Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W Equalizer

I see S&W just announced a new model in the EZ line. It looks like they have incorporated EZ technology with 10+1, 13+1 and 15+1 capacity and an optics cut slide.
My wife saw it and really perked up when I showed it to her. We hope to find one for her to try out. She’s ready to buy one right now. She likes her 380 EZ and 9 EZ but is ready to transition to an optic sighted one.

Is it a 380 or 9mm?

9mm Luger.

Here’s the link to the product info. Weird though, the email shows it as optics ready, but their website doesn’t list it as such.

https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/equalizer?sku=13592

If 15 round magazine actually fits Shield Plus there will be severe shortage of these magazines.

I'm an intruder here. My 'usual' hangouts in Mauser or Winchester 'Fire' Forums. Much of the 'carry' stuff just head shaking. A lot of years concealed carry professionally. Not a lot before "ball & chain" morphing! My last Agency carry the Glock 26 of nineties era, slick snag free utility! Did a lot of airline travel & "fanny pack" carry made, my preference. Fundamentally don't understand a lot of alleged "carry guns" nowadays, not to mention 'optics' by whatever name. Handguns other than big-rig stuff for specialized need folks or handgun hunting; as closeup & personal as 'defensive'... Heavy, bulky, snag-drag, gadget loaded...
I don't understand!
Sorry if to disrupt & no reply obligatory!
Best!
John

Please stick to your Mauser and Winchester Forums.

Thanks.

John does not understand need for extra gadgets on closeup & personal DEFENSIVE gun. This super flat snag-free 9x19 pistol with 6-shot magazine fits into average size cell phone case, a perfect fit......




This is professional grade pistola designed for experienced shooters who can handle sharp recoil of small handguns.

I give team at S&W a lot of credit. They have come up with innovative designs very suitable for grandpas and grandmas, bravo!

The best Glock could do is either offer smaller .380/9mm 6-shot pistols or slightly larger versions with 10-round factory magazines. If Glock made slingshot for defense Glock fan boys would stand in line to buy it.

Slavek, maser, glockdoofus etc. Stop posting on my thread. You don’t fool anyone with your fake Euro vocabulary or your google knowledge base.

Thanks for bringing this product to life, the elderly need our respect and support. I am glad S&W through innovation is serving this important segment of population

Sooch on You Tube did a review on it. He's big on everything. Excellent camera guy with organized presentation though. Interesting option for weaker hands. I do like the Shield Plus. Shoots good to be so small. Easy to carry. 13 + 1 sure beats 7 or 8. At some point that's enough.

This page of the S&W website does mention it. Not that it matters, of course...

I have the EZ 9mm, and have always thought if they would make one exactly the same but with a double stack magazine, it would make me happy. And now they've done it. I will very possibly end up getting one.

It could be that whoever entered the catalog specs goofed up.
My wife says that I need to order one for her.
Being the loving husband that I am, the call goes in to the gunpusher emporium today. 😎

I was always put off by the grip safety, thinking it was a cocking lever. So I don't get the EZ part. Just learned it's a single action, hammer fired design. The grip safety is just that. Ugly as it is, that clean break trigger and longer barrel is an attractive option. Their website sucks! All big corporations hire the same knot heads.

Your self sacrificing nature is a shining example to all.


I like the grip safety---one reason I chose an XD over a Glock for carry. I probably won't buy one for several reasons, but it's not because I perceive that there's something wrong with the new gun.

If you actually shot any real guns, you might know what a stupid comment that is.

The EZ has what may be the best non-1911 trigger to come in any modern pistol, and that's possible because of the hammer and grip safety. But that grip safety is actually a liability to elderly people with weak or disfigured hands. The EZ line is easier to shoot accurately than a lot of compact striker fired pistols - when the grip safety actually allows it to fire. If S&W was really looking out for the elderly with this design, they would put the same grip safety that's on the Performance Center version on all of the EZ pistols.

I had one. Got rid of it because my hand wouldn't deactivate the grip safety reliably and it wasn'tMRDS ready anyway. So they've fixed one disadvantage but apparently not it's worst fault.

OBTW, I contacted S&W and asked if they'd sell me the PC grip safety so I could have it installed. They declined.

Brownell's has them in stock... and their pictures show it to be optics ready.



If it's an issue for enough people, or not? The aftermarket folks will probably step up.

I know it's an expensive pain... but would they install one if you sent your pistol to them?


Jerry

The EZ is a great design. Glad to see Smith is expanding the line.

Hey buddy😁 would you mind telling my wife that?
I would appreciate it. 😂😂

A thoughtful and sensitive husband would also order a gun for himself, so your wife's pistol doesn't make that long, lonely trip by itself.

Sure thing. Maybe you could help me out a little too!

My gun pusher said I am about #5 on the list for a new Equalizer.
So at least I can tell my wife that hers is ordered and will be here when they can get one for her.
😅

Sarge, earlier this week I picked up an M&P 40, so this one for her is just to even things up.

River Rider, let your wife know that I think you’re an ideal husband, and she should be happy to have you. Think that will work?

I kinda doubt it. Probably good for an eyeroll, though.



I appreciate the offer, though.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

IIRC, their response included, "all those grip safeties are going in PC models right now."

Maybe someday that will change. Hope so. Now that they've made it RDS ready, it is otherwise a great pistol.

With the EZ slide requiring less force to rack is there a noticeable increase in felt recoil?

Two Equalizers showed up yesterday at the shop.
They come with 3 magazines, a 10, a 13 and a 15 round. Smith includes an Uplula loading tool.
Since the gun’s niche is small people or those with limited hand strength, the inclusion of the loading tool makes sense. Shield Plus magazines are not the easiest to load and the Equalizer uses them.
Picking the pistol up, my first impression was how slim the grip was and how nicely rounded it felt in the hand. Good grip texture is “there”.
I didn’t have enough time to really examine it closely but we will be be back to buy at least one I’m sure.

Add a Holosun 507C and hand it over to the wife. She won’t take long to learn how to use the reflex sight and the enjoyment of shooting will be back. Iron sights aren’t age friendly and having the red dot allows one to continue shooting handguns for a good while longer.

I am anxious to shoot it and see how it performs. For me but especially for my wife.
I want to see how it compares in total to my Sig P-365.

A logical setup in my opinion.

Thanks. We are both watching the video you posted the other day. Excellent stuff, thanks for that.

If I thought my wife would carry it I’d buy one. I really don’t need the EZ pull slide. I like the Holosun idea. Because of my eyesight not being what it once was, I put a Holosun 507K on my P365XL and like it. There is a learning curve using an optic. Some good videos on YouTube about that. I was wondering how the lighter recoil spring affects the slide battering the frame with hot 9mm loads.

Ron

Well, it needs to come home with us 🙄first before I can let you know my thoughts and impressions.

Highly recommend 147gr., subsonic stuff.

Highly.

Duly noted.

I’ve had a lot of slender females use the EZs in classes and they’ve all had problems with the grip safety while firing.

Not every time, but at some point in the day they do. Their hands are too slender to reliably depress the safety under stress or keep it depressed during recoil.

A heavier girl with thicker hands did fine.

As I would expect from my experience. Blue, have you been around any of them using the PC edition? Does the bigger grip safety eliminate that problem? It seems to me that S&W knows there's a problem, or they wouldn't have bothered attempting a solution. And then I have to wonder why they wouldn't put that bigger lever on all of them.

Until they fix the grip safety so it fits the mission (weak hands), I can't get on board with the EZ line. I wanted to like the gun, but thus far, it's a fail.

The only PC I’ve seen was shot by the girl with thick hands.

I suspect it won’t make much difference if the safety has to be completely depressed.

Thanks, Blue. I suspect you may be right. The dang thing is upside down in the first place. The leverage and geometry all wrong. Idunno if it could have been done differently on that pistol, but it should have been.

My wife is rather slight, and she has had no issues with the grip safety, but that is good to know

From my experience, it's not a hand size problem. It's a lack of fleshy mass in the web of the thumb. In my "strong" hand, atrophy due to nerve damage has left me with little muscle there. My overall grip strength is about 90% of what it should be, which is quite good. I can make the EZ grip safety work if I pay close attention, but if my grip isn't perfect, I have failures. With the gun in my "weak" hand, I have no problem at all. I could work through that if I maintained a high level of training with the gun, but reality is that this is less likely the more I age. The assumed market with the EZ includes those whose hands are similarly compromised, and a large percentage of those that I see (especially aged) have similar loss of muscle mass in the web of the thumb - which will likely worsen with age. This is why I say S&W has missed the mark with the EZ. Great concept with good potential. Less than ideal execution. I found it to be otherwise easy to manipulate and shoot accurately.

As a note of comparison, I have zero problems with the grip safety on 1911's and the Springfield XD series.