S&W Performance Center Shield Plus Carry Comp

By Massad Ayoob

The best cost-to-feature ratio of all micro-compact’s?

Smith & Wesson’s answer to the “micro-pistol” market – striker-fired polymer frame 9mms with more or less double-stacked magazines – has for some time now been the Shield Plus. Here, we examine a variation with the Performance Center treatment, called the Carry Comp.

Chevron-shaped grasping grooves adorn the slide front and back, up and over, to ensure hand traction when manipulating under adverse conditions – rain, blood, mud, sweat or tears, or perhaps gloves with too smooth a palmar surface. The test sample came to me from On Target with two sets of sights. The standard fixed sights are simply excellent: a big U-notch rear and a big ol’ green ball set in a Patridge front sight with a Tritium insert, what my late, lamented friend gun writer Dean Grennell used to call “a sight for a fight in the night.”

But, modernists will be pleased to know that the PC Shield Plus is optic-ready, this one mounting a Holosun SCS-Carry-GR, the latter two letters denoting a green dot instead of the traditional red dot. I, for one, find that easier to catch.

Signature features of this Performance Center gun include the trigger and the built-in barrel vent. Piercing both barrel and slide, the latter is not an expansion chamber compensator that catches expanding gases so they pull the muzzle forward and reduce rearward recoil, but instead, the intent is for the gas jets to be directed upward to help hold the muzzle down, promoting quicker shot-to-shot recovery of aim in sustained fire.

The trigger is flat-faced, in the currently popular fashion, and features a safety tab. The PC Shield Plus ships with three magazines: one 15-round, one 13, and one flush-fit 10-round.

The Trigger

Trigger control is at the heart of good, effective shooting, and it follows that a good trigger pull promotes such control. Contrary to popular belief, a “good trigger pull” is not necessarily light, but it should be smooth and predictable. This PC Shield Plus delivers on both counts. There is a light take-up before the trigger and index finger reach what’s called the “wall” – palpable firm resistance – and then a very short continued roll to a clean break with little perceptible “backlash,” or rearward movement of the trigger after the shot breaks. The pistol even has a trigger stop to prevent that, molded into the polymer frame itself. Pull weight, measured on a Lyman digital gauge, averaged 5.96 pounds.

On the Range

Accuracy testing was my standard protocol: three loads of different brands in the most popular bullet weights. Five shots at 25 yards from a Matrix rest on a concrete bench, measuring all five (to get a good idea of potential accuracy in experienced hands under ideal conditions) and then measuring the best three hits, which decades of testing have taught me will be about equal to what all five shots would have done from a machine rest.

My friend and shooting buddy, David Rodgers, has had good luck with Precision One 147 grain subsonic round nose ball and gave me some to try. The five-shot group stretched to 5.20″ only because I blew a shot, my fault, not the gun’s or the ammo’s. The other four were in 3.0″ and the best three, in 1.90″. Known shooter error doesn’t count: it passed the test.

115 grain 9mm Luger was represented by Federal’s long-proven “man-stopper,” the 9BPLE +P+ jacketed hollow-point. The five-shot group was 3.15″, and the best three, including a double, went into 1.40″.

Remington’s 124 grain +P Golden Saber delivered 4.10″ for five shots, with the best three clustered in 1.45″. The iron sights shot a bit left for me, by the way, with all loads. Fortunately, being in a dovetail, this rear sight is laterally adjustable for the shooter’s eyes.

Reliability? There was a single misfire with 147-grain ammo, and when racked out, the primer appeared to have been solidly hit. It fired when run through the Shield Plus again. I can’t blame the pistol for that.

Bottom Line

The Performance Center’s Shield Plus Carry Comp may kick less because of the port, and shot-recovery time was noticeably quicker. It is a 9mm, after all, and one reason the caliber is so popular today is its mild recoil anyway.

Smith & Wesson Shield pistols have always been a good value. At $649 suggested retail, with its many enhanced features, the Performance Center Shield Plus Carry Comp continues that tradition. See it at your nearest dealer, or for more information, contact Smith & Wesson; Tel: (800) 331-0852; Web: www.smith-wesson.com.

Specifications

Caliber                                   9mm

Action:                                   Striker fired

Sights                                    Night sights/Optic Cut

Barrel Length                          4.0-inches

Slide                                      Stainless steel

Frame                                    Polymer

OAL:                                      7.0 inches

Weight:                                  17.9 ounces

Capacity                                 10+1, 13+1, 15+1

MSRP                                     $649