SilencerCo has announced the release of another threaded barrel. This one is for the popular Smith & Wesson M&P Shield chambered in 9mm.
The barrel is made from 416R stainless steel and has a total length of 3.65 inches. Its black Nitride coating protects which has a 1:10 right hand twist and is finished with a 1/2×28 threaded crown. The barrel is a simple drop in adaptation to the 9mm Shield. It retails for $220 and ships with a SilencerCo thread protector to keep the threads in good working order when accessories aren’t mounted.
This is an interesting move from SilencerCo as the Shield is a small handgun, however, the fact that there are more than 1 million M&P Shields in customers hands might shed a bit of light on the matter.
The Shield is a popular single stack concealed carry 9mm with its 8+1 magazine capacity. The fact that it is easy to shoot and conceal, and is reasonably priced, supports this popularity. As a result, there are plenty of accessories available for the single stack M&Ps. Holsters and sights are the most common and there are even some performance enhancing products like the Plan B Magazine Base Pad.
The threaded barrel has an obvious use of mounting a suppressor or some type of muzzle brake, but in addition, this barrel could serve as a simple after-market option for folks that are looking to swap out a ported, Performance Center barrel. This would allow the user to have the lightened slide of the ported gun without the worries a ported gun can bring when it comes to self-defense.
Whether for practical use or for a bit of quiet fun, this new threaded barrel from SilencerCo is another strong indicator of the direction that the handgun market is headed.
