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Bought one today.
This gun has been touted as the perfect – absolutely perfect – gun for people who have arthritis and/or greatly reduced hand strength due to age. My experience says otherwise.
First thing I will say is that this gun is NOT anywhere as EASY as all of the write ups and you tube videos would have you believe. I thought it would be a good range gun for me, to replace the Bersa BP380cc which I can no longer rack to slide lock without a Handiracker, and which is a total bear to field strip. This EZ is almost the identical size as that Bersa.
I bought the EZ this afternoon and went straight to our outdoor range with my one box of ammo that I tossed in my bag “just in case I would find one today.” This broke my former iron clad rule of never shooting a gun without taking it home to clean it first – but we were out and about and I didn’t want to miss the chance to see how she shoots.
Before buying her, I spent over a half hour in the store playing with her, learning a couple of quirks. For instance: When you are ready to put the slide back on (like after cleaning) you CANNOT press the grip safety or the slide simply will not go on all the way. Period. This is no problem for all the men who test this gun. Figuring how to hold the base of the gun while putting on the slide without holding the grip normally is a serious problem for a woman with severe arthritis and/or weak hands like I have!
I DID NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS GUN like I did with my first G42 or with the first SIG P238 I shot. It is not a pretty gun in any way – a bit blocky and clunky looking - but feels OK in the hand. It does not point instinctively for me. Texture is a bit aggressive, but I wear shooting gloves and an aggressive texture enables me to have a really firm grip through the glove fabric. It would be very uncomfortable for me to shoot more than a couple shots without a glove.
But there were enough positive things that I decided to part with my Bersa and $285 (including tax and background check fee) and bring her home. I did not get a good deal financially, but that was my choice because I’m not one to run all over 3 counties looking for a better deal.
It’s a gun with a longer sight radius than my SIGs and my Glocks and is .380 and I think it will be a good range gun, after I get better acquainted with it and perhaps have Gramps move the rear sight a teeny bit to the right. (Yes, I was shooting almost every round consistently about 1 ½” to the left through the whole box of 50 this day.) To be fair to this gun, I also shoot to the left with other guns if I don’t really concentrate.
The EZ is larger than a Shield 9mm, but an ounce and a half lighter. It is about the size of a G19 but with a single stack grip, so it fits my hands well. It is heavier than the SIG238 with the aluminum alloy frame and heavier than a G42. As a range gun this is not an issue for me.
NOTE: The model I bought was the one without the manual safety. All models come with the grip safety. I didn’t care if I got one with a manual safety or not because even though it shoots SA, (internal hammer is cocked once the first round is loaded in the chamber) this will not be a carry gun, and the one this store had was without the external safety. That was fine with me. And they took my Bersa BP380cc in trade even though they gave me way less than half of what I had in it with the extra magazines I had for it. I expected that to happen so am not grouching. I do not think I could ever have sold that Bersa privately and Gramps is super happy to get rid of it because it took him forever and much cussing to get the slide off when I wanted to clean the gun. I need guns that I can take apart and put back together by myself.
And, comparing the Shield .380 EZ to other guns I own and use:
I can take apart and put back together the EZ, with difficulty because I have a big problem getting a firm grip on the grip to slide the slide on properly without pushing against the grip safety. I can take apart and put back together my G42’s “all by myself, thank you!” I can not take my P238’s apart by myself because you have to hold the slide “just so” and push out the take down pin at the same time. I don’t have enough strength in my hand to do that with the P238’s.
The EZ takes the same amount of strength to rack back to slide lock as my P238’s do. The same. No less. For a person with severe arthritis and weak hands it IS NOT A TWO FINGER PULL BACK ON THE END OF THE SLIDE THING! My Glock 42’s are the same level of strength needed as when I bought them (which was fine back then), but I can no longer rack either of them back to slide lock without using a Handiracker. The G42’s are still my most accurate shooters though and I carry them the most.
The slide lock/take down lever is a real challenge to swing down. Perhaps this will get easier as I use the gun more. Perhaps the slide will become easier to rack back to slide lock after a few hundred times also. That would be great.
Trigger is supposed to be amazingly light and easy. I feel no difference between this trigger and either my P238’s or my G42’s. And I know we are talking about three different trigger-pull weights – but there is a lot more that goes into perceived ease of trigger pull than what shows up on a gauge!
AND NOW WE GET TO PERCEIVED RECOIL: There is NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL between the felt recoil of the EZ and my P238’s and my G42’s. NONE.
Biggest advantage of this gun so far: If you get the model with the external safety you can dry fire to your heart’s content.
Second biggest advantage of the EZ: the grip is a lot longer than the other ..380’s I own, and this makes it a much better gun for people with larger hands.
Third advantage: You cannot fire this gun without a HIGH AND TIGHT GRIP because of the grip safety. That pretty much takes care of limp wristing problems doesn’t it?
Final note: I do not usually write reports about brand new guns which have only had 50 rounds through them, but this one is so different in so many ways from all the other write-ups I’ve read and videos I’ve seen that I felt I owed it to all of you out there to let you know how it actually works (or not) for a real person who has bad arthritis, weak hands and is old.
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Originally Posted by Tree Potato
Didn't know that until I looked up the meaning of the name. F. Scott's Zelda was described as glamorous and unstable. This Zelda is NOT glamorous and hopefully will also not be unstable! 
