M&P Bodyguard 380 dropping magazines...

[Mrnurse]

Are you able to put all the galloway trigger parts in yourself?
Nope...and im a Retired Heavy Jet Tech ATP and RN the past 10 years...beyond my skill set, rather do a Fan Blade Lube of a CFM 56 then that kit.

 

[mike56]

Picked it up today. Dry as a bone. Last sig I bought, it was dripping with oil, in a plastic bag, filled with oil.
Cleaned and lubed. Seems to be a metal mag catch. Mag seems secure while shaking/wiggling. Trigger is rough. Would rather not spend a ton for the gallaway parts then have to pay to get them in.
Mine is the no safety/no laser model.
Hoping to get a few hundred rounds through it. If it groups decent out to 7 and the mag doesn't drop, I think I'll be happy for what it is. Paid 238. shipped for it.

 

[noaim]

Got mine back and they put in the steal mag release


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[mrmike7189]

Mine has a plastic mag catch as far as I can tell. (I bought it in 2015 )

 

[mrmike7189]

Got a new one today

I just got a new one today for $274.99. (No thumb safety/laser)
The prices have gone down about $100 from the last one I bought in 2015. New one has the metal magazine release, (my last one was plastic) and the grip texture seems nicer, (my last one was too smooth), and the trigger feels smoother?(though still heavy)Seems like a great price for a new gun

 

[dwainew1]

Fix for magazine drops during firing

The following is my observation and formed opinions after much range use of the M&P BG380. I am not a gunsmith but I am a determined engineer with decades of experience. These are my conclusions and recommendations - YMMV.

I have used the Galloway Precision magazine catch in my BG380 and it does prevent magazine from falling out during firing. I have also installed a new metal mag catch (free) from S&W and achieved the same result. Galloway is aluminum and S&W is steel. I have discovered that the shelf on the Galloway part is about 0.010" deeper than the S&W. I took 0.015" metal off the inside-top-right of my S&W to get the shelf depth from 0.020 to 0.035" (my Galloway was about 0.030) and the problem is definitely gone. With a steel mag catch I am confident that I can slap in magazines without worry.
There is a good video on disassembly on Galloway website (but only need to raise the rail inside grip and raise the mag-catch spring). You do not need to completely remove the rail from the grip frame to swap out the mag catch.

***Take note that my stock S&W STEEL mag catch dropped magazines until I made the shelf deeper as described above.

That said, there is still too much movement between the extended finger magazine and the heel of the pistol grip and it is my opinion that the magazine still "feels" like it wants to drop. The magazine is being torqued from the bottom while hanging on the mag catch.

I have experimented with a few ways to reduce this gap (in temporary ways that allowed me to return the gun back to factory normal condition). Here is my final permanent* fix to eliminate the slop and "hopefully" not need to replace the magazine catch. This assumes you have a metal mag catch - if not then call S&W and they will send you the metal one.

I added a dab of 5-minute epoxy to the inside heel of the grip to take up approximately 80% of the slop between magazine floor plate and heel of grip. The epoxy was dabbed from bottom and up to just barely inside the grip where the polymer is keyed in front of the hammer spring (the indentation helps to lock it in). I inserted a magazine covered with kitchen plastic wrap (to form the epoxy) and let it cure for several hours.

Went to the range the following day and problems are gone.
Now have over another 1000 various rounds with no more magazine drops and slop is gone and gun shoots great.

*I have discovered that you can remove 5 minute epoxy from this slippery polymer by prying with a little bit of effort and return the gun to factory condition.

 

[mrmike7189]

Good news . Glad S&W changed that part.
I found it insane that the Bodyguards had a plastic mag catch for so many years, and only recently did S&W figure out the problem with dropped mags.

 

[dwainew1]

Fix for magazine drops during firing

The following is my observation and formed opinions after much range use of the M&P BG380. I am not a gunsmith but I am a determined engineer with decades of experience. These are my conclusions and recommendations - YMMV.

I have used the Galloway Precision magazine catch in my BG380 and it does prevent magazine from falling out during firing. I have also installed a new metal mag catch (free) from S&W and achieved the same result. Galloway is aluminum and S&W is steel. I have discovered that the shelf on the Galloway part is about 0.010" deeper than the S&W. I took 0.015" metal off the inside-top-right of my S&W to get the shelf depth from 0.020 to 0.035" (my Galloway was about 0.030) and the problem is definitely gone. With a steel mag catch I am confident that I can slap in magazines without worry.
There is a good video on disassembly on Galloway website (but only need to raise the rail inside grip and raise the mag-catch spring). You do not need to completely remove the rail from the grip frame to swap out the mag catch.

***Take note that my stock S&W STEEL mag catch dropped magazines until I made the shelf deeper as described above.

That said, there is still too much movement between the extended finger magazine and the heel of the pistol grip and it is my opinion that the magazine still "feels" like it wants to drop. The magazine is being torqued from the bottom while hanging on the mag catch.

I have experimented with a few ways to reduce this gap (in temporary ways that allowed me to return the gun back to factory normal condition). Here is my final permanent* fix to eliminate the slop and "hopefully" not need to replace the magazine catch. This assumes you have a metal mag catch - if not then call S&W and they will send you the metal one.

I added a dab of 5-minute epoxy to the inside heel of the grip to take up approximately 80% of the slop between magazine floor plate and heel of grip. The epoxy was dabbed from bottom and up to just barely inside the grip where the polymer is keyed in front of the hammer spring (the indentation helps to lock it in). I inserted a magazine covered with kitchen plastic wrap (to form the epoxy) and let it cure for several hours.

Went to the range the following day and problems are gone.
Now have over another 1000 various rounds with no more magazine drops and slop is gone and gun shoots great.

*I have discovered that you can remove 5 minute epoxy from this slippery polymer by prying with a little bit of effort and return the gun to factory condition.

The text got cut off in my pic. Where the hand drawing is the bottom left arrow text should say, "Shelf". This is the shelf that holds the magazine in. It needs to be larger. My S&W backup might have already been modded - I don't remember.