tire iron blog

S&W Shield 9mm Accuracy Testing

• By tire iron
• 3 November, 2013
• 4 Comments

After doing some accuracy testing with my S&W M&P 9mm full size, to include the fitted match grade barrel, and seeing the difference in groups regarding ammo in the same barrel, I decided to do the same type of test with my S&W Shield in 9mm.

S&W Shield 9mm ammo types

I used the same ammo that I shot through the full size gun.  Namely Wolf 115 grain FMJ, American Eagle 115 grain FMJ as the practice ammo and Federal HST 124 +P, Winchester Ranger 127 +P+ and Federal HST 147 grain standard pressure loads for my CCW ammo.

DISTANCE TO TARGET

Since the Shield has a very short sight radius (compared to the full size M&P) I decided to whimp out and do the testing at 15 yards instead of 25 yards.  My eyes are to the point now where I cannot clearly see the front sight – it is blurry no matter what I try.  I did put a piece of tape over my shooting glasses that I had put a VERY small hole in and that did help to lessen the fuzz somewhat but I long for the days where the front sight was razor sharp. Oh well, those days are gone forever.  In other words these groups are the best my eyes can do.  You might do better or you might do worse, but you really should check out your gun/ammo accuracy yourself.

RELIABILITY

I have run over a thousand rounds through my Shield, and shooting it this time proved no different than every other time I shot it, which is that it runs and runs and runs.  Zero malfunctions.  Which is JOB #1 for a CCW gun, and the Shield does Job #1 perfectly.

ROUNDS ON TARGET

As you can see in the accompanying chart the Shield is a pretty good little shooter, even with my over 40 year old eyes!  What has been surprising to me throughout these accuracy tests is that Wolf ammo shoots pretty dang good.  Wolf is kind of looked at by many as “garbage ammo” – but that is not what I am seeing.  Now instead of giving the disclaimers of “I shoot Wolf because it is cheap” you can say “I shoot Wolf because it is accurate ammo.”  What I was really happy to see was how well the Federal HST 147 grain load did in the Shield.  That is my preferred ammo to carry in this handgun so the fact that is the most accurate is the icing on the cake.

TEST YOUR GUN AND AMMO

The bottom is this – the results in this article is what I can do with my handgun with the chosen ammo.  Your gun may shoot totally different groups with the ammo that my gun loves, and vice versa.  So get out to the range and test your handgun/ammo combination and see what works best! Hope you enjoy my articles. If you find they do help you, please help me out by sharing, liking and subscribing!  Thanks for reading and have a great day.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO!

Target on left is with HST 147 grain standard pressure with a group size of 2.1″ and the group on the right is with Wolf 115 FMJ with a group size of 2.83″.