Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Mac66 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 4:50 pm Just traded my Shield 2.0 9mm for a NIB/unfired Shield 380 EZ plus 250 rounds of ammo. I had traded a Ruger SR22 even up for the 9mm Shield a couple months ago. The Shield had a built in laser and came with a IWB holster. I have a Ruger LC9 I carry EDC so I didn't need another pocket gun. Even though the Shield was a nice gun with a much better trigger I couldn't get used to the built in laser so never carried it. It was just a trifle bit heavier than the LC9.

Anyway...my wife uses the other SR22 I had as her primary HD gun and I wanted to get her something a little better. Been looking closely at the EZ since it came out.

It is actually a pretty nice gun. Nice size. The slide is easy to pull back, the mags are easy to load. It is larger than a typical Shield or LC9 but much lighter. It holds 8 in the mag, has a decent trigger pull and the one I traded for came with a thumb safety as well as the standard grip safety. I can see why they've become so popular. It is really a nice package.

Photos later.

I will be very interested in your review of this pistol Mac. My wife and I went to the range last night. We brought the S&W Shield 9mm I just picked up in trade, her LC9s, the S&W 380 Bodyguard and both of the Sub 2K's. She fired very few rounds out of either the Shield or Ruger before it started to bother her hands. She wouldn't even touch the Bodyguard. She did enjoy the Sub 2K. She was just having a difficult time racking and shooting the two 9mm pistols. It's one of those vicious circles; hurts to shoot/rack the pistols we have > doesn't enjoy shooting them > doesn't enjoy the range trip > doesn't shoot enough to stay proficient.

Afterwards I thought about the EZ. I asked if they had one on display and they did. I called her over and she handled it and really like how easy it was to rack the slide. We talked in the car on the way home and determined that with the slide being much easier to rack, combined with it being slightly larger than what she has now (to get a better grip), combined with a pistol that has a less powerful round in a larger package (making it less punishing on her hands) might be just the ticket.

So I'm on the look out now to sell or trade one of my 9mm pistols for an EZ. I tossed a few up on AL.

Haven't shot the EZ yet. Hopefully will on Thursday. My wife and I going up north to talk to the home builder and will be stopping by the property. I will take the EZ and if there isn't too much snow on the ground will get back to my range and give it a go.

Thought I did pretty well with the trade. NIB EZ, IWB holster*, 250 rounds of ammo for the Shield 9mm which I traded a Ruger SR22 w/3 mags for. The EZ comes with two mags and an EZ mag loader as well.

Here are some pics...



The EZ has the same OAL and barrel length as the 9mm Shield though it looks bigger. The grip is about 3/4" longer however. The slide is thinner and lighter than on the 9. It has a rather large ambidextrous thumb safety and a grip safety. It is not striker fired, it has an internal hammer which supposedly is why the slide is easy to rack. I estimate the trigger to be about 5lbs with a fair amount of creep. Pretty light actually but not too light.



Surprisingly it is only slightly larger than my LC9. I'd often thought that an LC9 sized pistol in 380 would be the perfect size for a woman. Ruger does make a LC380 but it is the old double action version not the striker fired version. Now if they made a S version or an LCPII version with an easy to rack slide the size of a LC9 they'd have something to compete with the EZ.



I have to say that the grip safety is rather stiff. You really have to grip hard to engage it or disengage it which I suppose would be the correct term. I have big meaty hands and have trouble disengaging the grip at times while dry firing it. My wife hasn't noticed it but hasn't handled it very much yet so we'll see. The guy I traded for it actually bought 2, one for him, one for his wife. He suffers from arthritis so needed something easy to rack. He also had big hands and couldn't engage the grip safety. He said that after shooting one, he decided to get rid of the other.

*I'll never use the IWB holster. Probably going to make a leather hip holster with an extra mag pouch attached.

Hope you two can get out to your range. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how it shoots and how much softer (I'm assuming) it shoot vs. a comparably sized 9mm like the Shield or LC9(s).

The local range has them for $349 and if I don't get any trade bites I'm tempted to just buy new. I'll give it a bit of time to see.

I'm really hoping this turns out to be the one she really enjoys shooting.

Just was contacted by the guy I traded the EZ for. He tells me that when he bought the EZ it came with a promotional kit which included a range bag, shooting glasses, ear muffs and bore snake. He said he is mailing that stuff to me. I told him not to bother, as I was happy with what I got, but he insisted. That's kinda cool since I would have traded him even up, gun for gun. But he threw in 250 rounds and now this other stuff. Wow!



Edited to add...I didn't get to my property yesterday. The meeting with the builder lasted longer than anticipated and it was an hour out of way to swing by. Have to go to the property tomorrow to meet the project manager on site so will likely take the EZ to try out.

Edited to add, again....Snow storm predicted for northern Michigan tomorrow. It may postpone my trip.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts after you've shot it.

David wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 5:13 pm Talking about Outlaw matches, Bob, you should go with us on one of those Wednesday shooting matches. You'd have a blast (pun intended).

Keep me posted on those Dave. Wednesdays are good nights...

Bob wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:09 pm

David wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 5:13 pm Talking about Outlaw matches, Bob, you should go with us on one of those Wednesday shooting matches. You'd have a blast (pun intended).

Keep me posted on those Dave. Wednesdays are good nights...

I will

I swear I posted this here somewhere; Incoming for my birthday to me:

Blinging-out my Glock23/9
- Mag well
- Extended mag release
- Extended slide stop
- End plate

Already has a 9mm conversion w/ Barrel nut

Glock parts are in!

I have PIMPED my Glock!!!!!! So far Mag well on, and end plate. More to come...