Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Shield or XD-S 3.3, 9mm for daily carry?

I've been thinking about buying one of these two for a daily carry weapon. I thought I had my mind made up on the Shield but now I've re-fondled an XD-S and I'm back to square one with my decision.

What are your opinions on the two?

Thanks in advance!

I ALWAYS have my XD-S with me!!

Which ever one you like best. I have both and a G43. My wife liked the Shield the best and took it (after I put Trijicon HD's and an APEX trigger in it). When I carry a small gun, it's usually the G43 now. But, I still carry a G19 90% of the time.

manual of arms with the XDs, I see the grip safety as problematic. I have a 43 and two shields, I can find no fault with any of them. I had a PM9, very accurate but long trigger pull and reset was long. Go shoot them all before you buy anything.

I had an XDs .45, and the grip safety was problematic for me. It was not as ergonomic and positive as the 1911 grip safeties that I used back in the day.

My experience also. I really thought I was going to like the XD but just couldn't warm up to it. I like Glock, but really like the M&P line up the best. I carry a Shield 9mm.

Shield over the XD, and Glock 43 over the Shield.

I've had a XDS .45 ever since they came out and carry it almost daily. Never had any problem whatsoever with the grip safety. And I prefer it over my Glock 43.

That's like me ... Glock 17 the vast majority of the time, and occasionally the Glock 43. Examples of when I'd carry the 43 were like a couple of weeks ago when I had to take my dog to the vet. Lots of bending down or sitting on the floor to help the techs and the vet handle my dog.

Exactly. Who needs one more thing that could potentially go wrong.

The grip safety is a big problem for women with small hands. My girlfriend bought an XDS before we started dating on the advice of a gun counter comando. She is small in statue with small hands and has difficulty keeping the grip safety engaged 10% of the time; no matter how much I work with her. I ended up buying her a Shield and that was the end of the story.

I have both, and love both. I will say the XDS is a tad heavier by about 1.5 oz if that matters to you. I am however capable of concealing the XDS 45 (same as the 9mm) better than my shield. I would say whatever you like better its a wash. get what fits your hand.

my personal opinion is, XDS in 45 and Shield in 9mm. So if you want a 9, then its the shield. If you want a 45, then its XDS over the shield.

Neither, both are too big for optimal CC, and too small for firepower.

PF9 REVIEW

Kel-Tec has iffy quality, IMO. For a handgun the same size, but better quality and reliability, I'd recommend the Ruger P9S Pro. But the Glock and Shield are both almost as compact as the Ruger and the Kel-Tec, and both have simpler take down procedures than either of them.

My 1911 is "almost" the same size as a G43 too.

Reality is that the PF-9 is lighter, thinner,higher capacity than all of them. And none of them are a good 1st pistol.

Can't argue with that.

Thanks for the replies everyone.


Leaning back towards the Shield.

Why is this? I am intrigued by these statements.

Why is this? I am intrigued by these statements.

Nothing particularly wrong with it as a first handgun. It's just not what first comes to mind as a good first handgun. Usually, it's something more ideally shootable, rather than something that's designed for maximum concealed carry ease. The two purposes generally don't exactly parallel.

An analogy to revolvers would be comparing a J-Frame to a K-Frame .38 Special. The J is great for concealed carry, but the K is more what you'd want a newbie to initially learn to shoot on.

I know you are fan of the g17 vs. the g19; can I assume that you consider the 17 as being a better first pistol than the 19?

I would say so, unless you have hands so small as not to matter. For me, the extra grip length makes a difference.

I would have bought one for $300 when you could buy it direct from the Croatian manufacturer if it had no grip safety. Springfield is an interesting company, one day the LGS employees were pushing any springfield hard and they had all this crap that came with the gun holsters, magazines, carrying case kind of like a lego set I guess. I found out they got points and if they got enough they could get a free gun, which they could sell for cash.

Ditto

This wouldn't be my first pistol. Just my first "small enough to carry daily" pistol.

Shield.



Dave

The shield is a fine first gun. Is recoil going to be more than a full size Glock 17, well sure, but its not unmanageble and really isn't going to be much more. Since getting CCW in our state many of my friends who are not shooters got along just fine with the shield. If you learn good shooting posture, and practice recoil is nothing on that gun. I would just stay away from .40SW as your first gun and maybe even 45 acp. Again, the shield is a really nice shooter so is the XDS 9mm. You could even look at the Kahr CW9 which is also fantastic.

Its starts with what feels best in your hand. IMO also stay away from the small revolvers like the SW 642. Those are ALOT more harsh to shoot than a small 9 auto. But if the gun feels good in your hand you will shoot it better and recoil won't be a problem.

The Shield. Much prefer it to Glock and for me it's a better fit than the Springfield. Easy to shoot well.

I don't like the grip on the Shield - too narrow on the back strap. I like the feel of the G43, although I am not a big fan of Glock. I don't care for the XDs Grip Safety, as I have seen some reports of the safety breaking, which makes it impossible to cycle the slide and get the live round out. You can't fire it to get rid of it either...since the safety is broke.

Fail.

My feeling exactly. I've shot other people's Shields and couldn't hit much with them, but shoot my Glock 43 just fine. I also shoot the Ruger LC9S Pro just fine. Not the Shield, though.

Goes along with what I mentioned before, get the one that YOU like the best in your hands. Find one to shoot if you can before you buy. I wear XL gloves and shoot them all fine, but prefer the Shield and G43 over the XDS.

I've got a xds in 45 after a magazine it starts chewing up my hand also have a khar cw9 that I carry daily accuracy is wonderful and fits the hand better

Keep in mind that the xds was designed for the 45 cap. It's an awesome little gun. I don't have one in 9mm because They only hold but maybe ONE more round. I have zero experience with the shield. Check out smith and Wesson forum though. For the record, I love my xds 45 acp. It's one of the very first ones,

XD-S in .45. It's never failed in many hundreds of rounds. Exceptionally accurate. Slim. Ugly as all get out.

I have both the Shield in 9mm and the XDs in .45 acp. Of those two I like and shoot the Shield better. That said, I like my Kahr, CW9 better than either of them and that's what I carry the most.

Neither.

Can them both & get a Glock 26 or 27 & carry it in a Remora holster; thank me later.

Add the Pearce extension to the mag & grind the curved end off straight. Not a pocket gun, but if you don't mind a little bulge (most don't) it'll carry in a jeans front pocket.

Enough firepower & accurate enough to 25 yards.

MM

I like my shield 9, 1000 RNDS and no bobles. accurate for what it is. Easily concealed, and comfortable.

LC

I jumped on the G43 and Shield bandwagon, in 9mm, then a shield 45. Of the 3 I like the Shield 45 ACP the best. Now after all the fuss about the single stack 9 mm guns my daily carry gun is a G27 in a kydex holster with the pierce +1 extensions. Odd after all the hubbub I am back where we all started.

While the G27 is a little sporty for some to shoot, the bigger grip compared to the Shield in any caliber, still makes it handle better than the smaller grip guns, but obviously at the expense of being a little less amenable to straight pocket carry.

For those liking a little less sporty, the G26 is great too.

I will say that my wife has a S&W M&P Compact & that is also a really nice shooting & accurate pistol as well in a comparable sized package to the G26/27 & I like it a lot too & would be perfectly content with that as my EDC.

MM

I would choose most anything over an XD, All professional training companies seem to have the same opinion of them. Do your own research there.

I have a Glock 43, and a Gen 4 Glock 19 myself.
I like the S&W Sheild, and the S&W 2.0 compact 9mm, a lot too.

I don't know your skill level or how much training you have, but being able to Shoot a Glock 43 / Shield size pistol, and being able to "run" it effectively in defense of your life are two different things. If I was pointing someone to a First pistol it would most likely be a Glock 19 , Gen 3, 4 , or 5 (doesn't matter), with the S&W 2.0 compact coming in 2nd, only because it does not have the history record of the Glock. Im not a big SIG fan (I think the sight to bore ratio is too high personally), but you could put the Sig 320 in the conversation, just not my cup of tea.

mg

Nothing wrong with a Glock 26/27 for carry, but not comparable really because you're talking about a double stack size magazine/grip. At the same time, you have double the capacity or very close.

Lots of good stuff here. Thanks!

From the reviews that I have read the Shield 9 appears to be a good gun for the the money. My Glock 19 Gen 4 is my RV/house gun and my EDC is an LCR38. I am considering the Shield 9 as my EDC.

We had a new Running's store open up and they had the Shield 9mm on sale for their grand opening. I picked one up on Friday. It's a nice gun to shoot.

Nice.. good choice Excellent CC gun.

Had no idea it was so dangerous to go jogging in Minnesota.

haha

If I could jog/run, I wouldn't need a carry gun! lol

Thanks Mark and thank all of you for contributions!

Rooster