I went to my nearest Sportsmans Warehouse today to check out the S&W shield plus. Seems like a nice gun but not as easy to rack as my Sig P320 and the slide releale lever is really stiff. Could be just break-in issue but not sure. Anybody else have similar issues?

Compared to the larger P320, the Shield has some minor drawbacks, depending on what you are used to. The recoil spring is different, obviously, due to it being a compact and will be more difficult to rack. It will get a little easier to use with time/usage. You might trying grabbing the slide in the front with your weak/non-shooting hand over the top of the slide and push it to the frame like you are trying to squeeze the gun, if that makes sense.

As far as the slide lock, I treat it like any other lock and just "sling shot" the slide and try not to mess with depressing the lever.I know that is not much of an answer but a good amount of manufacturers state to use it that way. Of course it also brings you back to the first issue you stated with the slide being more stiff/harder to operate. There are a few manufacturers that make an add on part that attaches to the end of the slide to make a larger/bigger/easier purchase to rack the slide. For example, Recover Tactical, makes a few different attachments. I have no affiliation with them but if you look around you can find others, which can make things easier for you.Another is Springer precision and they have something like this.

On a side note, HK listened to people having issues with racking the slide on the VP9/VP9sk and installed "wing" like tabs built into the slide, made for such issues. The downside it is a little wider in the slide.

I find the Shield to be the best ccw pistol overall for myself. Very accurate, good capacity,etc., but you will have some issues compared to a larger gun, like you have stated. You just have to find the right gun for you.

Shield plus w manual safety, all of the controls get easier to use with about 150 rounds down range. Same with racking the slide.

No, you are correct, it is not an easy=racking-pistol.

Never had a problem with racking my Shield+, but yes the slide stop WAS very hard to activate when new, as it typically is with all Shield 2.0s and + pistols that we get in from S&W at the shop. After about 200 rounds thru EACH of the two mags that came with the kit its downward operation eased considerably and I now consider it reliable, at least with those mags. With the additional extra mags I bought, I haven't had to "break" any of those in, but I sensed that some of the stiffness in the slide stop operation did return so I don't think the issue is entirely with the gun itself. However I typically don't use the slide stop to send the slide into battery; the overhand rack-of-slide technique is my preferred method. But it's good that I can now rely on the slide stop being usable if for whatever reason the need arises.

Slide stop lever is very stiff and borderline unusable on my Shields. I just overhand rack/release.