I had the chance to play with a Smith and Wesson .380 bodyguard recently. My old man picked one up for concealed carry (he lives in a free state) and brought it out on a recent visit to the People's Republik of Kalifornia. We visited the local range and I got to put some rounds on paper.
Let me start by saying this gun was purchased "used" from a firearms vendor. I'm not really a big fan of purchasing used weapons. I would liken it to cars, in that if you know the original owner and how they take care of their things, you are probably fine. To pick up a used weapon at a store without knowing the previous owner, and you might be in for some problems. I could speak a bit more on this but I'll taper my waxing for sake of space. Stay tuned for a full post on purchasing used weapons.

I really did not like the Smith and Wesson bodyguard. The trigger pull is atrocious, and is double action only. Back to my crappy car analogy, the trigger pull is a lot like the brake pedal. Each car/gun has a different amount of pull and pressure that is unique to that specific car/gun. Not only did the bodyguard take a ton of pressure to pull, it also broke pretty far back. It felt like after I took a ton of creep on the trigger, it finally clicked way the hell back into the grip. After about 30 rounds of trigger time I was able to settle into the nasty pull and got a pretty tight group at 25 feet. You can see the group below the right shoulder.
The S&W .380 bodyguard comes stock with a laser sight. I'm really not a laser guy, and frankly I kind of think they are for chicks. Yes, I know this is concealed carry weapon, and I suppose that can make a difference in a low light situation. The laser is ambi, and I kind of dig that because your trigger should be used for just that, the trigger only. I'm sure you remember Tex and the Serpa holster incident... Anywho, the laser is push button operated. The first push gets the beam, the second push gets a pulsating beam, and the the third push is off. I'm not entirely sure what the pulsing laser is for, and I found it to be a pain in the ass. Additionally, I had the laser die twice mid trigger pull and then magically reappear a few seconds later (all on a fresh battery).
The biggest problem I had was with the magazines. The mags hold six rounds and the first few always fired fine. Rounds 4 and below consistently had problems. As seen in the photo above the rounds would slip forward in the magazine and lock the slide open. Releasing the slide lock was usually enough to fix it, but this is still a massive problem. This issue occurred on several different factory issue magazines.
Out of the 50 rounds tested, I had one double feed and one failure to fire. I pulled the trigger and got a click. I checked the chamber indicator and saw that there was in fact a round loaded. I ejected the round and saw a dented primer. Before you scream hang fire, I'm going to call BS. I've never actually encountered a hang fire, or talked to ANYONE that ever has. I don't think the tiny amount of powder can sustain a burn for SEVERAL SECONDS or a few minutes for that matter, and then spontaneously fire. I cautiously gave the round another shot, and it did fire. That means this was a firearm issue not a ammo manufacturer failure.
My old man brought this weapon back home and promptly sold it for the Ruger .380 LCP. I'm not sure if the issues I had with the bodyguard were because it was used or simply because it is a bad gun. Overall, I would not recommend this weapon for off duty/concealed carry. At $400, I'd encourage you to get something else...