Hello everyone, new guy here. We've owned an earlier BG 380 (EAA6XXX) for about a month now (my wife's gun, but I really like it), and have nearly 250 rounds through it. Absolutely no takedown lever issues while firing, although it is very easy to rotate past the straight down position, and very easy to extract. Having read most of the threads on this topic, I'm concerned, but I feel kind of silly writing to S&W and telling them the gun works great so far but I'm afraid it might break. Anybody else send theirs in for repair/replacement without experiencing any failures? I've gotta think that if the issue caused S&W to change the design, and I've got an early production model, that I'm living on borrowed time.

Another topic--this is an odd one, but when I reassemble from a field strip and try to lock the slide back to insert the takedown lever, the barrel often retracts with the slide, preventing insertion of the lever. I've been experimenting a little bit while typing this, and it seems that if I hold the gun perfectly vertical while locking the slide, the barrel stays in place like it's supposed to, but if I tilt the gun while locking the slide, the barrel often travels back with the slide. Anybody else have any idea what I'm talking about?