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search this question on firearms or ccw. Its been well covered there.

quick answer though:

bulk FMJ for range/target practice. Brand isn't that important. Winchester white box, cci blazer brass, seller and belloit, remington, pmc, Speer lawman, ANY of those brands should be absolutely fine. SOME people like one brand over another in terms of the ammo being "dirtier" (as in, how much carbon residue does it create and thus, how much work will it be cleaning your gun later)

  But general shootability, just pick whichever one of those you find a good price on.

 

Defensive ammo: You want hollow points. They do a better job of stopping the bad guy. They do a better job of NOT overpenetrating, going through the bad guy, and harming other things behind the bad guy.

 

Top recommended hollow point defensive choices are usually: Federal HST, Hornady Critical Defense, Speer Gold Dot. There are others that are probably fine too, but those three are probably the most recommended. Good chance, whatever police dept near you probably uses one of those three.

 

DON'Ts:

Do NOT bother with gimmicky high tech, superlight (50 grain) ammo with names like "RIP" or whatever. Its all hype.

Do NOT buy ammunition AT the shooting range, if you can at all help it. Shooting ranges typically have a crazy price markup on their ammo.
 

DOs:

Do buy your (target) ammo in bulk if you can. 500-100 rounds at a time is where you start to notice the savings.

Do use luckygunner, brickseek, r/gundeals. luckygunner is more of an ammo sales site, while brickseek is an indexer that shows you what current ammo prices are at other retailers.

 

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Non, ammo related things:

Cleaning: You don't need a lot. A good cleaning solvent, a lube, OR an all in one cleaner/lube combo (rem oil, clp, etc). A brush, a few gun q-tips, a bore snake , some rags or cloths (I like blue shop towels actually) and you're good. You can probably get a decent all in one kit off amazon for <$20. Also recommend a good cleaning mat You don't NEED the mat, but its convenient, keeps oil and scratches off your floor/table, and its like $10, why not? You also don't NEED the gun brand specific mat with YOUR gun diagram on it, but ... come on. Isn't it just a little cooler with it? Yeah, yeah it is.

 

As cleaning goes, this isn't military inspection. You don't need to scrub her spotless after every shoot. Just mostly wipe it down, get the noticeable carbon build up off, make sure the slide cycles smoothly, and IF anything internal is supposed to be factory shiny, make it shiny again. (specifically, it the feed ramp looks shiny )

 

Other than that...

Go shoot. A lot. A LOT

And ask questions.

Shooting is just like anything else. Practice a lot and ask for advice is how you get good.

Very nice! I love my Talon grips, and their customer service is amazing if anything goes wrong. A tiny corner of a grip peeled back and they sent me a free replacement. I spent 5 minutes on the phone, and had an email order confirmation 5 minutes after I got off. 2 minutes after that, a shipping confirmation. I've never seen a faster response by anyone!

I just ordered a new set of grips for my second Shield and some replacement grip extension pieces because I had to pull them off to install the MagGuts that just arrived. Highly recommended if you're looking for a cheap way to upgrade your Shield: 9 rounds instead of 8 in the extended mag, or 8 instead of 7 in the standard mag. That means 9 rounds in your extended mag + 1 in the chamber = 10 rounds carried.

2 points about the MagGuts:

1. The 7-round kit seems to have an issue with the bottom plate, but it might have been my install. I'll be checking with them tomorrow.
   
2. You probably won't have the same issue with needing to replace the grips on the magazine because I have Fixxxer grip extensions installed to accommodate my fat fingers, and had my talon grips layered over the seam between the grip extension and the extended mag spacer. (Note: if you do want the extensions, Talon makes patches designed for the Pierce extensions that fit the Fixxers just fine.)
   
   If you want to spend just a little more on an upgrade to get some nice night sights, look into AmeriGlo Pro I-Dot sights. I've got a set of these on my first Shield and the set for the second Shield just arrived. Under $90 gets you Trijicon tritium sights (says Trijicon on the side because they're who manufacture the tritium capsules), and a nice, visible orange band around the front sight. Very visible like the XS Big Dot, but Ameriglo does tritium on both the front and rear whereas XS does not on their Shield kit.

One easy option would be to get a Magpul hand guard, then mount this to it. The MOE hand guard is really nice anyway.

I have several M&P's full size and Shields. My best recommendations are.

1 Apex Action Enhancement Trigger & Duty/Carry Kit for M&P Shield
2 Truglo TFX or TFO
Sights.
*3 SS Guide Rod

Reason I recommend the Truglo TFX or TFO is that they are both Tritium and Fiber optic. This will allow you to see better in both day and night. They are also cheaper and have a rebate running till end of the year.

Bianchi cyclone, well built and a great design that allows for strong side or cross draw carry. Gets more carry time than my custom holster and at $70 is imo a fair price

https://www.amazon.com/Bianchi-111-Cyclone-Holster-Fits/dp/B005PT01QE?th=1&psc=1

I carry appendix. And I love this holster. I honestly forget I'm wearing it most of the time. They have a summer version too which is nylon and lighter. But it's easier to get at the trigger. Either way I like both of them.

Pro-tip when dry firing - put a penny on the end of your muzzle/slide (near your front sight) and pull your trigger. It shouldn't fall if you are doing it right...Next level (much harder) - use a spent casing instead of the penny.

This has greatly improved my trigger pull, personally. The best way I heard it described was like this: think of your time spent at home doing practice draws and dry fire drills as studying and then your range time is the test. I use to view range time as actual practice time, but now I realize how much you can work on at home too.

Also, not all snap caps are created equally - I prefer the a-zoom ones myself, as they have a little rubber piece where the primer would be that your striker pin can hit. I used to use the all plastic ones, but they would eventually crack and left plastic crap all up in my pistol. And who wants to have to clean the weapon from just dry firing? No bueno.

But yeah, cheers to your new weapon! She's a beauty ;-)

Food for thought: AmeriGlo makes a set similar to this, but the rear sight is a single dot below the front sight, similar to the Heinie sights mentioned elsewhere in this post. It's called the Pro I-Dot, and is just over half the price of the Trijicon sights. I have a set on both of my Shields. The Tritium is produced (and stamped) by Trijicon.

It's hard to tell from the product photos, but it looks like the orange ring on the AmeriGlo sights is actually brighter than the Trijicons. Mine light up even in moonlight.

https://www.amazon.com/Bondhus-12137-L-wrenches-Length-050-3/dp/B000E80CFQ/ref=sr_1_30?keywords=bondhaus+Allen+wrenches&qid=1574258043&sr=8-30

These are made correctly, right hardness and accurate. Don't use cheap tools for gun work, go buy well made stuff that gives you the best chance to do it right.

pretty sure it's one of these

same here i am not a fan of the 3 dots i went with the ameriglo pro i-dots. almost the same as the hackathorn, but the rear blade has a small tritium insert with no outline so it doesn't stand out in the day and is visible in the night. best of both worlds!
https://www.amazon.com/Ameriglo-Tritium-Orange-Outline-Wesson/dp/B00A95VQSG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469469284&sr=8-1&keywords=ameriglo+pro+i-dot+shield

You can buy a 357 J-frame and put on larger grips. Something like this as an example:


Hogue 60000 S&W J Frame Round Butt Rubber Monogrip Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KOVCFI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7lcIDb77SYN8Y

Pachmayr

I'd recommend it if you are in the market for a sleeve or check out Hogue

Also those foam cigar holders will hold them well

I'm gonna order these in the next week or so: http://www.amazon.com/Trijicon-Night-Sight-Front-Outline/dp/B004W5D8TO

Costly, maybe. But Trijicon tends to build some quality sights/optics, and the tritium caps in other sights come from trijicon anyways.

Picked it up for $19 when I got mine. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DCD6JG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

I got the grip from amazon. For a proper installation you might want to do a little trimming around the top, but out of the box it goes on just fine. No need to heat the grip up or anything... Takes a little man handling but goes on and stays on.

If you're going to pocket carry get a Desantis. I have the Desantis Superfly For Glock 26 Ambidextrous Black. It's rigid enough that I don't feel like something could accidentally pull the trigger(unlike the uncle whatevers I had). Also sticky enough that it won't pull out of your pocket accidentally. It's really well constructed and covers the trigger good.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003K7X5AC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

It comes with a cover flap but I don't really use it. It's Velcro so you can just remove it. They probably have a version without it, but eh.

Still employs American workers - would you consider an M1 Garand to be an American gun? Downvote all you want but it is "Americas Gun"

This, or this, works wonders on lead removal on the end of the cylinder. Only use them on stainless steel, though, as they will remove bluing.

BTW, I carried that exact gun as an agency provided duty gun for about 15 years. Traded it in for a S&W 6906 when we transitioned to those. Wish I had kept the 64, it was the sweetest shooting gun I ever used.

Sigh ...

I haven’t done it, but some people apparently put these in their gun to act as snap caps when dry firing.

The Hillman Group 370326 Ribbed Plastic Screw Anchor, 4-6-8 X 7/8-Inch, Yellow, 100-Pack.


The advantage to using these would be that The majority (all?) of “real” 22LR snap caps will eventually get dented from Firing pin strikes to the point that they are no longer serving the intended purpose. These screw anchors are disposable, so you just toss them when the rim becomes dented from your firing pin.