New S&W M&P 9mm Shield after 300 rounds

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The first 200 rounds were the Winchester white box FMJ 115 grain. I'm ready to ship this defective [removed] back to S&W! Failing to eject, failing to fire, stovepipes, you name it! I tried 3 different magazines with the same results. This pistol is field stripped and cleaned after each range visit. My friend who owns the range and 2 of his employees said to send it back. It acted the same way when they fired it, and everybody critiqued the ones shooting..and no 'limp wristing' was going on, so I decided yesterday to send it back. But before I left the range, I decided to buy a box of Freedom munitions 9mm 115 grain reload bullets. It fired 50 rounds perfectly! I tried 50 rounds of Blazerbrass today with not a single hiccup. I guess this pistol just doesn't like the Winchester WB ammo. Has Winchester had some QC issues lately, because I had a problem with at least 1 bullet in almost every magazine I used.
 
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I could see that. WWB will run a little funky in my 1911 and Federal aluminum will run like garbage in my wife's M&P 9C, but perfectly fine in my Shield. Also, I'm pretty sure that WWB will run fine in my Shield- but it's been a while and I could be mixing up the 1911 and the Shield, but I am positive it centered around the WWB.
 
Is this from the batch that was being sold super, super cheap very recently?
I learned my S&W lesson after buying a Smegma 9mm. Switched to German-made Sig Sauers and have cursed S&W's new plastic semi autos since.
 
My experience has been that WWB ammo is garbage (mostly accuracy issues and fouling). I much prefer Federal...........or just about anyone else. However, I would expect my weapon to cycle regardless. I'd send it back.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Is this from the batch that was being sold super, super cheap very recently?
I learned my S&W lesson after buying a Smegma 9mm. Switched to German-made Sig Sauers and have cursed S&W's new plastic semi autos since.



Yes, with the S&W $75 rebate I ended up paying roughly $215 for the 9mm Shield. After shooting the last 100 rounds perfectly, with 2 different brands of ammo, actually cheap ammo, I'm thinking it's the WWB rather than the pistol. I have 250 rounds coming from Freedom munitions, so time will tell.
 
Sounds like the M&P 9mm Shield a friend of mine got. Same symptoms. He has already sent it back once and it's still doing the same thing. He has to send it back again. He's tried different magazines, different ammo, and still gets the same results.
 
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At one time WWB was an excellent low cost FMJ practice ammo but times change and I hear it has many issues. As for your M&P Shield the pistol as a whole is extremely reliable I have many friends that have them including myself all of us have between 1,000-3,400 rounds fired and only one has had some issue when new but after aprox 250 rounds it seems to work fine. S&W has real good customer support so if you do have an issue Smith will fix it.

Never trust a new gun for carry shoot at leased 300 rounds threw it before you trust it I don't care who builds it!
 
When I first bought my Glock 19, I ran WWB through it with multiple issues. Switched to most any-other brand and have not had a hiccup since! I refuse to buy WWB anymore, I don't trust it one bit.
 
Originally Posted By: gman2304
The first 200 rounds were the Winchester white box FMJ 115 grain. I'm ready to ship this defective @#%^& back to S&W! Failing to eject, failing to fire, stovepipes, you name it! I tried 3 different magazines with the same results. This pistol is field stripped and cleaned after each range visit. My friend who owns the range and 2 of his employees said to send it back. It acted the same way when they fired it, and everybody critiqued the ones shooting..and no 'limp wristing' was going on, so I decided yesterday to send it back. But before I left the range, I decided to buy a box of Freedom munitions 9mm 115 grain reload bullets. It fired 50 rounds perfectly! I tried 50 rounds of Blazerbrass today with not a single hiccup. I guess this pistol just doesn't like the Winchester WB ammo. Has Winchester had some QC issues lately, because I had a problem with at least 1 bullet in almost every magazine I used.


Lots of pistols don't like the White Box. Always start-off new handguns with round nose FMJs and better-yet check out S&W Gun Forums to see what the model likes best, prior to your first ammo purchase.
 
It should eat every type of ammunition period.If it that picky something is wrong. It may be that it was just a tight fit and it needed to wear in. My G42 chocked on every 3rd round I have gone through almost 2000 rounds without aj hickup, That includes 1000 rounds of TulAmo.

Shields have a great reputation. I had one and my son still does. Neither of them have had an issue. Go back to the other Ammo and if it chokes on that again send it back my 3 Glocks and Ruger LCP eat anything so should the Shield.

The Limp Wrist thing os over-rated IMHO. Has to be really bad to cause it to fail to eject.
 
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The only "Winchester White Box" ammo that you want is the NATO spec stuff with all black text. That ammo is consistent. The [censored] with the red text that you find at Walmart is not consistent at all.
 
I have a Ruger P 95 I had to send back twice for proper repair. Finally they replaced the slide and It ran 4,000 rounds with out clean only lubing. I had to clean it because it was oozing crud and ruined 3 Tee shirts.
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It is a gun I love to hate. But it works well. S@W will fix it.
 
Originally Posted By: gman2304
The first 200 rounds were the Winchester white box FMJ 115 grain. I'm ready to ship this defective @#%^& back to S&W! Failing to eject, failing to fire, stovepipes, you name it! I tried 3 different magazines with the same results. This pistol is field stripped and cleaned after each range visit. My friend who owns the range and 2 of his employees said to send it back. It acted the same way when they fired it, and everybody critiqued the ones shooting..and no 'limp wristing' was going on, so I decided yesterday to send it back. But before I left the range, I decided to buy a box of Freedom munitions 9mm 115 grain reload bullets. It fired 50 rounds perfectly! I tried 50 rounds of Blazerbrass today with not a single hiccup. I guess this pistol just doesn't like the Winchester WB ammo. Has Winchester had some QC issues lately, because I had a problem with at least 1 bullet in almost every magazine I used.


As they say, 'There's your problem!'

As far as Winchester's ammunition quality getting worse recently, I don't think that's correct. Winchester has been disappointing me for almost 30 years. After enough times getting burned you quit sticking your hand in the fire.

BSW
 
I too have had some issues with WWB. It is hit and miss because some I have had has been great (the good stuff was mostly .40 caliber for some reason).

For range ammo I really like PMC, Blazer Brass, Fed Eagle or even Freedom Munitions all of which is as cheap or cheaper and does not give me any problems.

If your Smith runs reliably on everything else I think you have your answer.
 
On the shooter's forums and manufacturer specific forums, they've been reporting quality issues with WWB for years. So many great pistols have never had a single problem with any ammo except WWB.
 
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
I too have had some issues with WWB. It is hit and miss because some I have had has been great (the good stuff was mostly .40 caliber for some reason).

For range ammo I really like PMC, Blazer Brass, Fed Eagle or even Freedom Munitions all of which is as cheap or cheaper and does not give me any problems.

If your Smith runs reliably on everything else I think you have your answer.


I've ran about 150 rounds of Blazer Brass through my new 9mm Shield since my OP. No problems at all, not even the slightest hiccup. I have 250 rounds on order from Freedom Munitions, but I understand they are s-l-o-w to ship and will see how their ammo works as well. I ordered 100 rounds of Blazer Brass on line from Outdoorlimited early this morning and picked it up at their warehouse, since it's only about 7 miles from my house. I'm glad I didn't send my pistol back to Smith, since the Remington WB seems to be the culprit. I want to try several different brands just to be sure.
 
Remington UMC is not in a white box. I've not seen plain white box Remington FMJs in national sports stores like Cabelas, Bass Pro, Gander, Dunhams - etc
 
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Originally Posted By: jjjxlr8
Bad Winchester...
9mm115fmjwin.jpg


Good Winchester...
WNQ4318.jpg




There's quite a difference between WWB 9m/m Luger (red lettering) and the Winchester 9m/m NATO (black lettering). The NATO spec rounds are loaded to U.S commercial SAAMI +P equivalent. Remember that as originally developed and used throughout most of Europe since like 1904ish, European military 9m/m ammo, especially the German loaded stuff, is running darn near to what we could consider +P+ power levels - and they ran that through the Parabellum (Luger) pistols for decades.

Commercial 9m/m ammo in the U.S. has been lawyer loaded down ( as has the 7.9x57m/m Mauser rifle cartridge ) because of the massive number of questionable pistols that came into the country after WW-II, mainly from South America and other places with questionable wartime quality control. This is also why, for example, the Federal 9BPLE ( 9m/m 115gr +P+ ) and other +P+ marked loads have been quasi restricted for law enforcement and military use - because it kinda sorta relieves them of some liability when you stuff it into some Egyptian clone of the Beretta and beat it to death.

9m/m pistols made in the U.S. and Europe, particularly since WW-II - such as the SIG-Sauer, Beretta, Browning, Glock, HK, Walther, nearly all M1911 platforms, and any others I'm leaving out, are more than capable of digesting the 9m/m NATO loads.

Plain white box Winchester is great for immediate action drills and tap-rack-bang practice . . . then you collect the spent brass and reload it to real 9m/m spec.
 
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