Great product!
Great product, I have larger hands, and so the flush fit 7-round mag is just plain out for me. With this mag well, the 8-round mags fit perfectly, and I dont have to use the extended piece on them (which I was concerned could cause a jam loading on my spare mags if it moves around while in holder). Perfectly blends with the contours of the grip, and the cut-out on the sides is great for being able to grip and rip if there was ever an issue.
The magwell is well.
It bought this magwell for my Shield 1.0. Installation was quickly and easy. The purchase of the firearm is improved as the magwell taper drives your hand up tightly against the trigger guard. The longer grip does require some minor adjusting/attention, in appendix carry, to prevent minor printing in summer attire. The added capacity (+2 between gun and spare mag) and being rid of the 8 round magazine spacers is a fair compromise. I've carried my Shield daily with the magwell installed for about 6 months. It remains solidly attached and shows no signs of wear or corrosion. This is a quality product and a reasonable solution to some of the shortcomings of the M&P Shield.
Seemed like a good idea.
I've ordered tons of stuff from Brownells over the years, some of it was great, some less so. This is the first item I've ever returned. The magazine sleeves on the 8 round mags can get annoying, this was supposed to solve that. Unfortunately the magwell has a very pronounced lip on the front side. That lip really cramps my grip. It did work for getting rid of the mag sleeves, unfortunately it made the gun painful to shoot. The product seems like it's well made, and it is easy to install, it just didn't work for me.
Terrible if you use a strong grip
I bought this with the intention of solving the issue of a short grip coupled with reloads. For me having the ability to reload without using the "tactical tea pinky" method was the selling point of the design. The actual adaptor is very well made and finished - top quality. However, after following the supplied directions for installation and test firing one magazine I found a flaw in the design. The flaw is sadly a necessity for the design to function at a basic level: in order to facilitate a drop-free design for the magazine the pronounced lip of the device is required, otherwise the toe of the magazine floorplate would hang up on your fingers. This lip acts as a leverage point if your hands are large enough, add a strong grip in place and this lip allowed me to pull the front mounting point out of the frame and bind up the magazine as well as (very slightly) damage the frame in doing so. The front mounting post is actually a screw that grips the polymer of the frame, this actually removed enough material that the screw no longer had anything to grip since that material pulled out with the threads. To summarize: Installed, test fired 8 rounds using a strong shooting grip, product failed due to design coupled with my hand size and strength of grip used.
