Smith & Wesson M&P380 Shield EZ 380 ACP Pistol with No Thumb Safety

EZ 380 ACP Pistol

Built for personal protection and every-day carry, the M&P380 EZ 380 ACP Pistol Shield EZ with No Thumb Safety is chambered in 380 Auto and is designed to be easy to use, featuring an easy-to-rack slide , easy-to-load magazine, and easy-to-clean design. Built for personal and home protection, the innovative M&P380 Shield EZ pistol is the latest addition to the M&P M2.0 family and provides an easy-to-use protection option for both first-time shooters and experienced handgunners alike.

Why make a low-capacity, mid-sized pistol chambered in .380? This was my first question when I saw the specs of the M&P Shield EZ. Well, Smith & Wesson are no dummies so there had to be some logic behind their move here. What I found when I got my hands on the gun and a few rounds downrange was that they’ve got something rather interesting here.

The frame is seemingly larger than would be required for this capacity and chambering, but there is a benefit. The capacity is seemingly lower than would be expected for a frame of this size, but there is a benefit. The result is an easy to hold, easy to manipulate, lightweight pistol that shoots a defensive round but feels like a .22 cal gun. Hrm.

Why Consider the EZ 380 ACP Pistol

The EZ 380 ACP Pistol is a compact pistol purpose made for carry and for home defense. Though compact, it is longer and taller than the 9mm Shield most of us know, so there is more of the gun to hold onto. One of the primary features of the pistol is its easy-to-rack slide, seemingly tailor made for people without strong hands. Another feature worth consideration is the grip safety; a feature not often found on compact pistols. If you’re someone who values an extra layer of safety, the M&P Shield EZ might just be the ticket for you. Finally, you might consider this pistol for its appealing price.

The combination of the slightly larger frame and the slightly softer round make this pistol a joy to shoot and very easy with which to be very accurate…all so long as you don’t mind the minimal defensive ballistics of the .380 round.

M&P 380 Shield EZ Specs:

• Caliber: 380 Auto
• Action: Internal hammer fired
• Length: 6.7″
• Height: 4.98”
• Width: 1.15” (1.43” including the slide “wings”)
• Barrel: 3.675” stainless steel Armornite™ finish
• Trigger: ~5lb.
• Sights: 3-Dot steel, adjustable rear
• Safety: Grip safety + available with or without ambi thumb levers
• Weight: 18.5 oz. w/empty magazine
• Slide: stainless steel Armornite™ finish
• Capacity: 8+1
• MSRP: $399

Note that the model I’m evaluating here has ambi thumb safety levers.

Shooting the M&P Shield EZ

Shooting the 380 Shield is like shooting a EZ 380 ACP Pistol. No kidding, the recoil impulse is almost nonexistent so the pistol is very easy to control and to maintain a high degree of accuracy. While some .380 pistols are a bit snappy, due to their subcompact configuration, this Shield model has both the size and weight necessary to mitigate all snappiness. This is an easy pistol to shoot.

The frame is larger than a typical Shield, but smaller than, say, the EZ 380 ACP Pistol. This mid-sized frame offers plenty to hold onto and allows the controls to be very comfortably positioned. I had no problem running the gun for on/off safety, magazine ejection and reloads, and locking the slide back. It all felt very natural and comfortable.

The trigger is actually quite nice and has a very short and crisp reset, but somehow running it fast did not go as smoothly as I thought it should. I did a few strings of rapid fire during which I wasn’t able to keep the gun as still as it seemed I should for being such a soft shooter. I chalk this up to my being familiar with my EDC gun and this slightly altered geometry of this EZ 380 ACP Pistol threw a wrench in my gears. Surely with a bit of practice shooting fast drills would become smoother.

Mostly, though, I just enjoyed shooting this gun. No kidding, outside of a precision .22 this is the softest gun I’ve ever shot. So fun.

Comfort, Controllability, & Capacity
The EZ 380 ACP Pistol is not at all heavy and lighter than even the smaller Shield 9mm. Though it is named for the Shield, it feels less like that model and more like the M&P 9 in the hand. It’s a single stack gun, but the grip is not overly thin. For my medium-sized hands, it was quite comfortable. And as mentioned earlier, the controls were easy to get to and to manipulate. The 8+1 capacity is a bit low for a .380 of this size, but being a single stack gun keeps the frame width down and facilitates a more concealable gun.

Controlling the EZ 380 ACP Pistol is about as easy as it gets. Even older children and new shooters should do quite well keeping this pistol under control.

Components and Features

This Smith and Wesson EZ 380 ACP Pistol looks like a typical striker-fired gun, but it’s not. It has an internal hammer and that brings consequences to both the trigger (smooth) and the recoil spring weight you feel when racking the slide (softer), since there is no striker to load up.

The most conspicuous feature of the EZ 380 ACP Pistol is the grip safety. It’s a large component that disappears when the frame is gripped. I found that I never even noticed the grip safety fin so it was a non factor in my working with the gun. The model I used had the ambi thumb safety levers. Though I always believe such components to be useless or even dangerous on a pistol, I did spend time engaging and disengaging the levers during shooting. They seemed stiff enough to be properly tactile and easy enough to manipulate. The EZ 380 ACP Pistol can come without the manual safety levers if you prefer that model (and I hope you do).

The sights are 3-dot steel and the rear sight is drift adjustable. I had no trouble picking up the sights and maintaining a good sight picture during shooting strings. The slide has good serrations, but with the addition of some “wings” on the rear of the slide, I guess to assist with slide racking. I found them entirely unnecessary, but they also didn’t get in my way as some similar components on other guns have.

• Easy to rack slide.
• Crisp, light trigger with tactile and audible trigger reset.
• Includes (2) Easy to Load 8-Round M&P380 Shield magazines.
• Grip safety – grip pistol to fire.
• Windage adjustable, white dot rear sight (tool included).
• Can disassemble without pulling trigger.
• Grip texture optimized to size and recoil.
• Tactile loaded chamber indicator (TLCI) – can see and feel if there is a round in the chamber.
• Picatinny-style equipment rail for lights or lasers.
• Perfect size for nightstand or carry, or a day at the range.
• Reversible magazine release.
• Thin and lightweight – can be comfortably carried all day.
• Optimal 18-degree grip angle for natural point of aim.
• Armornite® durable corrosion resistant finish.