About the Smith & Wesson Shield Pistol
Specifically engineered for everyday carry and personal defense applications, the Smith & Wesson® Shield® is a striker-fired micro-compact pistol, built upon a lightweight polymer frame with improved ergonomics and enhanced reliability in personal defense applications. Designed to deliver deep concealment and snag-free carry in any self-defense application, the Smith & Wesson Shield features an advanced polymer frame with a lightweight safety trigger with a crisp, clean break, offering dependable stopping power in a lightweight and concealable package. The Shield boasts a 3.1” barrel and a reinforced slide and frame, engineered to withstand the heavy recoil of 9mm +P ammunition without forfeiting concealability or comfort.
What is a striker-fired fire system?
Instead of pulling an external hammer with your thumb, or utilizing an internal hammer operated by a sear and trigger pull, striker-fired pistols require the slide to be pulled rearward, or “racked” back and released forward, pulling the firing pin rearward and capturing it under spring tension. The trigger releases the striker mechanism, allowing the spring tension to release and force the pin forward to strike the primer, firing the round in the chamber.
Striker-fired pistols are simple in their operation because after the shooter manually racks the slide to chamber a round, each trigger pull fires a single round, ejects the spent casing, loads another round into the chamber, rearms the firing pin, and is ready to be shot again.
What’s the Advantage of a Micro-Compact Carry Pistol?
Micro-compact pistols are incredibly easy to conceal in virtually any IWB carry position, and even work with some pocket holsters. Though you may sacrifice overall carry capacity (most micro-compact pistols offer a 6+1 or 10+1 capacity), you’ll enjoy deeper concealment with virtually no printing.
With the Smith & Wesson Shield, you get the best of both worlds, enjoying deep concealment, improved accuracy, and an impressive 8+1 capacity right out of the box.
Shop our full collection of Smith & Wesson pistol magazines and accessories today and enjoy superior firepower and dependable operation in harsh tactical, competitive, and target shooting applications without breaking the bank.