Wife's New Bodyguard

[Ballistic147]

So my wife just picked up a new M&P Bodyguard. She went with the Kryptec Typhon version without the laser. We were able to do a little shooting today and she put about 100 rounds through it.

The first thing I noticed is the trigger pull. It is absolutely horrible. Quite long and IMO it's way too heavy. I felt like this would effect accuracy but was wrong. My wife wasn't very accurate with it but she is also not very accurate with my TCP either. She shoots both her Shield 9mm and Ruger LCR in 38 Special and my M&P 40c very well but she still struggles with these little mouse guns. After she ran a couple mags through it with hits all over the place I asked if I could give it a try. To my surprise, I held a 4" group with it at 7 yards. Back to back against my TAURUS TCP my group size was equal. The BG and TCP triggers are night and day different. The BG has a very long, heavy pull while the TCP is just long but much, much lighter. The BG definitely feels better, more like a real gun where as the TCP feels kind of toyish.

After a little over 100 rounds through the BG it had one FTE on the very last round but this was with some Winchester white box ammo that my TCP simply does not like at all. Otherwise it was flawless. Towards the end of the day my wife was consistently shooting 7" groups at 7 yards so she was finally getting the feel for it.

Overall the BG is an excellent gun. My wife definitely prefers it over my TCP. To me, the Bodyguard felt very good in stock form as I had no problem holding on to it. My TCP on the other hand has been heavily stippled as I couldn't seem to hold on to it stock. We both agreed that the TCP trigger is far better but even so, my accuracy was equal between the two. I think after a couple hundred rounds the Bodyguard will make a good carry gun for her when she needs something smaller than the Shield. Still need to run some Hornady Critcal Defense (my choice for .380 SD ammo) to make sure it will run it fine.

 

[AVG]

My wife went thru many guns until she found the right gun a Sig P238. She can pull back the slide, pull the trigger, load the mags and hit the target. She likes the gun and now has two of them

 

[shadow41]

My BG cycles the Hornady CD just fine. So far I haven't fired anything that hasn't cycled thru it, but I've never fired any Winchester WB thru it either.

I also had a TCP before getting the BG. I never got comfortable with the TCP. On top of that, after about 100 rounds, the TCP I had started locking the slide back after every short regardless if it was the last shot or not. Maybe it could have been fixed, maybe not. Either way I would never have been able to trust it. I really like the BG and was glad I made the switch.

 

[Ballistic147]

I bought the TCP about a year ago after doing extensive research. Seemed all these little .380's can have legitimate issues and also some user induced problems as well and figured for $200 I could afford to play around with it if need be. After trying a variety of name brand ammo it would not feed anything reliably. At least 1 in 6 rounds would start into the chamber but fail to fully seat. Turns out this was a common problem as the bottom edge of the extractor had a sharp edge that hung on the case. Using a Dremel I rounded off the sharp edge and polished it which solved the problem. It is currently at 500 rounds without an issue and is very reliable with Fiochi, Blazer Brass, and Hornady Critical Defense.

I do like the Bodyguard and most importantly, my wife likes it. IMO it is a better quality gun than the TCP in every aspect except the trigger. Looks like S&W could have made the trigger better.

 

[GTS Dean]

I love my little BG, but I would *NOT* buy one for my wife or either of my daughters. Mine has had intermittent problems in the nearly 1 year I've owned it. I've owned a Sig 232 for over 2 years and it has been absolutely flawless (and handsome), but larger and heavier. The BG is a true pocket pistol and the Sig is not.

My BG is picky about the bullet shape when feeding. It tends not to like some domed ball ammo. It never seems to have problems feeding HP or truncated cone/flat nose FMJ ammo.

My trigger got IMMENSELY BETTER after about 1000 snap cap cycles and lube at the right points.

 

[martybee]

I love my little BG, but I would *NOT* buy one for my wife or either of my daughters. Mine has had intermittent problems in the nearly 1 year I've owned it. I've owned a Sig 232 for over 2 years and it has been absolutely flawless (and handsome), but larger and heavier. The BG is a true pocket pistol and the Sig is not.

My BG is picky about the bullet shape when feeding. It tends not to like some domed ball ammo. It never seems to have problems feeding HP or truncated cone/flat nose FMJ ammo.

My trigger got IMMENSELY BETTER after about 1000 snap cap cycles and lube at the right points.

My BG380 is not picky about Ball ammo, but I mostly shoot TMCRNFP for TP and XTPHP for SD.
I too, love my BG!

mb

 

[db4570]

I have posted extensively about the problems with my 3 BGs and S&Ws attempts to fix them.

The one issue that S&W has easily been able to fix the first time is feeding problems. In testing these guns, I have shot hundreds of rounds through them, and if one ever had a feeding problem, it never happened again after getting it back from repair.

So my advice is to send it in, and chances are they will fix it right the first time.

David