 I would be dumb not to use it.

I doubt I will be running several different guns in a reload. I will probably be reloading just one.

[FlyfishermanMike]

Not to get too far off topic: I look forward to running some 452-200-SWC, 452-200-RF, and 452-228-1R through my 45 Shield.
I use the 452-228-1R. I like it but the seating depth is tricky and deceptively deep for a RN. For my Glock 30 I seat at 1.200" Those are on the boarder line for the plunk test in the Shield. Dropping it to 1.900" should do it. Too bad as I have tons for the Glock ready to go.

I've been meaning to grab the 452-200-RF as I love that profile. I usually stick with 230 in the 45 but need to branch out.

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[Lloyd Smale]

Id bet you a dime to a dollar that more tactical schools and professionals using 1911s don't teach using the slide release. Same goes for the military. I guess if its good enough for them...... Most teach the same with an ar15.
Probably because most there are using guns that have poor slide releases. If your gun has a good one, no reload is faster because your thumb is much closer to the slide stop and requires no separate motion like a slide yank does. In such situations, the slide release is unquestionably faster. The large release guns are very sure.

If your gun has a poor slide release like a Glock I agree with yanking and can see why they do slide yanking.

Make no mistake.....if a Glock has a decent slide release the Glock fanboys would be saying the slide release would be the only way to do it. Since they don't, well, they do with a different method. Not surprising. As I said, on a 1911 I would be dumb not to use it.

I doubt I will be running several different guns in a reload. I will probably be reloading just one.

[35remington]

If they are running and teaching 1911's to the exclusion of all others, which they probably are not, I will take that bet. The slide release is activated with the left thumb of a right handed shooter as the gun is brought into position after reloading and simply smokes the alternative, which is the much larger hand movement from magazine loading position, yank the slide and re acquire grip method in speed with the large 1911 slide stop.

The left hand releases the slide immediately after the magazine is slapped in on the way to the firing grip. Absolutely no wasted hand motion or one way then the other way hand directional movement is required.

Since speed of reloading is a "tactical" consideration in any use of a firearm, and since the 1911 stop is so large and easy to hit and immediately within reach of the supporting hand as the firing grip is acquired, you can bet that many 1911 exclusive training sites(if you can find one) use the slide release.

I can tell you for certain Gunsite is one of these. Not everyone has to handicap themselves with Glock procedures if Glock features are not present on their gun. It would be foolish to slow my 1911 reload down.

I know I am not shooting a Glock, so I don't have to throw away the inherent advantage in speed reload reliability a 1911 has over a a Glock while I am at it.

As for the "fine motor skill argument", it ain't. Think about this....compared to hitting a much smaller magazine release button, is it a fine motor skill? No. By that measure Glocks have considerably finer motor skill requirements than a much, much larger 1911 slide release.

[Rainier]

Not everyone has to handicap themselves with Glock procedures if Glock features are not present on their gun.

Made me [smilie=l: Back in the day when I was sorting out Glock trigger I really disliked the tiny slide catch so I installed an extended slide release - kinda nice feature on a Glock 19

[Lloyd Smale]

yup and they cost about 10 bucks to fit one to a glock. If the pros thought the slide release button was the way to run a gun I'm sure those schools would be fitting the customers guns with them before they started training. It takes about 5 minutes to change. I actually have my first glock a 23 fitted with one because at that time I was in the slide release camp and only had shot 1911s. After I practiced the slide pull back a while I never used it again and could care less if any gun was fitted with one. About as usefull as a safety on a defense gun. I guess its ok to train using a slide release if a 1911 is the only gun your going to ever carry but most like me carry different guns on occasion and should train just one way for all guns so that when something happens having to think about how to use a slide release or even whether the gun has a safety or not could get you killed. Its why for the most part I don't use 1911s for ccw anymore. More of a range toy/comp gun for me these days.
Made me [smilie=l: Back in the day when I was sorting out Glock trigger I really disliked the tiny slide catch so I installed an extended slide release - kinda nice feature on a Glock 19

[2shot]

My 45 Shield has gobbled up Maguns #801 185 grain button nose over 3.8 of Bullseye to real hot loads with lead SWC. Haven't had any hitches in over 1000 rounds fired with the #801's and they have a very short OAL. Great shooting guns that seem to eat everything they are fed !

2shot

[PowPow]

I think we can all agree that a mag release is going to be in use in this scenario. That's a necessary fine motor, just like pulling the trigger is. Unless you have a European style mag release like the USP, you'll likely be using your trigger hand's thumb to release the mag.

Drop the mag, (your thumb is still on the mag release), opposite hand grab and insert mag, rack slide with same hand, ready to roll again.

Now, let's identify the additional fine motor skills (2 of them) required in using a slide release.

Drop the mag, (your thumb is still on the mag release), opposite hand grab and insert mag, 1) thumb moving up from mag release to slide release, 2) depress slide release, ready to roll again.

Not a big difference time-wise, but the argument is that your fine motor goes when the adrenaline is pumping through your body. The less fine motor that you have to use, the more likely you are going to remain in the fight. Also worthy of mention, my thumb barely reaches the slide release on 1911s while holding them. For me, racking the slide is not only a reduction of fine motor, but it's also easier for me to do on a 1911.

[35remington]

PP, as explained earlier, the gun holding hand does not operate the slide release and the concern that the gun holding thumb "barely reaches" the slide release is groundless as that thumb is not used. This lays the fine motor concerns to rest. The thumb does not move from mag release to slide release either.

Perhaps the way you are doing it makes it a fine motor skill for you. It certainly seems so.

Shooting schools show you how to run the gun you have. Few insist that the gun "must" be modified. If that were so there is no limit to the parts that could be attached and that is a rabbit hole not many want to go down.

[PowPow]

PP, as explained earlier, the gun holding hand does not operate the slide release and the concern that the gun holding thumb "barely reaches" the slide release is groundless as that thumb is not used. This lays the fine motor concerns to rest. ...

Somehow I missed that in your post. Agreed. It does take fine motor out. I've seen too many folks operate the release with the shooting hand, so that was an auto-reaction on my part.

[PowPow]

Perhaps the way you are doing it makes it a fine motor skill for you. It certainly seems so.

Operating a slide release with the shooting hand is a fine motor for anyone. That was my point.

[35remington]

That is indeed something I agree with, which is why I do not operate it with my shooting hand. Besides, the support hand thumb is directly over it during a reload.