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So, I went to Target master in Garland last weekend with a friend of mine that was thinking about buying a gun. He wanted to try some different models out so we rented a S&W Bodyguard .380 SA. From the first clip we had misfires. It would sometimes take two pulls to make the round go off.

We went through a whole box of 50 rounds this way with a misfire about every 5 rounds or so. The ammo was Winchester I believe so it was name brand.

I told the guys at the counter after we were done and they looked at me like I was crazy. They actually put the gun right back up to be used again.

So, I don't think it was the ammo I think it was the gun but what about the gun would cause this? I wonder if this is common?

I believe Winchester White Box has hard primers that some guns don't like
Maybe another poster Can verify or correct me if I am wrong

I never had misfired with WWB, most likely it is gun firing pin. I am pretty sure if you changed to different brand, you will still have frequent misfires.

Since it's a rental gun it probably doesn't get cleaned very often. When it is cleaned, it isn't a very thorough cleaning. Lack of cleaning is (in my experience) the primary cause of most problems that people have with their guns. This is especially true of striker fired pistols, which I think the 380 bodyguard is.

The other possibility is the firing pin spring is weak and/or broken.

Of course that's in addition to it possibly being ammo related.

weird...I thought those S&W Bodyguards used magazines. I never knew you reloaded them with clips.

If the ammo would usually fire with a second strike, it was most likely a gun issue rather than an ammo issue. Winchester is not a brand that is known for hard primers either.

With it being a range gun with an unknown number of rounds gunk in the firing pin channel is the most likely culprit, but Google reveals reports of light strikes with new guns as well (eg here).

My friend and I went to the range. I had my Glock 19 and he had a new Taurus Millennium. He had several "failure to fire" episodes. I even took an ejected round that didn't fire and put it through the Glock and it fired right off.

We had the counter guy take a look at the Taurus and he discovered the firing pin wasn't centered. He suggested taking it back for an exchange. That was done and no problems since.

Geoelectro

pbwalker wrote:weird...I thought those S&W Bodyguards used magazines. I never knew you reloaded them with clips.

I read magazines. Put clips on my chips and my paper at the office. I know. It's a magazine not a clip. My bad.

geoelectro wrote:My friend and I went to the range. I had my Glock 19 and he had a new Taurus Millennium. He had several "failure to fire" episodes. I even took an ejected round that didn't fire and put it through the Glock and it fired right off.

We had the counter guy take a look at the Taurus and he discovered the firing pin wasn't centered. He suggested taking it back for an exchange. That was done and no problems since.

Geoelectro

I've had similar problems with my PT-111 as well. I'll keep that in mind.

I've had a few misfires with Winchester .380 but Monarch was the absolute worst - avg. two per 6 rd. magazine. Firing pin indents seemed OK. Restrikes rarely worked. Wondering if in the rush to fill .380 demand QC slipped a bit.

I've posted about my Kahr CW9 having FTFs, funny thing is that WWBs are the better performing rounds besides defense ammo. I haven't shot as much defense ammo because it is too expensive to do that kind of experimenting. It was going to be a carry gun, but I don't trust it.
In my case, I had a friend with a PM9, basically the same as mine but smaller, and he could shoot rounds flawlessly through his where I could not. So my opinion, it is the gun. Kahr's recommendation: only use the brand of ammo that shoots well.That's it. That's after I sent it in to them and they claim to have shot 100 rounds with no FTFs. But they shot only high quality ammo. Should that really make a difference especially since another similar gun will shoot the ammo? I don't think so, but they said there was nothing to fix.

Beiruty wrote:I never had misfired with WWB,

Just last week I had a Failure to Fire with 9mm WWB. The primer went off... but nothing happened (sounded like "pfft" with a little smoke.) This was with my Glock 19 that has had 2000-3000 rounds through it with never a problem.

jacobsd8195 wrote:

Beiruty wrote:I never had misfired with WWB,

Just last week I had a Failure to Fire with 9mm WWB. The primer went off... but nothing happened (sounded like "pfft" with a little smoke.) This was with my Glock 19 that has had 2000-3000 rounds through it with never a problem.

I wouldn't call that a failure to fire, sounds like defective ammo, as in the powder was damaged or even missing, maybe a damaged case. I hope you made sure the bullet wasn't lodged in the barrel.

Dusty Harry wrote:I've had a few misfires with Winchester .380 but Monarch was the absolute worst - avg. two per 6 rd. magazine. Firing pin indents seemed OK. Restrikes rarely worked. Wondering if in the rush to fill .380 demand QC slipped a bit.

Well,what do you know,I am not alone.
I bought a box of that Monarch which is nothing more than a rebranded box of Privi Partisan and out of five rounds loaded in my .380 three did not fire and the two that did sounded like a .22 short!!
The first to fire was so quiet in fact I unloaded my pistol to make sure the round had actually cleared the barrel.
I will never use that ammo again.
And just to make sure it was not an issue of a striker fired pistol I also had a box of .38 Special and had several failures to fire out of my four inch Ruger Service Six and my old J frame model 37.
You simply can't trust this stuff.

I bought a 50 box of WWB and had 12 ftf's through various firearms. The primer strike looked ok, but no bang. The second strike normally did the trick. For what it's worth....