12.05.2024

The Smith Wesson equalizer let's check. it out. foreign. Smith and Wesson introduced their m p. Shield EZ back in 2018. it was in 380. ACP and then in 2019 they came out with. their nine millimeter one of the things. about the EZ is is what it says it's. easy to pull the slide back it's easy to. load the magazine it has that 18 degree. grip angle which makes it very natural. to point and it's just easy to shoot. it's really made for those with weaker. hand strength but yet there were a lot. of people that were seasoned shooters. that loved this gun myself included one. of the big limitations is it's eight. rounds and now we have the equalizer and. this is based on a lot of the. similarities from the EZ but yet there. are a lot of upgrades the slide's been. textured a lot heavier a lot nicer slide. serrations and yeah it's really easy to.

Pull back still has that 18 degree grip. angle and it has a grip safety which is. also included in the standard EZ it's. really made for those who have little. experience shooting and so for those who. really need a firearm for selfdefense. this makes a great option but the big. plus with the equalizer is that it UPS. the round capacity we've got 10 Rounds. 13 Rounds and a 15 round magazine all. included and so that really gives you a. lot of selfdefense potential which thus. it really equalizes the situation and a. big thanks to Smith and Wesson for. sending the equalizer for this review. foreign. as the old saying goes God made man Sam. Colt made him equal this to me is one of. those equalizers and that's the name one. of the things about a firearm is it. really levels the playing field and if. you are a small female weighs 110 pounds.

And you're up against some guy that. weighs 220. this definitely gives you a. fighting chance and I think the name is. very appropriate and this allows for. people that have weaker hand strength. new to shooting just to have confidence. in their firearm and I think that is. huge this is again an upgrade of the. Smith Wesson m p e z and we're going to. take a look and do some comparisons but. guys there are some real nice upgrades. and I think we're going to be seeing. this type design throughout all the m p. line now one thing you'll notice is it. says equalizer here on the slide but it. doesn't say m p and that is kind of a. Telltale so I think we're going to see. Smith and Wesson going in another. Direction with a lot of their. semiautomatics now this is a lot of the. designs of your standard easy they. haven't gone away with some of the way.

It functions but they've definitely. upgraded let's go ahead and drop our. Magazine first off you get a 10 round. magazine over the eight round in the. standard EZ check the chamber and the. gun's empty now that this is really one. of the big pluses super easy to bring. that slide back and that's what the EZ. was known for just the recoil spring has. been reduced just to make it much. simpler and one of the things to me. especially with female Shooters they get. a new gun is racking that slide can be a. chore or if you're older and you're. starting to get some arthritis in your. hands but not only is it easier to bring. back but the serrations have been. improved these are deep wide serrations. and man they are easy to bring back and. even at the front for press checks just. gives you a really nice gripping surface.

To pull all those back and also there. are some ears here at the back of the. slide that give you more leverage. now my wife has one of the m p Shield. 2.0 that's her concealed carry and one. of the things that she had trouble with. is pulling that slide back and one of. the things I told her and this is just a. tip for those who have trouble is to. grip the frame. hold on to the slide and push the frame. out and that is much easier you have a. lot more leverage on the grip and so. just a small tip but with the standard. EZ you can see the those serrations that. are typical for your MMP type pistols uh. they're just kind of what I call waves. or fish scales and here at the front. it's almost an afterthought there's just. a few serrations here and while these. are adequate and you can see how easy. that is to pull back this is a vast.

Improvement and it's a larger area it's. not just back here at the back so it. gives you more grip on the slide easier. spring and then you have these ears as. well to help so that is to me one of the. biggest bangs for most of your. semiautomatic pistols for those with. weaker hamstring also they have upgraded. the sights now these are Novak style. sights and they just slope up this has a. cocking shelf and so now I can take this. and put it on my belt I can put it. against my the heel of my shoe or a. table and I can rack this slide with one. hand and so it allows for me to have. onehanded reloads the sights are a. three dot sight but one thing they've. also done is it's Optics ready. and this is just a plate that goes over. take it off and you can put any RMS. Shield C footprint site on here and. we're going to do that in just a few.

Minutes and not only do we have a 10. rounder we also have a 13 round magazine. and a 15 row magazine the 10 rounder. will give you a really short grip and. this is the best for concealed carry the. grip is the hardest to conceal but if we. bring out our 13 rounder. it really balances the gun from the. slide down to the grip and it gives you. a nice full grip on your handgun and. then with the 15 rounder it does hang. off a little bit more. but this will accommodate almost any one. size hands so this gives you a lot of. gripping surface this is better honestly. at the range or as a backup magazine and. so you have the full capacity of a. fullsize handgun in nine millimeter. with 15 plus one so these are just some. great options and it does come with all. three magazines which is a big upgrade. from The Shield EZ eight round magazine.

Now one of the big pluses for the EZ was. this magazine was very easy to load it. has those same kind of little small. levers that pull down on your follower. that make it simple you know guys if. you've ever loaded a magazine like this. it can be tough on your thumbs but. especially if you don't have a lot of. hand strength one thing they have. included is a maglula Lula loader these. are great I love maglulas and this is. just a simple way to be able to load. your magazine so instead of making a. smaller Magazine with ears they've just. included the loader to make it easier. for you to load and guys honestly I use. these at every range day and when it. comes to the regular shield plus and. this is the m p Shield it's empty these. magazines actually are compatible with. the equalizer so all of your Shield. magazines are equal and vice versa they.

Will also go in the shield plus while. the shield EZ has a thinner grip with. the eight round magazine it's only about. a tenth of an inch difference with the. new equalizer and you're getting 10. rounds but now the black nitriting on. the slide is beautiful and that's one of. the things it's called the armadite. finish and Smith and Wesson has to me he. really perfected that beauty beautiful. sheen on their slides nice polymer frame. a little more aggressive texturing not. much it's still somewhat smooth not like. you have here with this aggressive. texturing but it gives you a little bit. of a bite which the original EZ is a. little smoother up here. not quite as aggressive on the. serrations and so it just gives it also. a totally different design but these are. a little bit more aggressive nice. undercut which they kept from the EZ.

Right here so it allows you to bring. your hand up and you have a fairly low. bore axis nice beaver tail 18 degree. grip angle so that's more like your 1911. which is more natural. uh one thing too that both the EZ and. The Equalizer shares well is a internal. Hammer fired pistol and it's Single. Action so when you rack the slide it. actually the hammer precocks it. and it makes for a really nice trigger. break but you'll notice that there is no. blade safety now you can get it with a. frame safety or without and of course I. chose it without and then we have a grip. safety now grip safety is really big. with the 1911 but one of the things. about a grip safety and some people. don't like them some people love them is. that this is a passive safety so this. trigger cannot be fired unless I am. depressing the grip safety and then I.

Can fire the pistol so it's very natural. to grip it with a full grip and then. you're ready to fire we have a three. slot picatinny rail your slide stop is. raised a little bit to be able to bring. it down and you have your takedown lever. your magazine release can be removed and. put onto the the other side. and so a lot of really cool features a. lot of those are retained in the EZ but. these are just a lot of upgrades now the. m p Shield has been a huge plus from the. beginning even when it was a single. stack Magazine with the shield plus. you're getting very little grip. extension and yet it has 10 plus one and. so these are going to be kind of two. choices for concealed carry my wife this. is her concealed carry piece and she. upgraded from the original Shield. but we want to get a kind of a size. difference between the two now both of.

Them are 10 rounds and the magazines are. pretty much head to head when we have a. little bit longer barrel and slide on. The Equalizer and to be honest we have a. little bit more thickness on The. Equalizer The Shield is definitely a. little thinner but guys again one of the. biggest differences is pulling this. slide back I mean it definitely takes a. little bit more strength than it does. with the equalizer. with the equalizer. one pound 6.2 ounces with the shield. Plus. one pound 4.2 ounces that's not a. surprise considering the slide and. Barrel are smaller the slide is. stainless steel and it does again have. that black armor knight finish on it and. then the barrel is. 3.675 inches and it is also stainless. steel and it also has that armornight. finish and we'll take a little bit of a. better look when we break the pistol.

Down here we have our trigger it is. curved just a little bit of take up. and then a nice crisp break. reset. right there now the reset is not really. tactile it is a little bit Audible. but then we're back on it and again this. is an internal Hammer fired pistol. that's single action okay we're gonna. check the trigger pull weight with our. lineman trigger gauge from Brownells. four pounds 4.7 ounces. four pounds 9.8 ounces we have actually. tested this quite a few times and it's. around the four and a half and under. Mark typically your Glocks are coming in. at five and a half pounds and the brake. is really crisp reset's a little bit. long but honestly a very nice trigger we. really appreciate poke for sponsoring. the ammo all made in the USA one of the. largest suppliers of ammunition in the. country. also Lula loaders I mean these things.

Will save your thumbs. you know with the flush fit magazine. it still gives you enough grip to be. able to control the pistol got larger. hands it'll hang off just a little bit. but you know this is the smallest. Magazine with 10 Rounds. then we come in with the 13 round. magazine and I'll tell you guys I mean. this is like just your standard. fullsize pistol more like a Glock 19 in. silhouette. so real great cocking serrations I. really like the Improvement more. definite than even the fish scales which. personally I liked this gives you a. little bit of deeper cut it makes it. easier to bring back and that small. ledge at the back of the slide so then. when I bring it up. gives you again that full grip and then. when we take the 15 round magazine. it's going to give you those extended. rounds and really for a small size like.

This I mean this gives you a lot of. capability and it's so thin. so as we grip it and again we don't have. a frame safety we don't have a trigger. safety but we do have the grip safety. which is passive bringing it in. and it's a good shooting gun and it. gives you three different magazine. options but you'll notice how flat it. shoots. then like a 1811 but yet it has a lot of. capacity nine millimeter so it gives you. plenty of you know defensive capability. and especially since this is on the easy. style so you've got a really easy rack. on the slide. very simple controls and just a great. little gun smaller grip for those with. smaller hands but even if you have. larger hands thick enough to where it. can give you control. and I'll tell you what we have had no. malfunctions slideshell back on every. round. I'll tell you guys great option period.

For concealed carry but if you're. considering those that have maybe weaker. hand strength or those that you know are. not used to Firearms this makes a great. option and over the EZ it gives you up. to 15 rounds you know compared to the. seven eight rounds of the standard. version. foreign. this is Optics ready and you have your. Shield rmsc footprint which is more of. your micro red dots polymer top here and. you just remove these two screws you can. attach your Red Dot directly to the. frame which makes it lower than having. to put spacers. or adapter plates now mounted on the. pistol we have one of the Holocene EPS. carry sights it's an RMS Shield. footprint which goes perfectly on here. you'll notice that there's no adapter. plates it fits right down into the slide. and the EPS is just an excellent. enclosed sight it doesn't have that.

Angle to it that you can get debris down. in it and a lot of sights are starting. to see that way this has a small little. solar panel on top to help preserve your. battery life easy to put on I mean you. have these two screws put it on tighten. them up and you're ready to go and it. mounts again right to the slide and you. can cowitness and that's one thing I. love about this site is that I can see. my three Dot sights in the bottom part. of the window and this just makes an. excellent addition without having to put. suppressor height sights the reticle. itself is really cool it has a two MOA. Dot and you can go with just that or it. has a 32 MOA Circle and your third. option is a two MOA dot with a 32 MOA. circle around it and all you have to do. is click the button for three seconds. and it will change the modes and so you.

Can pick whichever works best for you. and it gets daylight bright it's a nice. eye box you can see the target very well. just very quick to deploy easy to get on. target so one of the things I do love. about Red Dot sights and with this. already lined up with your sights it's. really easy to just to bring it up into. fire and the mount seem to be very. secure we put quite a few rounds through. it and I am really pleased with this. setup but the whole assigned site itself. is excellent and we really appreciate. Smith and Wesson for sending the EPS. they wanted to show a site mounted onto. the pistol all right now for disassembly. drop your magazine check the chamber and. the gun's empty now obviously we have. the Red Dot attached and of course you. can clean it that way there are a couple. of things though that you need to know.

When disassembling this firearm number. one is you don't want to depress your. grip safety so as we bring the slide. back and put it into slide lock bring. down your lever and then again with the. grip safety not the engaged drop your. slide and then it just comes right off. you don't have to pull the trigger in. fact you don't you shouldn't pull the. trigger because here is your Hammer your. internal hammer and you don't want that. in the down position it can cause issues. so that's one safety Factor about. disassembling your firearms and then. here we're going to take out our recoil. spring and guide rod it is metal it's. captive and it has the flat recoil. springs and then we have our barrel and. beautiful nitride Barrel over stainless. steel and man that's slick. here the slide. no tooling marks I mean this is standard.

Smith and Wesson quality we do have a. large area that's been cut out of the. back and this allows for the hammer and. it also allows for weight savings with. the slide. again here's the frame and we do have. our internal hammer and it is precocked. whenever you pull the slide back it'll. the hammer and so it's a single. action but very nice very well done and. guys that's all you need to do to field. strip let's go ahead and replace our. barrel with the recoil spring you'll. notice that there are two flat areas on. either side and then you have your. rounded areas your curved areas you want. to make sure those curved areas are. against the barrel and at the top of the. barrel the flat side should be on either. side and that's going to allow you to. put your slide back onto your frame. because it won't go any other way don't.

Ask me how I know that and now make sure. that you do not depress your grip safety. so bring it over and engage your slide. lock and then bring your lever up. drop the slide reenter magazine pull. the trigger for test function and with. the grip safety fully engaged and that's. it guys it's simple again there are a. couple little things that you want to. make sure but really simple one of the. things too about the EZ since it's been. out for about four years there's a. number of different site options holster. options different things that they offer. and here is a crossbreed holster it fits. The Equalizer very nicely and of course. this is an inside the waistband holster. has a MAG carrier on it but then we can. take our standard EZ put it in here and. we're good to go as well of course. you're going to have to have a different.

Mag carrier but this is just an. excellent company I've done a lot with. the crossbreed holsters and they make. really good products it's one thing. about a new firearm when it comes out a. lot of times it takes a while for. aftermarket support to catch up and. that's part of the reason why Smith and. Wesson sent the crossbreed and the whole. assigned just to show you what's out. there as far as pros and cons it's. definitely a thinner handgun so it's. going to be great for concealed carry. and yet you have a lot of round capacity. 10 rounds in a flush fit again 13 Rounds. and a kind of a normal grip fit and then. 15 rounds in that larger grip easy to. pull back on the slide even front back. it doesn't matter one of the things. about the original EZ is it had small. little abbreviated serrations at the. front this gives you really good.

Grippable just I mean pullback type. serrations and I love it the grip angle. is really natural and it's really great. for those who are just starting to shoot. it really makes a big difference to have. that natural grip sights three dot. they're nice of course with the Lula. loader it makes it easier to be able to. load those magazines which again the. first one had those little Nubs on the. side where you could load them but. upping the round capacity to me is a. huge plus and once I saw the Smith. Wesson Shield plus I knew it was just. just a matter of time before the easy. was upgraded because guys this targets. the most vulnerable market and when you. give them a really capable selfdefense. option that's small and carryable and. that's one of the big things and yet it. shoots like a fullsize gun it really is.

an equalizer and guys we really. appreciate Smith and Wesson for sending. the equalizer for this review I'm really. glad to see gun companies coming out. with options for those that have little. shooting experience but also the most. vulnerable in our society they need to. have something that's very capable and I. feel like that The Equalizer is. definitely a great choice be strong be. of good courage God Bless America long. live the republic. foreign. foreign. grip safety which makes it okay. which is a big upgrade from The Shield. now while the shield now while these. Smith and Wesson eat okay now how the. shield emit options for those who with. little. have little truth. foreign