BS, Fragn. You need to learn how to use it. As I have said about myself under different circumstances, "It's not the gun, it's the jerk behind the trigger." No such problem with my BG38 after about a thousand rounds downrange, much of it rapid fire. Let's meet and you show me, whattaya say? "Roll of the dice" for lockup? I don't think so. Fairy tale. S&W has one of the best customer service groups in the country, if not the world, and the company itself would not allow the kind of liabilities you claim in one BG38 after another.

What gun stores, what state, what city? No profile info on you? First post trash talk. Trollish.

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Bob

I had the same experience as Edmo. Mine shot to the left about 10 inches at 25ft, had 2 light primer strikes(misfires) and failed to rotate the cylinder once all in the first 100 rounds. Sent it back to Smith and they said it was unrepairable. Replaced with a 642CT and it is a better revolver in every way. I gave it a fair try but it is not ready for primetime and I certainly couldn't trust it when the chips were down. YMMV

I have no idea why Smith did this new BG thingy other than supposing it was to look newer and cooler in response Ruger, et al's new stuff designed to compete with the J-frame.

A classic case(s) of if it ain't broke don't fix it and why the hell suck up to the competition when you already own the gold copy/standard.

Early BG38s had problems with the laser. The instructions were incorrect in the manual. There was a correction published on their website which worked but was eventually supplanted by S&W's new procedure to roughly sight in the laser before shipping. I had a problem with the laser button, it popped out. Replacement has worked fine.

The indexing of the cylinder requires the shooter to allow the trigger to fully reset. If you don't, the cylinder may skip a charge hole and sometimes lock up. You can skip a charge hole with other revolvers for the same reason. I did it with my 642-1 and with a 617-6. New firearms sometimes have bugs. I've had no additional problems with my BG38 and I've shot it a lot.

The BG38 isn't meant to replace the 642 or any other J-Frame, S&W still makes them and sells them. It's simply a low cost, entry level self defense firearm primarily marketed to a new shooter who isn't going to buy any more guns, at least not right away.

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Bob