I’m not even going to mess around with a fancy or wordy intro today – I’ve been looking at magazine extenders for my Smith and Wesson Shield for a while now. What does a while mean? Literally probably 2 years.
It’s not that they are that expensive, but I wanted THE best. Not runner up or close to the best, but THE best. I’ve had so many different people tell me “oh, this brand is the best” or “just buy new mag guts” or “EpStEiN dIdN’t KiLl HiMsElF” (What?). I decided to not listen to anyone, to investigate on my own, and to make the purchase that I saw fit, and that would provide me with what I thought was the best.
While we are at it, I should mention that I didn’t want to buy new guts. For those of you that don’t know, companies make after-market springs for magazines that lessen the bulk of the spring when its compressed, allowing for more rounds within the same magazine. I didn’t want to go this route for a few reasons. First, I wanted an aftermarket grip for my magazines that would be a tad larger than the 8 round mag that SW provides for the shield. Second, I LIKE HOW THEY LOOK. Yeah, that’s right, I’m not afraid to say that the mag extensions have physical appeal to me.
A brand that I have been following for a long time on Instagram is Hyve Technologies. This company makes magazine extensions, triggers, mag release extensions, and more for Shields and other guns. I decided to begin my research with this company.
But I didn’t get far, simply because there wasn’t much about the parts. The reviews of them are 5 stars across the board, but there weren’t any comments saying anything. I finally found one forum all about Hyve, and it was exactly what I was looking for.
I like forum reviews because you usually get the worst in people. They’ll mention the absolute worst about anything and everything, and it’s usually over-exaggerated by many multitudes. This is what I wanted, as I knew anything bad about the Hyve products would come out.
But, there wasn’t a single bad thing to be said. Every single person said how much they love their Hyve products. To be quite frank, this was enough for me. I researched a couple of other mag extensions but that was it. I was set on Hyve.
I decided to wait until Black Friday of last year to make my purchase – a mere 2.5 months away. Yeah, I can be pretty patient. Black Friday hit, the extension was about 30% off, and I made the purchase.
Hyve gives you the option of picking your color scheme – you get to choose the main color plus the color of the mag stop. I chose black with a grey mag stop.
The following days after the purchase were a little…shocking. Hyve sent me a detailed update of everything that was going on with my order. “Order received”, “Payment went through”, “Part being built”, “Part ready to ship”, “Part Shipped”, and oh, should I mention that I got it in only 3 business days? What? Not even Amazon has this kind of service!
Upon arrival, I immediately went to install the +2 mag extension. It was beautiful black with a bluish-grey color mag stop – not too much color, but just a touch to give a little flare.
Okay, if you are reading this, you can’t be a stereotypical guy and not read the instructions. Read the instructions when installing this mag extension. I tried and tried and couldn’t get the extension on until I realized I was doing something wrong. Upon following the instructions I immediately got the extension on.
My ONLY complaint about the entirety of the part is that I easily scratched it during installation. Yes, I know, it’s only aesthetic, but as I already mentioned, aesthetic is important to anyone. The end of the spring scratched the coating on the mag extension and left a nice scratch or two. Not THAT big of a deal, but I was still a little bummed.
After installing, I placed the mag into my Shield. It fit snug, just like the original magazine. Once again, the grey provided a little bit of style amongst the all-black Shield.
I then removed the magazine and put some Hornady Critical Duty 9mm rounds into it. It fit all 10 rounds nicely. I should mention that this is the +2 mag extension designed for the 8 round Shield magazine, making it hold 10 rounds. This is pretty good for a very slim, small, single stack pistol.
Since installing the mag extension, I have put many rounds through it – probably about 500 (through this single magazine). I have had zero issues.
Perhaps the thing I like most about the magazine is the grip extension. It’s so unbelievably comfortable. My biggest complaint about any compact gun is the limited grip surface. In fact, I just shot a Glock 43 not too long ago and I hated it. It was just too small! Now, my Shield has a grip significantly bigger than that of a G43, all while still being concealable.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a mag extension, I would highly recommend getting one from Hyve. In fact, at this point, I would recommend anything from Hyve. It seems like their products are unbelievably high quality and reasonably priced as well. I will more than likely purchase I new trigger from Hyve in the future for my Shield.
I hope you all liked this article. If you have any article ideas than be sure to comment down below, as always looking for you your input.
As always, I thank you for reading and I will see you all next time.
