Bought new: I've taken the above to the range twice now. On the first trip we (it's my wife's gun) had two rounds of 'factory' reloads that didn't fire. Primers we're hardly touched on the two FTF rounds. The reloads come from a local guy and I've used them before w/o problems. So I paid attention to this but once in a row doesn't mean too much other than a data point.

A few days ago we went again with *my* reloads - CCI SP primers. Everything went boom (50 rounds) but when I looked at the primers some had a normal, healthy strike and then some were barely there, perhaps 1/2 as deep as the others and obviously not as wide.

I'm not strong on the 'inconsistent primer seating' idea - they all looked fine to me.

Anybody else seen this with the BodyGuards? Back to S&W or a cleaning?

Do a search and you'll find endless threads about light strikes. S&W uses a very short firing pin these days, which causes lots of problems. Return your revolver to the factory and they'll probably fix it. Personally, I've changed all my frame-mounted firing pins to these https://apextactical.com/store/produ....php?pid4.html . My guns go bang every time I pull the trigger.

Well yeah I have sent one back 3 times now going on 4 for the same thing light primer strikes. Maybe the design is just a bad design or mine is just a Lemon like yours.

First off, CCI are one of the hardest primers you can buy. That said, your gun should go bang every time you pull the trigger.
Take matters into your own hands, get an extended firing pin and your problems will go away. Sometimes it is better not to question the wisdom of the manufacturer and look to those that have solved issues by manufacturing aftermarket parts that solve the problem.
While the sideplate is off you will have the chance to carefully spray and relube insuring any shavings were not left in there by the factory. Note in the video he removes the firing pin spring and sprays in the hole to insure nothing is blocking the firing pin. I gave had great luck with WD40 Dry Lube. Others use oil. Others here will chime in with help.
As you can see from the video, this probably can be done in under 3 minutes.

On any new or new-to-you gun the first thing to do is a thorough tear-down and cleaning.

Always.

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Richard

This addresses the different size and depth firing pin craters in the primers, not the licht strikes. I agree with above members in the failures to fire:

If all the primers go off, the size of the firing pin crater in the primer is based on the load and the primer tightness in the pocket of the case head. The crater size is determined by how hard and far the primer travels out of the primer pocket upon ignition. Hot loads and over pressure loads will actually have the tool marks of the recoil shield imprinted in the primer and they'll be very flat.

Recognize when the cartridge goes off, the primer is unseated and slammed against the recoil shield and then immediately is re-seated in the pocket when the case head slams back against the recoil shield.

You can test this by just seating a primer in an empty case and fire it. The primer will back out but not go back in all the way because there's not enough pressure w/o a powder load to slam the case back and re-seat the primer. It'll bind up the cyl.

Newer cases with tight primer pockets will not crater around the firing pin tip as much has old cases with looser pockets. Do you load your cases in lots of cases with the same number of firings?

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Jim
S&WCA #819