SMITH & WESSON'S New and Improved Carry Comp Pistol Series

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Let me run down the specifics of this new model, and Smith & Wesson’s entirely new Performance Center Carry Comp® line. Then, I want to take some time going over the history of “carry comps,” which date back at least to the 1980s (and there’s an interesting backstory to that “®” in the Carry Comp name), and explain how this pistol, neat as it is, despite the name, probably, technically, doesn’t even qualify as a carry comp.

Smith & Wesson has just introduced their Carry Comp line of pistols, which currently includes three models: a full-size metal-framed M&P, a compact M&P, and a Shield Plus model, which is what I got in for testing. These pistols are put out by Smith & Wesson’s Performance Center, which produces “factory custom” pistols with unique/improved features when compared to standard catalog items.

The first thing you’ll see is that S&W definitely wants you to know these pistols are something different. They have aggressive and unique slide texturing and cutouts that set them apart from standard M&P, and they are all optics ready.Let’s start back at the beginning. One of the first big media junkets I was ever invited to was Smith & Wesson’s rollout of the original M&P Shield in 2012. We beat and abused those guns for two days, and at the end, all of us were sold on the Shield.

Compact 9mm Market

The M&P Shield was a small, concealable 9mm with a 3.1-inch barrel, built to the same tough standards as the full-size M&P and fed by flush seven- or extended eight-round magazines. It hovers somewhere between a subcompact and compact in size, durable, reliable, concealable, and shootable. It has been a huge success for S&W, and there are now I-don’t-know-how-many versions and variations of the Shield, from the easy-to-rack .380 ACP EZ to the tricked-out semi-custom Performance Center models.

In 2021, S&W introduced the Shield Plus, and honestly, if the market wasn’t already saturated with small 9mms, the Shield Plus probably would have been crowned king of carry guns. The original Shield Plus is otherwise identical to the original Shield but fed by flush 10-round and extended 13-round magazines. That’s a huge increase in capacity, but perhaps even just as impressive is the fact that the grip of the Shield Plus is only one-tenth of an inch thicker than that of the original Shield. This is possible because the original Shield was not fed by a single-column magazine. Instead, the original Shield magazine could best be described as a “column and a half” in width for most of its length, narrowing to a single position feed at the top. Its increased girth allowed for a bit more room for cartridges and upped the Shield’s capacity (when compared to similarly sized pistols) by a round or so. Comparing a Shield to a Shield Plus, side by side, you can’t see the size difference, and in fact can barely even feel it in your hand.

Personally, I think S&W’s Shield Plus is one of the best guns on the market…that nobody pays attention to. If it was introduced ten years earlier it would have won every “gun of the year” award out there, but because we live in the golden era of carry guns, it just tends to get lost in the background noise. The Performance Center Carry Comp version of the Shield Plus is built on the longer version of the pistol with a four-inch barrel. This is a polymer-framed striker-fired pistol, and currently only is available in 9mm. The original Shield wasn’t really a pocket gun, and with its four-inch barrel, the Carry Comp Shield Plus (whether or not it sports an extended magazine) is a mid-size pistol that requires a holster for proper carry.

The original Shield and all the subsequent models are all built tough enough for duty use, and you’ll see both the slide and the barrel of the Carry Comp Shield Plus are stainless steel with an Armornite finish—barrel black, slide gray—S&W’s version of nitride. Unlike the larger, full-sized M&Ps, the Shield does not offer interchangeable backstraps. The frame is slender, increasing concealability, and it feels good in the hand. Built for concealability, the controls are low profile, and there’s no frame rail on this model. With this pistol you get the flat Performance Center trigger with integral safety lever. Trigger pull on my sample was an unremarkable, but unobjectionable, 5.5 pounds.

The texturing on the grip is very aggressive, and you get the same texturing on the grip extensions on the longer magazines. Most people will struggle to get all their fingers on the gun with the flush magazine in place. The extended 13-rounder will probably be all you need to get your whole hand comfortably on the gun, and if not, you’ve got the big 15-rounder as well. But this isn’t a tiny gun to begin with, and when you stick that 15-rounder in the gun it’s taller than a full-size Glock 17.

Performance Center Package

With this Performance Center pistol, you get very distinctive flat-bottomed wavy slide serrations that go up over the top of the slide in front. They don’t just look good, they are functional. At the rear of the slide, you’ll see a plastic plate, and here we get to a bit of an irritation for me. S&W has their 
Competition Optic Ready Equipment (C.O.R.E.) pistols. M&P C.O.R.E. pistols ship with seven different optics adapter plates which allow you to mount the red dot of your choice to the pistol. With the Performance Center Shield Plus Carry Comp, it is optics ready, but you get no adapter plates. It appears Smith & Wesson believes every member of the general public already knows the Shield Plus slide is cut for direct mounting of optics using the Shield RMSc footprint, as there’s no explanation of that either on the product page of their website or in the owner’s manual. But that’s what you get.

With this pistol you get three magazines. It is shipped with one flush 10-, one extended 13-, and one very extended 15-round magazine, as well as a Performance Center Cleaning Kit. Both front and rear sights are steel and dovetailed into place. The rear sight is plain black and serrated, with a 
generous U-shaped notch. The front sight is a great day/night model—a glow-in-the-dark tritium insert surrounded by a dayglo green ring. Together, the combo is visible in any light. The front sight is set back from the muzzle almost exactly half an inch, to make room for what S&W calls their Power Port™, the reason the pistols in this line are given the name Carry Comp. And therein lies a story.

I’ve written before how manufacturers tend to play fast-and-loose with words in the firearms industry. Guns far too big to fit in a pocket are somehow labeled “micro-compacts.” In fact, S&W continues to say the Shield Plus has a “micro compact” frame, even though this gun, overall, is a midsize. So, understand that my comments here reflect what I’ll call “common usage” of certain terms.

“Carry Comp,” as in compensator. Traditionally, a compensator is something attached to the end of a barrel/gun to reduce muzzle rise and felt recoil. Also, traditionally, a compensator has an expansion chamber, and then at least one if not multiple ports to redirect the expanding gases. The expansion chamber increases the performance of those ports. A compensator has ports, but a port is not a compensator.

With S&W’s Carry Comps what you get is a ported barrel, with a corresponding hole in the slide. It’s a big single port, but it’s still just a ported barrel. Those holes in the side of the slide are just for looks. Yes, I know some firearm manufacturers have, over the years, offered factory ported barrel versions and slapped a “C” suffix on the name (for compensated) but I respectfully disagree. Even S&W, with their previous models sporting barrel ports, has only ever called them ported guns.

However, S&W doesn’t just call them “carry comps,” they’ve slapped that R-for-Registered Trademark on the Carry Comp® name. Which is interesting, and I thought it might be problematic, because people have been making carry comps, and using the term “carry comp” to describe them, since at least the 1980s. I did some research and learned S&W in fact trademarked the term “Carry Comp” in 1998, recently renewing that trademark. I know a couple of custom 1911 gunsmiths who actually build what they call carry comps, and S&W’s trademark was news to them, so I’m glad to see S&W hasn’t been litigious in defending it.

The term “carry comp” is used to indicate a compensated pistol that is built and intended for carry, as opposed to competition where size and weight aren’t a factor. The original carry comps were almost all built on custom 1911s, most of them chambered in .45 ACP. They generally started out as Commanders with a 4¼-inch barrel, then a comp (usually profiled to match the slide) was threaded onto the barrel to bring them out to the length of a five-inch Government Model. They’re still around, but they’ve faded from the public consciousness for a number of reasons:

1. They had to be custom-made by a gunsmith, so they were expensive.
2. They were inherently less reliable. You’re adding weight to the barrel and redirecting recoil forces. Definitely needed gunsmith tuning.
3. For all the added cost and possibly impaired reliability, those comps didn’t do much. In part, because a lot of them were on .45s. The .45 ACP is a low-pressure round, and comps/ports work better with higher pressure. Most modern comped/ported guns are chambered in 9mm, which operates at a higher pressure than .45 ACP.

A compensator meant for a carry gun has to be some balance of size and performance—big enough to actually provide some recoil reduction, while not so big it compromises concealability—or reliability, because if you vent too much of those gases up through the comp there’s less force going straight back to work the slide. Most modern comps on 9mm carry guns reduce muzzle rise 15–25%.

Even in an uncomped/unported gun, the muzzle of that gun is down out of recoil before you’re ready to pull the trigger. So why is it “easier” to shoot a gun with a muzzle brake? Because there is less disturbance to the sight picture. You spend less time reacquiring your sights. And that is exactly why carry comps are suddenly all the rage everywhere—because of all the red dots now atop carry guns.

Pro's and Con's

There is a major disadvantage that all the proponents of red dots on carry guns ignore—most shooters are no faster when using a red dot-sighted pistol at realistic defensive distances, and many are a bit slower, in large part because they keep losing the dot in the window, either before firing their first shots or after. Perhaps even more than electronics and mount failures, this is the biggest issue with running a red dot—losing it in the window, thus slowing you down. How do I know? Because of all the compensators I’m seeing on red dot-wearing carry guns.

If losing the dot wasn’t a widespread problem, nobody would be running comps on their guns. The sole purpose of compensators is to reduce the disturbance to your sight picture. The very first people I saw running modern carry comps were the trainers pushing red dot-sighted carry guns. (Well…pushing their classes on how to use them, actually. Follow the money.) Because even those pros kept losing their dots. Cause and effect, baby.

If you’ve ever been at a range watching people shoot red dot-equipped pistols, you’ve seen the same thing, someone wiggling their optic-equipped pistol around, trying to find the dot. Or you’ve done it yourself. I’m not saying don’t put a red dot on your carry gun. I’m just saying don’t lie to yourself and pretend there are no negatives to that decision [EDITOR’S NOTE: “I’m Vince DeNiro and approve this message.”].

Optics aside, carry comps (even if they’re just ported, like this gun) are neat. They will reduce your muzzle rise. With modern improvements they are just as reliable as you need. And if you’re running an optic atop your carry gun, you’ll definitely like the reduced muzzle rise provided by a comp/port, as it will shorten the amount of time you spend trying to find your lost dot.

The Shield is a proven design, so the only question I had was whether the port siphoning off some of the recoil forces would affect reliability with lighter loads. Especially since the recoil spring in the gun felt quite robust, but the Shield Plus Carry Comp ran like a champ. I tried to choke it by feeding it a wide variety of ammo, sometimes all mixed up in the same magazine, and nothing could stop it. For accuracy testing, I mounted a Holosun to the slide, but for my speed work I used the provided front sight. That big green dot bouncing up and down was easy to follow and fast to use.

While the Shield is slender, it’s basically a mid-size pistol in this form, with good grip texturing and a ported barrel, so shooting it was fun, not a chore. I found I preferred shooting it with the 13-round magazine in place. Not only could I get all my fingers comfortably on the gun, but 
aesthetically that magazine looks best paired with that longer four-inch barrel.

Comps/ported barrels are louder, and you’ll especially notice that when shooting indoors. I didn’t have an otherwise-identical pistol to compare this gun too, but the muzzle rise did seem to definitely be flatter than with a standard unported pistol. Previously shooting/testing otherwise identical 3.1-inch barreled Shields (ported versus otherwise), I’ve noticed the porting reduces muzzle rise about 20%. With this pistol, indoors I got a tiny barely detectable bit of flash with certain loads, but outdoors I couldn’t see it at all.

The original Shield shot like a larger gun than it was, and the Performance Center Shield Plus Carry Comp does the same—it shoots darn near like a full-size handgun, and has nearly the capacity to match, while being thinner, and easier to conceal. Whether I was punching paper or 
knocking down steel it ran great. Compensated/ported pistols capable of mounting red dots are what’s in these days, and this pistol gives you that, with unique looks, for a reasonable competitive price.

SMITH & WESSON PERFORMANCE CENTER CARRY COMP SHIELD PLUS PISTOL SPECS

• Action: Striker-fired semi-automatic
• Caliber: 9mm
• Magazine Capacity: 10+1/13+1/15+1
• Barrel: 4.0 in. stainless steel
• Overall Length: 7.0 in.
• Overall Height: 4.6 in. (with flush magazine)
• Width: 1.08 in.
• Frame: Black polymer
• Slide: Stainless steel
• Finish: Gray Armornite
• Safeties: Trigger, internal drop
• Sights: Day/night front, notch rear, optics ready—RMSc cut
• Trigger Pull: 5.5 lbs. (as tested)
• Weight: 21.2 oz. (empty w/flush mag)
• MSRP: $649
• Manufacturer: Smith-Wesson.com, (800) 331-0852

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