 Hey there friends, thanks for checking in. In this video I want to share with you why I'm not real fine with the M&P Shield Plus when Smith released this. A lot of people were excited. They said, you know, additional magazine capacity, a little better trigger there, a flat trigger. It's exciting, but compared to the other ones out there, to me it's not because they pretty much kept it a shield. A lot of people like that. A lot of people carry the shield, but, you know, it's a shield plus. All right, I will grant them that, but that's not even one of the reasons that I plan to discuss. The micro 9mm double stack mag handguns. Here we've got a GX4, Ruger Max 9, Springfield Hellcat, Sieg P365. They kept them very small. A pocket carry choice. I don't think this would fit well in the pocket at all. I mean, unless you have some monster pants on, you can forget pocket carry in with the Shield Plus. If we look at the slide length, we will see. This is the Sieg on the left. You're looking at probably a half inch longer on the slide. Now the Sieg has a 12 round magazine, and then look at the additional length on the grip. 13 round mag in the Shield Plus. So you've got 12 rounds, 13 rounds, and yet it's that much larger. I could go across the board with any of these and you would see something very similar in terms of the size. Let's check out the weight. All right, we're looking at, let me get it on ounces. One pound four and three quarters ounces. We move that to just ounces, 20 and three quarters. Let's take a look at the Sieg. 18 and three quarters. Let's take a look at the Hellcat. 18 and three eighths right around there. Okay, so you're looking at two ounces heavier. Let's look at the GX4. 18 and what'd that say, five eighths, the Max nine, 18 and three quarters. These are all pocket carry choices. For those who do that, you know, I know a lot of people pocket carry this that additional two ounces, I believe is going to make a uncomfortable pocket carry plus it's much larger. So considering the size alone, the MP Shield Plus is much larger than its competitor. So if they're trying to establish a micro size double stack nine millimeter pistol, I don't think they did it with the Shield Plus. Another issue I have is that it is not red dot ready. If you pay the additional money for a performance center model, yeah, they have a red dot option but up goes the price big time. With the 3.1 inch barrel, you cannot get a red dot as it currently sits with the MMP line. And I don't understand there is plenty of real estate right there to make that happen, but they are driving you toward the performance center models which are much more expensive. Ruger did it out of the gate. They put a red dot on every one of their max nine models. Springfield Armory did it. They've got the OSP model right there. All right, a little bit of an upcharge but not too much. Not like the performance center models. How about SIG? They did it with the P365X. So it is available on other models. It is not available here unless you want to get the performance center model. Now you're talking about a lot more money for the pistol and I think if they really want it to be competitive, especially with Ruger because they released the Shield Plus the same day that Ruger released the Max nine. So that tells me somebody leaked out some information. Each company made sure that they ahead of the pack and you know, I think Ruger beat them to the punch with a smaller pistol and a red dot ready pistol that is standard with the Max nine and it's not with the Shield Plus. I have a unloaded Shield Plus, a loaded mag and I'm going to push as hard as I can on that slide stop and it will not charge. So everybody who throws a mag in and uses the slide stop to charge the gun at least with this one it won't work initially. Each handgun has a slide lock back with one round in the magazine. Several of the training courses that I've taken the instructor has said slam the mag home with a reload hit that slide stop lever and that is the quickest way to charge the handgun. So if we look at the Taurus GX-4 I put the mag in hit that slide stop lever and it charges. Same thing with the Ruger Max nine. Hit that mag slide stop charges the pistol. Here we have the P365 charge. Same thing with the Springfield Armory Hellcat. Hit that slide stop lever and it charges. No problem effortlessly. Here we've got the Shield Plus one round of the mag and I'm hitting that slide stop lever and I'm putting a lot of pressure on it and it is not charging. Every spot that I can put my thumb on that it will not charge. If you charge like that it'll work just fine. No problem. But for those who want the quicker mag reload charging the slide stop lever will not work with the Shield Plus. At least this one out of the box. Maybe over time it'll loosen up and possibly charge. Maybe it won't. I'm really not sure at this point but these four out of the case charged with the slide stop lever. No problem the Shield Plus does not. We'll see what happens in the future. There is no doubt that each of these manufacturers are trying to outdo each other. It's very competitive. The CCW carriers love the double stack micro size nine millimeter handgun. But if we look at the Shield Plus it comes with standard three dot sights. It doesn't have that lip there. They kept the same as the original Shield as where the other ones have a straight edge so you can charge the pistol off a boot. This has an optic but you can see the rear sight. All right the Hellcat same thing. They can charge the pistol not with the Shield Plus but that's not even my problem with the Shield Plus. The MSRP on this is 553. That comes with standard three dot sights. If we look at the Max nine it has a fiber optic tritium front dot. Standard with every Ruger Max nine. SIG has the X-ray three night sights. Standard knowing that this is going to be a CCW gun for most people they include night sights. Tritium front dot with the Springfield Armory Hellcat. Whether it's the standard model or the OSP model you have a Tritium front dot. Not with the Shield Plus you have the option of getting night sights but there's an up charge. It goes from 553 for this model to 623. Now there's it's clear that Smith is trying to drive their customers to the performance centers where it has all the bells and whistles you can get the slide ported you can get the barrel ported you can do all this stuff and that's great don't get me wrong but that all comes at a cost and so for 553 you're getting standard sights as where these other ones are offering night sights. Now the Taurus does not but the MSRP on the Taurus is 392. That's a big difference so I you know I'm not going to complain too much but when you're charging 553 MSRP granted then I think you should at least try to be equal with your competition if not better and I think the M&P Shield Plus dropped the ball on night sights. The last thing that I want to mention that bothers me with the Shield Plus and I already alluded to it is that it is too expensive. This is the bottom of the line model that you can get all right it also comes with a thumb safety that's an option but everything else is an up charge. Now it comes with a 10 round and a 13 round magazine no issues there I like what they did with the trigger but with an MSRP of 553 as the base model and everything goes up from there you can see on their site you can add certain things especially when you get into the performance center models you can add ports and night sights and crimson trace optic you could you could do all that but it gets to be very expensive for the base model 553 I just think there are better choices out there especially compared to the four models that I just showed that have in my opinion more to offer the CCW carrier or just the guy that wants to use it for home defense or range fund whatever it doesn't matter the M&P Shield Plus is a base model at I don't want to say a premium cost but an above average cost considering that there are so many other choices out there let me know what you think you know if I if I made my case worthy of the title that I gave this video or if I'm wrong in so many areas I look forward to what you have to say if you like videos like this please subscribe and share I always appreciate thumbs up button thanks for watching and you guys be safe