Shooting The Smith & Wesson Bodyguard

After the painstaking process of selecting a pocket pistol, in which I became the new owner of a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard, I was eager to get out to the range and see how it performed. On Saturday I woke bright and early, packed my range bag, and headed out the door with my new pocket pistol in tow.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of my new pocket pistol. Being so small and light, I was a bit concerned about the recoil. After all, my much heavier Beretta Model 70S, in the same caliber, packs a painful punch when fired.

After loading up five rounds of .380 into the magazine (pistol is 6+1 capacity), I chambered a round, pressed the gun out, lined up the sights, thought to myself “damn I hope this doesn’t hurt too much”, and began pulling the long and heavy trigger.

After what seemed like ages, the primer was struck and the muzzle began to rise. I couldn’t help but grin at the felt recoil, it was rather pleasant for such a small and light gun. Before I packed up the Bodyguard for the day, I fired the gun a total of twenty-four times (I neglected to pick up ammo and only had a that much .380 tucked away in my range bag).

As you’ll see in the video below, I was very happy with the way the gun performed. I’m going to need to practice the fundamentals with a heavy double action trigger as I felt that was the area where I needed the most work.

Do you think the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard would
be a good pocket pistol / backup gun to suit your needs?