Disassemble and Clean Your Smith & Wesson M&P BODYGUARD 380 (with Pictures)

Just for starters, I'm fully aware of the impotence issues with the .380 Auto.  I would not recommend this caliber in a lot of situations, such as bear encounters or tactical situations, or even places where thick winter clothing is likely to be worn.  For most purposes, you honestly probably want a bit more of a punch, like at least a 9mm, which can be had in similarly-sized pistols now (like the DB9, if you're interested).  I will not argue the merits of the .380 Auto because I don't think it has too many, but I own this one, and I'm comfortable carrying it at present time.  I live in Florida, so there will be no winter clothing around, and I like that I can fit this small little package into the pocket of a pair of shorts and no one is any wiser.  It is highly concealable, even in the very minimal clothing we prefer to wear in the hot, humid summers down here, and that is my number one reason for carrying this pistol.  I am also a big fan of Smith & Wesson and have owned several of them over the years.  My first carry pistol was an M&P 40c (compact), and I still own and love that gun, it's just hard to truly conceal it in shorts and a tank top.  Even with 6 in the mag and 1 in the chamber, I do not consider this a guaranteed man-stopper, so I always have other force options available to me for backup.

The pistol in the pics is my own and S&W has not subsidized or influenced this article in any way (but please email me if you would like to send free stuff).  My pistol has been carried much and shot little.  For a holster, I typically use the Crossbreed "Pocket Rocket," though I do own a Sneaky Pete.  I do have one little rust spot on the slide that doesn't want to come out right now, I'm hoping it's not permanent, but high humidity and sweat will really do a number on metal parts, this is just reality.  As always, prevention is the key, so if you really care, you should probably disassemble and clean your Bodyguard every 6 months or so, or you could suffer the consequences of being lazy like I did. 

Now we can get to what you came here for:  How to disassemble and clean this thing in a few easy steps, with pics.  

Disclaimer:  If you do anything mentioned on my website, you will most likely get shot, slashed, stabbed, hanged, paper cut, and hypothermia.  I'm no expert on anything, so don't do anything just because I said so, use your own brain and make sure no one gets hurt.  This blog is for informational purposes only, proceed at your own risk.

1) Preparation.

Don't do any gun maintenance unless you have a clean, clutter-free, and well-lit area to work in, or unless you're doing an emergency field repair.  This doesn't have to be a huge area, but it should be totally free of clutter.  I usually just take over the end of the dining room table.

2)  Safety...

A very respected firearms instructor once told me that guns do not go off by themselves, so you have to have 3 elements for a negligent discharge: a gun, ammunition, and a person.  Since I will be the person and I'm trying to clean my gun, the ammunition is the only part that I can effectively take out of the equation right now. 

ALWAYS:  My first step before I clean a gun is to remove the magazine, clear the weapon, empty the magazine of bullets, and then take all ammo physically to another room until I'm done.  It is a little excessive, I know, but then again I personally know quite a few people who've punctured their walls, ceiling, or roof while cleaning a weapon that they "were sure was empty".
Other people may walk in and out of your work area, or you may have to get up and do something else before you can finish the task, so please leave nothing to chance, take my advice and put the ammo elsewhere until you are finished and ready to load back up.

3)  The Pin.


Slide back the slide just so far, and hold in position with the slide stop, like this.  Notice how the barrel protrudes out the front of the slide:  you will not be able to reinstall the slide group using the slide stop, it only works for disassembly.

Swing the main pin, then wiggle it straight out.

4)  Remove the slide, the captive rod, and barrel.

It will look like this.  You only have to hold the slide so the spring doesn't send it flying, then release the slide stop.  You can now gently slide it forward until it comes off.

You can disassemble everything further like this.

5)  Disassemble the magazine.

It's easy, just press this dot here, slide the base plate, and make sure you don't lose anything due to a flying spring.  As far as magazines go, this one is very user-friendly.

The spring here is not the tightest, but do try to keep a handle on things.

6) Clean all the components, lube the slide.

Don't go nuts here.  None of the M&Ps have extremely tight tolerances, so avoid the urge to indulge your inner OCD:  clean enough is clean enough.  Take the same tack with your slide lube, and do not overdo it, just put a couple drops on and rub them around with your thumb.

Don't worry about lubricating anything in the magazine, it will just hold onto any dust or lint that gets in there and can potentially gum things up, which you don't want.

7)  Reassembly.

Sliding the barrel into the slide is pretty straightforward, it will only go in one way.  

The captive rod can be tricky.  The skinny end goes forward toward the muzzle, the wider, flat end rests on this tiny ledge that has been machined into the barrel near the chamber.  
Once you get this group back together, you can slide it back onto the grip section, but BEFORE YOU DO... please take a look at this little bugger pin, the first one you removed in Step 3.  Reinstalling it is by far the most difficult part of of this entire process, continue reading about it below. 

I suggest you put it into place before you deal with the barrel and slide at all, just so you can visualize how it will go back in.  When we removed it, we had to swing it out of battery, but on the way back in, there is NO SWINGING NEEDED.  You will just line it up with its final position and push it straight into battery, the little retention spring will catch to hold it.

First, put the slide on and push it back until you encounter the first little bit of resistance.  Notice how the hole for the retention pin is blocked.  This is the lower portion of the barrel.  Notice on the far right how you can also see the slide rails sticking out.  You're almost there.

Push the slide back until it is just flush with the grip section (the line I drew at left), and you will also notice the hole for the pin is no longer blocked, and the slide rails on the right are now fully covered by the slide.

From this position, just line the pin up, and push it straight into the hole, we are not swinging or twisting it.  Line it up with its final position and push it straight in.  You may have to jiggle it just a bit at the end so the tip will rest in the hole on the inside of the grip section.

Don't get frustrated.  This is the hardest part of the whole procedure.  Plan to fiddle with it a bit the first few times you do it.

Reassembling the magazine is a snap.  Make sure you slide the spring up into the bottom of the follower first, then everything else is easy.

8)  Ammo.

Inspect your ammo, wiping down the cartridges, and replacing them if you see any sign of age or corrosion.  If you will be carrying or shooting this pistol, now is the time to load up and re-holster your weapon.

Thanks for reading, and as always, if you're in doubt about anything, please consult a qualified gunsmith.

Stay safe!

Dear Reader,

What would you like to see me review?

Please email HelpHalHelpYou@gmx.com to let me know.

Or, as always, you are welcome to leave a comment below.

Thank you,

Hal

Hang the Cold Steel Trench Hawk From Your BELT!

     Who else bought a Cold Steel Trench Hawk and then you got it and unboxed it and said "Great, now what do I do, just walk through the woods with this thing in my hand all day?"  That's exactly how I felt for a very long time.  Here's a picture of how the hawk ships from Cold Steel.  It has a great sheath to protect you from all the sharp edges and spikes, but there is no belt loop provided.  The rear spike is protected and the front cutting edge is enclosed, but if you want to get the hawk out of the sheath, you have to hold the hawk with one hand, and unsnap and remove the sheath with the other hand.  So on the one hand, I feel like this sheath is ingenious in how it manages to make a double-edge tomahawk safe to carry through the bush, but then on the other hand I feel like the sheath is useless, since I can't attach it to my belt or deploy the hawk with one hand. 

     I kept feeling like there must be some way to get this thing to hang from my belt so that I could easily access the tomahawk.  At the very least, I wanted to be able to hang in from a pack somehow.  The idea of having to pack my tomahawk away inside my back just didn't seem like a very practical option 100% of the time.
A search of the web yielded few results, but I did find a couple Trench Hawk owners out there who had modified their sheaths.  The 2 biggest influences on my design were both found on YouTube, and I'll post links to their videos at the end of the page.

Long story short, I was looking for something simpler.  Everyone was putting belt loops on their sheath, but they were having to drill holes in the sheath, and add hardware like nuts, bolts, washers, etc.  I wanted something that would not add moving pieces or alter the existing sheath.

Here's what I came up with:
If you're reading this page, you probably are a big fan of paracord, just like me.  550 cord is just about the best rope you could have for any given situation, especially if you have size and weight concerns in a back-country pack.  But we already know that so I'll cut to the chase.
I thought "Hey, since the sheath comes with these holes in it that happen to fit 550 cord, why not just get creative with that and make some belt loops?"  So I started with 2 very long pieces of paracord and put a loop through 2 of the holes on the front of the sheath by the cutting edge.  I then started knotting them together just as you would make a bracelet out of paracord or hemp.  Here's the overview image:

You can see where I started with one cord in the front hole and one cord in the hole behind it.  At first I was just knotting one piece of cord, but when I reached the second hole, I started making the bracelet knot.  Here's a view of what I'm talking about:

From there you need to stop when you get to where you need the belt loops.  You will make each belt loop out of two pieces of 550 cord.  You can see here how the main cords wrap around the belt loop cords and secure them quite tightly (same belt loop seen from both sides):



Here's a videos of a brief explanation of the construction, and then I show you how easy it is to deploy the hawk when you need it.

You can also see this video, it was a lot of help to me when I was trying to figure out how I would make my own belt carry system for the Trench Hawk.

https://youtu.be/F3Bnt6c5jFk

"Hey, That Was Cool How You Made a Second Drawstring for Your Dive Knife, How'd You Do That?"

"Hey, That Was Cool How You Made a Second Drawstring for Your Dive Knife, How'd You Do That?"

If you remember my last post about outfitting a knife for saltwater use, this was the last image:

It's a final view of my extra drawstring method for keeping your knife at your side, where it belongs, rather than down in Davy Jones' Locker somewhere.  "Why tie?" you might ask.  Well, I had a nice knife, also by Cold Steel, that came with a clip-on sheath.  It survived maybe 8 trips to the surf before it was eventually sucked off of my person.  I didn't even feel it go.  If there's one thing you can say with certainty about the sea, it's that she is utterly relentless and will strip you of anything not securely lashed down.  After having lost a set of keys and a knife, I've found the best method of keeping something from being sucked out of my pockets is to securely lash it to my shorts with para cord.  Please also keep in mind that even this does not equal 100% retention, and you should periodically check your knots to make sure everything is shored up tight.

Well, I've had a few people ask how I did that drawstring thing, or "how the heck could I do that?".  As someone who tends to fix clothes when possible, rather than throwing them out, I have a VERY BASIC knowledge of how clothes are put together (emphasis on the "VERY BASIC").  So here are the basics about how board shorts are typically put together:
All we're really worried about is the drawstring area for the purposes of this post.  I don't care what your preferences are on pockets or materials, that is outside our scope here.
The two main types of drawstrings are:
1) Full: an "all the way around the waist," one-piece drawstring. (Bigger folks should probably try to stick with these so they stay up better)
2) False: it looks like a regular drawstring, but it's really just two pieces in front that are meant to hold the front opening closed, it does not really cinch your waist in any kind of way.  If your belly is pretty flat, then this should really not be much of a drawback for you unless you get caught in some rather strong currents.  The shorts above are of the false drawstring variety and I left "flat belly" territory about 5 years ago, though I am not what you'd call overweight.  Even though it has the false drawstring, it still has seams that leave a channel where you can put a drawstring.

Now I'll show you a little bit about how I added an extra drawstring to a full drawstring short.
I always start with any holes that are already available and then try to cut holes with a very minimalist approach, so on this pair I started with the holes that the existing drawstring was using.  I had to cut 2 holes in the inside back of the short so I could jump over an existing seam that is there, and then 2 holes on the exterior so my own drawstring could exit where I wanted it to.  See below.

Here is what it looks like with the sheath tied on:

And here is a side view:

The real fun is getting your drawstring through this small channel.  Your mileage may vary, but I tend to use a chopstick to work it through in spots where it gets tough.  Those super-long toothpick things for making kebabs on the grill also work nicely, and you can bury the point in the leading tip of your drawstring to really get through some tricky areas.  Otherwise I just use my fingers.

So far I am using a half-overhand knot on top of the sheath, then the same underneath, then a double-knotted bow underneath like you would on a pair of shoes.
At first I checked my knot quite frequently, but at this point I just put it on once, tie it tight and don't really look back.

That is the gist of it.  Please comment to let me know if there's something I didn't explain fully, or something you'd like to see specific step by step pics of.  Does anybody need to see how I keep my keys?

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Gun Guy out.

Outfitting the Cold Steel Double Agent II for Saltwater Use

Anyone who knows me already knows I'm a die-hard Cold Steel fan.  Yes, there may be better knives out there, but they are likely to cost you 4 times what you'd pay for a very similar blade from CS.  I've had a lot of different knives over the years, having grown up on a farm and carried knives for various tasks my entire life.  All my experience tells me that Cold Steel is the most knife you can get for your dollar.
I have been snorkeling on vacations for a couple years now and we recently moved to a place where I can enjoy this pastime whenever I want.  I did go out and buy a dedicated scuba knife, but it's a little cumbersome for just snorkeling around and the sheath attaches by means of some rather uncomfortable rubber straps which would probably be more comfortable over a wetsuit, which I don't generally use.  This all led me back to Cold Steel, who unfortunately does not produce any kind of dedicated scuba or dive knife.  So now I'm off into the land of custom and modification, trying to figure out how to get a stainless steel knife to hold up in saltwater conditions (not really an easy task, given the highly-corrosive properties of saltwater).

Here's the original:

The following is a breakdown of what I have found so far, and I'm sure this knowledge will be revised and updated much over time.  As always, PLEASE COMMENT if you have something to add, "To Keep and Bear" always welcomes help and diverging opinions.

Salt and Sand, General Info:
1) If you haven't figured this out yet, just leave your folding knife at home.  You don't want sand in there and it's a royal pain to take apart and properly rinse, dry and oil the internal workings of most folders.  Just leave your folder at home or in your car, do not take it to the beach.

2) Any fixed blade knife you get is likely to have a handle.  Handles are not generally designed to be water tight.  Salt water will get inside and stay there, never really drying, and constantly corroding the tang of your knife.  If left this way, one day you will be left with a decent blade and a rusted-off handle.  This is fatal for a knife, there's no real coming back from it.

3) Stainless steel is not ideal for saltwater applications.  For the sake of corrosion resistance, you would really want to use some type of titanium alloy, but these are not common knife making materials, and they are expensive if and when you can find them.  You can make stainless work by taking some precautions, outlined below, but you really need to be meticulous with your care and maintenance.

"So what do I do to keep my knife from hopelessly rusting?  All I want to do is take it out snorkeling or scuba diving, and have a little something to cut myself out if I happen to become entangled in something?"  Well, my answer will depend on the knife you're using, but here's what I did with my Double Agent II:

First, I had to remove the handle, which took quite a bit of work and some nail pullers.  This handle is not meant to come off, so remove at your own personal risk.  Make sure you are well-acquainted with whatever tool you choose to use.

Next, oil the heck out of it, preferably with some good gun oil.

Now you need a handle.  The lanyard hole in this one is the perfect place for me to start, I simply slip a loop through and make a secure knot.

Tightly wrap the handle all the way up.  On this particular model, make sure you only GO THROUGH THE FRONT FINGER LOOP ONCE or your sheath will not close properly.

Then go back a second time over the handle.  About half way down, you should check and make sure the catch on your sheath still engages.  If it doesn't, then undo it some and and do it again, making sure to only go through the front finger loop once.

When you get back to the lanyard loop, just open up your slip knot a little bit, slip your loose end through the loop and then tighten everything back down.  Leave yourself a couple inches hanging off the end, that way if you wrap your handle a little differently next time, you should still have enough para cord to get the job done.

Finally, I took a piece of para cord and added a second drawstring to the waist of my board shorts.  This allows me to have something on my strong side to tie the sheath to.  I have had this rig out to sea about a half dozen times now and the knife still holds.

Now for the maintenance and upkeep part.
When you get home from the sea, take your knife out of the sheath, take the para cord wrap off completely, and rinse everything thoroughly with fresh water: the knife, the cord and don't forget to rinse the sheath, too.

Dry everything off, set the sheath off to one side and let it drip dry overnight.  Heavily oil your knife all over, and hang the para cord wrap somewhere out of the reach of children and pets, as it is a strangulation hazard.  In the morning after everything is dry, just re-wrap your blade, make sure the sheath catch still engages properly, and you're ready to go.  Try to leave as much oil on the knife as you can while you wrap it.  If you do this right, your knife theoretically has much less direct contact with the saltwater as it is encased in a film of oil.  Typically at the end of the day when I unwrap my handle, there is still a good coat of oil on the metal.

So there you have it: the ToKeepAndBear Maritime Double Agent II Modification.  For those interested in purchasing Cold Steel products, I suggest the following sites:

http://www.coldsteel.com/
http://www.ltspecpro.com/

Lastly, I felt like I should add on here that I would recommend the full-serrated version for cutting yourself out of nets and lines or what have you.  I'm using the plain edged version just because I already had one and later adapted it to this use.  If I were doing it over I would definitely get the full-serrated version for this application.

Lunch at a Counter! - NOT Gun Related (not even a little bit)

Dearest readers,

A friend of mine is having a fund-raiser to get himself a wheelchair that he can't afford.  He has a job and pays his own bills, and rather than asking the government to give him some of your tax money for his chair, he is asking the community if they can help.

I respect this, and this is how I wish things were done.

Please visit his fund-raising site, and please, I understand times are hard, so if you can't donate, just give him a share of Facebook.

Thanks ahead of time.

Here's the link:

Lunch at a Counter!

Help me get the wheelchair that would change my life.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lunch-at-a-counter

Just to followup (very late I know):  Jim raised the money through this campaign and our help in a matter of about 48 hours.

Housekeeping: A Few Quick Notes

Amazon:

I am an Amazon Affiliate which means I make a (small) commission when you purchase something by using the Amazon links on this page.  It does not increase the price you pay by one single penny, it only puts a few pennies in my pocket.  I only make the commission if you click the link directly from this blog and then purchase said item.  All Amazon links on this page are set up that way.

I can tell you that the reason I promote Amazon so heavily is not for the money (I think I've had one commission to date).  It's actually because I use the heck out of this site.  Let's face it, shooting is not the most main-stream activity in this country anymore, as sad as it is to say.  And then within the sub-set of Americans who are shooters, those of us who are into tactical gear and learning better self-defense and concealed carry techniques are a minority still.  My LSG (Local Gun Store) might have a tac vest on the rack, but it won't be of the same quality as the Condor vest I bought from Amazon.  I pay a little shipping, yes, but really the prices are reasonable.  You won't find me buying candles or shoes or something I can get locally from here, but for the specialty stuff, Amazon can really be a life saver.  Does your LSG carry Level III ballistic plates?  I doubt it.  

LuckyGunner:

Same as above, really.  Click link here, go there and buy stuff = I get a little commission.

Subscriptions:

There is a little blank at the right side of the page that says "Follow this page by email!".  I know that sometimes I don't post very frequently, so a good way to be aware of new posts here is by submitting your email address in that blank.  It's a time-saver, really.

Comments:

I don't get enough of them.  At least not nearly as many as I'd like.  Most of my comments have been from people I already know in the "real" world, outside of the blogosphere.  

Are you at a coffee shop in Berlin reading this right now?  Are you in a mortar-riddled air base outside Kandahar?  Please!  Comment!  I want to hear from you all. 

I'm even open to requests of what kinds of articles my audience might like in the future.

More Articles to Come:

I recently gained access to some new shooting friends and a new shooting area on private property owned by one of said friends.  

(Sorry about the crop.

No photo release for the minor.)

Here is a list of upcoming articles:

AR-15 Gets a Light

Setting up and Using a Condor MOLLE Vest (multi-part article)

New Boot Knife Setup

(Possibly) Night Work with my AR and M&P

Readers, please stay tuned.  I plan to make this an eventful spring and summer 2013.

And as always, wherever you are, thank you for reading.

-Gun Guy out.

Federal Gun Ban

Friends, most of us are likely old enough to remember the Clinton era assault on weapons that were mis-labelled as "assault weapons".  Do you remember going to gun shows and seeing those cool 30 round magazines for your AR-15 and not being able to buy them because they were "law enforcement and military only"?  Do you remember not having a flash suppressor because that magically made your AR a blood-thirsty killer?  I do.  I remember many of these things.  I also remember that the "pre-ban" magazines that were still available to civilians kept climbing in price.  I do not blame the distributors, because I would charge what the market will bear, just like anyone else would.  I blame the federal government and a simple piece of federal legislation that was signed into effect with the stroke of one leftist pen.

Imagine if your 30-rnd PMAG had to have been manufactured before a certain date or you would not be able to buy it?  Friends, right now they are selling for $22, give or take a buck or two.  Imagine if you were paying $66 for the same 30-rnd. magazine, and that is if you were lucky enough to find one.  I hope this country never takes another step in that direction, trampling on our rights, but I don't trust the government, and I don't think we have a good reason to, given their record.  In the last few weeks I have purchased 4 PMAGS by Magpul.  I went to the website like I normally do, but I could not purchase them there.  The website said that demand is at "crisis levels" and they are only delivering to distributors.  That is why I put up this post.  Several distributors are on Amazon, so you can still get these magazines pretty easily online.  I'm posting the links for your convenience, as well as my own:  if you click my link I do receive a small percentage, so thank you in advance.

PMAG

Ranger Plate

As for you pistol mags, I'm still looking for a good supplier.  I carry a S&W M&P .40c as many of you know, and magazines are fairly pricey from the manufacturer.  I have yet to find any on Amazon.  As soon as I secure a good supply I will let you know.  The Clinton-era bans limited capacity to 10 rnds, so my compact would be safe, but if you have an M&P full-size of any caliber, you should seriously be looking for extra magazines right now.

Are you feelin' Lucky? I am.

Have you ever tried an online ammo retailer?  I just finally got a chance to try LuckyGunner.com and I have to say their service and product are second to none.  I won' pull any punches:  they are an affiliate of this blog, but I do purchase ammo from them.

I try to support my local gun stores as much as the next guy, but I think we've all had a sad experience or two trying to find ammo.  It's hard for a small shop to keep all the calibers stocked, when you think of the huge diversity of ammo available.  I remember one day when I went to pick up some .40 caliber hollow points and there were none.  Things like this happen at the big box shops, too, especially when something is new or popular.  Enough complaining, now let me tell you the bright side of the alternative.



Everything you see at LuckyGunner is in stock.  Your order will ship today or the next business day.  You can expect to see variety (Do they stock 458 Lott at your local store, for example?).  And I encourage you price shop them.  Even their by-the-box prices are going to beat your local store's prices, and if you want to stock up on a lot of 500 to 1,000 rnds., you will be happy here.

My wife and I recently took a trip to the range with some .40 cal. PMC that got from LuckyGunner, and we had a blast.  First we sorted everything out and loaded up.

Then we sat down and got to work.  Frankly, at this range, I'm just happy to keep it on the paper when I'm using my little M&Pc.  The PMCs I got from LuckyGunner were exactly the quality you'd expect and every one went bang the first time like I hoped.  It's just good therapy to send small projectiles down-range at high speeds.

All in all it was a great day and much fun had by all.  We broke plenty of paper and even had some fun with one of those orange reactive targets that hops when you hit it.  Now I'm saving up for something bigger, like a 1,000 brick of 9mm for the wife's M&P full-size.