Brandon Breeze
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Well... it finally happened. My Shield Z9 mags started giving me some failures after 2+ years of ownership and thousands of rounds fired without any problems at all. This is the Z9, NOT the S15 mags.
First was a single FTF from one of my eight Z9 Mags. Shield was nice enough to send me replacement springs for all 8 of my mags for free. No more FTF after this... BUT it created a whole new issue!
My slide was locking back with 1 round left in the magazine. I discuss both of these issues and fixes here:
ALL of the potential Fixes for your Z9 + Shooting Test:
Details/How To for the Follower Fix:
TLDR: For those that would rather read about it than watch it in video format
Initial Issue: Failure to Feed
The first issue I encountered was a failure to feed on the last round. It only happened once in 5k+ rounds through the Z9. I contacted Shield Arms, told them I had eight mags, and they sent me eight new springs. These new springs had an extra coil for more tension.
That fixed the original feeding problem — but caused a new one.
Second Issue: Premature Slide Lock
With the new, stronger springs, the slide locked back while one round was still in the mag. I fixed this by modifying the follower — specifically, I deepened the cut under the slide catch/release ledge. The ledge was just high enough to trip the slide catch even with one round left.
Third Issue: Round Nose-Diving into Mag Front
Later, I had another issue: the top round nose-dived into the front wall of the mag body and stuck. I fixed this by filing a ~45° bevel on the internal lip of the mag body and polishing it smooth.
Testing and Results
After these mods, I put about 400 rounds through the mag. It functioned flawlessly all day.
I’ve had four total malfunctions across many thousands of rounds:
First was a single FTF from one of my eight Z9 Mags. Shield was nice enough to send me replacement springs for all 8 of my mags for free. No more FTF after this... BUT it created a whole new issue!
My slide was locking back with 1 round left in the magazine. I discuss both of these issues and fixes here:
ALL of the potential Fixes for your Z9 + Shooting Test:
Details/How To for the Follower Fix:
TLDR: For those that would rather read about it than watch it in video format
Initial Issue: Failure to Feed
The first issue I encountered was a failure to feed on the last round. It only happened once in 5k+ rounds through the Z9. I contacted Shield Arms, told them I had eight mags, and they sent me eight new springs. These new springs had an extra coil for more tension.
That fixed the original feeding problem — but caused a new one.
Second Issue: Premature Slide Lock
With the new, stronger springs, the slide locked back while one round was still in the mag. I fixed this by modifying the follower — specifically, I deepened the cut under the slide catch/release ledge. The ledge was just high enough to trip the slide catch even with one round left.
Third Issue: Round Nose-Diving into Mag Front
Later, I had another issue: the top round nose-dived into the front wall of the mag body and stuck. I fixed this by filing a ~45° bevel on the internal lip of the mag body and polishing it smooth.
Testing and Results
After these mods, I put about 400 rounds through the mag. It functioned flawlessly all day.
I’ve had four total malfunctions across many thousands of rounds:
- One failure to feed
- Two premature slide locks
- One nose-dive into the mag wall
