Smith & Wesson jumped into the micro-compact market in 2021 with the M&P Shield Plus. Not exactly a brand new design, the Shield Plus builds on the success of the Shield 2.0 by integrating a few subtle changes. These include an increased magazine capacity of 10+1 rounds with the flush-fitting mag and 13+1 rounds with the extended mag. Additionally, the texturing was tweaked a bit for user comfort. The feel is somewhere between the original Shield and Smith’s M&P 2.0 pistols.
Perhaps the biggest and most important change with the Shield Plus is the trigger. The company did away with the hinged trigger design in favor of a flat-face version and the trigger break was improved as well. Our sample pistol’s trigger broke at an average of 4.4 pounds and it ended up being one of the better triggers of the striker-fired pistols we tested. This was more for the very clean and authoritative snap of the trigger than the pull weight. There was no mushiness or creep, just a very crisp release—for a striker-fired pistol.
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The guys weren’t blown away by the white, three-dot sights on the review pistol but they are made from steel and night sights are available as an option. But there were quite a few comments about how pleasant the Shield Plus was to shoot and how controllable it was during fire. There’s just something about the pistol’s size and ergos that makes the Shield Plus easy to shoot.
Aside from those changes, everything else was the same including the hard-wearing Armornite finish and the reversible magazine release. A bonus with the tweaked design is that the Shield Plus will still fit the vast majority of holsters made for the original Shield. And while there’s not a whole lot of glitz and glam about the Shield Plus, it’s easily one of the best micro-compact pistols of the bunch.
