t,

Welcome!

I have no Shield, but I own several "bottom feeders".

Finger off the trigger, grab the grip, strong-hand, as if to present the weapon. With your weak-hand, curl the fingers over in an inverse "u" shape and grab the slide, twixt palm and fingers, tightly.
Now, together, push your strong-hand away from you, and pull your weak-hand towards you. When the slide reaches it's rear extreme of travel, let go with your weak hand, do not "ride" it into battery, let it slam forward to chamber the next round in the magazine.
Ta-DAA! You have just racked your weapon and learned about "force multiplication."

It will get easier as your weapon breaks-in.

Mike

 

I have a shield, and they are pretty stiff. It will get a bit easier after a few hundred rounds.

 

thanks everyone ..appreciate the info...hate to waste good ammo but guess is will have to go to the range in town. My biggest concern is not being able to clear if correctly. I feel like iam fighting over the gun. My G19 was NEVER this hard....i realize there is more pressure on the spring due to the size...

 

i suck at math! LOL..i guess my elbow still isnt strong enough yet from surgery. Odd cause i have no problems with the G19 slide/rack... i
guess a good lube job and a treatment of ammo is in its near future! LOL

 

G19 is way easier. Racking the Shield reminds me of my PPK\S.

 

i guess maybe i need to re-evaluate the Seild and my ability to be able to clear it and rack/lock it safely....sux cause i bought 3 extra extended mags to go with it..i was really wanting this too...

 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the gun, accurate and conceals easily. I personally have no problem racking the slide.

 

I know you are having problems and ammo is expensive but you need to shoot this gun and put at least 100 rounds thru it! That should be enough rounds for the pistol to get broken in and also make you comfortable shooting the gun. Just my 2 cents.

 

M&P SHeild

just some fyi...as i have stated previously on a thread how hard my new Sheild was to rack and lock. Thanks everyone for their input..... so here is the rest of the saga..After i got mine, a friend ordered hers..ii came in ONE week after mine. Her Sheild is identical to mine BUT i can rack and lock her slide with no any issues or problems..I had taken mine with me for my dealer to look at just in case...he racked and locked it and said its hard but should loosen up..he then grabbed the new sheild and said OMG..there is a huge difference in the spring tension in these guns...now he did lock my slide open
and said to leave it that way for a day or so and also to run some ammo in it..I was wondering if anyone knows how to let S&W know about this...

 

Have you field stripped it to be sure the spring is installed coorrectly? It might have been put in wrong, or it's possible that it's not sitting in the notch correctly. I would tear it down, and make sure everything is installed correctly before jumping to any conclusions. Another though is to tear it down and put the slide on the frame without the barrel or the spring. Then check the silde action to make sure the slide to frame fit is correct, or not.

If you want to work on it a little it's pretty easy to do.
Since ammo is such a valuable issue at this point FlaRon is pretty much on the money with his suggestion.
Put some light grease on the frame where the bearing surfaces are for the slide. If you don't have any grease, light oil will suffice.
Prepare to rack the slide and hold it so the slide lock is being held down with your thumb so it won't lock up every time you rack it.
Then, rack the slide back and forth a few hundred times. You'll get exactly the same results as if you were to shoot it that much.
I know it seems crazy, but it should work pretty well. It'll take about 10-15 minutes, and you should see a pretty reasonable improvement.

Keeping the slide locked back to give the sping tension won't loosen or reduce the spring wieght it at all. That's a huge mis-conception about how springs work. No matter what anybody says, keeping a spring under tension doesn't do anything to it in the short term. With a decent quality spring, it'll take years under tension to make any difference at all, and that change would be negligible.

Gearchecker

 

If it doesn't get better I would call Smith and Wesson and see what they have to say. I would mention about your friends gun.

 

Thanks! will do that tomorrow..i also sent an email to S&W about it as well and supposedly they will get back to me in 3 business days....we shall see....I wish i had ammo to spare cause i also bought 3 extra extended mags to go with the regualar and 1 extend mag that came with it...lots of floks ranting about Frog lube and using that on it but i have to first strip all oils from with alcohol first.......thanks for the input! i love the way this feels and will be a great concealed weapon.

 

They are stiff. To re-assemble mine after take-down I actually have to put a mag in to lock the slide back, as it is impossible to do otherwise. Mine has loosened over time, and after giving the frog lube treatment.