Just picked up a new Bodyguard 2.0 and I’m having the exact same issues as the couple of other people above but I will say that I haven’t shot the gun yet. Winchester White box loads every time. I thought the issue may have been with the magazine but I can put one round in the magazine and it still jams with critical defense. I’ve never had any gun jam with critical defense. I will report back after further investigation and I run it a little with other ammo.
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Bodyguard 2.0 issue- won't manually feed Hornady Critical Defense
- Thread starter Marksman14
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MikeNV
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Welcome to the forum!
What do your feed ramps look like, expecially the lower?
Polishing helped my BG 2.0 - see the post #14 link above.
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My feed ramp, upper and lower look ok, I’ve received guns that looked worse but had no issues. I’ve also coated the ramps with FP-10 like I do with all of my guns. I tried them dry and with FP-10. I’ll be running some ammo through it soon and then I’ll try the CD again.
Doug M.
Member
While the first round into a pistol is obviously hand cycled, the pistol is designed to be fired. Manual cycling issues are generally not a valid concern until replicated while firing.
halfmoonclip
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I'm thinking the issue may be mag related Have you checked the actual diameter of the casings? It sounds like the the defensive rounds may be escaping from the magazine too soon. You should have two magazines; do they both act the same way.
BTW, been feeding mine XTPs; there were some early stumbles with that, but it fed absolutely everything else from the first magazine. That included some long-loaded 100 grain LTCs.
Not a fan of the 'break it in' business, but the slide on mine run smoother after some shooting. Maybe run some more ball.
Moon
BTW, been feeding mine XTPs; there were some early stumbles with that, but it fed absolutely everything else from the first magazine. That included some long-loaded 100 grain LTCs.
Not a fan of the 'break it in' business, but the slide on mine run smoother after some shooting. Maybe run some more ball.
Moon
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I have the same issue with critical defense. Takes fiocchi FMJ with no issue. I did the polishing on the ramps and it did not change anything. Critical defense consistently FTF and jams pretty good. I also noticed that some of the rounds when they get jammed, the rounds gets stuffed inside the casing making it smaller. I have a feeling that S&W will be useless if I sent my BG 2.0 to them. You will lose your gun for a while and they will just use ball ammo for testing and say the gun feeds fine. Curious if anyone who has this issue with critical defense found an alternative defensive round that works.
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I'm curious what a plunk test will show.
Before I had 50 rounds through, it would not pass a plunk test with 4 or 5 different bullets.
After about 100 rounds it passed the plunk test with all my ammo.
My range armorer told me "There's no such thing as a plunk test."
Before I had 50 rounds through, it would not pass a plunk test with 4 or 5 different bullets.
After about 100 rounds it passed the plunk test with all my ammo.
My range armorer told me "There's no such thing as a plunk test."
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Cheyenne WYO
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That is bullet setback and can result in a dangerous condition that can dramatically raise pressures, depending on how far the bullet sets back in the case. I don't see that as a gun problem but as an ammo problem. I can't say that I have seen this with Critical Defense in a BG2, but I have had the problem with .380 American Gunner and Hornady Custom with the XTP bullet in other guns. I stopped using Hornady ammo in .380.
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Yes, I discard those rounds. I just wish it was not finicky with ammo. Im just trying to see what defensive rounds that worked for a person who has the same issue. From what I read, critical defense rounds have a track record of either working or not (more no than yes).
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Well… I ran 100 more FMJ rounds today with no problem. Around 250 FMJ rounds ran flawlessly with my BG 2.0 (only used Fiocchi). I did pick up a few different boxes of defensive rounds to see if the gun will cycle them. I got a box of winchester silvertip 85gr jhp and sig elite v-crown 90gr jhp. I loaded up my mags and manually cycled the rounds by racking it normally and using the slidestop. I probably did it 5 times each Defensive round and it worked flawlessly. I decided to try to use the critical defensive rounds one more time and they finally cycled flawlessly too. Either the recoil spring or magazine springs loosen up, but my FTF issue seemed to vanish. I will have to get back to the range to see how they will cycle when shooting, but definitely a 180 from before. I have a box of underwoods coming in as well to see how they will work.
Update from the range: Hornady Critical Defense will be crossed off the list. I was able to rack the first bullet into the chamber, but when shooting the magazine... I got numerous FTF. I put the underwood in and I ran into the same issue. Unfortunately, for my .380... it does not like these rounds. I did not have any issue with the Winchester silver tip or Sig V-Crown elite. I would say that the sig had the best grouping. YMMV..
On a side note, I feel that the fiocchi dynamic FMJ is consistently shooting low from numerous range sessions. I thought it could be user error or the sights, but when I switched over to the defensive rounds (including the critical duty) I was more consistent and hitting where I was aiming. I ordered some Speer TMJ training rounds and federal Hydra-Shok Deep defensive rounds. I hope my .380 likes the federal as this will be the round I most likely will carry (based on a lot of youtube ballistic reviews).
Update from the range: Hornady Critical Defense will be crossed off the list. I was able to rack the first bullet into the chamber, but when shooting the magazine... I got numerous FTF. I put the underwood in and I ran into the same issue. Unfortunately, for my .380... it does not like these rounds. I did not have any issue with the Winchester silver tip or Sig V-Crown elite. I would say that the sig had the best grouping. YMMV..
On a side note, I feel that the fiocchi dynamic FMJ is consistently shooting low from numerous range sessions. I thought it could be user error or the sights, but when I switched over to the defensive rounds (including the critical duty) I was more consistent and hitting where I was aiming. I ordered some Speer TMJ training rounds and federal Hydra-Shok Deep defensive rounds. I hope my .380 likes the federal as this will be the round I most likely will carry (based on a lot of youtube ballistic reviews).
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Exact same problem and identified and solved the issue
Hello All,
I ran into the exact same issue and registered on the forum to share what I discovered. I have put about a thousand rounds of range ammo through by Bodyguard 2.0 without a single failure to feed, stove pipe or any issue. I have been ecstatic at how well I can shoot this gun an how accurate it is for me.
I am not overly experienced and did not realize I should shoot or at least manually cycle my EDC ammo to make sure that it works well. I too purchased Hornady Critical Defense for my EDC ammo due to its great reputation and recommendation from the local gun shop. For the thousand rounds of range ammo, I used about a half dozen different brands, whatever was decent ammo for a good price at the time.
For the first time today I manually cycled the Hornady CD ammo and two thirds of the rounds did not feed properly and ended up at about a 45 degree angle without loading properly leaving the slide about halfway closed and jammed up. At first I figured I had done something to cause what I assumed was damage to my new favorite EDC gun so I quickly called my very experienced friend who is a competitive shooter and has loaded more than 100k rounds with his own equipment.
First thing he said is that I probably haven't done anything to ruin my gun and that we can figure this out by a process of elimination. He talked me through many of the suggestions that others have put fourth in this thread. After trying many of these and ruling other out, I still had the issue.
He then said lets see if we can rule out an issue with the ammo and had me remove the Hornady CD from the magazines and load my range ammo. Low and behold the range ammo cycled just fine as it always had. He then had me do the same thing with two more range ammo brands that I still had and it all still cycled without issue.
This lead us to believe that something was different with the Hornady CD ammo that was causing this issue. He asked me several questions about the rounds and nothing really came to the surface. He then said put a range ammo round next to the Hornady CD on the table both standing up and asked if there was a height difference and there was. I grabbed my calipers and it turned out that the Hornady CD was about 1.4 mm shorter than all of the other range ammo. He then told me that some gun models can be very finicky about the length of the round and that they may not feed properly up the ramp. He said when they are loading competition rounds, they will check every tenth round to make sure they are staying to spec as far as length.
I then took my box of Hornady CD to the gun store where I purchased them and when they looked at them, they were very surprised because with the naked eye you could see that the heights varied between the CD rounds. They were low on EDC ammo and did not have any of the CD to compare it to, but I grabbed a couple of other brands of hollow point EDC and they were all longer than the CD, more the length of the range ammo that feeds so well in the BG 2.0. I purchased the Sig hollow points and they are feeding just fine through my BG 2.0
Lessons learned:
1. Bodyguard 2.0 (or at least mine) is particular to the length of the round and if it is too short will not feed properly.
2. Always manually cycle AND shoot your EDC rounds before you use them as EDC. (I made a very bad assumption that if everything else feeds fine then my more expensive EDC will as well.)
I am going to call Hornady on Monday and see what their thought are on the length of their CD rounds. Once the gun store has the CD rounds back in stock I will take my calipers in and compare the height to my current CD rounds. I will update my post with this info.
Hello All,
I ran into the exact same issue and registered on the forum to share what I discovered. I have put about a thousand rounds of range ammo through by Bodyguard 2.0 without a single failure to feed, stove pipe or any issue. I have been ecstatic at how well I can shoot this gun an how accurate it is for me.
I am not overly experienced and did not realize I should shoot or at least manually cycle my EDC ammo to make sure that it works well. I too purchased Hornady Critical Defense for my EDC ammo due to its great reputation and recommendation from the local gun shop. For the thousand rounds of range ammo, I used about a half dozen different brands, whatever was decent ammo for a good price at the time.
For the first time today I manually cycled the Hornady CD ammo and two thirds of the rounds did not feed properly and ended up at about a 45 degree angle without loading properly leaving the slide about halfway closed and jammed up. At first I figured I had done something to cause what I assumed was damage to my new favorite EDC gun so I quickly called my very experienced friend who is a competitive shooter and has loaded more than 100k rounds with his own equipment.
First thing he said is that I probably haven't done anything to ruin my gun and that we can figure this out by a process of elimination. He talked me through many of the suggestions that others have put fourth in this thread. After trying many of these and ruling other out, I still had the issue.
He then said lets see if we can rule out an issue with the ammo and had me remove the Hornady CD from the magazines and load my range ammo. Low and behold the range ammo cycled just fine as it always had. He then had me do the same thing with two more range ammo brands that I still had and it all still cycled without issue.
This lead us to believe that something was different with the Hornady CD ammo that was causing this issue. He asked me several questions about the rounds and nothing really came to the surface. He then said put a range ammo round next to the Hornady CD on the table both standing up and asked if there was a height difference and there was. I grabbed my calipers and it turned out that the Hornady CD was about 1.4 mm shorter than all of the other range ammo. He then told me that some gun models can be very finicky about the length of the round and that they may not feed properly up the ramp. He said when they are loading competition rounds, they will check every tenth round to make sure they are staying to spec as far as length.
I then took my box of Hornady CD to the gun store where I purchased them and when they looked at them, they were very surprised because with the naked eye you could see that the heights varied between the CD rounds. They were low on EDC ammo and did not have any of the CD to compare it to, but I grabbed a couple of other brands of hollow point EDC and they were all longer than the CD, more the length of the range ammo that feeds so well in the BG 2.0. I purchased the Sig hollow points and they are feeding just fine through my BG 2.0
Lessons learned:
1. Bodyguard 2.0 (or at least mine) is particular to the length of the round and if it is too short will not feed properly.
2. Always manually cycle AND shoot your EDC rounds before you use them as EDC. (I made a very bad assumption that if everything else feeds fine then my more expensive EDC will as well.)
I am going to call Hornady on Monday and see what their thought are on the length of their CD rounds. Once the gun store has the CD rounds back in stock I will take my calipers in and compare the height to my current CD rounds. I will update my post with this info.
Thank you for posting your detailed commentary.
I assume your “Hornady Critical Defense" is the 90 gr FTX with Flex Tip.
I have measured 10 rounds of FTX and 10 rounds of PCM Bronze FMJ.
Without posting all the numbers, the average length of the PCM is 0.9734”.
The average length of the Hornady FTX is 0.9689”.
The deviation between ten rounds for the FTX is 0.0120”
The deviation between ten rounds for the PMC is 0.0085”
The difference between the average lengths is 0.0045”… or about the thickness of a standard 20 lb. printer paper.
If a 0.0045” difference in ammo would cause an issue with cycling in a semi-auto handgun what ammo that’s currently available would NOT have a major failure problem?
The difference between 10 rounds of each is 0.0075”, about the thickness of 2 pieces of printer paper.
I believe the likely cause of an FTX round causing a failure to feed is because of the friction of the Flex Tip material, that protrudes about 0.026” beyond the bullet copper plating, as it contacts the surfaces of the first feed ramp and then contacting the chamber feed ramp.
My FTX have never failed to feed, but the chamber feed ramp has been polished.
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I had a problem with Lehigh defense ammo with the first mag shot. Could be break in but I polished the speed ramp and the 2.0 eats everything now.
9MM | 90GR, LEHIGH DEFENSE XD, 20/BOX
9MM | 90GR, LEHIGH DEFENSE XD, 20/BOX
Gallowaystx
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Very late to the party but I figured I would add my own experiences for the sake of posterity, and follow up with a question:
I have about 450 rounds through my BG 2.0
I mostly fire Fiocchi range dynamics FMJ (zero problems with feeding)
I have fired probably 50 Sig V-Crown JHP with zero FTF (more on this later)
I have about a 50% failure to feed rate with underwood extreme (screwdriver tips) - it catches between the feed ramps. I am not carrying them for this reason.
I have not yet tried Hornady CD FTX because it isn't available in my area but I have a box on order along with a box of the norma NXD for evaluation - I will update with my experience.
I have not yet polished the feed ramps and I do not appear to have the ridge on the lower feed ramp that some have reported. Mine was purchased in February so theoretically it should be a fairly recent one.
I carry V-Crown as my defensive round - I like what I see ballistically and (to date) no feed problems or failures to fire.
That said - yesterday I put 50 more FMJ through the gun at the range and then reinserted my carry magazine and chambered a round. at the end of the day I dropped the mag and went to eject the round and the slide was jammed... I was able to tap shake and forcibly manually rack it to clear it and it hasn't seemed to have a problem since.
Could this be an ejector issue?
I have about 450 rounds through my BG 2.0
I mostly fire Fiocchi range dynamics FMJ (zero problems with feeding)
I have fired probably 50 Sig V-Crown JHP with zero FTF (more on this later)
I have about a 50% failure to feed rate with underwood extreme (screwdriver tips) - it catches between the feed ramps. I am not carrying them for this reason.
I have not yet tried Hornady CD FTX because it isn't available in my area but I have a box on order along with a box of the norma NXD for evaluation - I will update with my experience.
I have not yet polished the feed ramps and I do not appear to have the ridge on the lower feed ramp that some have reported. Mine was purchased in February so theoretically it should be a fairly recent one.
I carry V-Crown as my defensive round - I like what I see ballistically and (to date) no feed problems or failures to fire.
That said - yesterday I put 50 more FMJ through the gun at the range and then reinserted my carry magazine and chambered a round. at the end of the day I dropped the mag and went to eject the round and the slide was jammed... I was able to tap shake and forcibly manually rack it to clear it and it hasn't seemed to have a problem since.
Could this be an ejector issue?
How many times have you cleaned and lubed it?
Capt_Destro
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Honestly some firearms really don't like the rubber filling on the Critical Defense/Duty.
A have a couple of Jerichos that are finicky with it.
Also a 9mm AR barrel, even had the feed cone worked over by Macon Armory.
Everything else ran pretty well.
A have a couple of Jerichos that are finicky with it.
Also a 9mm AR barrel, even had the feed cone worked over by Macon Armory.
Everything else ran pretty well.
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halfmoonclip
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BG2.0s want to be charged violently. Had the habit of riding the slide on the P365, but that doesn't work with the little Smith.
I grab the slide over the top, rip it to the rear, while shoving forward with the strong hand. Do it like you really hate the gun. That usually chambers the round. Once charged, the gun runs just fine.
I even do this with ball; our carry gun league has a stage that starts with an empty gun.
BTW, there is a little slide motion beyond slide stop; doing the violent charge takes advantage of that extra motion.
Moon
I grab the slide over the top, rip it to the rear, while shoving forward with the strong hand. Do it like you really hate the gun. That usually chambers the round. Once charged, the gun runs just fine.
I even do this with ball; our carry gun league has a stage that starts with an empty gun.
BTW, there is a little slide motion beyond slide stop; doing the violent charge takes advantage of that extra motion.
Moon
