Leery!

[mbnatt]

Had my first experience with a Body Guard .38 Special! Amongst all the other insane things I do, I am a NRA certified pistol instructor. Yesterday, we had one on the line during the qualification phaze. I am not wild about inexperienced shooters with small guns, a 100 rounds is a lot for me,out of a j-frame. But sure enough one shows up. and she decides to shoot Blazer 158 gr lead ammo, stink was tremendous, after a couple of cylinder fulls she started having misfires. Checked the revolver, couldn't see anything obviously wrong, but had a lot of doubts because of reading posts, and the only other one I saw, the cylinder and crane would pop out the front, small plastic bump on the trigger guard is the keeper. Shot it a couple of cylinder full and did not have a miss fire. Left with the feeling that I could not trust the revolver, but not sure if it was the Blazer, Her, or the gun? At this point I would never carry one. THEY HAVE TO GO BANG!!!!!

 

[Bullseye Smith]

I would bet it was the ammo and her both together. You didn't say but I bet it wasn't the brass case she had.

 

[OKFC05]

I am a NRA certified pistol instructor.

I used to try to fiddle with guns that malfunctioned in class, but I am getting less tolerant in my old age. Plus my insurance is not happy about my working on other people's guns (I am an instructor, not a gunsmith).

If a gun starts malfunctioning (or starts out that way), I ask if they want to rent a similar gun guaranteed to shoot.

Recently, one young lady had a Ruger that FTE every other shot; she had borrowed it from Dad and was not strong enough to hold it firm against Dad's stronger recoil spring. (Dad was there and fessed up he had "improved" the gun). Turns out he had a stock used Ruger he had bought with him, so she was able to finish the class with it.

Another lady had a Rossi stubby .38 with a horrendous heavy trigger pull, and of course the lady had never tried to shoot it before. She took the class using my S&W Model 66, and later bought a used Model 67 for herself.

 

[mbnatt]

Yes it was the al. case, but her husbands j frame on the next relay had no problem with the same stuff.

 

[scooter123]

Personally, I am not a fan of the aluminum cased Blaser, one reason why I enjoy shooting revolvers is because it's easy to bring every case home.

However, I've started experimenting with using a shim under the head of the strain screw on my 620 and 610 and I want to find the point of perfect reliability with a CCI primered ammunition. Since the only shop in my area that actually has primers has only been able to get Fiocci primers, this experment required I take a drive to GM. All they had in 38 spl. was the Blazer, 125 grain LRN. So, I picked up 2 boxes and shot one yesterday at the range. With a 0.010 shim in place the DA pull is 7.8 lbs. per my cheap fish scale and reliability was 100%. Next week I plan on trying a 0.014 shim, provided I can scrounge up some shim stock in this thickness at work.

Bottomline, in a gun that has been tweaked a bit to lighten the DA trigger, the ammo went bang, I had no problems with extraction, and the accuracy was pretty typical for standard range ammo. However, my approach to tuning is a reliability based approach and I am working down slowly.

Personally, I would suspect that someone has been "tuning" the action for that bodyguard and has put in a weaker maingspring or cut a coil or two. Most likely if she had chosen to shoot Federal ammunition it would have worked perfectly. Issues like this are why I am taking a more conservative path and testing as I go. Currently, Federal range ammo is easy to find, however my preference for a SD load in 38 spl. is the Speer Gold Dot, which means tuning the gun to work with CCI primers.

 

[mbnatt]

Brand new, plastic gun, I am sure the woman who owned it has never modified it, the j-frame her husband shot worked fine, the ammo stunk but fired from his j-frame, her new style body guard, had numorus light strikes, and missfires

 

[Nightowl]

We hear a lot of FTF on new guns here, ones with the frame mounted firing pin. I never heard that about hammer mounted firing pins. I just wonder what others think?

 

[blastfact]

I think it's a new shooter that did not clean her pistol and spend quality time with it. Much less understand it's function. With a measure of new Smith that is being BETA tested on the public.

I hate to hear of people that go purchase a pistol. Never fire it, haven't a clue how to function check it, clean it, or shoot. And then want a CC......

 

[K1500]

How could it be anything but the fault of the gun or the ammo? A new shooter cannot somehow cause the hammer to fall with less force. If the ammo worked in other guns, then it is the gun. It is hard to believe that Smith keeps sending guns out the door that do not shoot factory ammo reliably. I (and many others) have has to send the scandium framed guns in for a longer firing pin. I love my S&W's, but it gets a bit ridiculous. They have singlehandedly turned the phrase "six for sure" on its head!

 

[H Richard]

It never ceases to amaze me the number of guns that turn up many years old that have never been fired. Purchased, loaded and put in the sock drawer for 10, 15, 25 and who knows how long. I just unpacked my latest purchase, an 1866 vintage # 1 1/2 .32 RF 1st Issue. from the looks of the bore and cylinder I do not believe it has ever been fired, and it's 144 years old.