Report: Problems with new S&W Bodyguard 380

I just got my BG380 yesterday. Went straight to the range with it. Couldn't wait to try it out ,It has a great feel to it, nice weight and balance. I fired 100 rounds (all I had with me). No problems at all! I really like this gun. The laser is nice to play with too. Its visible in sunlight to about 40 ft. at dusk its visible as far as your eye sight will see a small red dot. I know its only a 100 rounds but so far I feel it was well worth the money. I'll update my opinion after 5 or 6 hundred rounds ( which shouldn't be too long,love shooting this gun).

Your contribution as beta testers is appreciated.

Let me know how it all works out...

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Originally Posted by Spec

Smith and Wesson has AWESOME customer service fast & friendly... I'm sure that they will work until the problem is fixed... it is one benefit of buying from Smith and Wesson is to have amazing customer service... I have never heard a negative comment from anyone about it.

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Well, S&W is a fine company and I own 7 S&W guns and am a fan of S&W but I am getting ready to send my S&W M&P AR15 (5.45x39) upper back to them for the second time for the same problem. The first time they sent the upper back to me with no repair report in the box with the upper explaining what they did to repair the upper and I had to call to find out and they were very vague in their response. They told me they replaced the barrel.......which they did not, and after I called them out on that, then the CS rep. changed the story and stated the barrel was only repaired and it was another customer that had his barrel replaced for the same issue and they only "throated" my barrel. Got the upper back and got 17 rounds out of it before it "locked up" agian, same as first issue. Case stuck in breech and bolt locked up. And I don't mean something you can "mortar" the rifle and the case will come out, I mean stuck solid and only removing the barrel will fix. I inspected the upper closely and I think they only removed the barrel and removed the stuck case and boxed it up and sent it back to me. The rifle still had the fouling in the bore from the first iniutal range trip and I saw no indication of any throating/polishing of the breech at all. I have done several AR builds and know the AR platform well and I can tell when someone is BSing me and thats what is happening here.......Point is while not ranting about S&W but in this case on this one they are not perfect and have been very vague and are holding back info because of issues they are having with many of the 5.45x39 uppers. I will see how they deal with this for the second time around. I hope they do better with the "issues" with the .380 Bodyguard since I like the concept.

Just an updaate on my S&W Bodyguard 380. I got about 500 rounds thru it now, not a single problem. I found a nice inside pants holster. You hardly know its there! Shoots very well for such a small gun. Shooting at a life size silhouette at 40 feet I was grouping all insde center chest area, even when rapid firing. I'm really enjoying this gun. I figure with S&W if there is any problem with it down the road I'll be one of the first to own the updated version at no additional cost.
I say if it looks good to you , go for it! Life's too short to stand on the side line waiting for everything to be just right !

I just don't trust small automatics, I had too many bad experiences. I've tried a number of them and they always seem to fail me for one reason or another. It took awhile, but I have finally learned to stick with lightweight small frame revolvers for pocket carry. Yes, the small automatics are smaller, but I simply buy clothes with deep pockets and I have no issue at all pocket carrying a revolver.

I hope S&W gets the Bodyguard 380 worked out, but I don't expect to be buying one either way.

Hello, I am a police officer in Pennsylvania, I recently purchased one of the Bodyguard .380's on July 27, 2010 from one of my local gun dealers. My intent was to qualify with the firearm and carry it both on and off duty as a back up gun. Upon bringing it home, I set up a target and fired off 20 rounds, my grouping was very nice up until the trigger failed to return from the back position. I racked the gun and re-racked it several times hoping that it had been a jam of some sort but after field stripping the firearm and not seeing anything visibly wrong I was very disappointed! The next morning I called the store where I had purchased the gun from and they told me to bring it back and they would ship it out to S&W immediately for repair. I had also called customer service with the intent to hopefully get a little insight on the matter and was basically pushed off almost as if it was not a big deal, the customer service rep did not take any of my personal information so that the matter could be sorted out. While I realize that this is a new firearm, this is UNACCEPTABLE and I'm really not sure how this type of malfunction is not caught before releasing this gun to the public. S&W named this particular weapon the Bodyguard because it is a CQW and is meant for personal protection and what scares me is if I had actually decided to carry the weapon out on the street and I had to use it and my trigger failed, not only is that a HUGE error on S&W's part but it could potentially be my life and others that I am protecting. I've emailed S&W and called them several times with the hope of getting a straight answer as to the status of my gun and what they are doing to resolve the issue, seeing as how I am not the only one experiencing this problem now which I learned after a few weeks on all of the handgun forums. This is my first S&W purchase and so far after the malfunction and dealing with your customer service rep it has not been a pleasurable experience, I would think that a company that has been around since 1852 would be inclined to pride themselves on reliable products and good customer service.. I will post back when I hear from Smith and also when I get my gun back because I plan on spending alot of time at the range with it before I even consider carrying it.

Holy Crap.

I thought I was on a Taurus post until I read it closer. Most ppl posting here claim S&W is one of the elite "never had any issues with their products" company...

I guess this post goes to show what some of us Taurus owners have been saying all along: it happens to them all.

Maybe you guys would be better off dumping the S&W and trying out Taurus? I have been pleased as punch with my PT-709 slim... no trigger probs, no point-of-aim issues, no FTF or FTE... guess it's a good thing I didn't buy a S&W!

The trigger failure is the most reported issue with this gun. Others report great results and love the gun. So far, mine has shot well for me... way less recoil than the LCP. Got a great deal on this through Cabela's with a coupon, club points and a cash back card that I activated with the purchase of the gun and recieved 600 rnds of free ammo. 2nd time back to the range, it ran even better.

I was at the shooting range today and put another 50 rounds thru my BG 380. Still not a single problem. I find it shoots a little low and sights are adjustable for windage only. But after learning to adjust for it I was grouping in a 6 inch circle at 40 feet. For me , with such a small gun , I thought that was pretty good. Sorry to hear about your problem, TasdNConfusd, I will be Interested in hearing what the problem is with some of these guns. I think S&W owes an explanation to anyone who buys one of their guns and has it fail. I'm sure once they get it straightened out for you ,you'll come to really like this gun.

I just wanted to share a personal experience I recently had with the Smith & Wessons customer service dept. Over the past severl years I've owned three of the model 637 Airweight .38's. All three had the clear coat finish peel off from around the back strap of the guns. I sold the first one to a friend and took a bad lose on it due to the peeling issue. The second one I traded off due to the peeling issue. After the third one started to peel, I put on a grip that completely covered the back strap and hid the bad places. So,, just as a courtesy to S&W I email them and stated they needed to look into this problem and never asked them for any kind of repair or compensation for the problems I had from the three guns. After about 3 days I got a response from one of their reps wanting to know about the problem and asked what brand of bore solvant I used. I replied back and stated that I normally use Hoppes # 9. I got another response from the rep who stated that was the problem and that I had caused the peeling issue by using a solvant with amonia in it and stated to me that any attempt to have the gun repaired under warranty would not happen! Ok,, first I never asked for any repairs in the first place and second I do not believe the peeling issue was caused by the amonia because the amonia-solvant never got on the back strap but it did get all over the frame around the cylider area and there was never any peeling from that area and it is also clear coated just like the back strap! Makes no sence to me. The area that always got amonia it never peeled and the area that never got amonia on it peel on all three guns. Anyways the experience I had with their customer service dept really shyed me away from S&W. I doubt if I will ever buy another. :frown:

Buy a Ruger revolver next time. You will not have any problems with trigger or anything. I am a revolver person that depends on a good real decent firearm. Ruger does it for me with there revolvers only. I do have 3 Glocksbut they are in the safe for the past 3 years and I will sell them someday soon I hope. a G17,19,and 26. richgp100z

This is being discussed at the bodyguard 380 forum website at www.bodyguard380.com

JC

The BG 380 came back this week, and was able to take it out this afternoon for a test drive. Shooting RWS FMJ, I put about 225 rounds through it, few mags of WWB, and another 35 rounds of Winchester PDX1, and the trigger worked great. A few ftf with the RWS, but they always went bang on second strike, and no ftf with the Winchester.

Back from S&W, we found the following: First, the trigger is much smoother, and it was a nice trigger first time around, it seems to break more toward the middle instead of near the back of the trigger guard; second it is a very accurate little gun, holding tight groups at 7-10 yards regardless of how hot the gun got; third, S&W was kind enough to pack an extra magazine when they returned it, and my buddy was reloading the spare mag as fast as I was pulling the trigger on the other mag; fourth, for comparison he brought along his Kel-Tec 380 -- the BG is way more comfortable to shoot.

I am very pleased with the BG 380, S&W was quick in the turn around and the gun functioned flawlessly with my carry ammo. S&W built a good gun for deep concealment. Carried it all afternoon and evening in a Desantis Superfly and forgot I even had it with me.

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Originally Posted by paboxcall

I experienced the exact same problem with my S&W BG 380 Friday afternoon. The BG fired the first 25 rounds flawlessly, impressively actually, when on the 26th round the trigger failed.

Cleared the gun, disassembled it and couldn't find anything apparently wrong. Put it back together, and tried pulling the trigger forward while lightly tapping the slide on the table when the trigger sprung forward. Racked the slide and the trigger went back to its "fired" position by itself.

Its currently on its way back to S&W for root cause analysis and repair. As you, this BG 380 is my first semi as I have always been a revolver guy. I just couldn't resist this little gun for pocket carry when a revolver won't work for CC.

I found the gun to be accurate and a pleasure to shoot. The laser functioned well, and the slide lock worked as designed. Once I got used to the long trigger pull, shooting it accurately was easy. The gun provides a nice sight picture and the textured grip was very comfortable. I'm looking very much forward to getting this gun back with this trigger problem solved and getting a few hundred rounds through it to gain confidence. From what I have read elsewhere, the Bg 380 appears to be functioning well, with others getting a couple hundred rounds thru without a fte or ftf.

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Originally Posted by tooldawg99

Holy Crap.

I thought I was on a Taurus post until I read it closer. Most ppl posting here claim S&W is one of the elite "never had any issues with their products" company...

I guess this post goes to show what some of us Taurus owners have been saying all along: it happens to them all.

Maybe you guys would be better off dumping the S&W and trying out Taurus? I have been pleased as punch with my PT-709 slim... no trigger probs, no point-of-aim issues, no FTF or FTE... guess it's a good thing I didn't buy a S&W!

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All companies have their issues no doubt but I bought a Taurus 738 a few months back......what a freaking joke that gun was. If you Google "piece of junk", a picture of the 738 will be the first return on the search. 3 trips to Taurus in Miami and the gun still wouldn't eject a spent casing. That's why I bought a S&W 442 for pocket carry and don't plan on looking back. Its my first S&W that I have owned.

I recently purchased the 380 Bodyguard and found it to be right on target and consistent with all shots on first trip to the range. My only issue was the laser, especially on right side. Super human strength is needed and even then it was not working to well on the right. Was very excited about the gun and still am but I hope they can make this right.