Bodyguard spitting out unfired cartridge

[pistol]

Issue with my Bodyguard 380. I sent my Bodyguard back to S&W after shooting a couple of times because it was not consistently firing & it didn't always lock back after final round. Switched ammo, did fine for awhile, then it went click when I pulled the trigger. Also a very strange thing happened another time when I was taking a lesson from my instructor. I put the mag in & racked the slide. I pulled the trigger and the ejection port flew open and the whole cartridge spit out, unfired & on the ground. He retrieved it and put it back in and it fired. I decided to send it back to S&W. They had it a month and they said it was a defective magazine. Fine. Well, I took it to the range today and it was shooting beautifully and then....I put in the mag, racked the slide, pulled the trigger and out came the cartridge. There it was whole and unfired. I put it back in and fired it. My gunsmith is mystified. It shouldn't do this, it sounds impossible, but it happened twice. Do I send it back again? Has anyone ever heard such a thing?

[shawn mccarver]

Originally Posted by pistol

Issue with my Bodyguard 380. I sent my Bodyguard back to S&W after shooting a couple of times because it was not consistently firing & it didn't always lock back after final round. Switched ammo, did fine for awhile, then it went click when I pulled the trigger. Also a very strange thing happened another time when I was taking a lesson from my instructor. I put the mag in & racked the slide. I pulled the trigger and the ejection port flew open and the whole cartridge spit out, unfired & on the ground. He retrieved it and put it back in and it fired. I decided to send it back to S&W. They had it a month and they said it was a defective magazine. Fine. Well, I took it to the range today and it was shooting beautifully and then....I put in the mag, racked the slide, pulled the trigger and out came the cartridge. There it was whole and unfired. I put it back in and fired it. My gunsmith is mystified. It shouldn't do this, it sounds impossible, but it happened twice. Do I send it back again? Has anyone ever heard such a thing?

Not only have I never heard of this happening, I am having some trouble imagining how it is even mechanically possible. I think we need a cell phone video of this. If it happens as often as you say, it should not take many attempts to get it on film.

A mystery.

[KKECK5]

Your not suppose to be drinking when you shoot.......

[jstanfield103]

I would say S&W should be notified again, they may send another magazine because it does sound like a magazine lip issue, or at least that's all I can think of.

[Ed45]

Since the BOOM from the round firing provides the energy to cycle the slide and eject the cartridge it seems impossible that the slide would cycle by itself "cold". Maybe I'm missing something.

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Was it the same cartridge the second time????

[Edie]

I'm picking up my NIB BG360 this afternoon from my LGS. I've had it in layaway. I sure hope I'm not going to have trouble with it. I just got rid of a Sig Mosquito that gave me nothing but grief.

Please someone say something good about this gun!! I love my Bodyguard revolver....

[M29since14]

What you may be describing can happen when one round fires and the next round from the magazine does not find its way into the chamber and flies out of the breech. It is almost always a magazine problem of some sort. I have seen it when the magazine spring was installed incorrectly and also when the spring had simply become too weak to do its job. Is something like this what you are describing?

My Shield 9mm arrived with its magazine spring reversed front-to-back in the 7-round magazine. Before I could catch it, the spring had been bent and had to be replaced.

[dfhawkins]

Originally Posted by Edie

I'm picking up my NIB BG360 this afternoon from my LGS. I've had it in layaway. I sure hope I'm not going to have trouble with it. I just got rid of a Sig Mosquito that gave me nothing but grief.

Please someone say something good about this gun!! I love my Bodyguard revolver....

Edie, my wife and I own and carry S&W BG380s. Each weapon has fired 500+ rounds without incident... and is, for us, dependable when pocket carry's required. That's just our experience.

M29since14 is most likely correct. It would seem that the slide is moving too slowly, and the magazine lips are allowing the round to be stripped out before alignment with the chamber. One question. The chamber is empty and the live round ejected is the one intended to be chambered?

[Edie]

Originally Posted by dfhawkins

Edie, my wife and I own and carry S&W BG380s. Each weapon has fired 500+ rounds without incident... and is, for us, dependable when pocket carry's required. That's just our experience.

Thank you!! That sure helps! I trust the name S&W so I thought the BG380, being just the right size and a good caliber, was perfect for me AND I actually have some ammo for it! I appreciate all the good advice from y'all.

[pistol]

that's what everyone says. Sounds impossible, but it did it.

[pistol]

no.different ammo, different day. I'm beginning to wonder if Smith & Wesson sent me back my defective mag. Because they sent me 2 back. Can't believe they would do that though.

[pistol]

sounds like it could be. Next time I shoot it I will see if it is the first round from the mag or one of the next rounds. I am going to keep track of which mag used too, since I have 3. 2 came back from S&W, the other one is one I bought.

[pistol]

It is a mystery. My gunsmith at the range said next time it happens to put it down and come and get him. I would love to video it, if I could find someone to do it. I would have thought it was a figment of my imagination if I hadn't seen them land on the floor intact!

[S&W-Fan]

Originally Posted by M29since14

What you may be describing can happen when one round fires and the next round from the magazine does not find its way into the chamber and flies out of the breech. It is almost always a magazine problem of some sort. I have seen it when the magazine spring was installed incorrectly and also when the spring had simply become too weak to do its job. Is something like this what you are describing?

My Shield 9mm arrived with its magazine spring reversed front-to-back in the 7-round magazine. Before I could catch it, the spring had been bent and had to be replaced.

I cannot imagine how a "cold" magazine could eject a shell. I've got to believe the empty cartridge is ejected as a live round is feeding up the magazine and pops out too. The next round in the magazine actually feeds into the chamber, is my guess. Count the rounds as they're fired and how many are remaining in the gun when the problem occurs.

In the UTUBE I count 4 shots fired, not 5. I've disassembled my BG380 mags and noticed the spring has a perceptible orientation such that the front edge pushes up on the follower. I'd check the spring to be sure its not reversed/mirrored (I don't mean upside down).

BTW: I bent my magazine ever so slightly, screwing around with the magazine lock problem, and that caused other problems in feeding the rounds. Straightened it out and had to get it within .005" to work again. That is an extremely tight tolerance for formed sheet metal.

Another thought: What if the next round rubs on the bottom of the slide as the previous round is being chambered. That might move the next round forward in the magazine enough such that it's ready to pop out of the magazine when the previous round is ejected and the slide opens all the way. In this case the slide could actually be holding the live round down until it goes all the way back. The magazine fits pretty loosey-goosey.

Let us know if you find anything.

[Edie]

Originally Posted by Edie

Thank you!! That sure helps! I trust the name S&W so I thought the BG380, being just the right size and a good caliber, was perfect for me AND I actually have some ammo for it! I appreciate all the good advice from y'all.

Here it is!!

[Mcwsky09]

Originally Posted by Edie

Here it is!!

So where did you get that extended mag? Assuming it is real and you didn't make it yourself.

Have you tried cycling the slide manually with full magazine to see if anything doesnt seem sooth or the rounds are not getting pushed put of the mag and into the chamber without interference.

To the question of unfired cartridge being ejected, I have not seen anything remotely like that but have only put about 30 rounds through my BG380.

On my dad's Tarus 380 I have seen some odd behavior with trouble feeding every so often where sometimes the spent shell doesn't eject and the next round gets hung up on the previous one. I think I may have solved it by adjusting the magazine lips but need to test it at the range (only have one mag).

I have seen an M&P 22 get the first round in a mag pop up such that the bullet is pointing straight up caught between the slide and the breach. This seems to happen when the magazine is inserted too forcefully with the slide open. If the slide release is held while inserting the mag almost no effort is required to insert the mag, slightly more if the slide is closed since the topmost bullet willl press against the bottom of the slide. The main reason for using too much force on these mags resulted from having most of my experience on an SR22 which has a magazine lock/release mechanism that does require some effort to get the mag locked as it is spring loaded and when the release on that gun is pressed the mag is pushed out.

Back to the BG380, I a, eagerly awaiting what Galloway Precision has to offer to change the trigger. Not sure if mine is working as designed up I am ot a huge fan of the trigger. Oddly, during dry fire it doesn't seem so bad but live fire the trigger pull is VERY long and sometimes when I think I have pulled the trigger as far as it can go it has ot fired and there is just a little bit more travel available before the trigger hits the frame and then it goes bang. Could be the grip is just too small for my hand or something about the way the trigger fits in my hand. Both my wife and my dad had a hard time firing it reliably.

Sorry if too far off topic.

[CAJUNLAWYER]

It's stories like this that make me shy away from pocket autos and stay wit the old fashioned J frame snubs. Seems that the smaller the gun, the more succeptible it is to a screw up regardless of who makes it. The only pocket auto I would trust and only with ball ammo after a good work in is the PPK PPK/s.
I know overgeneralizations are bad-but I just read and hear too much about these little guns messing up some way or the other. I think semi autos were meant ot work best fullsized. There is too much that can go wrong with shrinking the action and making sure EVERYTHING is just so with today's modern manufacturing techniques. You stack the tolerances on one of these and it may never work right. I think autos ought to be full sized. Period. Sorry.

[jstanfield103]

I have had two S&W BG380's never a problem with either, I love the one that I have carry it constantly. Most people never have a problem with them after the initial launch issues that S&W have fixed. They for the most part are a great gun, so popular they are hard to find and fly off the shelf. I believe that all guns have a problem here and there. If you sell enough of them once in a while you will get a problem. So I guess what I am saying just don't read the bad only read all the good stuff also and make you're decission from there.

[Edie]

Originally Posted by Mcwsky09

So where did you get that extended mag? Assuming it is real and you didn't make it yourself.


Sorry if too far off topic.

I'm the one with the picture. I probably shouldn't of put it in this post.

I got the 10 round mag at Academy. Its Pro Mag. Haven't fired the .380 yet so don't know if this extended one is going to work or not....but I sure like having that extra length to hang onto...

[M29since14]

Originally Posted by CAJUNLAWYER

It's stories like this that make me shy away from pocket autos and stay wit the old fashioned J frame snubs. Seems that the smaller the gun, the more succeptible it is to a screw up regardless of who makes it...

One thing that wasn't mentioned is that a lot depends on the shooter - how he grips the gun and how uniform his grip is from shot to shot. These things are harder to master on a small gun than one that gives the hand a little room, but that can't be considered a defect of the firearm. It's the price one pays for the "micro" design. That said, if it absolutely, positively has to go bang, a Chief's Special won't take a back-seat to any of the small autos.

[Nakanokalronin]

Impossible for an unfired round to magically open the slide on it's own and pop out. The pressure of a fired round only is what makes a slide open after the trigger is pulled.

The OP must mean he fires the first round and the next one in the magazine skips out of the ejection port instead of chambering. If what I stated in the first sentence is true, your BG380 is possessed since it goes against the possible.

As far as micro pistols go, I've never had one with a problem. a blanket proper grip that can be used on every semi-auto firearm is a big plus except for maybe a curled pinky for the micros. I use a thumbs forward grip on every semi-auto and it seems to have worked out on every pistol including 7 different micro, 2 finger grip .380s.

[Delos]

Are you sure you did not load a cartridge into the magazine backward. The round nose might slide up across the breach face getting the outward motion started. Except I cannot imagine the lower protrusion on the slide picking up the round nose. Perhaps it could push it downward and the other end go upward…..?

I assume the chamber was empty after the cartridge landed on the deck. I assume you had to cycle the action again, to begin again.

(Or)
If you still have the offending magazine, carefully load and unload it, noting the spot where the shells rim releases. Any situation other than what I mentioned above, would seem to me to be a very early release.

In other words, if it was mine, I would be in the middle of the bed with it and another magazine loading them and thumbing cartridges out slowly onto the bed. Watching the point the shell releases.

[pistol]

Don't think it was backwards. I've been very careful loading. I will try the magazine on the bed. Thanks.