I had been searching for a good, dependable .380 for a while when it I finally asked my regular gun dealer his thoughts. He pulled a Bodyguard 380 out of his pocket and directed me to his range. I fired 3 full magazines through it. I liked the long trigger pull due to the fact that I can't understand having a gun that I need to cycle a round into the chamber to use the thing. I mean, it's a defensive weapon and should be ready to use on a moment's notice. The long pull meant to me that I wasn't going to have an accidental discharge and shoot myself. I liked the fact that it had all of the features of full sized gun in a small package. I particularly liked the laser as I can imagine that any time I would need to use the gun would be low light situations and thinking that a laser which can be deployed in less than a second might just deter a person from further attempts at violence. After all, they have no idea what size of gun they're facing, they just know that someone has a gun pointed at their center mass. I very much liked the feel of the gun and the fact that I can conceal if very easily. That's a real problem for me since I'm fairly tall but slim. I'm 6'2" and go about 165 pounds, so my full sized 9mm's are way too bulky to be concealed very well.
Out of the box the gun was accurate and the laser was right on at about 8 meters. I have run somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 rounds, plus or minus, through the gun and the only trouble I have ever had was with an aftermarket 10 round magazine my wife nabbed for me. That magazine was intended only for use on my home range anyway, but I would warn all of you BG 380 folks off any such thoughts. I have to recycle the gun every time to put another round into the chamber. Aside from that the gun has been perfect.
I'm not such a fanboy of any particular brand of gun, though I do have a liking for Ruger products that goes back to the 1980's when I was working as a private investigator/bodyguard in the Detroit Metro area. At the time I carried a Colt Combat Commander and occasionally a Colt Gold Cup. I carried 1 extra mag with my Colts. Having gotten used to the Colts in the military I was very familiar with them. That all changed when I ran across a shootout in a Detroit neighborhood and these guys were using MAC-10's. It had nothing to do with me I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I suddenly felt like I was carrying way too few rounds. I went to a dealer and picked up a Ruger P-85 and it felt a lot like my Colts. It was accurate and after fitting it with Pachmayr grips and 3 extra magazines, I felt I could at least hold my own in that very (at the time) dangerous town. Hence my liking of Ruger, that led me to buy my first 10/22.
Regardless of all of that, I have gotten to love my BG 380. At least in my case the gun has been flawless and has
become my favorite pistol to shoot. I have been able to "walk" shots on target up to 50 meters away and I'm no Jerry Miculek.
With as much as I love my BG 380 I do read about folks not having as much success with the gun as I have had with it. I have no doubt that every manufacturer has problems with certain firearms. It is very concerning to me that people have had Smith & Wesson work on their guns and still continue to have problems. It just doesn't make sense that a manufacturer like S&W can't fix a gun that they designed and made, no sense at all. I mean what the heck?
I hope that somehow S&W can get these things worked out, I mean it sure doesn't make a lot of sense to carry a gun you can't count on when you NEED it. So good luck to all of you out there that have problems with these guns. I trust mine and that's all I can say really.
Each and every gun is different, I get that, but it's really strange that 1 gun comes off the line perfectly and the next is a box of junk. How the heck does that happen?
Best of luck to you all and safe shooting to everyone out there.

__________________
Veritatem Cognoscere