Chris’s carry piece: the Smith & Wesson M&P9 SHIELD. Especially in the summer, when your duds are smaller and lighter, it stays comfortably on the down low, slipping discreetly into an IWB holster where no one will be the wiser.
Chris’s carry piece: the Smith & Wesson M&P9 SHIELD. Especially in the summer, when your duds are smaller and lighter, it stays comfortably on the down low, slipping discreetly into an IWB holster where no one will be the wiser.
most people would put a phone ahead of a pistol on the buy-list, but not this freedom loving american.
Anyone have any experience with those Thorfire lights?
Enough with the moronic pocket dumps! Really.
You clicked in, you commented. Mission accomplished.
WOW! I had no clue the pocket dump/carryology concept had taken on its own cult status. I have carried undercover in law enforcement for many years and that creates my own bias. Think about it, a knife is never deployed unless the guns are empty or lost in the mud, in the dark, or in water (it happens–unless you have been in a life of death, waist deep in a lake, you may not get it). If that knife is used, it must have a blade that easily gets through denim, shirts, or even jackets. It must have 2 things, first a blade long enough to get deep into vitals, think 6 inches, like the Gerber Viet Nam special forces knife. Second, it must have a very thin and sharp point, like a double edged boot knife. They do not fit in any pocket, maybe OK for a belly band, but not EDC. Second, any gun is fine if it works for you and meets the FBI criteria. Other items do little good in a sudden attack and the best use of that space is probably a spare magazine. Mom always told us to carry a dime, in case we needed to call home, and a small length of string had a 100 uses. And of course, a Case knife with the 2 blades, was all anyone needed. FWIW, I still carry a tiny paraframe Gerber, a handcuff key, and a C rations can opener, and little round tool with phillips head and regular screw driver on it–all on my key chain. I carry the spare mag on the belt as you can never expect to get into a pocket while dodging and diving and you do not want it full of pocket lint or tangled up with the keys. The handgun is in a pocket holster and nothing else is ever allowed in that pocket. My 2 cents.
Did anyone actually read this old farts CL rant?
“[T]he Smith & Wesson M&P9 SHIELD . . . stays comfortably on the down low”
Wait — my Shield is secretly gay? Well that’s it — no more appendix carry!
(Not that there’s anything wrong with it . . . .)
Nothing at all wrong with the Shield and in 40 SW really capable for those occasions when 2 or 3 pit bulls attack at once. Yes, happens more and more, in Oklahoma an 82 year old lady was attacked by 2 and killed last winter, a 17 year old was attacked and killed by 2, then in downtown Oklahoma City a 59 year old was attacked by 2 pits and lost one arm and may lose a leg weeks ago. On May 17th, 2018 a lady near Ardmore Oklahoma was attacked by several stray dogs and died. We all plan for a bear attack or a mugger, but really, dog attacks are more likely. As a police officer I had to coral 5 pits once after they bit one guy, and no I did not kill any of them, but was just lucky. Point I a making is the Shield is fine, I carry a Glock 43 or occasionally the smaller Keltec Pf9, and even a 380 Ruger, but would worry about the dogs with it. Second point is don’t bother with the “backup” knife or light or hander chief. If you have the extra pocket room, put one of those tiny 380s (Keltec, Ruger, SW Bodyguard, Taurus, etc). You are not going to stop anything with your knife, light or hankie. Oh yea, the one in Oklahoma City had a neighbor beating the dogs with a ball bat and it was worthless he said. Cops and ambulance did not show up for half hour and they were only a couple miles away….
FROM GUN TEST here is what is wrong SW MP
No Go Bang Sometimes:
M&P 380 SHIELD EZ Manual Thumb Safety
Smith & Wesson has launched a “consumer advisory” notice for owners of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety pistol, a common concealed-carry sidearm.
“It seems the function of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety pistol can be influenced by the type and quality of ammunition used with the pistol,” said Todd Woodard, Editor of Gun Tests Magazine. “Most gun owners realize that’s the case with most firearms.
“In the case of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety, however, the company has found ‘that in very rare circumstances,’ ammunition that produces a high level of felt recoil can cause the manual safety to move from the Fire position to the Safe position during firing. That means your Shield unexpectedly might not go bang after it’s fired. That could be very bad for a concealed-carry gun owner who’s depending on the EZ in a self-defense situation.”
Should this occur, a company statement says, “You will not be able to fire the next round unless and until the manual safety is reset to the Fire position.”
So, as of April 4, 2018, Smith has engineered the manual safety so that it will be less susceptible to the influence of ammunition weight, velocity, and loads, Woodard reported.
“Any M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety pistol produced before April 4 is eligible for a no-cost upgrade,” he said.
To determine if this consumer advisory applies to your pistol, please utilize the serial number verification tool on the company’s consumer advisory page. Click here to navigate to that page.
Then, Woodard advised, if your pistol is subject to this fix, call Smith & Wesson at (800) 331-0852 or email them at [email protected]. A FedEx return label and shipping instructions to facilitate the return of your M&P 380 Shield EZ pistol will be mailed to you.
Also, Woodard said it’s worth noting a significant ammunition restriction Smith & Wesson posted in the announcement:
WARNING: READ AND FOLLOW THE WARNINGS IN YOUR OWNER’S MANUAL. NEVER USE “PLUS-P” (+P), “PLUS-P-PLUS” (+P+); OR RELOADED AMMUNITION WITH THE M&P 380 EZ. ALWAYS USE FACTORY-MANUFACTURED AMMUNITION PRODUCED TO SAAMI
Lesson #1: Never buy any Version 1.0 of any gun. You will be the beta tester.
But the “significant ammunition restriction” is insignificant. SAAMI hasn’t yet standardized on .380+p loadings, which means that manufacturers should warn against using +p (or worse, +p+) ammo since the user will not know what they’re using and the gun hasn’t been tested to handle the extra pressure.
IIRC, SAAMI has only standardized on .38Spl, 9MM and .45 Cal. in +p, and no caliber in +p+.
Love my Shield 2.0 – I’ve put 500 rounds of mixed ammo through it without a single issue. I’m not sure you can buy a better single stack subcompact for the price right now.
Though why anyone would choose a .380 version, versus 9mm (or .40) is beyond me.
Havn’t once seen a small easily pocket able canister of O.C. in any of these pocket dumps. No ones giving themselves any force options in between fists and lethal force, big mistake in my opinion. I carry a .75 oz canister of Sabre Red, weighs nothing, takes up no space. If your worried about dogs, spray them before the attack even ensues if you can. May not work every time but it beats discharging a fire arm if you don’t have too. O.C. has one major advantage over a gun or knife when used in it’s appropriate niche on the force continuum, under most circumstances your far more likely to get to just walk away as if nothing happened, no fuss, no cops, no courts. I’m in a big city, sprayed a drunk acting up in my local 7/11 once, on video, and had just used my debit card there, I just got in my car and left. Store clerk told me the guy went home decon’ed, came back 2 hours later raising more stink, calling p.d. on his own cell phone to report me, P.D. never even showed up.
I love pepper spray and have used it in law enforcement, back when it was Mace. It does not work reliably on dogs and only about 70% of bears, when the bears are not attacking. Once the dogs attack, it just does not work. I tried to break up two Labradors once and used an entire can of Mace on them, spraying them point blank in the eyes and mouth. Now, I have used the little commercial version several times when a single dog came after my little dog aggressively and if you get them about 10 foot out, they run off. Now as far as bear spray. It has about a 20 foot range and much more spray than personal OC. Problem is bears on the charge can cover about 35 feet per second, and if you start hitting them at 20 feet, they are on you in less than 0.5 seconds. So, once they start the charge you are in trouble. If are two people, one sprays and one shoots if it does not stop. There is a class in Alaska that teaches exactly that.
Now as far as people. I have not used it enough on people to say how well it works. I was always able to wrestle guys into handcuffs and never once used it on a bad guy. The reason is, once you spray a guy, it is in the police car or ranger truck and the trip to jail is not fun. I recommend it to every woman who walks or jogs or just walking to cars while shopping. Studies show it works very well on normal people, just not so much on people who are high. The beauty of it is that you can spray the bad guy and buy some time to just leave as you did, good plan. Once you deploy the spray, then you can back away and use your gun if he is armed. I was also a Military Policeman for about 6 years, and they gassed us over and over in training. The military grade CS and CN gas puts me down in about 2 seconds. So, I agree, by all means carry it and use the gun as a backup. Just be aware it is short range and if the bad guy is armed it is something you need to get out of your hand. Just my 2 cents…..Oh yea, in places where guns are not legal, I would surely carry it.
The only bears I have experience with are black bears from back packing in Yosemite. The black bears there will pretty much pull up a stool around the camp fire to play cards and smoke weed with you, lol, so I,ve never had to spray or shoot any of them. They’re better people than most people in my experience. If I had to; I would choose O.C. over even a .44 magnum for bears or big cats. From the videos I’ve seen online, O.C. seems to activate there natural instinct to protect there vision and retreat, versus a bullet wound which activates there adrenal response . Pit Bulls are different though, they are selectively bread to be crazy. I would want a gun for them.
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